To the top

I named this blog after my favorite saint and adopted patron, Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati. As dictated at the top, he once said "The higher we go, the better we shall hear the voice of Christ." How is it that we can get higher to hear the voice of Christ? Pier Giorgio was an avid hiker, did he really expect us all to go sit on mountain tops all day so that we could hear the voice of Christ? Obviously not. Yet we are still all called to live at a higher level, to be in the world, but not of the world, and to hear the call of Christ through the noise of the world. This culture and society we live in is not conducive to living at a high moral standard. The world tells us to do what we want because it feels good, no matter the consequences.
Even for those who try to combat the culture and try to live at a life of holiness, that mountain looms ahead in an ominous way. "It's too far off in the distance, it looks too high, too difficult, too dangerous. Can't I hear God right here? Where I am comfortable? Where I feel safe?" I recently went hiking with sixty kids with the day camp I work at. Hiking with sixty kids is a ton of work, and I remember thinking going up "Gosh, couldn't we have just played tag on the ground? Between falling off of rocks and the peeing in the woods breaks and the too-tired-to-move-anymore breaks we will never get there." But once the top was reached, the view was more breath-taking then I could have imagined, and was worth the hour's climb to the top. And while on our own spiritual journey, we may stumble on the rocks, we may have to stop and catch our breath (or pee in the woods), we must climb the mountain. For though we start on the ground, and we can hear the faint whisper of Christ in the comfort of where we are at, we are not called to remain there. As Pope Benedict XVI said: "The world will give you comfort, but you were not made for comfort, you were made for greatness." Greatness is achieved when we start on that mountain to hear the voice of Christ. When we head to the top.