Everyday Holiness
How often do we sing or say: “Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of hosts”? For some of us, the answer is weekly; for others, it’s daily. We recently had a Mass reading that told us to be holy because the Lord is holy. This led me to reflect on the question, “What does it mean to be holy”?
St. Francis de Sales tells us that “holiness is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.” What ordinary things do you do every day? Mine include reading, eating, praying, visiting people, doing desk work, celebrating the Sacraments with people, bathing, rising, and yes, sleeping. How do I do these things extraordinarily well?
First, let’s look at the word “extraordinarily.” Does that mean I need to do each activity in ways that would earn a gold medal at the Olympics? No, it simply means doing the best that I can. I don’t have to be perfect, as a matter of fact I can’t be perfect. Only God is perfect. In Matthew 5:48, Jesus tells us to “be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” One of the best commentaries I’ve read about that passage said that the word from which perfect is translated is really a past perfect participle and would be better translated as “be perfected as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Only God is perfect but we can be perfected. That’s one reason, I’m told, that an Arab rug maker always weaves a mistake into the rug, only God is perfect. So to do something extraordinarily well is to do it the best we can.
Second, “the best we can” means just that, to do our best in the present moment. In another moment our best may look different. In either case, we are to do ordinary things, extraordinarily well. Thus, I pray as best I can. I read with the best attentiveness I have. I eat with gusto if I have that much energy and health. I am mindful when I work at my desk. I pay attention to the people gathered to celebrate the Sacraments and to what the Church asks me to do in its ritual books. When I bathe and rise and sleep I pay attention to the fact that it’s not just about me, so I ask God to cleanse me, give thanks for a new day or ask God’s protection while I sleep.
I am writing these words on the Feast of the Visitation. After learning that she was to become the mother of the Savior and that her older cousin, Elizabeth, was pregnant, Mary went to visit her. A visit is an ordinary event, but that visit was something special. Mary carried Jesus in her womb. Elizabeth carried John the Baptist in her womb. Through that meeting, Jesus visited John. Talk about turning an ordinary event into something extraordinary! Our Visitation Sisters are named after that event and remind us to visit one another with Jesus, or as St. Francis de Sales asks us, to “Live Jesus” every day. We are asked to become the vehicles through whom God visits God’s people. What a responsibility! What a gift we give to one another!
Today and every day be holy. Be aware of how the ordinary activities of our lives become the vehicles through which we become holy and the holiness of God fills our world.
“Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of hosts.” Holy are we.
May God be praised.
Fr. Paul Colloton, OSFS, D.Min.
Superior
DeSales Centre Oblate Residence, Childs, MD