Universal call to holiness & Sainthood

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scrupulousrvrt

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I have this somewhat vague notion between ordinary sainthood and capital ‘S’ Sainthood.
‘Saints’ are ordinary people recognized by the church for their extraordinary virtue and humility.
‘saints’ are ordinary people who live by virtue (not extraordinarily) who are both in heaven and alive as the Church Militant.
In all, does the ‘Universal Call to Holiness’ imply “universal call to sainthood”?
 
Everyone who makes it to heaven is a small “s” saint.
The “call” is the instruction to live a life that merits such.
 
Everybody is called to be a Saint worthy of canonisation. Sainthood is the purpose of life. Anything less than this is heartbreaking failure; after all, it means going to Hell.

As Leon Bloy wrote: “The only real sadness, the only real failure, the only great tragedy in life, is not to become a saint.”

Check this out: http://www.catholic.com/blog/matt-fradd/becoming-saints

Also, I’d recommend you read Lumen Gentium Chapter V on the Universal Call to Holiness:

vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html
 
So would the fear of hell initially be enough to get me started on that path? can one become a Saint from said fear? (I know that sounds horrible).
Is merit unworthy of canonization, but still worthy in itself by the grace of god, a death sentence?
 
So would the fear of hell initially be enough to get me started on that path? can one become a Saint from said fear? (I know that sounds horrible).
Is merit unworthy of canonization, but still worthy in itself by the grace of god, a death sentence?
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Holiness is the perfection of charity. The love of God and the love of neighbour for the sake of God is the primary goal of all Catholics. As Our Lord teaches us: “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Every day you should try to fall more in love with God. That’s how we become saints.

Also, The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence is a great help. This is a good audio version: youtube.com/watch?v=MQS9mbXJ5UU
 
Ugh. I have to get this off my chest. The primary reason I would be interested in becoming a Saint (capital ‘S’) is because I have this unshakable fear of hell. I’m absolutely terrified of judgment day and if I’m caught with my pants down (mortal sin)…that’s it! game over!
What I’ve learned is if you’re sorry only because you’re afraid of hell, and your only “Saintly” because you fear hell, and it’s all you think about then you’re going to end up there. What I’m struggling with is that even with sanctifying grace, salvation is not guaranteed. Upon judgement, seeing your faults, weaknesses and sins outweighing the virtues and good works, I’m afraid of God stripping grace from me.
Yes I know he is ‘Love’ and ‘merciful’, but I can’t help these ingrained feelings of dying and going to hell.
 
Saint Paul referred to Christians - as saints.

Christians on earth – who are living “in Christ” – are saints.

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church 823 :

"The Church, then, is “the holy People of God,” and her members are called “saints.”

And from Pope Benedict XVI:

“In his First Letter to the Corinthians, St Paul addresses “those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Cor 1: 2). Indeed, Christians are already saints because Baptism unites them to Jesus and to his Paschal Mystery…”

(and then discussing becoming --more holy --more conformed to Christ he continues…)

“…but at the same time they must become so by conforming themselves every more closely to him.”

Saint Paul uses the term ‘saint’ in various places to simply refer to Christians. Those living on earth…see his various letters.

“Sometimes, people think that holiness is a privileged condition reserved for the few elect. Actually, becoming holy is every Christian’s task… The Apostle writes that God has always blessed us and has chosen us in Christ “that we should be holy and blameless before him… in love” (Eph 1: 3-5). … The “Way” is Christ, the Son, the Holy One of God: “no one comes to the Father but by me [Jesus]” (cf. Jn 14: 6).”

~ Pope Benedict XVI 1 November 2007

w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/angelus/2007/documents/hf_ben-xvi_ang_20071101_all-saints.html

Now over the centuries yes another use of the term saints developed. Saints has been yes used for those who have lived as saints in a heroic way (by the grace of God of course).

And yes later a process of canonization developed to recognize them, honor them and propose them as special models for the Christian faithful in following Christ.

Thus one can say there are saints and also Saints in the canonized sense or at least the recognized sense (they were recognized long before the process of canonization developed…especially Our Lady, the Apostles and Martyrs).
We are ‘saints’ via faith and baptism - via the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth…via the Holy Spirit…and yes we are to become more and more so.
So when someone says to me “oh well I am not a saint” say “you better get to confession then” and the explain what I mean …
 
The cannonized saints are simply known, not necessarily “better”.

I am sure for every known martyr of awesomeness there is someone somewhere whi was martyred unknown in a more awesome way.

Mother Teresa is famous, the myriad of nuns who join later have a preexisting organization to join, doesnt mean there isn’t one who has done more, had more faith, less doubt, and such.
 
scrupulousrvrt said:
Ugh. I have to get this off my chest. The primary reason I would be interested in becoming a Saint (capital ‘S’) is because I have this unshakable fear of hell. I’m absolutely terrified of judgment day and if I’m caught with my pants down (mortal sin)…that’s it! game over!
What I’ve learned is if you’re sorry only because you’re afraid of hell, and your only “Saintly” because you fear hell, and it’s all you think about then you’re going to end up there. What I’m struggling with is that even with sanctifying grace, salvation is not guaranteed. Upon judgement, seeing your faults, weaknesses and sins outweighing the virtues and good works, I’m afraid of God stripping grace from me.
Yes I know he is ‘Love’ and ‘merciful’, but I can’t help these ingrained feelings of dying and going to hell.
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Having a very deep fear of Hell is part of being scrupulous. Wherever you learned that you’ll go to Hell if you fear it is completely wrong. A fear of the just punishments of God is sufficient to receive absolution in the confessional. While we should always strive to have perfect contrition, we aren’t going to be condemned for not being able to attain it. You will likewise not be condemned even if Hell is all you think about (which is part of being scrupulous), God doesn’t condemn people for being scrupulous.

If you die in the state of grace, you will (100% guaranteed) go to Heaven, even if it’s after a stay in Purgatory. God doesn’t judge us by calculating some sort of proportion between our virtues & vices. You could have millions of venial sins, but if you have no mortal sins at the point of death, you will not go to Hell. You must have a mortal sin on your soul to go to Hell. God does not strip people of sanctifying grace at their particular judgment, nor will He do this on the day of the general judgment.

Surrender yourself to the Blessed Virgin and ask her to preserve you from the fires of Hell. Ask her, too, for a confidence in the infinite mercy of God and in her powerful intercession. God wills all to be saved, including you. Have recourse to the intercession of St. Alphonsus Liguori who struggled with scrupulosity and, as recommended by him, have a regular confessor.
 
Yeah, I’ve come to accept that there is a real possibility that I might end up in hell. When I accepted that possibility, most of the scruples went away and I felt more relaxed. it didn’t help with the fear though. (BTW, I’m going to meet with my regular confessor tomorrow).
 
scrupulousrvrt said:
Yeah, I’ve come to accept that there is a real possibility that I might end up in hell. When I accepted that possibility, most of the scruples went away and I felt more relaxed. it didn’t help with the fear though. (BTW, I’m going to meet with my regular confessor tomorrow).
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Yes see your regular confessor.

Yes it is possible in our free will for a Christian to choose mortal sin and to choose to remain in it til death. Such is possible. But remember what mortal sin is- there is grave matter, full knowledge and complete consent. It is not an accident…

Focus less on such and rather on the reality of the Christian life! On the Holy Spirit etc.

The reality of *true life *in Christ!

"This is what Paul wrote in his Letter to the Romans: “[A]ll of us… were baptized into his death… we were buried therefore with him… we have been united with him… So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom 6: 3, 4, 5, 11).

These last words themselves are symptomatic: for Paul, in fact, it was not enough to say that Christians are baptized or believers; for him, it was just as important to say they are “in Christ Jesus” (cf. also Rom 8: 1, 2, 39; 12: 5; 16: 3, 7, 10; I Cor 1: 2, 3 etc.).

At other times he inverted the words and wrote: “Christ is in us/you” (Rom 8: 10; II Cor 13: 5) or “in me” (Gal 2: 20)…

Moreover, our radical belonging to Christ and the fact that “we are in him” must imbue in us an attitude of total trust and immense joy. In short, we must indeed exclaim with St Paul: “If God is for us, who is against us?” (Rom 8: 31). And the reply is that nothing and no one “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8: 39). Our Christian life, therefore, stands on the soundest and safest rock one can imagine. And from it we draw all our energy, precisely as the Apostle wrote: “I can do all things in him who strengthens me” (Phil 4: 13).

Therefore, let us face our life with its joys and sorrows supported by these great sentiments that Paul offers to us. By having an experience of them we will realize how true are the words the Apostle himself wrote: “I know whom I have believed, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me”…"

~ Pope Benedict XVI Audence 2006

(w2.vatican.va)

That joy is not necessarily always something in the emotions (Christian joy goes beyond emotions)…but rather knowing the Lord and knowing he loves you and that one is a son in the Son etc.
 
scrupulousrvrt said:
Yeah, I’ve come to accept that there is a real possibility that I might end up in hell. When I accepted that possibility, most of the scruples went away and I felt more relaxed. it didn’t help with the fear though. (BTW, I’m going to meet with my regular confessor tomorrow).
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That’s good. Getting rid of scruples can take a while, but with prayer & guidance from your regular confessor, it will go away. Continue to place your confidence in the Blessed Virgin who has kept countless souls from the fires of Hell.
 
scrupulousrvrt said:
So would the fear of hell initially be enough to get me started on that path? can one become a Saint from said fear? (I know that sounds horrible).
Is merit unworthy of canonization, but still worthy in itself by the grace of god, a death sentence?
Click to expand...
fear of hell is enough to get us started on the path to salvation, otherwise, who would make it? eventually it grows into a motive of more pure love, and that leads to sainthood. Mostly we all start from fear 🙂
 
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