CALL TO HOLINESS-1

Baptism’s Call to Holiness

This blog, Praying Alone Together, has a clear goal. It hopes to teach people to pray with a depth that will produce the significant personal changes. It aims to achieve personal purification to move away from hidden selfishness and sinfulness. It hopes to enlighten one to gospel values. Finally, it seeks a personal transformation to prepare one for a deeper and purer experience of God.

It is problematic to lay out such a clear goal for most Catholics. They are participants in a Catholic culture that is much less demanding. For most Catholics, the issue is to go to church regularly, say their prayers, and make sure all the family has a clear understanding of the faith and to live a good life. Basically, it is an effort to cover one’s bets by the religious rituals and practices and then live your life until the next crisis.

Vatican II has two basic teachings about spirituality that challenge that religious practice that is less demanding. The first is this. There is a universal call to holiness. The second is that this holiness comes through a spirituality that participates and engages with the world. The will of God for every human being is their personal sanctification. The average Catholic has no interest in being a saint. Most just want to be a good Catholic.

Herein we come face to face with the problem. There are at least three factors in general Catholic culture that secretly rejects this Vatican II call to holiness which is foundational to this blog, Praying Alone Together.

The first difficulty is how we look at saints. The second is our perspective on those who have left the world for religious life to more authentically follow the gospel. The third is how we view priests as mediators between God and the lay people.

Catholic culture views the saints as spectacularly holy. They are in a totally different level than the ordinary folks. This leads most people to feel they are not called to be holy. Yet, all are called in an ordinary and simple manner to be holy by living an authentic and loving way. We need to move beyond the obstacle of the wildly heroic saints. We need to realize that we have the opportunity of being holy in the flow of the commonplace events of our life.

The second obstacle to lay holiness inherent to Catholic culture is the idea that holiness is for those who withdraw from the world and have entered religious life. They left all to help their pursuit of holiness. The rest are seen as second class citizens and are held excused in the holiness game.

The third deterrent is the perceived role of the priest. The priest is seen as on a pedestal and called to a much greater degree of holiness. He is another Christ. He is identified as a mediator with God.

Role of Baptism

Vatican II’s call to universal holiness is rooted in the proper understanding of baptism. All baptized are members of the community of faith, the body of Christ. All baptized are called to live the fullness of the gospel call. The vows of religious are simply a different means to achieve this common goal. The priest is not separate from the community but has a particular role in the people of God. Baptism is the great sacrament of equality and entrance into this holy community.

In the early Church, all the members were called saints. St. Thomas Aquinas saw the Christian vocation as charity, loving God and loving neighbor. The vows of religious are simply a different means to that common goal shared by all. Like so many other things related with religion, this basic truth of the universal call to holiness was distorted over the centuries. It put vowed religious in an unrealistic and distorted role in the faith community.

A good example of this was the shock when many nuns chose not to wear the religious habit. This had nothing to do with their pursuit of the gospel. Most of the nuns saw it as a step toward freedom in seeking God.

The basic and truly overwhelming truth is this. Baptism, which unites us all with Christ, makes us members of the People of God. It is as members of the People of God that we share the call to holiness. This universal call needs to be the guiding force in the life of all, no matter what role they may have in the community. The roots of this baptismal call to sanctity do not allow for separation, elevation or hierarchy among the members of the faith community. The basic norm is equality.

All are brothers and sisters. Some have roles of service in the common quest to be one with God in love.

Catholic Culture

It is impossible to practice our religion without a culture. However, all cultures share in the human condition of sin and grace. Every religious culture must be evaluated by the standards of the gospel. This is what Vatican II did in relationship to spirituality and the call to holiness.

The point of interest here is that inherent in Catholic culture there are at least three hindrances to the common acceptance of the baptismal call to holiness.

In the following few blogs in this series I will attempt to further develop these points of interest about the universal call to holiness along with the need to live it out in the midst of our daily lives in this world.