Wednesday, October 14, 2020

Be Holy

St. Paul tells us that God’s intention for creating us is so we can “be holy and without blemish before him.” (Ephesians 1:1-10) We were created in the likeness of God which means we were created holy. The sin of Adam and Eve was to deny the divine life within them. Jesus came that we might remember we have the divine energy within us, but our weaknesses and pettiness and selfishness cover over our divine spark and make us think that we aren’t holy. To uncover our holiness is our vocation. It’s not about already ‘being’ there, it’s about ‘becoming.’

“In love God destined us for adoption to himself.” St. Paul makes it clear that we’re part of the family of God. God desires to have a close personal relationship with each of us. God’s intention hasn’t changed. We’ve changed. We’ve separated ourselves from God. We turn away from God and the family of God when we sin. Jesus has rescued us and brought us back into the fullness of God’s family so we can receive the graces and blessings of being in relationship with God.

Jesus tells us that holiness isn’t about the external things (Luke 11:47-54). It’s not about building memorials to holy people, rather it’s about listening to their words and internalizing their messages of love and forgiveness. It isn’t about strict adherence to the law if it results in exclusion and elitism. We must internalize the law and take it to heart and then welcome all into the family of God with love and forgiveness, just as we’ve been welcomed back.

We can’t do this by our own efforts though. Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit, who, with our consent, transforms the word of God in our hearts into a living reality in our lives. Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit to help us overcome our selfishness, deception, and our unwillingness to be vulnerable which infects our relationship with God and with others. When we listen to the Holy Spirit and allow the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts we “put on the mind of Christ” (1Cor 2:16), it’s the unconditional love of Christ that makes what we DO holy.

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"I demand from you deeds of mercy, which are to arise out of love for Me. You are to show mercy to your neighbors always and everywhere. You must not shrink from this or try to excuse or absolve yourself from it.

I am giving you three ways of exercising mercy toward your neighbor:
the first — by deed, the second — by word, the third — by prayer. In these three degrees is contained the fullness of mercy, and it is an unquestionable proof of love for Me. By this means a soul glorifies and pays reverence to My mercy.

Many souls ... are often worried because they do not have the material means with which to carry out an act of mercy. Yet spiritual mercy, which requires neither permissions nor storehouses, is much more meritorious and is within the grasp of every soul.

If a soul does not exercise mercy somehow or other, it will not obtain My mercy on the day of judgment. Oh, if only souls knew how to gather eternal treasure for themselves, they would not be judged, for they would forestall My judgment with their mercy".