The mission we have been given as business leaders is no different than any other person and that is to strive, to make spiritual progress, and to become saints. God knows we need more leaders in all sectors of life who strive to be saints. If you want to change the world, that change starts with you, or more specifically your soul. Once you are on the way to perfection then you can start to tend to that splinter in your neighbor’s eye you’ve wanting to remove for a while now.
The importance of attaining and living out your vocation as a business leader is that your success in business and sanctity will allow you to help others along the same path. Your life as a business leader has an exponential impact on the world. The lives of others in your employ, your suppliers, vendors and the community you serve should all be lifted up and improved by your life shown as an example in word and deed.
This seems really obvious but you need to intentionally work on becoming a saint. One of my favorite quotes related to this is from Brother Joris a St. Sixtus Brewmaster. “You do not become a saint just by entering a monastery.” Likewise your journey to sainthood means not just thinking about it or reading about it but actually DOING it. Work at becoming a saint. You need to transition from a passive spiritual life to one of action. You need to work on yourself continuously.
You may be asking yourself.. Isn’t sainthood for, well, the saints? Where have we been told, we are to strive toward sainthood?
Let’s check out St. Matthew – “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect. “ Matthew 5:48. When he says you, he means “YOU ALL” or every single person who hears his words or who reads them.
Likewise St Peter reminds us – “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your ignorance. But as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1 14-16).
Without clarity there is little-to-no likelihood that focus can follow so to be extra clear here: “passions of your ignorance” are your attachments to vices that feel great at the moment but keep you from seeking or caring to seek knowing and loving God the way that you should. If you aren’t moving toward heaven, you’re moving toward hell. Like in our temporal world, there’s no stasis in the spiritual realm either. It’s your choice.
How, you might ask, do you start on the path towards greater sanctity? Christ provides the model of that perfection we are told to achieve. We need to know Christ in order to put on the mind of Christ, to see the world as He did. You must become a student, a disciple of Christ. A simple first step is to crack open the bible.
As we are learning, we can’t become complacent in the degree of perfection we think we might have attained, nor ever satisfied with our progress to date. There are no mediocre saints. The Latin roots of “mediocre” means midway up a mountain. The view half way up the mountain looks nice, but you know there’s more to the journey to get to the top.
Matthew asks us “For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a man give in return for his life?” Matt 16-26 Have you ever answered his question?
We are told seeking holiness while living, working and leading in the temporal world shouldn’t cause us anxiety but it does for most of us.
Here’s a helpful strategy for when you do freak out (and you will).
“God wants activity but not anxiety, for even in activity, the souls should attend to “the one thing necessary,” that is union with Him. Therefore, as soon as a soul perceives that it is beginning to lose its interior calm, it should interrupt its work, if possible, at least for an instant, and retire into its interior with God. These brief moments of pause, frequently repeated, will accustom it, little by little, to keep calm and recollected in God, even in the most absorbing activity.” (Divine Intimacy 21,2)
And yes…. devotion is suitable to every vocation and profession as St. Francis de Sales points out in his book Introduction to the Devout Life: “It is an error, nay more, a very heresy, to seek to banish the devout life from the soldier’s guardroom, the mechanic’s workshop, the prince’s court, or the domestic hearth. Of course a purely contemplative devotion, such as is specially proper to the religious and monastic life, cannot be practiced in these outer vocations, but there are various other kinds of devotion well-suited to lead those whose calling is secular, along the paths of perfection.” Good Saint Francis is calling you a heretic if you leave God in the narthex of the church after Mass to live the other days of the week without ever thinking of Him.
Why do you need to strive to become a saint? To help realize the great commission: to make disciples of all nations. “To Christianize society, we need social works and workers, professional men and women who will be apostles in their own walks of life.” (Divine Intimacy 328,1)
Finally, a reminder from Christ as you start your day and head to your place of business. “And he told them a parable, to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.” Luke 18,1
When things get tough in your life. Always pray and not lose heart.
