We are called to be holy
There was a farmer who grew excellent quality corn. Every year he won the award for the best grown corn. One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew it. The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors. “How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?” the reporter asked.
“Why sir,” said the farmer, “Didn’t you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my
neighbors grow good corn.”
So is with our lives … Those who want to live meaningfully and well must help enrich the lives of others, for the value of a life is measured by the lives it touches. And those who choose to be happy must help others find happiness, for the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all.
"When you were born, you were crying. Everyone else in the room was smiling. Live your life so that when you die, you will be smiling, and everyone else in the room will be crying” (Ralph Waldo Emerson).
Choose a path of holiness, one that leads to God and grace – unmerited divine assistance given to humans for their sanctification. “Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14-15).
The word holy comes from an Old English word Halig, related to the German word Heilig, meaning “blessed.” There is a relationship to whole as in spiritually whole or pure. Achieving that state may be more of a life’s work than an immediate realization.
We are not off the hook! The Nicene Creed proclaims the belief in “One, Holy, Catholic [universal] and Apostolic Church.” We are in it, with our warts and weaknesses. How do we live as holy in our church? Jesus did not demand perfection in his disciples before he chose them. You and are also qualified to follow Jesus.
Holiness is a direction we can choose. Imagine a pasture fence surrounded by lush grain crops. The cattle inside the fence stretch their necks to reach as far outside as they can to reach the tempting grain. In the middle of the fenced area is the barn and the care the farmer provides for his flock.
You and I can choose to stretch our necks toward temptation, or we can turn our backs on it and face the constant source of sustenance God has provided for us. we choose a direction – toward God and his grace or away from it. As part of the larger church we must choose holiness. We can make an effort to live a holy life with the grace God will shower upon our efforts.
There is a crisis of holiness in our church. We must be faithful to the church’s calling to holiness. We cannot live in grave sin like murder, fornication, lawlessness or immoral practises and present ourselves to the Eucharistic community for the church’s blessing. That would be absurd!
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