Homily: Monday of the 1st Week in Lent - What is holiness?

I remember quite vividly attending a high school graduation party of a very good friend of mine almost the summer after my first year of seminary. Some of my friends still couldn’t believe that I had even chosen to enter the seminary, and so they had a lot of questions. What was it like? Do you really just pray all day? Isn’t it boring?

Some of my friends grew up without really practicing any sort of faith, and so they had a lot of questions about religion and Catholicism. One of them thought that I was wasting my time with studying to be a priest because he thought religion was just one big waste of time.

I remember saying to him, “For thousands of years people have practiced religion because they thought it was the path to holiness.” I asked him, what is holiness? And he looked at me like he’d never even heard the word before. The idea of 'holiness' just didn't fit in to his secular worldview. Nearly every culture in human history has had some sense of sense of this word.

People would seek out the holy places in order to commune with the divine, or seek the advice of holy men and women: the hermit, the holy man, the shaman. And for many of these cultures, the moral codes were not just a set of laws prescribed for the ordering of society, but they also helped a person be in right relationship with their god. Even Socrates had a conversation with the religious expert Euthyphro, “what does it mean to be holy”.

Over and over in the Old Testament, God explains that his actions and commands are for the purpose that his people may be holy as he is holy. In the first reading we heard the words which God spoke to Moses, tell the assembly, all the children of Israel, tell them, “Be Holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy.” And then he lists a number of commandments. Being holy involves avoiding stealing, not lying, not speaking profanely about God. It involves treating workers fairly, being patient with those who struggle, acting honestly, and justly, correcting other believers so that they don’t fall into sin, and loving your neighbor.

In the Gospel, Jesus explains not only the criteria for a holy life, but also the consequences for failing to live a holy life. If throughout life we ignore the cries of the poor, there will be eternal consequences.

Both readings show that holiness is very practical. Holiness isn't a feeling that we evoke in ourselves. Nor is it that abstract. Holiness involves practical, concrete works of generosity, self-giving, self-denial, self-sacrifice.

During Lent, we not only root out our selfish attitudes and behaviors, but seek to cultivate practices of holy generosity and self-giving for the glory of God and salvation of souls.