Christian Perfection: Doing God’s Will Daily
Sanctify yourself: but sanctify yourself in the manner in which God wills your sanctification. … God wants you to be holy in the midst of the world, in community living … even in making a holiday and travelling. For sanctity consists in doing the will of God (OCL, II, 308, p. 24.)
St. Vincent Pallotti taught that Christian perfection consisted of doing God’s will daily. Hence, in order to attain perfection it was not necessary for a person to flee from the world, but it could be achieved by his being in the world. St. Vincent was insistent that perfection must be pursued within a person’s life situation and in the performance of his duties of life. According to him, a person must sanctify himself in the manner in which God desired his sanctification. It was St. Vincent’s belief that God wanted a person to achieve holiness by being in the world and doing the many things he was expected to do in the world. In other words, a person should make use of every event of his life such as community-living, going on a holiday, traveling, leisure, taking rest when he was unwell and any other activity which God wanted him to do in his life to make him holy. For St. Vincent, a person could become a saint in and through all these activities, provided these actions implied doing the will of God.
Do I believe that Christian perfection consists of doing God’s will daily? Do I acknowledge that I can achieve perfection by being in the world? Do I try to achieve holiness in and through the daily events of my life? Do I seek the will of God in my life finding God’s will and doing it, thereby becoming holy?
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God — what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Rom. 12:2)