January 17, 2005

"What is Holiness?"

So here are just a few things on what holiness is and what it is not.  The reason that I want to share that a little bit is because when I entered the cloister, I did not realize that I had a concept in my mind of what holiness is.  So when I saw some things that people called holy, I began to question and wonder if I had an erroneous concept or if there was an erroneous concept throughout the Church of what holiness is.  The Church, saints, and theologians tell us that holiness is not merely acting holy.  In other words, we cannot rely on our own strength of mind.  God is not going to reward anyone else's work but His own.  He will not have us compete with Him.  He is the One who is perfect goodness.  He is the One who is fullness of sanctity.  He is the holy, holy, holy One.  He is the one that has to work within us in this beautiful call to holiness.

In other words, holiness is not a cut and dried pattern.  When I would read the lives of the saints in my earlier conversion years, I put things into a pattern because it looked like if you did this and this and this you would become a saint.  That was all I knew so I tried it and it was very difficult.  I fell by the wayside very early.  But Paul tells us that this is not what holiness is.  He tells us that it means to be "full of God's love."  So that takes us totally out of any set pattern right there.  It is doing what God wants from us.  Of course that means flexibility.  We have to let go of things.  We have to learn that God is saying, "This is the way now.  No, we are going to change direction.  Now we are going to go this way.  No, not that way."  It is a constant flexibility, being guided, inspired, led, and directed by the Holy Spirit at all times.  This is what Our Lady meant when she said, "Do whatever He tells you."  That is so simple but very profound.  That "whatever" takes a lot of flexibility.  It gets us right out of putting holiness in a mold.  We cannot look at anybody else.  Remember after the fish fry scene, when Peter was looking at John and Jesus said, "Peter, that is no concern of yours."  We are always looking at how somebody else is doing something; how they are becoming holy.  We are to do whatever He tells us. 

Jesus said it beautifully in Matthew 6:33.  "Seek first (first, not second, third, or fourth) My way of holiness."  God's way.  God has a way of holiness for each of us, but it may not be our way.  That takes us awhile to get used to.  God has His way of holiness for us.  It is going to be different because each of us is different.  So we cannot judge other people and think, "Why are they doing that?  You don't let me do that, Lord."  "No, you just do whatever I tell you."  So we have to keep Jesus as our model.  He knows what the finished product is supposed to look like.  We're supposed to look like Jesus.  We have to be careful here because we all have our own concept of Jesus (and often erroneous concepts).  The Holy Spirit will get us there if we just keep saying, "Yes."  The Holy Spirit will produce masterpieces, not copies, masterpieces of Jesus. 

Excerpt from Mother Nadine's, "Behold, I Make All Things New," Come Higher Friends conference, Omaha, NE 2004.