“The only great tragedy in life is not to become a saint.” These memorable words by the great French Catholic writer, Léon Bloy, should always be on our minds.

We are all called to be saints. This is what is meant by the universal call to holiness. We are all called to heaven. This is why we are not wise men (homo sapiens) unless we are also pilgrim men (homo viator). Each of us is on the appointed journey, which is the quest for heaven. This is the goal which has been set for us by our loving Father. He wants us to come to him and has promised that he will give us the help we need to do so.

The problem is that we are not merely homo viator; we are also homo superbus. We are not merely pilgrim men, or men on a quest; we are also proud men, who refuse the challenges of the quest so that we can do our own thing and go our own way instead. Each of us is both the child of God who hears the call of the Father but also the disobedient child who refuses to heed the call. This is why two great Russian writers, Dostoevsky and Solzhenitsyn, remind us that the battle between good and evil takes place in each individual human heart. We are all fighting a civil war, which is often a very uncivil war, with ourselves.

Although some of us might answer the call of the Father in the call to the priesthood and the religious life, most of us are called to him through the holy sacrament of matrimony. For most of us, married life is the path to heaven. Parenthood is the pilgrimage. Fatherhood furthers the cause of holiness. It moves us further up and further in: Further up the purgatorial path to the heavenly summit and further into our relationship with the Father himself.

Parenthood is not the smoothest of paths, nor is it a bed of roses; or, if it is a bed of roses, it is a bed of roses embedded with thorns. It is not an easy way. It is the way of the cross. It crosses our selfish desires. It makes us cross! It leads us to the crossroads at which we need to choose between the pilgrim path of selflessness or the selfish path of pride. One path leads to heaven, the other to hell. There is no third path.

These crucial truths about parenthood and family life were understood by the founding father of the Knights of Columbus, Blessed Michael McGivney. Showing the other sort of fatherhood, which is the call of the priesthood, he sought to support families through the founding of the Knights of Columbus.

The eldest of 13 children, six of whom died in infancy or childhood, he knew all about the hardships of family life. He had to postpone his studies for the priesthood, following the death of his own father, to help his mother raise his younger siblings. Such experience bred in him the deep desire to help widows support their children following the untimely death of their husbands. This deep desire to support families in need led to his founding of the Knights. The rest, as they say, is history.

We can’t all be great men like Blessed Michael McGivney but we are all called to that even greater greatness which is sanctity. We can all become saints. The Father does not call us to him unless he knows that, with his help, we can get to him. He has called us. All that we need to do is answer the call, each and every day, by taking up our daily crosses and asking him to help us carry them.

To be or not to be. That is indeed the question. To be a saint, or not to be a saint. To answer the call, or to refuse it. Answering the call of parenthood by laying down our lives for our family every day of our lives is answering the call to holiness. In fathering our families we are simultaneously feathering our heavenly nest.

Léon Bloy was right. The only great tragedy in life is not becoming a saint. Let’s keep this in mind by keeping our eyes on heaven.