The Universal Call to Holiness

A Universal Call to Holiness  Vocation = Calling from God  Specific vocation = marriage, religious life, etc.  We discover this in part by examining our specific gifts and circumstances and seeing how God might intend to use them for His purposes  Does not necessarily line up with our desires  Unlocked through prayer over time  All have a general vocation to holiness  Holiness – Being close to God  Vocation to holiness means we are all called to be saints  Only way to get into Heaven  God “chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him” (Ephesians 1:4)

Obstacles to Holiness  Original Sin  Even after Baptism, we still face its effects  Weakness and temptation  Concupiscence: A tendency to sin  Leads us to do good things in a disordered way  Human tendencies = habits  Good habits = virtues  Bad habits = vices  7 Deadly Sins  AKA Capital sins (capital = source)  All sins stem from one of these

7 Deadly Sins Pride Covetousness Lust Anger Gluttony Envy Sloth

Pride  Chief sin  Root of all others  Sin from which Satan, Adam, and Eve stumbled  Excessive, disordered love of oneself  Putting one’s desires above those of God or neighbor  “The beginning of man’s pride is to depart from the Lord”  Sirach 10:12

Covetousness  AKA Avarice  Greed  Excessive desire for earthly things  Things are valued more than what should be important  Forbidden by 9 th and 10 th Commandments  Can easily lead one into other sins  Lying, cheating, stealing, murder  “Take heed, and beware of all covetousness; for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15)

Lust  Uncontrolled desire for sexual pleasure  Desire is natural  But we need to control ourselves  Focus on true, selfless love instead  “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh”  Galatians 5:16

Anger  Anger = uncontrolled expression of displeasure and antagonism  Often accompanied by desire for revenge  Hate = willing evil for someone  “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you”  Ephesians 4:31

Gluttony  Uncontrolled indulgence in food and drink  Not sinful in themselves  Sinful when left unchecked  “Do not have an insatiable appetite for any luxury, and do not give yourself up to food”  Sirach 37:29

Envy  Envy = unhappiness at another’s good fortune or success  Where you want something so badly that you wish they didn’t have it  “For where jealous [envy] and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and ever vile practice”  James 3:16

Sloth  Sloth = excessive laziness or carelessness  Particularly in duties  Especially towards spiritual duties  Different to rest/leisure  Unlike the other vices  All the others are ordinary desires that are uncontrolled  This is a lack of desire