Holiness

Sebastian opened his eyes… He’s been kneeling in a deep meditation for over 12 hours. Only now he realized the pain in his knees. He stood up and looked at the sky, but bowed his head and closed his eyelids right away. The clouds were too beautiful. Yes, he was guilty of enjoying the beauty. He was called to be separated, he was called to walk the path of the Spiritual ones. Why were his senses constantly tempted by those unholy earthly things? Sebastian picked up his bag and straightened his monk livery. He felt terribly hungry, but his devotion to the Fast overcame the seducement to eat the last piece of on old bread he was given by a good lady two days ago. Once again he forced the weak body to walk. His bare feet were still bleeding, but he refused to wear shoes on the stony road. He was born to overcome. He was born to resist. Yes, indeed, Sebastian’s destiny was to walk the path of Holiness…

Really? 

Let’s face it. Our history, our literature, our feelings and our minds poisoned by guilt clearly tell us that Sebastian was truly close to holiness. Even non-Christians and people that have never shown interest in any form of religion will agree with us. The word – holy – as we know it today, is what he devoted his whole life to. Somewhere inside us we know that holiness is the refusal of joy and material things. Holiness must be the refusal of sin and therefore the best solution to achieve it is to abandon living and withdraw into seclusion. Didn’t St. Paul write that we should separate ourselves from the world? Yes, Sebastian truly got it right. Paul would be satisfied. Separation, avoidance of pleasure, death to the old man within us, abandonment of the things of the world etc. etc. …. etc.

It seems right, it seems Christian, it seems to be proven by history to be correct. But it’s as far from the truth as it can be! It’s a lie and the amount of guilt that it is capable of causing is so incredibly horrible. 

Wait a minute! How can holiness be wrong? That’s the goal of Christianity, isn’t it? Yes, it is. But I believe that holiness as we understand it today is million miles away from what it was supposed to be. Our perception of holiness is wrong and I’ll do what I can to prove it, because so many people are chained in bondage by the wrong meaning of holiness. 

The story begins in the gospel of John… In the beginning there was the Word, and the Word became flesh. And Jesus Christ was and still is the Word. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Lord and Savior was the only person that ever walked the surface of this blue planet that was holy. There was no other person before Him, and there was and there will be no other person after Him that will be holy. 

Jesus Christ is the only true expression of holiness. Jesus Christ defined holiness by the way He lived His life. The point is – there is no other way to find out what holiness actually is than watching Jesus. If you want to find out how tall you are, you use a measuring-tape. If you want to find out whether you sing in tune or no, you use a tuner. If you want to find out what holiness means you look at Jesus Christ. And this is what we usually don’t do. 

We read books, listen to sermons, read biographies of saints and contemplate the feelings of guilt to find out what holiness is. However, we are wrong. The only place we should look at is Jesus himself. And, surprisingly, we see something totally different. Jesus was not a monk, nor a priest. Jesus spent the first 30 years of his holy life by working as a carpenter. Even after he began his public ministry he remained a regular human. He attended parties, turned water into wine (and drank wine) and was blamed by local religious authorities to be the opposite of holiness. However, He wasn’t. In fact, Christianity teaches He was the definition of holiness. And, surprisingly, His holiness was so NORMAL, that even children listened to Him and understood Him. Many of His disciples were women and women meant nothing in Jesus’ time religious world. His holiness was accessible. His holiness was attractive. His holiness was human. Sadly, what we believe about holiness today is far away from truth. And thank God we are wrong.

If you think that I despise prayer and fasting you are terribly mistaken. Jesus fasted for 40 days and sometimes spent all night in intimacy with His Father. However, holiness is not measured by prayer nor by fasting. In other words, we don’t get holier when we fast more and pray more than our friends. The ideal of holiness is not a constantly fasting and praying Christian. The ideal of holiness is a balanced person soaked in Jesus Christ, whose primary name is Love. There’s no scale of holiness. There are different callings, however a preacher is not a holier profession than a car mechanic. Furthermore, we were given full holiness for free in Jesus’ blood. In fact, I believe we’re called to “normalness”. We should be so normal and Christ-like, that it will draw the attention of people in need of Jesus. 

Please, read 1st John 2:6. Please read it and be honest when you’ll take a look at how Jesus actually lived. Because His life was so far away from what our teachings speak about holiness….