Gaudete et exsultate: Little Choices

This holiness to which the Lord calls you will grow through small gestures. Here is an example: a woman goes shopping, she meets a neighbor and they begin to speak, and the gossip starts. But she says in her heart: “No, I will not speak badly of anyone”. This is a step forward in holiness. Later, at home, one of her children wants to talk to her about his hopes and dreams, and even though she is tired, she sits down and listens with patience and love. That is another sacrifice that brings holiness. Later she experiences some anxiety, but recalling the love of the Virgin Mary, she takes her rosary and prays with faith. Yet another path of holiness. Later still, she goes out onto the street, encounters a poor person and stops to say a kind word to him. One more step. (16)

Just as theology is the queen of the sciences, which are only complete and reach their full flourishing under its light, so holiness is the first form of health within which all other well-being finds its rightful place and fullness.

And just as our bodily health is preserved and nourished by little, everyday choices, so it is with holiness. As Pope Francis points out, it is these small options for a turn to prayer, for charity, and especially for being willing to suffer for the good of another, that set us on the path towards being the saints God wills and delights for us to become.


This can sometimes be a hard truth if someone is given to temptations to vainglory. We want to make a grand gesture, decide for ourselves that from now on I'm going to be a saint, or let go of some attachment or occasion of sin once and for all. But that's not how it works. And the Holy Spirit, in his infinite wisdom and mercy, doesn't make it happen. We fall back into our old habits, and our vainglory is frustrated. And this is mercy because, as we know from the words of Jesus himself, it is better to be a sinner who knows he's a sinner and in need of divine mercy than to be a righteous person who imagines he has no need of repentance.

On the contrary, the only way to let go of some attachment or occasion of sin is to pray for willingness and to plan realistically for dealing with occasions of sin, and to be ready to do the difficult, hidden work of letting go of thoughts before they grow into overwhelming temptations.

This isn't to say that there will never be occasions for important, public gestures of holiness. There have always been Christians called to martyrdom, as there are also in our time. But if we have not been making the small choices for charity, for detachment, and for the letting go that is genuine prayer, we will find ourselves unprepared for the invitation to martyrdom if it should come. In fact, in a certain sense all of our choices for love and detachment are practice for our death, in whatever way it should come as that moment when our lives become definitely incapable of revision and we are forced, like it or not, to transition into God's eternity and let go of what we have taken, thus far, to be our self.

By prayer we don't change God; what we change is our perception of our experience and our choices, and awaken the mindfulness of the small options for turning to God in prayer and for charity of which Pope Francis speaks. We turn first of all to prayer, then, and seek the spiritual eyes to see the little options for holiness, and ask for the charity and willingness to choose them.