Loving God or The Thorny Road Home

Mother Angelica said that "Saints are ordinary people who love Jesus." Jesus told us that if you love Him, you will keep his commandments. Love is active. We cannot just say, "I love Jesus," and expect to attain heaven. No, we must also keep His commandments. We must love God above all else, and we must love our neighbor as we love ourselves.

Love God? God will test you. Why? To make you stronger. God does not test us without a reason. It would be easy to be holy if we lived in a world of angels where there is only love and peace. That is heaven. We live in a world where we are encouraged to be selfish and self centered, where the only needs to be met are ours. We live in an angry world where a word can trigger a war, and where hate explodes and implodes. Living in this time is not easy. Becoming holy in our world is even more difficult.

How can we love Jesus and become a saint? The truth is that, without His Love and graces, we cannot become holy. We must submit ourselves to His Will and accept His gifts whether we like them or not. Heaven is full of ordinary people who will never be known as a saint, but they are saints who were tried on earth and were not found wanting.

To be a saint means that God is first in our lives. We seek to do His Will, which is not always easy. We follow the teachings of the Church. We attend Mass, not out of obligation, but out of love for God. We pray. We offer our prayers, works, joys and sufferings to Him out of love for Him. We thank God. We pass our faith onto our children. We do not judge. We do not pick and choose which parts of our faith we accept or reject. We accept the sanctity of life. We are not prochoice. We are pro life. Even when they make us angry, we learn to love others, as we love ourselves.

Does this mean we are perfect? Of course not. We are not perfect, but God loves us just the way we are. He loves us as a parent loves a child who is trying to be good, even if they make the same mistakes over and over and over. We are sinners, and God loves us in spite of our sinful ways. He waits for us to return to Him. As Catholics, we are blessed with the sacrament of reconciliation. The priest, through the miracle of the sacrament and his anointing, forgives us our sins, and we are at reconciled with God.

So, in real life, how does it work, becoming holy? Loving God? Loving our neighbor?

To become holy means to love that driver who, on a single lane highway, where you can't pass, and is going well below the speed limit, by not shaking a fist or honking the horn. You might think if it weren't for that driver, I'd be holy. Most likely it is because of that driver that you can become holy. Relax. Breathe. Do not yell or honk your horn when he finally turns off the road. Pray. The driver might be lost or just old. Love Jesus instead claiming that road for your own.

Loving Jesus means to forgive our sisters and brothers in Christ when they have been cruel to us, rejected us, abandoned us, or hurt us. Does this mean we must be doormats to be stepped on again and again? No, it means that, in spite of the pain and hurt, we must pray for those who hurt us, as Jesus did on the cross.

Loving our neighbor means to pray for them, for their conversions. Loving our neighbor means to rejoice in their accomplishments and wishing them the best, even if they are our competitors.
Loving our neighbor means being a good neighbor, even if they are not good neighbors to us.

So, that lady knew you were waiting for the parking space, but she took it anyway before you could grab it. Smile and wish her well. Her heart might be hurting, and this small victory, might be a great one for her. The kids in the neighborhood might have overturned your potted plants. Forgive them. Perhaps they will help you make it right again.

The road to sainthood isn't easy for we must love both God and man. Like Mother Angelica said, "If it weren't for other people, we'd all be holy." She's right, but God knows our hearts and souls. He loves His children. He seeks to bring us home.

The road to holiness is full of potholes and thorns, but at the end of this road is God who waits for us with open arms. What a homecoming there will be when we enter heaven as saints! There is no other choice. Heaven is full of saints who were once sinners.

God is good.