We asked Mary Thorne to respond to Pope Francis’s new exhortation to all Christians, Gaudete et Exsultate, on the call to holiness in today’s world.

As I began to read Pope Francis’s Exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate (Rejoice and Exult), I couldn’t help a rueful smile, recognising my own prejudice. I feel rather disconnected from the word holy. In the midst of ordinary life, I don’t often ponder HOLINESS as a personal aspiration. I do strive to live by gospel values and value being one of God’s pilgrim people, but holiness feels a bit beyond me. Perhaps, too, the word has acquired some awkward connotations — obedient, quiet, well-behaved and compliant, not so much like the woman I’ve grown to be.

Pope Francis addresses my concerns. He asks us to hear anew that we are all called to follow a path to holiness and, acknowledging the challenges, he gives relevant and practical advice on how to proceed. It is not a docile option at all. We read that God does not want us to settle for a bland, mediocre existence (par 1).

Holiness looks different in different people. Each must follow their own way of answering God’s invitation. The essence of this holiness is love — courageous, unconditional, all-embracing love and holy doesn’t mean perfect! Pope Francis reassures us that holiness “will take away none of your energy, vitality or joy… you will be faithful to your deepest self. To depend on God sets us free from every form of enslavement and leads us to recognise our great dignity” (par 32).

The Beatitudes give clear yet challenging direction regarding holiness. In many respects the path they indicate goes against the flow of contemporary thinking and living. Pope Francis suggests we allow Jesus’s words “to unsettle us, to challenge us and to demand real change in the way we live” (par 66). We are asked to examine whether our security resides in wealth (par 67) or whether we try to live simply and share in the lives of those most in need (par 70). Do our pride and vanity cause us to think and act with an air of superiority? (par 71, 72). Does our pursuit of entertainment, pleasure, and diversion blind us to the suffering of others? (par 75, 76). Do we long for justice for the poor, the weak, the most vulnerable? (par 79). Do we try to understand and forgive others? (par 81). Do we keep our hearts free of all that tarnishes genuine love of God and neighbour? (par 86). Do we sow peace all around us? (par 89). Can we accept all this even though it may cause us problems? (par 94).

The Beatitudes culminate in the call to recognise Christ in suffering humanity (par 96). Pope Francis states strongly that it is his duty to ask Christians to accept the demands of Jesus to care for the suffering without any “ifs or buts” that could lessen the force of these demands (par 97).

Pope Francis describes five signs of holiness which he considers important in the context of today’s culture. The first sign is “Perseverance, Patience and Meekness”. My concern for women, long taught that to be holy is to be accepting and uncomplaining, is slightly alleviated by an acknowledgement that “at times, precisely because someone is free of selfishness, he or she can dare to disagree gently, to demand justice or to defend the weak before the powerful, even if it may harm his or her reputation” (par 119).

Encouraging, also, is the sign described as “Boldness and Passion” in which we read: “We need the Spirit’s prompting lest we be paralysed by fear and excessive caution, lest we grow used to keeping within safe bounds. Let us remember that closed spaces grow musty and unhealthy” (par 133). “Complacency is seductive; it tells us that there is no point in trying to change things, that there is nothing we can do, because this is the way things have always been … We ‘let things be’, or as others have decided they ought to be … Let us rethink our usual way of doing things” (par 137).

Throughout, Pope Francis encourages us to be vigilant in examining ourselves about our motivation and about possible aberrations in our belief. “I ask all Christians not to omit, in dialogue with the Lord, a sincere daily examination of conscience” (par 169).

Although we must each respond to the call to holiness, the goal is to be a Holy People. May our Church be holy.

Tui Motu Magazine. Issue 227 June 2018: 18.