A CLO SE R LO O K
Holiness as the Perfection of Charity Among the more famous passages from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah is the anthem of the Seraphim who surround God’s throne and chant, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts! All the earth is filled with his glory!” (Is. 6:3.) It introduces a central paradox for Christians, because it tells us God is at the same time separate from, but everywhere in, the world. The angels’ song provides a foundation for thinking about the “universal call to holiness,” articulated in Chapter 5 of Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium). The hymn also helps us understand our Lord’s curious admonition in Matthew 5:48: “Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” SET APART
The most basic meaning of the Hebrew word for “holy” (translated from “kadosh”), is “separated,” “set apart” or “distinguished,” and this meaning is sustained through the later Greek and Latin words, “hagios” and “sanctus,” respectively. While the Jewish tradition does not have an analogue to the Catholic institution of sainthood, these Latin and Greek terms are commonly translated in the Christian tradition as “saint.” Thus, a saint is the person who is “set apart” or “distinguished.” Just as God is separate from, but everywhere in, the world, the saint is called to sustain a life that is different from, but engaged with, the world. But how? 1 8 | THE CATHOLIC TE LEGRAPH
The difficulty in this was recognized as early as the 1st Century in The Epistle to Diognetus, a Christian’s apologetic letter to a Roman magistrate. Christians “live in their own countries as though they were only passing through,” the writer explains. “Any country can be their homeland, but for them their homeland, where it may be, is a foreign country. ... Christians are found in all the cities of the world, but cannot be identified with the world.” Thus “the world hates the Christians ... because they are opposed to its enjoyments.” This is not to suggest that these early Christians’ lives were yet perfect, but it gives us a glimpse of the challenge of striving to live a holy life in a fallen world; to imitate Christ in the world that killed Him. THE UNIVERSAL CALL TO HOLINESS
It is precisely in this difficulty that we discover the Church’s definition of holiness – of sainthood – and can begin to understand what the “universal call to holiness” means. Christ, who is “uniquely holy,” according to Lumen Gentium, “delivered himself up” for the Church so that “He might sanctify her.” In other words, Christ shows the perfection of His own holiness: as the ultimate act of charity, giving His own life for the very ones who took it. Holiness is perfected in charity; charity is epitomized by the complete gift of self.
