Universal Call to Holiness

In the prompt what it means to say, "if I need something, I chase after it if it goes away" is that if man needed something from the church he doesn’t go after it until it’s already gone. This part of the prompt is telling man how they have failed the church. When man needs something they wait too long or when it is too late to achieve it. Man fails the church because he fails on his responsibilities to maintain what he needs from the church and only waits until it has gone away to show action and need for it. This can relate to the universal call to holiness in many ways. The main way is that man fails the church when we are called for holiness because we don’t take action towards strengthening our holiness until it has passed.

We are called to holiness through Christ and the church. The Church teaches us that all within the church should live holy lives. Through living a holy life, it is a lifelong process of seeking God himself, through Jesus Christ. The universal call to holiness in the Catholic Church is connected to baptism and uniting a person with the Second Person of the Blessed trinity. Christ preached holiness of life towards everyone and has influenced those to be made holy through the grace of God. God’s grace and love works through the church so that we can be called to holiness as well as take action through faithfulness towards the Holy Spirit by practicing charity. All of members of the church are called to the fullness of a Christian life an perfection of charity, no matter their social rank.

In order to attain or uphold holiness there are four ways to do so. Catholics are considered to follow these four ways to answer the call of holiness. These four ways are that we should use our strengths and talents as a gift from Christ. We should follow Christ and become like him, seeking the Father's will in all things, the glory of God and the good of our neighbor. We should use our personal gifts and fulfill our duties in the spirit of faith working through love and lastly, we should receive all things with faith from the hand of the heavenly Father. Through these four ways of attaining holiness can be grouped into two basic attitudes. The spirit to accept all things as coming from the loving hand of God, and the aim to do all things in accordance with God's will out of love for him. Through the sacraments, such as the Eucharist, participation in the liturgy, prayer, self-denial, service of our brothers and sisters, and the practice of all the virtues. These actions are ruled by charity and two other types of charity, enlivened by charity, and expressions of charity. Now expressions of love towards God are martyrdom as well as virginity, poverty and obedience.  For martyrdom, there is no greater love than to lay down your life for Christ and one's brethren and  for virginity,  poverty, and obedience are all special means for promoting  holiness of the Church,  where each component has its own way as a particular imitation or likeness of Christ.

            Through catholic upholding these four ways and live those out they break what the prompt means when it talks about how man fails the church. The prompt implies for Catholics that they don’t realize what they are losing or have lost until it is gone. The prompt is telling Catholics to do better and make sure they don’t fail the church as well as the church failing them. As a catholic what I think it means to "say who Christ is" without shame is that he is someone who is loving, charitable and there for us through his teachings and our prayer towards us. I have no shame in saying who Christ is because in knowing his teachings and stories of his life as a model for us it has opened my eyes towards knowing who he is. Through going to church and understanding the universal call of holiness, as a Catholic I know no shame in who Christ is and how to attain holiness and the fullness of a Christian life. In the end, through reading the prompt and comparing it to the universal call to holiness there has been a deeper understanding of the two relations; and how if man doesn’t realize what he needs now then later it will already be too late. As Christians in the catholic church we have to understand the faith and answer the universal call to holiness through the four ways as well as the ability to understand and interpret the life of Christ as model intertwined with our own.