“Become a saint.”
This is something that most Catholics have heard once in their life. When I would hear this as a kid, I would always feel a little overwhelmed. Becoming a saint seems impossible. That's for the good people. A saint, in a nutshell, means someone who is in heaven. Everyone’s goal should be to get to heaven. There are plenty of saints that have not and will not be canonized. There are also over 10,000 canonized saints. The literal definition of canonized is "place in the canon of saints," and it comes from the Latin word canon, or "church rule.” Basically, it means someone who the church has confirmed to be in heaven. Why am I saying all this?
This summer I was a summer intern for our church. Because of that, I got to be one of the chaperones on all our summer trips. One of which was a conference put on for the high schoolers. One if the talks given was about becoming saints. I don’t remember who gave the talk but I remember them saying the saints practiced heroic virtue, and that it is something we should all be practicing.
“Heroic virtue is the performance of extraordinary virtuous actions with readiness over a period. The moral virtues are exercised with ease, while faith, hope, and charity are practiced to an eminent degree.”
At first, I thought this was intimidating, which it is. I started to ask myself where in my life am I not being virtuous. How many things am watching, saying, doing or even not doing, that aren’t sinful, but they also are not really virtues - they aren't helping me get to heaven! If heaven is my goal, and it should be, then why do I choose to do these things? I realized that most of these I don't go out of my way for, they just kind of happen. Why don’t I do anything in my power to stop? Why do I choose this little thing over virtue?
As I was writing this, I got stuck. I really like this thought of this heroic virtue. I think it sounds super intense and awesome! But it’s been sort of difficult for me to write about. Then I read Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle for my moral theology class and I came across this quote: “We become just by doing just actions, temperate by doing temperate actions, brave by doing brave actions.” This book is about virtues and how to achieve them. It is that simple. If you want to live a life of heroic virtue, then start doing heroic and virtuous things. If you want to be courageous then start doing courageous actions. If you want to live a life full of Christ, then start doing that.
“Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.” Pope John Paul II
Just my thoughts,
Go with God.
Duncan
