Have the courage to be holy

What does it mean to be holy in today’s world? To some, holiness is an abstract concept that they cannot define, but will know it when they see it in someone.

For instance, people of varying ethnicities and beliefs would agree that Mother Teresa was a holy woman. It was obvious because of the way she lived her life. The way she tended to the poor, the sick, the young, and the old by providing for their physical and spiritual needs and putting theirs before hers, while showing them and God unbridled love, describes the quintessential definition of someone who is holy.

It seems that the key to holiness is given to us in Christ’s response to the Pharisee when asked, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”

He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mt 22:36-39)

So, does going to church make us holy? Mere attendance at services does not. If we are there only to “have our ticket punched” and are there in body, but not mind and spirit, then we aren’t observing the intent of the law to keep holy the Lord’s Day. When we go to church, we should go with the desire to praise and worship God and to be open to hear His word, with the intent to apply it to the way we live our lives. If we allow ourselves to be distracted by outside influences, such as the desire to hurry and get away to a sporting event, we are selling God short.

Some people leave the services five minutes before it’s over to beat the crowd out of the parking lot.

I say this facetiously, but what would they think if God walked out of their lives five minutes before they were going to die?

Is it possible for us to be holy in our workplace? Most assuredly. We do it by paying fair wages, by not discriminating in hiring or pay based on sex, race creed, or nationality, by providing a quality product for a reasonable price, and by standing behind the product or services we deliver.

We also do it in our interactions among fellow employees, by ensuring safe working conditions for each other, by working as a team, by keeping open communications and by respecting each other’s opinions.

Church and work are areas where we might tend to put on our best faces and if we try to appear holy, just for show, we will not be blessed for our actions. As a matter of fact, it will probably boomerang and come back to bite us. People tend to see through actions done with false pretenses. If we’re going to “act holy”, we might as well do it for the right reasons and “be holy.”

The area of our lives where we are most subject to judgment and where we are under constant challenge to be like Christ is with our family and close friends. They know our strengths and our weaknesses. They see us as we are, not as we wish to appear.

They can help us to become the people we want to be and we have the ability to help them as well. It is with these people that we need to be humble in order to be holy. It is with them that we show our love more profoundly than with others. It is through our actions of love and prayer that we answer our call to be holy.

This isn’t always easy. “True love is love that causes us pain that hurts, and yet brings us joy. That is why we must pray and ask for the courage to love.” (Mother Teresa)

And as we begin to love, we should seek the courage to become holy, “As he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in every aspect of your conduct, for it is written, “Be holy because I [am] holy.” (1Pt 1:15-16) The reward is the kingdom of heaven.

 

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