Holiness by Hubert Van Zeller

Author:Hubert Van Zeller [Zeller, Hubert Van]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-01-06T13:39:00+00:00

What Holiness Relies On

he lifeblood of sanctity is, of course, the charity of Christ. He is the vine, and we are the the branches are alive and fruitful for just as long as they receive the life that belongs to the vine. In the same way, personal sanctity is true and fruitful for just as long as it comes from the person of Christ. Try breaking off a twig from a vine and hanging it over your bed. No matter how long you keep it there, you will never see it produce a bunch of grapes. It will gradually shrivel up and die.

So the great thing is to remain one with the vine, letting yourself grow out of it with the strength it gives you. You must take whatever direction the vine wants you to take, and you must not try to show off to the other branches by growing more quickly than the vine means you to. Leave the question of producing fruit to the way things work out: you will not be fruitless if you "abide in the vine."32 But do not be dismayed when you find that what looks like something becoming a splendid growth, promising a cluster of grapes in the future, is clipped off. The pruning knife is not stunting your growth, but making sure that you grow better, stronger, and healthier. Do not cry out against the knife; it is doing what you cannot do. You cannot become a saint without the Cross.

Now, if the charity of Christ is our source of sanctity, the more we draw from it, the greater will be the gift we can offer to God. Whatever we possess in the way of natural kindness and friendliness must be made to mingle with His divine charity - and so become supernatural. To be nice to people merely because we happen to like them is not enough; we must set our affection higher up the scale and be nice to them for the love of God. This ought not to be too difficult because affection comes from God and can easily be directed back again to Him.

The trouble is that the flow of charity through us to other people, and through them to God, can often be cut clean off. One of Satan's first objectives is to make us put obstacles in the way of what might be called "the holy circulation of love." Just as in history one country has tried to keep another country away by building a wall, so we are apt to put up walls between ourselves and other people. Without open warfare, members of the same human race can glare at one another from their own sides of the wall. Once built, these walls are very hard to pull down. Nations that are afraid of other nations build walls. Nations that have a secret they do not want to share build walls. Then everyone becomes deceitful and suspicious, and this is no way to be. But the world is stiff with walls, and there is very little trust, and that is why wars break out.

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