To be created is a call by God to be holy, to be set apart for God.
“But as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in every aspect of your conduct, for it is written,
‘Be holy because I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:15–16; see Leviticus 11:44–45). Our holiness is derived only through being
in relationship with God, who is the source of all holiness.
Holiness is a call to the “fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of love.” (Lumen Gentium 40; CCC 2013).
“Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48). Our holiness is manifested as we become a living response to God’s love. “For God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.” (1 John 4:16). “We love because [God] first loved us.” (1 John 4:19). “If anyone says, ‘I love God,” but hates his brother [or sister], he
is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother [or sister] whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.”
We are called to love God above all things and our neighbor because of God. (Lumen Gentium 42). As it is written
“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love. In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us.” (1 John 4: 7-12).
Holiness is granted through God’s grace and grows through intimate relationship with God through the person of Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is our model for holiness. We manifest and grow in holiness by following in Jesus’ footsteps and becoming more like him in our everyday lives through selfless love, humbly trusting in God, being forgiving, compassionate, prayerful, promoting healing and serving others.
Jesus is the link between the core of our own being and the source of all being, God. Jesus is the “way and the truth and the life.” (John 14:6). For Abba is in Jesus and Jesus is in Abba. No one comes to Abba except through Jesus.
If you know Jesus, you will also know Abba. For whoever has seen Jesus has seen Abba. (John 14:7-11). If we allow ourselves to see Jesus through the eyes of faith, then we too will truly come know that “God so loves the world.”
(John 3:16). Amen. |
