Ordinary Time 28 - Why Not You?

 

Homily for Ordinary Time 28

October 11, 2026

Called To Holiness

 

            What’s the point of the Christian life? Is it just to be nice to others, pray, and then we die and go to Heaven? Nope, that’s not the goal. The goal of the Christian life is union with God. We’re not supposed to be good people, we are supposed to be saints!

            This past summer, I was in Italy with a few families I know. We’d be eating out at a fine Italian restaurant on the streets of Rome, and I’d be in awe of the delights of the menu – pasta carbonara and truffle sauce, fresh veal, home-baked bread. But sometimes the teens would then ask the waiters, “Do you have any macaroni and cheese?”

            God wants to share an incredible banquet – His very divine life with us, but we refuse it because we are content with the fast food of modern life – distractions, division, empty pursuit of riches and pleasure. And this modern life is slowly, slowly killing us – starving us of love, meaning, and purpose as we continue to consume things that fill our days without filling our souls.

            So God invites us to live for so much more – to live for holiness, in intimate union with Him. But it is only an invitation – He will not force us to accept it. As St. Augustine said, “God created us without us, but will not redeem us without us.”

            Nevertheless, the invitation is there – for all. Mother Teresa once said, “Holiness is not the luxury of the few, but the very simple duty of you and I.” But what is holiness? How do we achieve union with God – are there five easy steps?

            Nope, just two. First, living in union with God requires real prayer. One time in seminary I was having a conversation with a brother seminarian, and he looked at his watch and said, “Ah, sorry, I’ve got to go. The God of the universe has invited me to spend an hour with Him, and I need to get my laundry done first.” What a clashing of the sublime and the mundane – but isn’t it amazing that God is the one who invites? In the midst of our mundane lives of bills and doctors’ appointments, the Creator, the One Who commands the army of angels and who can tell the stars to shine, has actually invited us to be His friend! What is prayer but saying, “Yes, Lord! I’d love to spend some time with You!” And when we make that time, He shares His life. We may make a thousand excuses about how busy we are, much like these men in the Gospel. But I love what St. Francis de Sales said about our excuses, “Every one of us needs half an hour of prayer a day, except when we are busy—then we need an hour.” A baseline would be a good fifteen minutes, at least – read His Word in the Bible, listen to Christian music, or just speak to Christ from your heart.

            And here’s what’s amazing about that invitation – God doesn’t need us to bring anything to Him, as long as we bring ourselves. Usually when we’re invited over someone’s house we bring a dish or a bottle of wine, but here we just show up as we are! What can we really bring to someone who has everything? So don’t wait until you’re perfect to start a relationship with God – bring Him even your weaknesses, and let Him make you strong! “Lord, here I am – I am weak, a sinner, broken – but I bring it all to you.” As Mother Teresa said, “Let me be broken, and every piece belong to God.”

            Once we bring Him ourselves, we can live in union with God by living like Him in our everyday, walking-around life. St. Gregory of Nyssa said, “A Christian is another Christ.” Holiness, then, is letting Him live through us.

            The old story goes that three Bible scholars were discussing the Bible. One said, “Oh, I like the King James Translation, it is easy to read.” Another said, “I prefer the Revised Standard Version, it is most faithful to the Hebrew.” The third was silent for a moment and said, “I prefer my mother’s translation because she translated it into real life by the way she lived.”

            I pray that our hearts are filled with a desire to be holy, because that’s the goal of the Christian life. But wait – there’s one more character in the Gospel story about the feast of God’s love, one who is kicked out without the right wedding garment. What’s that all about?

            I want to make clear what this means because I think many of us are like that man. The man without the wedding garment is the one who may be a “good Catholic” and have been baptized and Confirmed but who does not have personal faith. If we’re here because we want our kids to get Confirmed but not actually follow Jesus daily, then we have missed out on the entire point of the feast of our Faith.

            A few years ago, I sponsored a young man named Patrick for Confirmation. A couple weeks before, I asked if he was excited to get Confirmed, and he said, “Not really.” I was concerned and asked why, and he said, “Because most of my friends getting Confirmed don’t even believe this stuff.” There is a difference between a valid Sacrament and a fruitful Sacrament – we can be a “good Catholic” who donates to the Church and gets all their Sacraments and serve as an usher or lector but not believe any of this, or at least not let our faith penetrate into our heart, mind, or behavior.

            God invites us to so much more – a banquet feast of holiness, which means living in union with Him through prayer and in our daily lives. Don’t pass up this invitation!

            Back in the 1920s, a young Italian girl named Itala Mela was born to atheist parents. Oh, her devout grandmother made sure she received the Sacraments, but apart from that she found church boring. When she was sixteen years old, her younger brother died suddenly, and she became militantly anti-God. How could a good God take her innocent brother, she wondered? She even wrote in her journal, “After his death, nothing” – she had no belief in anything. But that, too, seemed unsatisfying.

            A few years later, her friends, seeing her interior struggle, invited her to church one day. She went with them to the Mass, but sat in the back, unsure of what she believed. From the depths of her heart, she cried out, “God, make Yourself known!” It wasn’t exactly a lightning bolt, but it was enough of an opening for her to begin to explore Catholicism deeper. But she wrestled – she wrote in her journal, “I do not want to deceive myself, because if I say yes to Christianity I will say it with all my heart and change my entire life.”

            Finally, she knew she couldn’t resist the truth of Jesus Christ, so she believed with her whole heart and took as her motto, “Lord, I shall follow You unto the darkness, unto death". It was all for Him! Her parents thought she was crazy, so they paid for her to tour Europe in the hopes she’d leave behind all the religious nonsense. But she used that trip to visit churches and monasteries, cementing her newfound passion for the Lord.

            She remained single her entire life, teaching in a local school. But she would speak with everyone she met about the joy and delight of knowing that God – the Blessed Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit – actually dwells in the soul of a Christian who has faith. People began calling her “Maria of the Holy Trinity.” She believed that God actually wants to dwell in us to make us holy! After contracting an illness in her 50s, she died with great peace, knowing that she was going to be forever united to God, the joy of her soul. She is now Blessed Itala Mela.

            The Christian life is about so much more than just being nice and saying a few prayers. It’s living the very life of Christ here on earth through His grace dwelling in our souls. Why not YOU become a saint?