<P> At the end of this series of Catecheses, therefore, I would like to offer some thoughts on what holiness is . What does it mean to be holy? Who is called to be holy? We are often led to think that holiness is a goal reserved for a few elect . St Paul, instead, speaks of God's great plan and says: "even as he (God) chose us in him (Christ) before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him" (Eph 1: 4). And he was speaking about all of us . At the centre of the divine plan is Christ in whom . God shows his Face, in accord with the favour of his will . The Mystery hidden in the centuries is revealed in its fullness in the Word made flesh . And Paul then says: "in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell" (Col 1: 19)... </P> <P> The universal call to holiness is rooted in baptism, and the Paschal Mystery, which configures a person to Jesus Christ who is truly God and truly man, thus uniting a person with the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, bringing him in communion with intra-trinitarian life . </P> <P> John Paul II states in his apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte, his apostolic letter for the new millennium, a "program for all times", that holiness is not only a state but a task, whereby Christians should strive for a full Christian life, imitating Christ, God the Son, who gave his life for God the Father and for his neighbor . This entails a "training in the art of prayer". According to the Pope, all pastoral initiatives have to be set in relation to holiness, as this has to be the topmost priority of the Church . The universal call to holiness is explained as more fundamental than the vocational discernment to particular ways of life such as priesthood, marriage, or virginity . </P> <P> At the very core of the spirituality of a Catholic is this call to perfection . </P>

Who is called to holiness according to lumen gentium