A huge number to help us on the way

We need to be holy. Not 'Holy Joes', or 'Holier-than-thous' who look down on everyone else. Holiness means trying, with God's help, to become what God is asking us to be. For that task, we have the weapons given to the Church, through the apostles, by Christ. Those weapons are the sacraments and the word of God (the Bible, the Sacred Scriptures) sustain us in our efforts to become holy.

And there's more: the Church is made up of a countless number, both visible and invisible, living and dead. The angels (pure spiritual beings) and saints (those who have gone before us in the way of holiness) are there to help us. Together with the angels and saints in heaven and the souls in purgatory, we all make up the 'Communion of Saints'.

The Communion of Saints is a huge number of witnesses to Christ, "impossible to count", says the book of Revelation (Revelation 7,9) who are enjoying the presence of God and each other forever.

And they want us there with them.

The 'Universal Call to Holiness'

"Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5,48) says Our Lord to those who would listen to him. This is a call to all of us: the wholehearted devotion to God's glory and to the needs of our neighbour. It is nothing short of an invitation to holiness. To be holy means to live out our lives to the 'full potential' for which we were created. Holiness means to become more Christ-like every day. All of us need to become holy if we are to become like Christ and inherit eternal life. The challenge is nothing short of that!