MUSINGS - Do we really want to be holy?

Ask any group of young people what it means to be holy and a good many will be at a loss for an answer. Ask them if they want to be holy and you’ll probably get what amounts to a “not really”!

This should alarm every Catholic parent! But, I must confess that I have only rarely witnessed a Christian parent get alarmed by their children’s lack of understanding of holiness or the absence of any real desire to be holy.

Summing up the call of the Gospel, Jesus once said, “Be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Later, the writer to the Hebrews put it similarly, “Strive for... that holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb 12:14).

If being holy is at the heart of the Gospel, and the key that opens the gates of heaven, then why are we — and our children — so passionless about it? Part of the reason is that the ideas about holiness that infect our minds and hearts are just plain wrong.

Tell the truth now, “Would you want to be holy if it meant that you would be unhappy, bored and devoid of the delights of marital intimacy?” The answer is, “NO!” And...Our children do not want to be holy because they agree with us!

We are convinced that holiness is boring, and that holiness will make us unhappy. And, we are certain that great sex and holiness just don’t mix. It’s no wonder that neither we nor our children are big fans of holiness.

In fact, it might not be too far from the truth to suggest that the only reason many of us ever think about being holy is because we don’t want to go to hell! But while the fear of hell might get us to straighten up our lives, to watch our moral p’s and q’s, it very rarely leads to the truly happy holiness that God wants for us!

Holiness is being perfect like God the Father. It is imitating God the Son. Thinking, speaking, desiring, loving and doing the things that Jesus thinks, speaks, desires, loves and does! Holiness is living life in the fullness of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Joy!

Let me put it another way. We are made in the image and likeness of God. Holiness, then, is the thing that enables each of us to become our truest, bestest, happiest selves! Holiness is the invitation to give up all that we are to God, so that He can give us our fullest selves in return! “Whoever loses his life my sake, will find it!” (Matthew 16:25)

Priesthood, religious life, marriage and virginity are each witnesses to the happy holiness that God wants for each of us. They are witnesses because they each in kind challenge us to freely and joyfully offer our entire selves to God! And, this is true holiness, a life-lived completely for the Other!

Jesus us commands us to “be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect” because he knows that it is in the pursuit and the attainment of holiness that we will find our God and ourselves!

Lord, give us eyes that see and ears that hear!