Christian perfection is for everyone

We should always have the multitude present, because there is no human creature whom we do not love, whom we will not try to help and to understand. We are concerned with everyone, because everyone has a soul to be saved, and because we can bring to everyone, in God’s name, an invitation to seek Christian perfection in the world by repeating to them, Estote ergo vos perfecti, sicut et Pater vester caelestis perfectus est (Matt 5:48); you must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

“The holy martyrs followed Christ,” wrote St Augustine, “but they were not the only ones.” And he continued in a style that is graphic yet baroque, “This garden of the Lord bears not only the martyr’s rose, but the virgin’s lily, the spouse’s ivy wreath and the widow’s violet. In a word, beloved, let none despair of their calling, for Christ died for all.”¹

How forcefully God has made this truth resound by inspiring his Work! With the humility of one who knows that he is a sinner and worth little – homo peccator sum,² we say with Peter – but with the faith of one who allows himself to be led by God’s hand, we have come to say that sanctity is not for the privileged few. The Lord calls us all; he expects Love from us all, from everyone, wherever they may be, from everyone, whatever their state, profession or position. This normal, ordinary, apparently unimportant life can be a path to sanctity. If God has not given a person a religious vocation, then there is no need to abandon one’s state in the world to seek God. All the paths of the earth can be occasions for an encounter with Christ.

Different paths

Ours is a path with very different ways of thinking about temporal matters: in professional, scientific, political, economic and other fields. This path includes personal freedom and the consequent responsibility, which is also personal, so that no one can attribute these views to the Church of God or to the Work, and each individual knows how to take responsibility for them bravely and naturally. That is why our diversity is not a problem for the Work. On the contrary, it is a sign of good spirit, of pure corporate life, of respect for the legitimate freedom of each person, because ubi autem Spiritus Domini, ibi libertas (2 Cor 3:17), where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.