Living a holy life is not that difficult. In fact, it’s quite simple.
Let’s start with holiness itself. Holiness is simple. And the road to get there is simple, too. If holiness is our full conformity to Christ (Rom 8:29; Eph 4:13), then prayer is the school in which we learn to imitate Christ’s love of the Father and so become holy ourselves (CCC 2564). It is in this school of prayer that we encounter our teacher, the Holy Spirit, who not only enlightens our minds but also guides our actions to live in a holy way. In short, holiness is simple because we are made holy through the lucid instruction of the Holy Spirit. And he is a good and patient teacher.
Let’s now consider this divine school in more detail. The Holy Spirit makes prayer simple. The saints, his pupils par excellence, know this secret well. Prayer, writes Saint John Damascene, is a simple gaze at God, lifting the mind and heart to him (De fide orth. 3, 24). Saint Teresa of Avila describes prayer as “nothing else than a close sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us” (The Book of Her Life, 8,5). What can be simpler than being with a friend? If prayer is this simple, then how can the holiness that follows from it be any different?
“This simplicity sounds beautiful,” you may say, “It even sounds easy. Then why does it seem nearly impossible to achieve holiness? Experience shows that being holy is not all that simple. Just look around and see how unholy everyone seems to be! If holiness is so simple, then why does it seem so complicated? Why can I not overcome the countless things that distract me from a loving gaze toward the Lord—my pride, my weaknesses, the world, etc.? How is anyone supposed to achieve holiness when we just cannot seem to get it right; why even try?”
To be sure, you may be demoralized by the experience of looking around and seeing the stark contrast between the world and the holiness you desire. You may feel like you’re in a desert of moral destitution, with no simple pond in sight: something (or someone) that can refresh your thirsting soul. But holiness is nonetheless real! When you encounter someone who is holy, or appears to be so, you may say to yourself, “That’s what I want. Maybe it’s not impossible?”
It’s not impossible. Holiness is simple. If you are currently struggling on this road to holiness, if you keep tripping over your own two feet, you may want to ask yourself some honest questions.
First, do you trust in your own abilities more than God’s? The twentieth-century Carmelite Father and spiritual theologian Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen comments on this error while also reminding us of its simple remedy: “We labor alone, almost forgetting that there is Someone within us who cannot only help us, but can do the work better than we can” (Divine Intimacy, 199). We must not forget this simple truth! We must allow God to direct us according to his wisdom and eternal designs.
Secondly, do you ask God for his divine aid? We need to! Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI asserts: “Man was created for greatness—for God himself; he was created to be filled by God. But his heart is too small for the greatness to which it is destined. It must be stretched” (Spe Salvi, 33).
Stretched, huh? What’s so simple about that? Well, it’s rather straightforward. God stretches those who ask for his divine aid and subsequently embrace his work in their lives. This work only gets complicated when we let other things—including ourselves—get in the way. Why is holiness simple? Because, in the school of sanctity, the Holy Spirit instructs us to turn away from those things that make it complicated. He doesn’t just turn us away from these things, but he turns us toward himself.
In this loving gaze, we abandon the idea that holiness is too hard. Instead, like St. Teresa of Avila, we utter with mystical simplicity, “God alone suffices.”
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Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. (used with permission)
