Growing to be holy

As Catholic schools we should not be ashamed of our mission to encourage and grow to holiness. The call to holiness (and wholeness) is made to all Christians. But what is holiness, and why is it so important? Holiness is derived from God as an expression of his extraordinary and immense goodness. As believers we participate in this holiness through our experience of God’s presence in our lives. We do not automatically share in that holiness: each of us must respond to the call, grow in awareness of God’s presence, express it through gratitude, humility, love and justice for others. This doesn’t make us holy, it means we gain a share, a space, a place in God’s holiness.

Holiness is important because it permits and resources our capacity to live full and rich lives (wholeness – they’re intimately related).

So, what does holiness look like? We have certainly seen it in the lives of Mother Teresa of Calcultta, John Paul II and surely in the life of the Dalai Lama. But they are very religious. I’m reasonably sure, however, that religious people do not have a stranglehold on holiness. For gratitude, humility, love and justice for others are experienced and expressed by so many about us. I have been privileged in my life in having met a raft of ‘holy’ people – bishops, priests, religious brothers and sisters, but most have been people like you. Yet when I see the devotion of wives for their husbands, fathers for their children, grandparents for their grandchildren, friends for one another, I see quite clearly how God’s holiness overflows into their lives and it is quite awe inspiring.

Coming to recognise God’s role in this generous giving is what our job is. In Paul’s letter to Timothy (6:11-16) we are asked to be ‘filled with faith and love, (be) patient and gentle’ – that is, we must seek to be holy.

What this means on a day-to-day basis will be entirely dependent upon your gifts and capacity. In some instances it may mean offering your every living moment to others through a life of contemplative prayer, or being a nurse, a teacher, a emergency services worker, office worker, stay at home mum or dad.

We must ‘fight the good fight with all our might’ so that the daily grind itself does not become our reason for living, the fight is to ensure we can see our wholeness being unfolded in word and action. Wherever we are in our lives that is where our holiness, our place and space with God lies.

The mind of God

I am a reader of memoirs and biographies. Understanding how individuals picked up on the opportunities, learnings and experiences in their lives helps make sense of my own journey as a child, father, husband, worker, believer, colleague. One such memoir, is that of John Shelby Spong, Here I stand. Spong is the retired Episcopal bishop of Newark, NJ.

From a relatively conventional childhood, Spong sought ordination. He kept his eyes and ears open to the needs of those to whom he ministered: gays, feminists and blacks. He questioned the way religion was practised and the way the scriptures were interpreted. He used every tool available to him in his study of Christianity - fundamental theology, christology, harmartiology, mariology, biblical theology, natural theology, hermeneutics, theodicy, eschatology and moral theology – and even these he challenged as not serving the faithful adequately enough. He (still) proposes the reformation of Christian life and thought. He put forward 12 theses that have brought him vitriolic and bitter criticism from churches, theologians and believers of every variety.

I couldn’t help but admire this man of the cloth – for despite the adversity he met, he stood tall. He used his immense scholarship and intellect against the anger of those he challenged.

Needless to say, his theses would quite clearly place him in the realm of the unorthodox. Yet the story he tells explains why he stands where he does. And he stands unapologetically.

In the end, who would know the mind of God? Is the revelation we have immutable? Given that we are generous to a fault, at times, to believers and non-believers of every creed and ‘ism’ it’s a pity the same consideration cannot and has not been extended to John Selby Spong. The writer of Wisdom (9:13 – 18) tells us: It is hard enough to work out what is on earth, laborious to know what lies within our reach; who, then, can discover what is in the heavens?

Our challenge, then, is to seek to understand the entire world in which we live, to make sense of it, to discover its order/disorder, and this must happen in the life, the only life I have and lead. We may not commit our actions, words and thoughts to paper, but our living breath becomes our memoir. The attitudes we pass to our children, the way we engage with those who serve us in the shop, the manner in which we treat our spouses, our neighbours, our fellow journeymen, they will be imprinted in the minds of those we encounter daily. Will you be satisfied with the way your life has been written? Will we see your passion for your family, your sport, your faith, your cooking, your charity for others reflected back at you?

Today is the day to recommit yourself to the life you should be living. Being a disciple of Jesus requires that we give up every possession in order to follow him (Luke 14:33). Is there something or someone in your life that you would do that for?