Young Adults Called to be Holy

Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
and Sosthenes our brother,
to the church of God that is in Corinth,
to you who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy,
with all those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. Grace to you and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.

This was the second reading at mass today.

When Mr. Pete and I were newly married, although we remained Catholic, I cannot say that we devoutly practiced or even thought about our Catholic faith much. Our high school Catholic education was highly seasoned with secular humanism and a dash of feminism/socialism with a hint of something new agey. We knew little of what the Catholic church really taught, and even less about the Sacred Scriptures. We weren’t “bad” people, but I can’t say that we were any where close to holiness. In fact, I considered the notion of “holiness” to be quaint, old fashioned, and so pre Vatican II! I didn’t know that people even considered “holiness” to be important in the era of “I’m OK, You’re OK.”

That all changed around the time we started having children and particularly when we started homeschooling. I remembered going to one of my first homeschool meetings when Calvin was about five years old. The leader of the meeting that night said we were going to listen to some “Praise and Worship” music and then pray the rosary. I stifled a giggle while I inwardly rolled my eyes. Afterall, who carried rosaries! None of my friends did. That was for old ladies. Much to my surprise and astonishment, every woman in that room pulled out a rosary except for me. Luckily one lady had a spare which she graciously handed to me. That was an eye opener.

Since that time I have had the opportunity to meet and talk to women my age and younger who are extraordinarily holy and I would even say probably living saints. I asked one of my new friends once what happened in her young life that helped her keep a grip on personal holines. Her answer was simple. During the summer her mom took them all to daily mass.

Other friends had similar answers: daily rosaries, reading the bible, Godly roll models. Somehow, some way, these women had been able to avoid the wasted and lost years of wandering around and then “coming back.”

My sister, husband, and other close friends of course had experience with losing or abanding their faith only to find it later in adult life. What a grace that has been and I am grateful! But I can’t help but wonder, how much further would I be in gaining spiritual maturity, in being “holy” if I had not lost so much time? One of my favorite homeschool speakers once said that the Lord restored to her the years that the locust had eaten. I have a similar feeling like that myself with my life, my family and my spirituality. God is merciful, but sometimes He lets us live with the consequences of our decisions. Maybe mine will always be feeling that I am behind and trying to catch up to where I would have been had I not spent my time foolishly.

My kids are on the brink of that adventure. Calvin is 18 and a Senior. Sam turns 15 on Tuesday. They will soon have to decide for themselves how to embrace and live their Catholic Faith or not. And while I truly pray and hope that if they do turn luke warm and wander away, that they find their way back, I pray even harder that their journey can be a more direct one than mine has been, and that they can accept St. Paul’s admonishment and encouragement to accept their call to holiness.

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