Be Holy

Good Morning, Everyone,

BE HOLY AS YOUR LORD GOD IS HOLY…Yesterday at Mass the message to all participating was to open ourselves up to our “completeness”.  Through Truth we know that we were made in God’s image and likeness, a Holiness with a dimension that beckons to us to rise to new heights of knowledge of “Who we are” and “Why we are”.  “Be Holy” is an amazing directive.  How can we be “Holy” in this day and age?  What would that look like?  Would we be taking every night of the week and working at one of the local shelters?  Would we be going from door to door in our neighborhoods and asking if anyone needed anything?  Would we be on our knees in church every week begging for forgiveness for all the times we never measured up to our potential and were left with guilt feelings of having done wrong?  OR would it mean that we do something simple like sit in our kitchen, look out the window and search for God in the whiteness of the falling winter snow?  Would we create music that incorporated Scripture or notes so beautifully combined that our heart was stirred to tears?  Would we be alongside one of our family members who was going for a chemo treatment opening ourselves to sitting in the silence of the unknown together..facing the possible birth of the eternal life to come?  Would we choose to read something written by a saint of the church instead of the month’s best selling mystery novel?  Would we contemplate the idea of physically getting on our knees and just being with God? 

Being Holy in this time in history in our culture of busyness is to right-order our lives to the divine nature of God created within us.  It is to embrace the silence and contemplate our lives as prayer and sacrifice.  It is to intentionally look for God and ask Him what His will is for our lives is.  We can say “in the quiet of our room” “Lord, please show me how to be Holy today.  Please guide me to those interactions that will call forth from me the depth of my love for you.  Challenge me, excite me, energize me, Awe me with Your desire for me.”  The response from God and the response to the call to “Holiness” will be uniquely different from person to person and has the power to leave us with a peacefulness that emanates from God’s Presence. 

You will not find the morning’s headlines stating “Follow Your Call to Holiness”.  Our time in history seems to have lost its intrigue with truth and reason.  The philosophers no longer stand in the market square and dialogue with one another about the meanings of life and what the “first” cause may be.  Our generation presents itself as if we already have it all figured out and the answer lies somewhere in between what we earn and what we purchase, with the focus being on me (we).  There is an irritating clue that has surfaced, though, that calls attention to the fact that we may have missed the point of living and that is the increasing anxiety that so many people seem to be experiencing that goes beyond neurological deficiencies.  Our health system has obliged us consumers and provided us with pills to take for grieving, for depression over losing a job, for being poor, for being (too) physically active, for eating too much, for being afraid, and the list goes on and on.  Instead of being “Holy” we end up being sedated.  “Be Holy as your Lord God is Holy” is a call, a wake up call to live an intentional, authentic life energized by the Holy Spirit; not zoned out by a cocktail of chemicals but inspired by the awareness that God chose YOU to live in this day and time for a unique purpose.  Allowing yourself to look into that possibility will only bring you to Holiness.