HOLINESS is possible, and the Catholic Church provides the tools for attaining it.
That was the theme of an address delivered by Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore.
The talk, which was preceded by a morning Mass celebrated by Cardinal Sarah, was part of the closing celebration of the 200th anniversary of the dedication of the basilica, the first Catholic cathedral built in the United States.
The neoclassical cathedral, designed by Capitol Architect Benjamin Latrobe and envisioned by Baltimore Archbishop John Carroll as a beacon of religious liberty, was dedicated in 1821 by Baltimore Archbishop Ambrose Maréchal.
“Holiness is nothing other than living exactly as God wants us to live, by being conformed more and more to his son,” Cardinal Sarah, former prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, said.
Prayer, fasting and penance can be invaluable aids for helping individuals in the pursuit of holiness, Cardinal Sarah said.
Prayer fashions one’s true identity, he explained, and fasting helps discipline hearts and free them from distraction.
Through daily meditation on Scripture, he said, “we allow God to shape our minds and we learn to recognise his voice”.
“These practices are nurtured in the community of the church,” Cardinal Sarah said.
“In community life, we need to surround ourselves with brothers and sisters, and good mentors, who reinforce our daily rhythms of prayer, penance and meditation upon the word of God and who encourage us in the pursuit of holiness.
“Furthermore, we receive the sacraments in community, and in the sacraments, we encounter Christ most powerfully.”
The pursuit of holiness required believers to “quiet” their hearts, Cardinal Sarah said.
“In time, we discern the contours of our hearts,” he said.
“We learn to recognise temptations more quickly. We uncover and correct subtle habits toward evil and deceptions that we accepted in years past. Over the course of years, each systematic tendency toward evil can be overcome with the help of God’s grace.”
A prolific author whose books include The Power of Silence, Cardinal Sarah said the quieting of one’s heart made possible silence.
He defined silence not simply as the lack of noise, but as “quiet chosen”.
Silence is a “word in the soul, a participation in the word of God,” he said.
“In silence,” the cardinal said, “we discover the most intimate prayer, the holy and eternal presence of God within our hearts.”
Silence becomes a place of refuge, Cardinal Sarah said, the place in which persons may offer to God every experience and every detail of their day.
“There is no better place to encounter God in silence than in Eucharistic Adoration,” Cardinal Sarah said.
“There, we begin to resume the posture of right relationship with our creator. Adoration is evidence of our desire for an astonishing intimacy with God.”
Cardinal Sarah urged his audience to yearn to suffer with Christ.
He also called on Catholics to reflect deeply on the vocations to which they were called by God and to recognise that vocations required ongoing formation.
“Our habits, our desires, our expectations will not remain the same as when we entered seminary or religious life or married life,” he said.
“This change in us is part of God’s plan.”
