"God has called me to be ...."

It was intentional that I did not complete the title. How would you fill in the blanks? yes you guessed it! "a great saint".

Called to be holiness or called to be a great saint is not something we can ignore or think that it is reserved for a few. It is for each and every one of us. We can say that we are not holy ourselves, we are quite sinful. St Paul tells us that Christ has given grace according to the measure of His gift, or according to the measure of our call. He has given the grace to live it. Lord says that "He has come to call sinners, not the righteous". He did not come and call you because we are so good, but we are so bad. If any of us sit back and say that " I can't make it, because I am a sinner". Our Lord would respond, "that is exactly why I have called to be a saint".

If we keep on protesting that we can't do this, then, it is not from the Lord. And we know that it is from the opposing party, the father of all lies. This party keeps on persisting that it is not for us, and it is entirely for certain people God has elevated, such as Bishops, Priests, nuns and certain charismatic preachers. And why do you still aiming for that apple which is not accessible?!

It is true to say , "I can't do it", because we can't, but with God's grace and mercy, we can! and only by His grace. This is the first thing we have to understand. We will never be able to do it by ourselves, but "I can do everything in Christ who strengthens me" (Philippi 4:13).

Look at those people our Lord has called as Apostles; tax collectors, fishermen and so on. He has called as one of His Apostles one of the people who would have been considered to be the worst of sinners, a tax collector. Jesus looked at Matthew and told him, "follow me". He got up, followed Him, and changed his life radically. Hold on this word, "radical". We need to have a radical change in our life. Now Jesus came to each one of us and done the exact same thing. The question is whether we have responded like Matthew. If we have not, then it is not too late. But Matthew responded too quickly, and I didn't.

When we look at the grace and call, we immediately recognize that God does not change His mind. He has called us by name, He has called us to be a great saint. That means we have to do exactly what Matthew did. We have to change our life. We have to throw our old garment and put on the new one. We have to grow in the fullness of Christ.

When we look at many saints, Paul, Augustine, Mary Magdalene, we realize that being a great saint is not anything that is beyond us. By ourselves, Yes! but not beyond God! God knows what He is doing.

"He has chosen us, called us, sanctified us, and appointed us to be a great saint".

"Sanctify yourself, for tomorrow God will perform imracles in your life" (Joshua 3:5).