If there is something that is difficult to speak about in our world today, it is holiness. It seems quite absurd for a person to talk about holiness today. May be this is because the world does not seem to support such an endeavor, may be because we no longer understand what holiness is all about, or may be because we no longer believe holiness is possible. When we speak about holiness several things come in the minds of our listeners. Many think of it in terms of remaining in worshipping places for many hours, others think of praying long touching prayers, others think of the attitude of being quiet and reserved. As such, holiness is associated with places of worship and having a timid personality, making “isolation and loneliness to be its evident signs” (Cf The Fire in these ashes, pg 119). Worse still, many people equate holiness to perfection, and hence living a sinless life. With that kind of perspective, we don’t need to be told why holiness is a dream in our world today. Of course, we would be wrong to say that holiness does not exist or that there are no longer holy people. The point is that holiness has lost the lustre it once enjoyed.
To Fr. Allamano, holiness was a second nature. If there was a word that the Founder uttered frequently, it was the term holiness. Fr. Allamano made it clear that the first goal of the Institute was sanctification of the members, and only then would it be a tool of sanctifying others. The Founder in fact put it categorically that the Institute was an instrument of sanctifying those who entered it, so that they too could pass on the same gift of holiness to the people they were serving. This way, Fr. Allamano made it evident that if the Institute did not make its members holy, then it would be failing in its duties. Since the Institute is its members, Fr. Allamano was actually saying, that if we don’t work towards our sanctification, then we do not merit to be tools of God in his mission of evangelization. This is why Fr. Allamano always said to his seminarians that if there was anything that gave him preoccupation constantly, it was their sanctification. The question “do all these young people who have entered the Society have the good will to sanctify themselves?” always appeared in his mind. (SL. 83).
But what was it that Fr. Allamano wished for his missionaries? This question is important from the background that we have seen: holiness seems to be misunderstood. As a matter of fact, the Founder never expected to make angels out of men. He knew perfection is not holiness, and that only in God are perfection and holiness one. He was aware that perfection is about lack of defects or imperfections and no human being is perfect. As a matter of fact, even today, trying to be perfect is “attempting to be what we should never be if human life with all its learnings is really to be human” (The Fire in these ashes, pg 116). This is why we are saying that Fr. Allamano was wise enough to know that if holiness was to be equated to perfection, no one would ever be holy. His deep love for the saints must have shown him that if the Church could consider St. Augustine a saint after all that he had done as a young man, then holiness could never be equated to perfection. In fact, Fr. Allamano must have been aware that if holiness was to be likened to perfection then not a single person among the apostles could be called a saint. With all these in mind, Fr. Allamano could not have been asking the seminarians to be perfect, when he spoke about holiness every now and then. He must have been telling them to be good people, who did everything well for the right reason. Now that is holiness. That is what characterized Fr. Allamano’s life.
The Founder’s ill heath was a clear human imperfection, but not obstacles to holiness. The trust that he earned from the leaders in the Church and especially from the numerous bishops of Turin was a sign that he was a good-hearted man, who did everything the best way he could, and for the right intention (in other words without hidden agenda). He was a holy man precisely because he saw the will of God in everything, and hence did everything with a clear conscience, a clean heart, and the right motive. When a person is like that, no matter how many imperfections he may have, and no matter what mistakes his imperfections cause him to do, he can still be a holy man. The attitude of humility and total trust in God that the imperfections instill in us make the foundation of holiness. Fr. Allamano taught that trust in God was the secret of the saints. With humility and deep trust in God, we avoid the false and misleading voice of the ego, we become good hearted persons who try their best to do everything well for the glory of God and the well-being of our neighbor. That way, we become holy. Those sentiments of Fr. Allamano meant that our imperfections should make us humble and trusting in God. They should not kill our self-confidence or discourage us. When our imperfections discourage us and destroy our self-esteem and our self-confidence, then they easily become obstacles on our path to holiness.
Fr. Allamano’s emphasis on trust in God was a warning that it would be futile to think that we could attain holiness by ourselves. That is why the Founder said “it would be presumptuous to imagine that we can achieve holiness without the help of God” (Cf. This I want you to be, Pg 49). Today, we don’t need anyone to tell us that such a thought would be an obvious self-deception. Fr. Allamano made it clear that holiness depends on our courage to take the first step on the path of renunciation, after which Christ immediately intervenes with his grace to make easy what may have seemed difficult at the beginning, and desirable what was disgusting to nature” (SL. 91). To him, that first step involved training one’s character and learning virtue. Even today, we can tell that such an achievement demands constant effort and a generous good will. To Fr. Allamano anyone who developed such a good will would not have much difficulty becoming a saint. This explains why the Founder did not see why his missionaries could not become saints.
To him the path to holiness was clear and simple: have clean thoughts, which will in turn become good words and good actions. Repeat the good actions indefinitely, allowing them to turn into good habits. Repeat those virtues until they become your character, without forgetting that it takes time and prayer to achieve genuine virtue. Practice the virtue as the only thing you know, and there, you will be already living holiness, and undoubtedly, on the road towards sainthood regardless of your personality (Cf. This I want you to be, 51). Fr. Allamano was quick to note the issue of personality because he had heard people claiming that their personality was their obstacle to holiness. The Founder immediately debunked that way of thinking saying that the saints in the Church are of all sorts of personalities, so there was no way one could hide behind his personality to defend his imperfections. What was needed, the Founder noted, was shaping, but not destroying one’s personality, something which presupposed one’s effort to discern his tendencies and weakness, and overcoming a few defects which are the root cause of his key imperfections. Rightly put by our Founder, shaping one’s personality helps him to be socially acceptable, thus developing the basis on which sanctity is created and lived: fruitful human relationships which are the foundation of genuine relationship with God.
As we reflect on our Founder’s take on holiness, we cannot forget that his enduring statement: Holiness is your first obligation, the first goal of your vocation, but also the first means of your apostolic work. (Cf. SL. 91). May our Founder help us in our effort to attain holiness.