PURSUING holiness is for everyone and not just a select few, UST Central Seminary pastoral director Fr. Marcelino Saria, O.P. said in his All Saints’ Day homily at the UST Santisimo Rosario Parish on Nov. 1.
In his homily, Saria said there were two pitfalls that prevent Catholics from pursuing holiness, namely mediocrity and fake holiness.
“[Mediocrity] is when one negotiates between his desire to excel and his urge to settle for the most comfortable situation. Mediocrity is to think that ‘holiness is not for me, it’s only for a few,’” Saria said.
Saria likened fake holiness to the hypocrisy of the Pharisees by being externally clean but spiritually dirty.
To avoid the two pitfalls, Saria said Catholics should obey Jesus’s beatitudes and detach from the sinful ways of the world.
He also stressed the importance of mourning and empathizing with others.
“Pope Francis said that knowing how to mourn with others is holiness…We need to empathize with those who are suffering and in distress, not only zeroing in on our own pains and suffering. That is what it means to carry our own crosses and to help others carry theirs,” he said.
“We pray not just for our own needs, not just for our departed ones, but also for one another, that we may take heed of that call to holiness, a call to learn how to love as God loves,” he added.
The University will hold two more Masses for the departed members of the Thomasian community at the UST Santisimo Rosario Parish Church on the following dates:
Nov. 2 (9 a.m.) – The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls’ Day)
Nov. 8 (11 a.m.) – The Annual Commemoration of All Deceased Thomasians
UST has encouraged Thomasians to attend onsite Masses in their respective parishes during Undas. Ammiel B. Maestrado
