“It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be grounded down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal.” —John Paul II
Think about the imagery of ‘stirring desire’ for a moment. Everyone has a deep desire to not only do great things, but to be Saints.
However, those desires often get suffocated by doubts and fears. We see these amazing people loving God and others in ways that we have a hard time imagining ourselves doing likewise.
Using tangible examples, we want to be the person who’s willing to give the shirt off our backs, or to stop on the highway to help change a flat. But, it’s challenging. We see an opportunity to love our neighbor, and we know we should, but we chicken out.
We must remember that the Saints’ amazing feats and acts of love didn’t come out of nowhere. It was a lifetime of living their faith daily. And, we should be no different. Each day, we should open our eyes and ears to the ways we can love and serve God and others.
And for those of us who aren’t serving the poor on the streets of Calcutta, when we feel the desire to do great things, we have to harness it. Remember who you want to be, and pray for the grace to become that person.