Lent, 40 days of penance in preparation for Easter, is often described as a time to grow closer to God, but what does that really mean? What does it mean to be close to God?

Every year, Fr. David and I sit down with each candidate for Confirmation to discuss their preparation for the sacrament. We always begin with the question, “Why do you want to be confirmed?” and the confirmandi very frequently respond, “…so that I can be closer to God!”

The idea of being close to God is a biblical one, because Scripture frequently speaks about being “close” or “near” to God. James 4:8, for example, says, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” Psalm 145:18 says, “The Lord is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth.”

To speak of getting “closer” to God is, though, just a figure of speech, because God is everywhere. “Where can I go from your spirit? From your presence, where can I flee?” (Psalm 139:7) “[H]e is not far from any one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being,” (Acts 17:27-28). I can’t really do anything or go anywhere to become closer to the Lord, because he is always, “closer to me than I am to myself,” as St. Augustine says.

The real measure of our closeness to the Lord, or holiness, is our charity. We may make the mistake of thinking that our closeness to God is measured by our feelings, as if we are nearer to God when we sense his presence more vividly. While our feelings certainly play an essential role in our spiritual life, being close to the Lord means more than being emotionally aware of Him, as valuable as such spiritual consolations may be. Mother Teresa, for example, taught, “Holiness is not in the feelings or in imagination; it is reality. One thing that helps me and will help you is this: Works of love are works of holiness.” In one of my favorite quotes from Pope Benedict XVI, he says, “Christian holiness is nothing other than charity lived to the full” (see General Audience, 13 April 2011).

We must be careful, however, not to reduce holiness to a mere mechanical performance of good works, as if we could muscle our ways to authentic holiness by our own strength. To be close to God is to allow Jesus Christ to transform us from the inside out, by the power of his Holy Spirit, so that our selfish inclinations are gradually replaced with the sacrificial charity of Christ. Holiness is not an exercise of our own willpower, but an exercise of the God-given virtues of faith, hope, and charity. Pope Benedict XVI taught clearly:

In Christ the living God made himself close, visible, audible and tangible so that each one might draw from his fullness of grace and truth (cf. Jn 1:14-16). Therefore, the whole of Christian life knows one supreme law, which St Paul expresses in a formula that recurs in all his holy writings: in Jesus Christ. Holiness, the fullness of Christian life, does not consist in carrying out extraordinary enterprises but in being united with Christ, in living his mysteries, in making our own his example, his thoughts, his behaviour. The measure of holiness stems from the stature that Christ achieves in us, in as much as with the power of the Holy Spirit, we model our whole life on his.

To be “close” to God, then, is to let the Holy Spirit conform you to the image of Jesus Christ, God-in-the-flesh, who was crucified and rose again out of love for us. Such authentic closeness to God requires our perseverance in prayer, in the sacraments, and in works of charity, but it is ultimately the fruit of surrendering to God, who is always near us and always at work within us.