HOLINESS - THE IDENTITY OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD

From God, of God, and like God!

February 19, 2023: 7th Sunday in Ordinary time
Leveticus 19:1-2,17-18; 1 Corinthians 3: 16-23; Matthew 5: 38-48

What makes one a Christian? Take a pause and answer this question within your hearts!

Is it Baptism? Yes, ofcourse, but only if it were received with a personal choice and every promise given at the proper moment is lived to the full everyday of one's life.

Is it being enrolled in a parish? Yes, but only if the belonging to the parish makes one feel one with the Universal Body of Christ, the Church.

Is it some sort of symbols that you sport, like a cross or a rosary or a scapular? Yes, but that identification would be just temporary, and would last only till my first word, or first act!

That which makes Baptism efficacious, our belonging to a parish meaningful, and makes us truly Christians is our realisation of our identity as people of God - a realisation that has to be manifested in our personal holiness and in our holiness as a community of believers.

Holiness is not a super-human quality. It is definitely not alien to being human. Because it can be seen at our very origin. God made us in God's own image and likeness says Genesis (1:27). So, holiness is our original nature, not sinfulness; Holiness is the core of our being, not sinfulness. Sin and Sinfulness have come to mar and obstruct our original nature. This is why to the chosen people, God says through Moses, "Be holy, because I the Lord your God am Holy." Because I am holy you can be holy too. Yes, dear brothers and sisters, we ought to be holy because we are FROM GOD.

Holiness is our choice, a choice made not once for all, but at every moment, at every circumstance, at every crisis. It is a choice made for God, because we realise and gratefully acknowlege choice that God has made for us. You did not choose me, I chose you, says the Lord (Jn 15:16). It is the Lord who had chosen us. It is not that we loved God but it is God who loved us first, reminds us St. John (1 Jn 4:9,19). God has chosen us and God has loved us abundantly! And our response is Holiness, because we belong to God, we are OF GOD.

Holiness is not an act, it is an attitude; it is not a set of actions but a habit; it is not merely an appearance but an internal becoming! Holiness is a daily effort to become more and more like God. It is returning to the image and likeness of God, the image in which we were formed, filled with love, by God. Holiness is certanly not an imaginary ideal proposed - it is a challenge that is life-long, however concrete. Right before our eyes we have the Lord as our model... in our words, thoughts, acts and choices of daily life, we are called to become LIKE GOD.

Our Blessed Mother and the Saints are our examples and Jesus is our Way. St. John traces that course for us when he says, 'we will be like him because we will see him as he is" (1Jn 3:2). We are called not to be merely good people but God's people. Every word and act of our's has to reflect God's presence to those around us.

We are People of God and our very identity is Holiness. If we miss out on holiness we lose everything. We are from God, We are of God and We are called to become like God - because we are the people of God, because we are the temple where God chooses to dwell, because we are the presence of God that the world so badly needs today!

We are the People of God - that is a mighty big mission that we have been entrusted with, a mission that flows from our very identity -that we become the presence of God! The ultimate challenge is that, in and through our daily life, we grow in our holiness, because that is our identity as people of God.