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In August 1994 a ship, the Columbus Iselin, while doing environmental research, ran aground off the Florida Keys. The ship spilled two hundred gallons of diesel fuel. Siobhan McCready, of the University of Miami, noted the ship was collecting, ironically, data ~ chemical, physical, and biological on the currents of the Florida Straits ~ for use in managing ocean oil spills.
When the ship hit a reef and punctured its two fuel tanks, it was working in the Looe Key National Marine Sanctuary ~ where coral formations are famous.
Adding to the difficulty, efforts to pull the ship free from the reef spread a huge plume of sand. This can kill live coral.
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Holiness is not an option in a Christian life. Holy living is healthy living. Holy living is pure living.
Pope John Paul II wrote, in his "Pastoral Letter at the End of the Jubilee Year," Novo Millennio Ineunte (January 6, 2001), referring to the historical Christian mystical tradition:
This great mystical tradition ... shows how prayer can progress, as a genuine dialogue of love, to the point of rendering the person wholly possessed by the divine Beloved, vibrating at the Spirit's touch, resting filially within the Father's heart.
Holiness, then, is a relational term. Likewise, we can celebrate that the Pope linked the renewal within the whole Church of the "great mystical tradition" as a need for the Twenty-First Century. He made clear that the mystical path is for all Christians, laity and clergy.
Holiness, then, is not a quality we contain as something that can be called "my" holiness. We do not in ourselves possess holiness. Rather, we participate mystically in holiness. This helps distinguish mere morality from holiness.
Therefore, holiness pertains to the Being of God. God is not just holy; God is Holiness. God is immanent in, with, and among all the universe; yet, God is the Totally Other. We, in mystical prayer, participate in, by Grace, the Totally Otherness of God. We, in mystical union, become this Totally Otherness by participation.
God as Holiness means that in mystical prayer we join with and in that holiness, for our being and Being commune in a deep union of Love. We know we become what we most deeply love and join in. So, we become holy as God is holy.
Furthermore, not only do we each mystically share, by freewill, in the holiness of God, we do so together. St. Paul compares the Church to a "holy temple," a sanctuary holy mainly for Christ being the One "in whom the whole structure ... grows into a holy temple."
19So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
Holiness does have implications for holy living. At times in Scripture, the moral connotation is present. For example, when we are urged to pursue holiness.
Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one
will see the Lord.
*Hebrews 12.14, ESV
Holiness in life is so vital to our "seeing" God, our knowing God in this life and after in nearness and love, that we are to strive for it. And, as clarified by one translation, this entails a clean life, or pure thought and action:
Try to live at peace with everyone! Live a clean life. If you don't, you
will never see the Lord.
*Hebrews 12.14, CEV
No, we will not reach full moral purity in attitude, thought, and act in this life. However, we can live a relatively pure life. We do this most graciously through following the path of the mystics toward union with the Divine Presence.
The Christian is to be making the world a morally cleaner place. By being holy and acting holy, she does this. Otherwise, she risks, like the Columbus Iselin, doing the opposite of her intent to make the world a better place to live for all persons. And "better place" means a "cleaner" or "more holy" place.
Let us strive for both peace with others and holiness within and without! Amen.
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*Story from Craig Brian Larson, Ed. Contemporary Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers, & Writers.
*Brian K. Wilcox lives with his wife, Rocio, their two dogs, St. Francis and Bandit Ty, and their fish, Hope, in Southwest Florida. Brian is vowed at Greenbough House of Prayer, a contemplative Christian community in Georgia. He lives a contemplative life and inspires others to experience a deeper relationship with Christ. He advocates for a spiritually-focused Christianity and the renewal of the focus of the Church on addressing the deeper spiritual needs and longings of persons and empathic relating with diverse spiritual traditions, East and West. Brian has an independent writing, workshop, and retreat ministry, for all spiritual seekers.
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