Largely accomplished by everyday Joes

By Margaret in Catholic Answers Forum

Reacting to a post on whether or not the current living conditions are incompatible with holiness, Margaret makes the following post:

I’m afraid I’m going to have to disagree with the assertion that current living conditions are incompatible with holiness. As you yourself noted, we are all called to holiness. I realize that our culture is now largely working in direct opposition to human decency and morality, but that neither excuses us from striving for sanctity nor requires that we withdraw from the world at large.

I belong to Opus Dei, and we are pretty strong believers in the possibility of being a saint in the middle of the world. One of the models that St. Josemaria, our founder, held up for us, were the early Christians. They lived in a profoundly pagan society that was going to rot from within in less than three hundred years. Yet in the midst of that, they managed to spread the light of Christ throughout the known world. This was largely accomplished by everyday Joes—farmers, soldiers, merchants, etc.—who simply went about their day being Christians in the midst of this paganism. They obviously didn’t feel that their corrupted culture was incompatible with holiness.