Do You Want to be a Saint?

"What can one say to the person who says: “I would like to, but I can’t!” Nothing more than to say that one must want to want to! That is the first step. I want to means that I am using all the means thereto, while I’d want to means that I am afraid to use them all for some may cost me too dearly in matters of self-love."

If we do not have a desire for holiness, we must pray to desire holiness. If we do not have a desire to even want to desire holiness, then we must let our prayer begin there. "God is at work in you, to will and to work for His good pleasure" (Phil 2:13). The Holy Spirit will work in us in so far as we avail ourselves to these actions and movements of grace... Come Holy Spirit... 

"Such souls still are possessed by a great deal of self-love, egoism and even spiritual self-conceit. Must one want to be a saint? Of course, and firmly."

To desire to become a saint is not selfish. In fact, if grounded upon the right resolve of Christ and His Church, it is to be entirely selfless. To desire to be a saint is to desire to live a life that is not about me anymore. To desire to become a saint is to desire to live your life to the point of sacrifice, where we make the greatest gift of self for God and His people... to desire to be a saint is to join ourselves to the command of Christ on the cross: Behold, your Mother... for once we behold her who is our Blessed Mother, She who is the model and type of the Church, we have come to embrace our formation as "another Christ," as a true member of His Body... conformed and crucified with Him, until we come to share in the rapturous and eternal beauty of His Paschal Mystery of Love, that is our very own sharing of His death and resurrection... to want to be a saint puts to death self love and brings to life a true desire for love of God, for love of neighbor, and a pure love of self that sees the true and final end of every human vocation: holiness, home in the Heart of Heaven, in the Love of God.

"St. Augustine was very bad, even corrupt, but he said to himself: “Others can be saints, and so can you, Augustine,” and so, because he wanted it, he became a saint. Anyone who keeps telling himself that he must be a saint will become one. Such is the story of St. Benedict and many others."

Is it true? Do we believe St. Maximilian Kolbe's words? Do we believe Saint Augustine's example? What happens when we continue to tell ourselves that we will become a saint? We convince ourselves, no, we come to embrace the truth that it is first God who wills this desire to burn in us. Yes, to want to be a saint, to desire this with the fullness of our being, is to make a constant commitment to the Father's will. God who made us longs for us. God is a jealous God and His Love is a relentless and a restless Love... He yearns for our salvation so much so that He constantly calls home the prodigal son and searches for the lost sheep. To tell ourselves that we want to become a saint is to say that I want to be home with my father, that I long to be in the arms of the shepherd... and these words are Gospel truth! How the Father longs to be reunited with His Son! How the Shepherd would do anything to find that lost sheep! How God would do anything, how God has done and willed everything, so that we would be holy! So that we would become saints!

"Once St. Benedict’s sister, St. Scholastica, asked what she must do to become a saint. Her brother replied simply, “You must want it.” Nothing, therefore, is required beyond this; one must want it."

Again and again we must hear these words. I must want to be a saint. God asks of our will, of our desire, of our full-fledged commitment. God asks faith of us. God asks of our trust... the Father asks the son and the daughter to hold His hand and follow Him home... God has called and God will provide the way. I cannot want it for you; God cannot will it for us. We must choose to receive and respond to the great love present in the Sacred Heart, the Sacred Host: behold, "I am with you always..." If Christ is with us always, so must our desire be with Him always... for our desire to be with Jesus we must want nothing other than this: to be a saint, to be with Him... for to be with Him is the fullness of sanctity, to be a saint is to be fully grafted upon Christ, to partake of His Body, to Be One in Him, through Him, with Him...an entire offering of love and praise and thanksgiving to the Father... 

How far we are from this goal! So we must desire, and we must desire to desire more fervently! For the Lord wills, so we must respond in stride... God will provide. God will sanctify. He will restore. He will make us saint, only if we want it, only if we let Him... 

(Bolded quotations from Saint Maximilian Kolbe, recorded in Maria Was His Middle Name, 84)