God has a divine plan for each of us to transform us and enable each of us to be holy!  We are all created in God’s image and that means we must slowly and surely become an imitation of Jesus Christ.

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” 1 Peter 2: 9-10

The priesthood that St. Peter is speaking about is not just people ordained to the priesthood. St. Peter is speaking of all disciples, all Christian believers who have been baptized by the Holy Spirit of God.

God promised that He would give us a New Heart and a New Spirit: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” Ezekiel 36:27

Baptism commences the process of receiving a new heart purified by the blood of Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit of God. But we will not become the holy people that St. Peter is speaking of until we do some important things.

Let’s reflect on some of them.

Becoming holy is not an instant, miraculous personal transformation; it is a life long process that requires that we first recognize our ‘true identity’ and our ‘true purpose’ as we commit our lives to God.

God puts His Seal on us in Baptism. We belong to Jesus Christ. We are first and foremost children of God, disciples of Our Lord Jesus. That’s our true identity, to belong to God and our true purpose is to follow Him and obey His commandments to love and be merciful.

I encourage you to think of the beautiful, consecrated chalice used in the Mass. This holy vessel is set apart for a very special purpose. In the same way, so are we to be vessels of the Holy Spirit of God set apart for God’s special purposes.

The chalice is precious and beautiful and so are we precious to God and adorned by holy virtues. “The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” Galatians 5:23-24

But before we can be adorned with holy virtues, we must be cleansed and purified. Just as the chalice used in each Mass is clean and pure, so too are we called to allow God to purify our lives. “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” 1 John 1:8 So the path to becoming holy, requires that we continue to acknowledge our sins so that Jesus can purify us and enable us to become the best version of ourselves we can be. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9

Until I began studying the Word of God, I never considered that God wanted me to commit to being holy. I thought that ‘being holy’ is the exclusive calling of ‘religious people’. I was just an ‘ordinary person’ living an ‘ordinary life’. But then a miracle happened and God woke me up through a series of divine interventions.

The first divine intervention consisted of God speaking to my heart asking me this question: “What is love?” I was most surprised to be hearing God speaking to my heart! I said, “I know what love is God, love is a feeling”. But to this God answered ‘wrong’ in a patient, gentle voice. So I wondered if love is not a feeling what is it then? God said, “Love is a choice”.  Through the power of the Holy Spirit I realized that love is a choice that honours and pleases God.

What God knew about me is that I was living what I would call a ‘sensual existence’. I made decisions based on how I was feeling. My senses determined what I would choose to do. For example, if something made me feel happy I would pursue it, but if there might be the possibility of suffering I would not pursue it. But God was challenging my perspective in order to enable me to transform and become a spiritual person. I realized that God wanted me to make choices to please Him and not to gratify my senses and desire for pleasure.

After this encounter with God, I purchased my first Bible and I began to learn difficult things. For example, Jesus teaches us to “Love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.” Luke 6:35

Now I will admit to you that the concept of ‘loving my enemies’ would never have occurred to me if I had not read it in the Bible. If God had said ‘ignore your enemies’ I would have said, ok I can do that, but ‘love your enemies’ and ‘do good to them’. Wow! I admit it, I had to think about it!

Jesus is also quoted as saying “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” Matthew 5:44-45

Slowly I began to realize that if I was to be God’s, I had to try to embrace all of His teachings.   So I prayed for God to help me to understand and slowly and surely He did just that.

All of us are created to ultimately live in Heaven, but many, many souls today are in danger. If I was a soul in danger, I would want someone to be praying for me. So I now consider it one of the most important things I do everyday is to pray for people most in need of God’s mercy – e.g., criminals, rapists, murderers, child abusers etc.

I know that our united prayers can help make the world safer through the grace of God.  Our prayers can help transform our world as God answers us and intervenes to stop evil and enable love to take root.

I know that our works of charity can help reshape our world, healing it of its many wounds of discrimination and injustice.

When we open our hearts to God and invite Him into our lives, He will do many awesome things to help us to evolve from ‘sensual’ beings lead by what makes us feel good, to ‘spiritual’ beings lead by what God wills us to do. All of this requires, trust in God’s goodness and love for us. It requires a complete surrender to His Will and it requires a continuous spiritual discernment that is persistently questioning ‘what would Jesus want me to do in this situation’.

I invite you to give Jesus what He wants the most: TRUST!   Believe in Him and give Him your life. Ask Him to help you to understand His plan for you and don’t be surprised when He begins to purify your life.   In my case, God emptied my bookcases that were full of useless books and magazines and videos and He began filling it with spiritual books and spiritual movies. I have learned so much from the many spiritual books of Andrew Murray. Here’s a quote from his book “Absolute Surrender”

“Christ Jesus said: “I am the Vine, you are the branches.” In other words: “I, the living One who have so completely given myself to you, am the Vine. You cannot trust me too much. I am the Almighty Worker, full of a divine life and power.” You are the branches of the Lord Jesus Christ. If there is in your heart the consciousness that you are not a strong, healthy, fruit-bearing branch, not closely linked with Jesus, not living in Him as you should be—then listen to Him say: “I am the Vine, I will receive you, I will draw you to myself, I will bless you, I will strengthen you, I will fill you with my Spirit. I, the Vine, have taken you to be my branches, I have given myself utterly to you; children, give yourselves utterly to me. I have surrendered myself as God absolutely to you; I became man and died for you that I might be entirely yours. Come and surrender yourselves entirely to be mine.” Andrew Murray, Absolute Surrender

Jesus is calling you to be His disciple, consecrated to Him, set apart for His divine purpose, to pray, to do good works, to praise God and give Him glory. Let’s trust in Our Lord Jesus to help us to surrender our entire lives to Him and to help us to keep listening to His divine inspiration every day.  In this way, we will be transformed by the greatness of God’s love.

At 3pm, in your local time zones, stop if but for a few moments to remember Jesus dying on the Cross, an agonizing death, for you and me and all souls that will believe in Him. The Scriptures says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.” John 19:37

I never let a day go by without remembering the Passion of Christ.  Every day at 3pm, the time Jesus died for us, I stop and take a walk to the place where Jesus was crucified for our sins.  I give Him my heart and my life as He gives me His heart and His life giving force. There is nothing more moving than standing at the foot of the Cross of Jesus in a spiritual contemplation of His love and His Passion. When you realize how much Jesus loves you, you will fall in love!  And once you are in love with Jesus, you will focus on the things that please God and give Him glory.

Let Jesus transform you, one day at a time into the holy person He is calling you to be. Meditate daily on the Passion of Christ and please join A Peaceful Revolution in the Name of Jesus Christ, a global Christian prayer movement that is calling Christians of all denominations to stop at the Hour of Mercy (the time Jesus died for us, 3pm in our local time zones) to remember Jesus Christ our Crucified Lord who gave everything to open the gates of Paradise to us.  Come let us adore Him!  Let us give Jesus our lives in a testament of courage, hope and fidelity.   Let us pray for all souls, especially those most in need of God’s Mercy.   “The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.” Jeremiah 31:3. Jesus we trust in Your Love!  Holy Lord, Help us, Heal us, Transform us into your very image!  We love You so much Almighty God!