On Track to Holiness; For audio only PPN
Summary
Truth of the Spirit with Patti Brunner episode “On Track to Holiness” uniquely uses a banquet table to help you understand God’s gift of holiness. Using the Catechism and Holy Scriptures Patti Brunner describes ways the Church helps us to stay “On Track to Holiness” even after getting derailed.
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Jesus comes into hearts to make them holy. Holiness cannot be studied and learned. It is a surrendering to the Grace of the Holy Spirit, the cleansing, purifying, healing grace. The sacrament of Baptism and reconciliation begins holiness. Where sin abounds holiness does not.
Think of serving a meal. The clutter on the table must be cleared away before a tablecloth can be placed. If things are left–they are covered but you still see the lumps and if you should set a glass of wine there watch out! The clutter on the table cleared by Baptism is like clearing a lifetime of dirty dishes and leftovers. It is of utmost importance to clean the big things and the clutter away.
Setting the table is like Formation andcatechesis. We study and learn and gather knowledge like gathering dishes to set the table. Beautiful silver and crystal and china make for a beautiful site. But even if you sit there all day, you go away hungry, even though the silver still glistens and the china sparkles. Eventually, you will find the silver tarnishing and the crystal dusty. If the things we gather in formation are not put into use, they will be like a table set for a banquet but never used. They will be meaningless and useless.
We can invite others to join us. There is a joy in sharing, a growth in sense of purpose. This is what sharing God’s love of others and showing that love adds to the table. Sure, sometimes it is extra work to invite people to celebrate with you, but it is always worth it –unless your invited guests don’t show up.
But we are still missing the most important factor–the meal itself! That is what Jesus provides. He is holiness. Ephesians chapter 1 says: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him. In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ, in accord with the favor of his will, for the praise of the glory of his grace that he granted us in the beloved.”
And, to continue our meal analogy, and He gives His Holy Spirit to provide dessert for us–that lingering blessing that is full of sweetness and JOY! And the Holy Spirit will help us to keep the clutter away from the table. He will help us set the table by teaching us. He will help us fill the chairs around the table by giving us the boldness and power to reach out to others and share. And the Holy Spirit, joined with the Father and the Son provides that Grace which is life giving and nourishing in this life and the next. Through the Holy Spirit we can stay on the Track to Holiness!
You are listening to Truth of the Spirit; I’m your host, Patti Brunner. In our last episode we quoted Fr. Jose Maniyngat who said that an answer to defeat Satan is holiness in the home. He also has said, “We are called to be holy and become saints. It is the call of our lives.” There is a popular song that goes: “Holiness, holiness is what I long for, holiness is what I need.” That leads us to the question, “What is holiness?” and “How do we attain holiness?”
Today’s episode is “On Track to Holiness” —following the Way, the Good News of Holiness. These days we seem to be in a dark jungle of confusion. The clearest way out of a jungle is to travel with someone who knows the Way. Jesus says, “I Am the way, the truth, the light”; Jesus has the way, the track to the life we long to obtain.
Some people think they, or other people they know, will never go to heaven because they are so far off the track to holiness; they are sinners. Remember the scripture though, Romans 5:8 “God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” Do you know about St. Augustine? He committed every sin. But his conversion was complete and he became the greatest saint and Doctor of the Church. St. Augustine turned away from his own path of sin and got on the track to holiness. This early saint listened to God and sat in his glory, his encouragement. With a repentant heart, in spite of his weaknesses, he called upon the joy of the Lord, taking it to be his own overcoming all struggles of the world. A path of holiness—it is a choice.
How quickly the world assimilates the profane, and accepts sin and the effect of sin as “normal”. It is desirable to repent, to intercede, to pray that those conditions each be remedied by the grace of God penetration the hearts of the wounded, that the decisions of future actions would be touched by the clarity of the Glory of God and thus joy and purity replace greed, lust, and bitterness. Indeed, the wounded heart receives justice yet each choice to turn from God and rely on self is a sign of true weakness and the evil one calls it “strength”, deceiving all who accept their own “power” rather than relying on God and trusting in the eternal grace of the kingdom of God.
The Good News of Holiness is that the desert of the world can bloom with beauty if the people will repent and accept their Savior, Jesus. Do not worry; Jesus is with you to the ends of the earth. Jesus loves you. Holiness is synonymous with Love, pure love, the ‘laying down your life for others’ kind of love.
The love in your life reflects God’s love for you. The distant past and the distant future converge in love by love through love.
The Lord does not approve every response that is done in the name of love. Lustful and deviate relations are never holy love. Like a parent who loves his child and thus sets up rules and discipline for the long-term benefit of the child, so does God, our loving father, give us rules to follow. Why? Because He wants us to be the best we can be.
Jesus wants us to be one with him as his bride. What does that mean for us? What should any bridegroom desire? To love and to be loved. To take care of and provide for his bride. To be assured that she has “forsaken” all others. He wants there to be no barriers to restrict the fullness of their union. His passionate love draws him to want to be one with his beloved in intimacy. He gives himself totally.
Holiness allows us to be intimate with God. Holiness is his bridal gift to us. Accepting and obeying the First Commandment leads us to holiness. Holiness can be like courtship and honeymoon: getting to know God, preparing for our encounter with Him, spending exclusive time with Him and desiring to please Him and to do for Him.
I have used human terms and human relationships to try to explain the relationship God calls us to, but it falls short. God’s love, unlike human love, is
everlasting and unconditional. God will never “fall out of love” with us. Can we disappoint? Yes. Can we turn our backs and reject him? Yes. Just like when Adam and Eve chose to sin, we can separate ourselves from the fullness of God’s love. But God does not stop loving us. Ever!
I have been around a lot of people who have had a special “honeymoon” experience with God, some at retreats and some at low points in their lives. They had a moment where they felt, they truly experienced the reality of God’s love for them. Some call it a “conversion experience”. Sometimes when this happens you start to think of some extreme way of dedicating your entire life to God like becoming a missionary, to please him no matter the cost. It changes your perspective of everything. My husband and I both have had this experience.
Christian holiness takes the honeymoon into daily life by figuring out a way to include God in everything you do.
The Catechism reminds us in #1427 “Jesus calls to conversion. This call is an essential part of the proclamation of the kingdom: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel.” In the Church’s preaching this call is addressed first to those who do not yet know Christ and his Gospel. Also, Baptism is the principal place for the first and fundamental conversion. It is by faith in the Gospel and by Baptism that one renounces evil and gains salvation, that is, the forgiveness of all sins and the gift of new life.” And holiness!
So, do I hear you saying, “But what about me? How can I have this honeymoon experience and relationship with God? How can I fall in love with God?” Or, “How do I rekindle the ‘romance’?” The number one way to restore holiness for the Christian is through reconciliation. Catholics have the wonderful Sacrament of Reconciliation that allows you to say you’re sorry after admitting your offensive behavior then have God’s representative tell you that you are forgiven. Without repentance and forgiveness, a stumbling block of sin will interfere in your relationship.
Some of you may be thinking that this is too hard. That the sin of your life is so large it can never be removed. Do you remember how hard it was to make the first date, concerned about rejection? Remember this: God always makes the first move. He draws us to himself. He gives us the grace to repent and to reconcile.
In Leviticus 19: “The LORD said to Moses: “Speak to the whole Israelite community and tell them: ‘Be holy, for I, the LORD your God, am holy.’” This instruction is repeated in the New Testament 1 Peter 1: “Like obedient children, do not act in compliance with the desires of your former ignorance but, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in every aspect of your conduct, for it is written, “Be holy because I [am] holy.””
Pope John Paul II recommended weekly confession to grow in holiness. Fr. Phillip Scott says, “When you see the sins of others it is time to go to confession. When you are very aware of your own sins you will not notice the sins of others.”
Paragraph #1428 of the Catechisms says, “Christ’s call to conversion continues to resound in the lives of Christians. This second conversion is an uninterrupted task for the whole Church who, “clasping sinners to her bosom, [is] at once holy and always in need of purification, [and] follows constantly the path of penance and renewal.” This endeavor of conversion is not just a human work. It is the movement of a “contrite heart,” drawn and moved by grace to respond to the merciful love of God who loved us first.”
If we seek God with our heart it is prayer. The Catechism tells us there are three major expressions of prayer: Vocal, meditation, contemplative. Yet, “If our heart is far from God, the words of prayer are in vain.”
#1431 “Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life, a return, a conversion to God with all our heart, an end of sin, a turning away from evil, with repugnance toward the evil action we have committed. At the same time it entails the desire and resolution to change one’s life, with hope in God’s mercy and trust in the help of his grace.”
Be cognizant of loving your fellow man – friends, family, strangers, and enemies. In that love you will discover God’s Kingdom on earth. You will be empowered by the Holy Spirit to overcome the effects of evil in your life and in the world and you will have freedom to come to the Lord at all times. All barriers will be broken through Jesus Christ. All will be one in Him and He will be with you, in you to the ends of the earth and beyond and to the end of time and beyond.
Simple acts of kindness lay the ground work for holiness. Yet holiness is not in the doing. Dr. Mary Healy has said, “If you raise the dead, it’s not a sign of holiness but about the person the Lord wants to raise.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us in paragraph #2013 “All Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity.” All are called to holiness:” Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:48, “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
The Church tells us (#2013 cont.), “In order to reach this perfection the faithful should use the strength dealt out to them by Christ’s gift, so that . . . doing the will of the Father in everything, they may wholeheartedly devote themselves to the glory of God and to the service of their neighbor. Thus the holiness of the People of God will grow in fruitful abundance, as is clearly shown in the history of the Church through the lives of so many saints.”
The Church continues to say, #2014, “Spiritual progress tends toward ever more intimate union with Christ. This union is called “mystical” because it participates in the mystery of Christ through the sacraments – “the holy mysteries” – and, in him, in the mystery of the Holy Trinity. God calls us all to this intimate union with him, even if the special graces or extraordinary signs of this mystical life are granted only to some for the sake of manifesting the gratuitous gift given to all.”
The Church also reminds us #2015 “The way of perfection passes by way of the Cross. There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle.” St. Paul witnessed this to us in his Second Letter to Timothy.
St. Paul also shared a plan for holiness through his first letter the Thessalonians Chapter 4: “2 For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. 3 This is the will of God, your holiness: that you refrain from immorality, 4 that each of you know how to acquire a wife for himself in holiness and honor, 5 not in lustful passion as do the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 not to take advantage of or exploit a brother in this matter, for the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you before and solemnly affirmed. 7 For God did not call us to impurity but to holiness. 8 Therefore, whoever disregards this, disregards not a human being but God, who (also) gives his holy Spirit to you.”
As we end, we invite you to pray this with us:
Lord Jesus, pick me up and set me on back on the track to holiness as I continually get derailed of your plan for me by my lack of obedience to your commands. I dare not dwell on my own sinfulness—it would lead to despair. No, I rather contemplate your Mercy and your grace. Trusting in these I am filled with hope. I ask now if there is–not if because I know there is! Please forgive me. I ask you to stir up the areas of loving you I have neglected, please Lord, and guide me to be holy as You are holy; according to your will, according to your plan. You have set your mark upon my life, as I remember to turn my face and heart towards You—all will be fine. Amen.
You’ve been listening to Truth of the Spirit. I’m your host Patti Brunner. We invite you to subscribe. It makes it easier to come back next time. And we invite you to like this episode and share it with others. We would really appreciate if you leave us a comment on our YouTube channel about sharing it, so as to encourage others to share it too! And then invite them to come back for more. With the Holy Spirit there’s always more! Amen.
