Cœpisse omnium est; ad culmen pervenisse sanctorum.

"Comenzar es de todos; perseverar, de santos." (To begin is for everyone, to persevere is for saints.)

Escrivá, The Way, 983

"A decision to have a more holy life, to live interior life... To promise and to fulfill are not the same, nor to begin and to persevere... There are many flowers on a tree in Spring..., but most of them do not end in fruit: there are many children that are born, but far less that reach maturity... That is why St. Jerome could say: 'Coepisse multorum est, ad culmen pervenisse paucorum': to begin to live well is for many, to persevere until the end in the good work is for few."

Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer: Obras Completas I/1, ed. Rodriquez, Madrid: Rialp, 2002, 1006.

This thought was triggered by two circumstances: one light, the other very grave.

My eleven year old nephew just beat me in chess today because he has learned the end game, how to checkmate. It's a metaphor for life: to finish is everything!

The sad occasion of my visit was my youngest sister's fifth miscarriage! That happy family, presently mourning, has five children but has lost five. Therein the metaphor takes on a particular weight, the real weight of reality and of life with all of the terrible consequences in the mystery of the Cross.

Holiness is that serious! No, holiness is even more serious than that, because the meaning and purpose of this life is for the supernatural life. This life is real, but the dimension of its reality is only a glimmer of the highest dimension of reality which is holiness, and its opposite, which is evil (the lowest dimension).

In the ways of nature, many are conceived, but far less are born.

And of those that are born to natural life, many are born, and far less of those born are born again by God for a life of holiness!

And of those who are born again by God, many are born again, but far less reach supernatural maturity.

But the only real and enduring tragedy in all of this is that everyone who is created by God, even unborn, is created to be a saint.

Requiem aeternam dona ei Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei. Requiscat in pace. Amen.

"Life holds only one tragedy: not to have been a saint” --Leon Bloy as referenced by Peter Kreeft