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11

GOD’S KIND OF HOLINESS

  ‘The mind is like a parachute. It works better when it is open’ These homely words of wisdom have great force when we think of the mind’s search to understand God. God is infinite mystery. The human mind can not comprehend him, but it is made to search for him with its companion, the heart. In this search it must always remain open to wonder and surprise. Paul prays that we may come to know the ‘love of Christ, which is beyond all knowledge’ (Ephesians 3:19). The Psalmist ponders the mystery of God’s love present and active in every place and time and exclaims, ‘Such knowledge is beyond my understanding’ (Psalm 139:6). We should explore the mystery of God with a sense of wonder and excitement and deep, worshipping humility.

  One problem is that we think we know what God is like. We transfer our knowledge of ourselves and our emotions to God. Of course we keep saying that in God these emotions are infinitely great. But even as we use the expression, ‘infinitely great’, we are still bound by our human imagination and are probably trying to imagine an object of immense size or a distance beyond the horizon. The saints say that what we know about God is more untrue than true. It must be so. This humbles us but it also liberates us. It can protect us from fashioning a kind of idol, a small God of our own making. In a sense we are more at ease with a small God, one we can manage and predict.

  ‘Be holy, for I, Yahweh your God, am holy’ (Leviticus 19:2). We have already looked at these words and noticed how we almost instinctively recoil from them since they appear to propose an impossible challenge. We are called to be holy as God is holy. What can this mean? Let us now, with a new, open, humble attitude approach this attribute of God, his holiness. Let us ask Jesus to be our teacher. Let us put away our preconceived ideas of holiness and allow Jesus to teach us.

  I am sure we all have our ideas of what it means to be holy. The word is much used in Scripture, in prayer and in liturgy. In the Gloria of the Mass we say, ‘You alone are Holy’ and at the Preface we join with the heavenly choir to sing out ‘Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts.’ When we use the words ‘holy’ or ‘holiness’ we usually think of distance, especially distance from ourselves in our unholiness. We think of height and separation – God is above us. We think of great purity, glory, total perfection. When we transfer the word ‘holy’ to people, becomes more ambiguous but still suggests distance and separation. It suggest someone much better than ourselves, someone who has overcome sin, the popular idea of the saint. I am not here thinking of the phoney ‘holy person’. Fortunately most people can spot this caricature of the genuine article. But still the call remains; we are all asked to be holy as our God is holy. We turn to Jesus to learn what this could mean for us.

  As always, Jesus is full of surprises. He turns many of our ideas upside down. For us ‘holiness’ suggests separation and distance. Yet this Jesus, who is himself the holiness of God and our holiness, comes close, closer than we could ever have imagined or hoped for. In the Old Testament Moses exclaimed, ’What great nation is there that has its gods so near as Yahweh our God is to us?’ (Deuteronomy 4:7). And Moses did not know about the Incarnation or the Eucharist. A Messiah was expected by the chosen people. He would be God’s Holy One. Where would he be found when he came? With our idea of holiness, we would expect to find him in some holy place, a separated place, away from the contagion of sin, a lofty mountain perhaps, or a consecrated temple. In fact, our Jesus is born at the side of the road. All are equal and welcome at the side of the road. There are no doors, no gates, no dogs, no burglar alarms in Bethlehem’s cave. But this cave is now a holy place because he is there. And when his time to die comes, he dies at the side of the road. Passers-by can stop and look and many did. And now this Calvary is forever a holy place because he died there. Indeed, God comes very close and we have to revise our strange idea that holiness suggests distance and separation.

  But there is a much more meaningful closeness that our poor hearts crave for. We wonder, will he come close to me, the real me, so weak and so ashamed of my failures? Would he come very near to me, to my heart, if he knew me, really knew me? Would he want to have me as a friend? This is the cry of our heart that our God really understands. Indeed, it is this secret cry that brought him down so close that he would want to make this poor heart his dwelling-place. And so it happens. Jesus tells us that if anyone tries to keep his word, ‘my Father will love him, and we shall come to him and make our home with him’ (John 14:23). And now, as the cave of Bethlehem and the hill of Calvary were made forever holy by his resting there, so our hearts become holy.

  They say that one day in heaven God was very tired and felt he needed a little break. He decided to take a long weekend, but didn’t know where to find a quiet place where he wouldn’t be disturbed. He called some wise counsellors and asked for suggestions. The first counsellor suggested that the top of the highest mountain would surely be quiet and undisturbed. But God reminded him that believers often climb the highest peaks precisely to get in touch with God! Another counsellor suggested the moon as a safe retreat. God reminded him that they were in the twentieth century and the moon was no longer safe. Finally, one wise counsellor said, ‘I know the perfect hiding place, Lord. You can hide in the human heart. They will never think of looking for you there!’

  True. We do not expect God to come to our poor hearts. But Jesus is the God of surprises and he comes that close. And if we magnify our sins and unworthiness and feel he would not come that close, he goes out of his way to assure us. Let us recall how he does this in the first great public act of his human life among us, his baptism in the Jordan. Imagine the river Jordan on that day. See the excited crowds, the tents where people are camping, the groups sitting round fires chatting. Every sort of person is here: country folk, town dwellers, farmers, traders, soldiers, young, old, even some Scribes and Pharisees. What is the attraction? It is a man of mystery with powerful words that can shake the human heart. He is called the Baptist. He has emerged from the desert, an ascetic figure who scorns normal food and dress. He is a man on fire and he forces you to listen.

  What is this man saying? He speaks of a new age about to dawn. The long-awaited Messiah will soon appear. People should be ready. He will be the Holy One who will not tolerate sin. He will carry an axe and will cut down all barren and rotten trees. He will carry a great winnowing fan and will separate the chaff from the grain, the bad from the good. Get ready to meet him. Confess your unholiness and, as a sign that you wish to be clean enough to meet him, enter this river to be baptised, washed and made clean.

  Then one day the God of surprises appears. Jesus walks along the river bank, unknown and unnoticed. He has come some distance and is tired. He sits with one of the groups round a fire is and offered a drink. After a spell of resting and chatting, he stands up and moves towards the river, greeting folk on the way. Then he joins the line of people making their way into the river for baptism. Slowly he makes his way down into the water, keeping his place in the queue. He looks at the back, head and shoulders of the man in front of him. The woman in the line behind him looks at his back and shoulders. They move slowly forward. John is busy pouring the water and shouting words of encouragement. He must be rightly happy with the response to his preaching.

  John pours the water on the man in front of Jesus and then looks up. His eyes meet those of Jesus and the Holy Spirit enlightens his heart that this is the Messiah. It would be hard to find words to describe John’s emotions. His heart is full of conflicting thoughts. Not only did his preaching not apply to this man, but this man should not be in the river! John has been preparing sinners to meet this man so that they may be made righteous by him. Also, John is aware of his own sinfulness and knows that he too needs the baptism and salvation which this man brings. John tries to dissuade him. ‘It is I who need baptism from you,’ he says, ‘and yet you come to me!’ (Matthew 3:14).

  Poor John! He is the official herald of the Messiah, the God-chosen and appointed messenger sent to prepare the way. And now he who will call himself ‘the Way’ stands humbly with sinners asking for baptism. John is involved in a mystery and just now cannot cope. John will have to re-organise his theology, his understanding of God, of sin, of mercy, just as Peter and Paul – and so many others later on, and you and I to-day – will have to let go our narrow and miserable ideas of God and let God himself teach us. John the Baptist and all of us will have to find a new definition of holiness.

  To be holy is to come near, to come close, even as close as the very broken heart of man and woman. To that motley crew at the Jordan – and surely every type of person must have been there – Jesus is saying, ‘I will not separate myself from you. And I will not separate you from one another. My cousin John is right when he says I am coming to destroy evil, but I will do it in a new way, my Father’s way. I have forgotten my axe and my winnowing fan! I do not wish to separate you from God or from each other. Rather the opposite. I wish to draw you all close to my Father who is your Father and to draw you close to each other.  I will not separate the good from the bad, but I hope to open the eyes of all to see how much good there is in the so-called bad and how the goodness of the good is my Father's gift.'

  Jesus still has surprises ahead. Moved by the Spirit John baptises the Lord and receives a revelation from the Father that this is in fact the Beloved Son. All is in order, even if John does not understand. God actually knows what he is doing! This must have been a help to John, but, as things turn out, John is still baffled and even doubting. After the baptism John expects Jesus to take over and begin baptising with the Spirit. But no. Jesus slips off into the desert to pray and fast. Though why Jesus should need to fast in another mystery! Then, after his time in the desert, Jesus emerges into public life and moves around the towns and villages. preaching the good news of God’s love, fraternising with sinners and healing the sick.

  Meanwhile, John had been put in prison by Herod for criticising the King’s marriage to his brother’s wife. From prison, John follows the progress of Jesus and is again upset and confused by what he hears. Jesus has not yet started separating the good from the bad. Indeed he does not seem to be able to distinguish good from bad! He is so often with sinners that he has been nicknamed ‘friend of sinners’. Nor does Jesus stay in one place by the Jordan or the lake to await sinners coming for baptism. He goes round to meet them in case they might be too shy to come to the river. John in prison has a crisis of doubt and sends messengers to ask him ‘Are you the one who is to come, or have we got to wait for someone else?’ (Matthew 11:3).

  If we are sometimes slow to understand God and his ways, let us take heart here. If John, the chosen messenger, this John of whom Jesus said, ‘I tell you solemnly, of all the children born of women, a greater than John the Baptist has never been seen’ (Matthew 11:11). If this man was confused and doubting, must we not be more patient and humble in our efforts to understand and follow God? At the same time, let us greatly rejoice in the answer Jesus gave to John’s question, ‘Are you the one who is to come?’ Jesus answered, ‘Go back and tell John what you hear and see; the blind see again and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised to life and the Good News is proclaimed to the poor; and happy is the man who does not lose faith in me’ (Matthew 11:4-6). God’s holiness is God’s compassionate closeness to us in all our brokenness. We do not have to wait for another. Advent is over. God is among us, ‘presente’ in Jesus.

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