INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 8th Tuesday in Ordinary Time is, “Be Holy!”
The last six words from today’s first reading are: “Be holy because I am holy” [1 Peter 1:16].
Be Holy!
Now that’s a lifetime challenge - a lifetime puzzle - a lifetime question - a lifetime wondering.
Be Holy!
What does that mean?
KAIROS RETREATS
I’ve been on 18 or 19 St. Mary’s High School Kairos’ retreats. One of the talks and small group discussions is on “Holiness”.
A high school senior has to prepare a talk on holiness. The notes on the talk call for the kid to list people he or she thinks are holy. Then in small groups the kids are all asked to name peers and adults they think are holy. It’s a challenge. As I listen to each speaker and each group tackle this question - which is also a talk in the Cursillo Retreat from which Kairos has been adapted for college and high school kids - it gets me thinking. What is holiness?
What I hear from the kids is that a holy person is someone who tries to be a good person - someone who is generous - someone who goes to church - someone who prays - someone who is not messing around - someone who tries to do their best - someone who serves and volunteers - someone who is a straight arrow.
If you were asked to describe what it means to be holy - what would your description sound like? Whom do you consider a holy person?
JEWISH SCRIPTURES
In the Jewish scriptures the word for holy is “Qados” or “Qiddes” or “Qds” - or variations from the root of that word. It means “separate” - “different” -“apart from the ordinary”.
God in the Jewish scriptures is seen as HOLY - separate - unapproachable. God is up there - out there - unreachable - inaccessible - in the Holy of Holies above the heavens - and in the unallowed part of the temple.
People who have God experiences - experiences of the HOLY - are depicted as being in the presence of silence, awe, light, majesty, mystery - holy smoke - and that person feels their difference and distance from God.
People who have God experiences - experience their sinfulness in contrast.
CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURES
In the Christian Scriptures one hears this same take.
However, they also get glimpses of another take - in experiencing Jesus Christ. God - the all Holy One - the inaccessible - the highest - has become the lowest. Jesus comes as a baby - one of us - and even lower - Jesus becomes our servant - our foot washer - our healer - our brother. We can touch the hem of his robe. Yet we killed him as a horrible blasphemer - and a radical. They threw dice for his robe. This table turner in temples was nailed him to a cross and died almost all alone - with people cursing at him from below. Then this Christ is lifted in exaltation by the Father. He is Risen - and appeared amongst us in several ways. Then he ascended into eternity - the Eternal Banquet - Paradise. The great text in the New Testament for all this is Philippians 2: 5b-11.
So there they are the two takes on holiness: distance - the heights - inaccessibility; then the other side of the spectrum: closeness - accessibility and the bottom.
The Pharisees tried to be holy by using externals. They tried to distance themselves from the rest of folks. They tried to make themselves higher - more correct - more right - and the rest of are wrong. They used their knowledge and the Law - to try to make themselves look like the best and most colorful fish in the fish tank and they wanted everyone else - the rest of humanity - to be seen as bottom feeders.
MAJOR TOPIC AND ISSUE
So when it comes to religion, we can see these two polar opposites in play at times.
Religious titles, robes, tassels, seating, ceremonies - are used as opportunities to stand out and stand above others.
If Jesus said anything, it’s that holiness is getting down to the bottom of life and to each other. It’s to go within oneself. It’s to find God in inside places. That meeting - those ongoing inner sessions - with God - can be inner prayer.
The Holy of Holies is within each person’s inner room - inner temple.
So stop judging. Stop thinking we know what’s going on in other people’s inner rooms. So stop babbling or adding on public prayers to look good in public.
Be quiet and swim around the bottom of the fish tank. Catch who’s hiding down there.
Humility is putting down the stones we throw at others - so as to feel and think ourselves more holy than them. Better! It’s getting in touch with the jagged rocks of sin within ourselves.
Surprise! It’s right here we can find communion and connection with God.
The pride and self pushing stuff separates us from God and each other.
Jesus ate with sinners and dined with them - was in communion with them - and this upset those who thought the opposite.
CONCLUSION
These are just a few takes on holiness.
As I said in the beginning of this homily, what holiness is, is a lifetime quest and wondering. This is inner seesaw stuff.
Let me close with one last take on holiness. Last night it hit me that laughter has to be a part of holiness. However, I have to do some more thinking about that.
If I hear one sound from God, it’s laughter. If I hear one sound from Jesus, it’s laughter. Today’s gospel ends with one more joke about holiness from Jesus, “The first will be last and many who were last will be first.” [Cf. Mark 10:31.]
I look forward to heaven. My imaginary glimpse of heaven contains at times the sounds, “Holy, Holy, Holy.” Yet at other times I also hear, “Ha, ha, ha, ha.” To some holy rollers, this might be the last thing in the world [ooops heaven] they would imagine. I’m assuming they are wrong - of course. And of course, I’m right. But I know and I assume I will be wrong. Holiness is of God - because as that first reading ended, “Be holy because I am holy.”
P.S. I finished the first draft of this homily last night. Then I walked down to CVS to buy fish oil capsules. I saw that they were on sale just yesterday - Memorial Day - in a 2 for the price of 1 sale. I was wearing an 20 year old faded blue T-Shirt - which I was wearing - plus my old comfortable dungaree shorts - and a pair of white sneakers. I didn’t notice till I got back that I had on two different color socks. After leaving CVS, I’m coming along the bottom of Main Street. to get back here. I spot outside O’Brien’s - 6 seminarians or young priests - dressed in cassocks and serious white collars. They are standing there talking with the outside patrons. It was at least 90 degrees. I should have asked who they were - but didn’t. As I walking up Green Street I found myself laughing - laughing - laughing. I was seeing my sermon in another form. Be holy!
OOOOOOO
Task: Chapter V of the Vatican Council's Dogmatic Constitution on the Church,
Lumen Gentium, is entitled, "The Call of the Whole Church to Holiness." Read that chapter and pull out the key ways it describes what holiness is.
Task: Last Advent, 2011, the Roman Catholic Church came out with a new English translation of the Roman Missal. Its language is different - not down to earth - compared to the text it replaced. Check it out and see if those who got this translation into our hands - are the type who see holiness as putting a distance between the laity and God. [That's my take - but you figure out your take.]
