Aside from various thorny issues which dominate public opinion, the gift of time is presently offering us a particular opportunity on which we can pause, reflect and draw that badly needed existential hope for which we are all craving. The million-dollar question we all need to ask, especially during this month of November, is: “What is my life’s purpose?”
Among the many available proposals I would like to suggest the following one: holiness! Some may sarcastically argue that this is, in fact, a worn-out concept: another churchy mediaeval fairytale, to say the least! For others it would simply be a neat alienation from the hustle and bustle and challenging pace of contemporary life: a nice idea, but far removed from the required effectiveness that today’s human race is looking for.
Yet, for those of us who are open-minded and open-hearted seekers of the truth, holiness may certainly appeal. If you happen to be one of them, then enjoy the following proposal. Holiness has its deep-seated roots in the Jewish-Christian biblical tradition. In the book of Leviticus, God’s injunction is crystal clear: “Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy” (Lev. 11:44). Already, the word ‘consecrate’ speaks huge volumes. In fact, this key word means to separate oneself from things that are unclean, especially anything that would contaminate one’s relationship with a perfect God.
Obviously we are not talking here of the classic monastic axiom of “Fuga mundi” (Flight from the world). If Christian life is tantamount to an escape from worldly realities, how can its adherents be “the salt of the earth” (Matt. 5:13) and “the light of the world” (Matt. 5:14) as Christ demands from his disciples? The whole purpose of salt is to give food its delicious taste, and the main aim of light is to illuminate the area in which it is placed.
Can worldly issues be salted and illuminated by the ever-savoury salt and unfading light of the Gospel? According to the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, ‘Lumen Gentium’, they certainly can! For that matter, when Vatican II dealt with the laity’s role in today’s world it said: “The laity, by their very vocation, seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them according to the plan of God. They live in the world, that is, in each and in all of the secular professions and occupations. They live in the ordinary circumstances of family and social life, from which the very web of their existence is woven. They are called there by God that by exercising their proper function and led by the spirit of the Gospel they may work for the sanctification of the world from within as a leaven. In this way they may make Christ known to others, especially by the testimony of a life resplendent in faith, hope and charity.
“Therefore, since they are tightly bound up in all types of temporal affairs it is their special task to order and to throw light upon these affairs in such a way that they may come into being and then continually increase according to Christ to the praise of the Creator and the Redeemer” (§ 31).
Lumen Gentium’s insight strongly confirms what St Thérèse de Lisieux said regarding holiness. “Holiness consists simply in doing God’s will, and being just what God wants us to be.” In her book In My Own Words, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta explains how this happens. She writes: “Holiness does not consist of doing extraordinary things. It consists of accepting, with a smile, what Jesus sends us. It consists of accepting and following the will of God.”
Thus, before being an outward manifestation of goodness, holiness is, primarily, an inner journey of humble submission to the Holy Spirit who dwells within our hearts! It is exactly in this understanding that the spiritual advice given to us by St Augustine makes perfect sense: “Do not look outside; return to yourself. In our interior the truth resides... Go inside, where the light of reason is illumined.” (The True Religion 39, 72).
Can we all humbly give heed to this sublime invitation?
Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap