The work of holiness is supposedly on our lists of things “to do.” Yet, we bounce from thing to thing, place to place, guru to guru without considering the true source of holiness and how holiness develops. Yes, it is a work but it is not something imposed on us by an external force. As St Gregory of Nyssa once said, “For the quality of holiness is shown not by what we say but by what we do in life.” No gift can be imposed on someone, neither from God nor from another. We can never take a gift but only be open to receiving a gift. This is particularly true in meeting God and a friend.
Several other thoughts about our desire for holiness come to mind. Holiness is truly being yourself as God means for us to be. Holiness is an invitation made to us to be in a relationship with God; holiness is another way of speaking about a friendship with God through Jesus under the power of the Holy Spirit. It is taking our human needs more and more seriously right now.
I was reading the soon-to-be-made “blessed,” John Henry Newman and as usual, he hit the nail on the head. So squarely did he diagnose my spiritual and fraternal problems that I shuttered. I wondered: can anyone be so completely transparent to another so as to truly honest and let all inhibitions fall to the side? Can anyone be so transparent to God? It’s as though Newman is talking about standing completely naked before another, warts and flab and all and hear the words: I love you, I trust you; there is nothing that can dissaude me from loving you. Newman’s words below completely went numb, then I felt relieved, then I was afraid, and so on. How could anyone get it so right?
Read Newman’s assessment and let me know if you agree.
Perhaps the reason why the standard of holiness among
us is so low, why our attachments are so poor, our view of life so dim, our
belief so unreal, our general notions so artificial and external is this, that
we dare not trust each other with the secret of our hearts. We have each the
same secret, and we keep it to ourselves, and we fear that, as a cause of
estrangement, which really would be a bond of union. We do not probe the wounds
of our nature thoroughly: we do not lay the foundation of our religious
profession in the ground of our inner man: we make clean the outside of things:
we are amiable and friendly to each other in words and deeds, but our love is
not enlarged, our bowels of affection are straightened, and we fear to let
intercourse begin at the root: and in consequence, our religion viewed as a
social system is hollow, the presence of Christ is not in it. (Plain and
Parochial Sermons, V, pp. 126-7).
us is so low, why our attachments are so poor, our view of life so dim, our
belief so unreal, our general notions so artificial and external is this, that
we dare not trust each other with the secret of our hearts. We have each the
same secret, and we keep it to ourselves, and we fear that, as a cause of
estrangement, which really would be a bond of union. We do not probe the wounds
of our nature thoroughly: we do not lay the foundation of our religious
profession in the ground of our inner man: we make clean the outside of things:
we are amiable and friendly to each other in words and deeds, but our love is
not enlarged, our bowels of affection are straightened, and we fear to let
intercourse begin at the root: and in consequence, our religion viewed as a
social system is hollow, the presence of Christ is not in it. (Plain and
Parochial Sermons, V, pp. 126-7).