Church is Holy!

Penitent tells the priest, “forgive me father, I missed mass on Sunday and other days of obligation, I forgot to get to the Church.” Priest tells him, “God didn’t forget to create us and God never forget to love us.” The Creed stresses the aspect that Our Church is Holy: this is a part of our professing faith. In other words, we openly claim that we are Holy, just as we claim our belief in the Trinity. We also openly claim that we are one, catholic and apostolic, ie, we are not divided body of Christ and we aim at including everyone in our sharing of love and service and we are committed to take the message of love to all. This is a huge claim we as we are set to work for the kingdom of God.

83% of Portugal is Catholic. We are talking about 10 or 11 million people. 400 people gathered together to welcome the Pope! The government recently liberalized its laws on abortion and divorce and allows gay marriages. Among 2400 registered family in HF, the church attendance hardly crosses 800 on Sundays. I wonder if the belief in Church being Holy has evolved or changed! At least for a start, we cannot equate what is not holy to what is Holy. Our holiness does not depend solely on individual efforts; rather a collective effort.

This prayer is Jesus in today’s gospel is vital to the holiness of the church. Every expression in this prayer is about Oneness, holiness and commitment to love and serve modeling on the same pattern of the unity in Godhead. Our CCC teaches us that Charity is the soul of the holiness to which all are called. Charity governs shapes and perfects all the means of sanctification. When we are ready to love, we live to be holy. Love is not just an emotion but a constant attempt to reach perfection, to glorify God and purify our intentions. Most of our expressions are seen in all that we do and say and all that we fail to do and say.

Holiness is trademark of God. God is Holy. By claiming that we, you and I are holy, we proclaim a God who is ready to share his image and likeness with us. Hindus and Buddhist would automatically understand this particular prayer of Jesus since I am one with God – Aham Brahmasmi! Is the central teaching of those religions. Our ability to see beyond ourselves is a sure sign of holiness. This applies to the universal church too! The universal church is set to work toward its own sanctification. We don’t claim we have no abortions, gays or any other. We broke all the 10 commandments royally every day. We shouted all the louder – this church is UNHOLY! Just like we participated in – CRUCIFY HIM, CRUCIFY HIM!

Our sins though take away the core elements of our holiness, we still retain our essential nature that we are holy because our God is Holy and through all the sacraments especially in the Eucharist he sanctifies us so powerfully that we get another opportunity to be holy. The society need to see Christians practice their religion faithfully and know that we are working closely with God against all unholy elements in the world. Church’s holiness is rooted in the generosity and compassion of God. There can be no better way to experience the unity of the trinity other than we experience holiness within ourselves. Sharing of holiness is sharing of God!