Then Antonia Salzano, the mother of St Carlos Acutis, was asked if she was surprised that her son became a Catholic saint, she revealed that a few months after his death, he appeared to her in a dream and said, “Mama, I will be beatified and then I will be canonized.” What is significant about the fifteen year old saint was that from his introduction to the faith at the early age of 4, he had a certain intentionality and that was sainthood. He was interested in the lives of saints. His spirituality was centered on the Eucharist. He developed a website on Eucharistic miracles. His reason was clear, as he would say in his words, “Those who place themselves before the Eucharist become saints… the Eucharist is the highway to holiness.” When you enter St Alphonsa’s convent, a plaque centrally hangs. On it are her words recorded in her spiritual letters: “Now that I have overcome so many obstacles to join the convent, what have I to live for if I don’t become a Saint.” Here again what is pronounced is the intentionality to be a saint. These young saints were constantly driven by an urgency to attain the highest glory of being a saint of God. Our Lord Jesus directs us, “Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength… to stand before the Son of Man.” (Lk 21:36). Vigilance is essential, as the Lord explains at the start of this teaching, the current of life leads us to dissipation. “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life” (Lk 21:34). We need to be constantly looking out that we are not carried by the current of worldliness. If we are not led by an intentionality for holiness and growth, Satan will distract and derail us. The enemy is ever vigilant for his purposes “to plunder and kill and destroy” (Jn 10:10). As St Peter writing to the Christians sums it, “Be sober and vigilant. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Pet 5:8). There are many who are intentional about their lives. They have clear goals and are passionate about these. Everything else in life is aligned to enable them achieve these goals. This is the common factor in those who have reached pinnacles of wealth, success, popularity, and for that matter, excellence in any line… Without goal and passion, we get nowhere.
There are many, especially in this age, incapacitated by the various addictions to digital entertainment, comfort and pleasure, and substances like alcohol and drugs. Drug addiction is undoubtedly the deadliest. It affects every domain of our thinking and living. However, every addiction incapacitates us, just as drugs do. Hallucinogens are a deadly variety of drugs. They transport you to an unreal world. They cause users to hear, see, or feel things that do not exist. Addictions to social media, watching youtube and Netflix, in fact, disconnect us from the reality around us, and our responsibilities to the future. There are also those so obsessed by their physical appearances, worldly success, professional jealousies, that they are blinded to the damage they are doing to themselves. When we lose sight of heaven, we are hallucinating! We have lost track of eternal truths. There are those so sold to the passing world, that they come for retreats and prayer services solely seeking earthly relief and wealth. Jesus wamed us, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul” (Mat 16:26). The few years we live on this earth is but a speck on the timeline of eternity. Some of us console ourselves that we are ‘nice’ and ‘good’ persons. That is not even a goal! It is mediocrity. A goal should be high. Unless we seek to be the best for Jesus – to be a saint, we are deceiving ourselves. Sainthood is not about black veils and white cloaks. As St Carlo Acutis, ‘the Saint in sneakers’. reminds us, it is not about what we are in the eyes of humans. It’s about an intentional living a clear goal and a passionate pursuit to be a saint. It is about constantly striving to stir the fire of love in our hearts for Jesus. In the pilgrimage to spiritual excellence, we see many promising people fall by the wayside. In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus likens the faith of some people to the seed sown on rocky ground. He “hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away” (Lk13:21). The Lord also mentions of some others whose faith is like seed “sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing” (v.22). We often see certain people excited and enthusiastic after a prayer service. They even start participating in prayer meetings. Slowly the preoccupations and responsibilities of life draw them away from the journey with the Lord. Their intentions are not bad. Yet they are neither hot, nor cold! Since there is no depth of intentionality, their spiritual pursuit is dissipated.
The early Church was vibrant. “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). The key word is ‘devoted’. They had to work, raise families, face persecutions “to the point of shedding blood” (Heb 12:4). Yet, in season and out of season, they were nourishing their souls to love and live for their Saviour. In the Parable of the Two Sons (Mat 21:28-32), Jesus narrates how a parent asks his two sons to work in the vineyard that day. The elder one says he will not, but later changed his mind and went. The second son promised to go, but did not. Jesus then asks of his audience, “Which of the two did the will of his father?” Obviously, the second son wanted to, but had no intentionality’. We are familiar with the proverb, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” The saints and the scripture reveal to us, “The road to heaven is paved with intentionality.” We cannot afford to risk losing eternity because of carelessness. So let us set our hearts to soar the skies of holiness, and passionately seek the Lord day after day.