Message of Saint Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church, of 3 April 2013

“Dearest Brothers and Sisters,

God has chosen me to begin with you the path of sanctification that He has planned for the people of God in these times. After me, others will also speak to you. This will be a profound dialogue between God and His people, the Church, which unfolds through various instruments, past and present, who are the great witnesses of God on Earth and in the universe.

God desires that I speak to you about holiness, which is the principle and the means of sanctification for each of you and for the whole Church. What does sanctification mean? It means that each of you, and all of you together, are destined to be glorified in God and by God, that is, to shine in the glory of the Creator. God is the Father, and therefore He wants to share His glory and His power with all His children, no one excluded. Moreover, He wishes that the entire people who belong to Him be a glorious people, capable of bearing witness to His Greatness.

The sanctification of the individual as well as that of the whole people cannot be reached without holiness. It is not distant from your existence; rather, it is part of it from the beginning. Indeed, human beings recognise God’s holiness from the moment of their conception: at that very moment, they find themselves before the Creator and are called to choose between God, the Highest Good, and Lucifer, the origin of evil. This means that all humans experience the existence of God and of the devil with absolute certainty from the moment of conception. From that point on, God assists them with His grace to help them choose. If they choose God, they choose holiness, for God is Holy; thus, those who welcome God into their lives also welcome His holiness. Human beings are free to choose and remain free from the first moment to eternity. I will not dwell further on this point, as you have already received many explanations about it over the years.

God created human beings to be His children, and therefore He destined them for holiness. He called them to holiness from conception. Indeed, how could He Who is Holy will anything other than holiness for His children? It is the wrong choices of humanity that corrupt humans; God calls everyone to holiness, and the seed of divine life lies within the human spirit. Consequently, the human spirit preserves the memory of God from the moment of conception. During earthly life, trials, struggles, temptations, and the oppressive presence of evil, may cloud that initial memory, but they cannot completely erase it. It remains like a deep groan, often as an indescribable sensation in the depths of one’s heart, even when God has been rejected.

All individuals can perceive the life of God within themselves, in the way that aligns best with their uniqueness, and they tend towards that life, seeking it like plants seek the light they need to live. Human beings ceaselessly yearn for God, even when they rationally do not know of His existence, for knowledge of God is not rational knowledge. The Holy Spirit acts in the depths of the human spirit and directs it towards what is above humanity. He elevates you to God, for He is God and communicates Himself to you, uniting you with the Father and the Son, just as He is united with Them.

Therefore, holiness is the foundation of sanctification.

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