Teaching Us That Today's Work Is Our Path to Sanctity

It's a real loss if we don't realize that today's work - right here, right now - is our path to sanctity. Give that one of the ongoing themes of this blog is how we can sanctify our work, we've presented lots of ideas along the way. But sometimes - maybe most times - when the work day begins, the importance and efficacy of sanctifying our work flies right out of our minds. 

It's normal in the course of a busy, maybe even super-high-pressure sort of day. And it's only human. But that's no reason not to look back on a day and see where and if we really did do what we could to sanctify all that sweaty toil that sucked out a good chunk of our energy.

Today, let's look at sanctification as addressed by one of our favorites, Father Willie Doyle. He's writing to one of this spiritual children who earnestly wants to be a saint, but seems to think being a saint entails some rather extraordinary means. First, Father sets him or her straight. Then there are some added comments that should encourage us Catholic men at work.

 “What is it to be a saint? Does it mean that we must macerate this flesh of ours with cruel austerities, such as we read of in the life-story of some of God s great heroes? Does it mean the bloody scourge, the painful vigil and sleepless night, that crucifying of the flesh in even its most innocent enjoyment? No, no, the hand of God does not lead us all by that stern path of awful heroism to our reward above. He does not ask from all of us the holy thirst for suffering, in its highest form, of a Teresa or a Catherine of Siena. But sweetly and gently would He lead us along the way of holiness by our constant unswerving faithfulness to our duty, duty accepted, duty done for His dear sake. How many alas! who might be saints are now leading lives of indifferent virtue, because they have deluded themselves with the thought that they have no strength to bear the holy follies of the saints. How many a fair flower of innocence, which God had destined to bloom in dazzling holiness, has faded and withered beneath the chill blast of a fear of suffering never asked from it.” (April, 1905.)

Commentary:

Words such as these, coming from the pen of one who was not unfamiliar with scourge and vigil and fast, are helpful and consoling. Not that they picture the path of holiness as other than the royal road of the cross. Fr. Doyle wished rather to remove the mirage of an unreal and impossible cross from the way of those of us whose true holiness is to be found in meeting the daily and hourly little crosses, humanly inglorious perhaps, but divinely destined for our sanctification. In the lives of canonised saints, and of him whose life we are recording, there are doubtless holy follies and grace-inspired imprudences. But these are not the essence of sanctity; they are its bloom, whereas its stem is self-conquest. Without these there can be great holiness – no terrifying penances marked the life of St. John Berchmans or of that winsome fragile nun who is known as the Little Flower. But without the slow secret mortification of doing ordinary and mostly trivial duties well, there can be no spiritual advance. Heroism is not a sudden romantic achievement; it is the fruit of years of humdrum faithfulness.

Perhaps some of us might be called to extraordinary acts of penance in our pursuit of being a saint. If so, it should be a path lit by the wisdom and counsel of a good spiritual director. Even Father Willie, who was so called, only pursued his mortifications and penances under the guidance and permission of his personal Director. 

But for what is likely the bulk of us, it's in our everyday activities that the rubber will meet the road. The diligent performance of the duties of our state of life - and this includes our daily labor - awaits us this day. Let's seize the opportunity and make the most of it. One thing we can share with Father Willie on our own road to Heaven are these words he many times used to capture how he thought he should perform his own priestly duties: with fervor and exactness. Speaking from personal experience, this alone could provide us with plenty of grist as we pursue our own path to sanctity.