
At every Holy Sacrifice of the Mass let
us utter, ex toto corde,
|
“I
die with Thee, O Christ — on Calvary!”
Archbishop
Fulton J. Sheen
|

How
do I become Holy?
Let
us begin anew with the most pertinent question of our lives.
Everything else is either within it or worthless.
“How
do I become holy? —
can I become holy?
Dare I presume to become
holy, for to be holy is to be like unto God!”
Tonight, this night, we have asked the question.
-
Holiness is simply this: perfect
conformity to the will of God in all things, at all times, and in
all places.
-
It is to will what
God wills.
-
It is to act as God
would have you act.
-
It is the perfect
correspondence between who and what you are, and who and
what God wants you to be.
-
It is that simple.
“Be
you therefore perfect …”
“Estote
ergo vos perfecti, sicut et Pater vester Caelestis perfectus est”
“Be you therefore
perfect, as also your Heavenly Father is perfect.” (St. Matthew
5.48)
“And He said to all: If any man will come after
Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross
daily, and follow Me.” (St. Luke 9.23)
Attending a seminary will not make you holy — although if you are a
straight, heterosexual male who possesses clear masculine attributes,
it is likely that you will never be permitted to be ordained:
that is reserved for the effeminate or homosexual male only. While this
is not Catholic policy (and in fact is contradictory
to, and in open defiance of very clear Church teaching),
it is nevertheless the actual state of affairs.
One does not take “courses” or
“sign
up for workshops”
in being holy — although there are many good books that will
help lead you into holiness — and virtually all of them were published
prior to 1960. After the decadent 1960s and the cataclysmic collapse
of the Church following Vatican II within that same decade, quite nearly
everything published under the auspices of the title “Catholic” — was
not.
The self-inflicted wound that came to be called “Ecumenism” simply meant
repudiating, renouncing, and even vilifying what is authentically, historically,
and uniquely Catholic in a failed effort to assuage the animus of those
hostile to us — or, as happened more often, simply to apostatize to
religious indifferentism (all religions are equally good and
all lead to the same God) … and eventually came to mean little more
than a thinly veiled pantheism. 1 In effect, we became
“them”
who refused to become
“us”.
Tearing Christ from the Cross
—
the New Imperative of
“Horizontal
Worship”
In other words,
following Vatican II, Christ was torn from the Cross and for Modernist
Catholics the Cross became a token of shame — an embarrassing
vestige of their once thoroughly supernatural religion which has been
"corrected and rehabilitated by "enlightened”
and Modernist theologians, bishops, priests, and Religious. Religion
is far more horizontal (pertaining to people, politics, economies,
and the new goddess of environmentalism, Mother Earth) than it is
vertical (pertaining to worshipping, loving, and serving God alone
and preeminently above all else). We really worship God best
by focusing on the socio-sexual and political
“needs”
of others — not by (vertically) worshipping God in Himself as
we had done for over 2000 years in the Dark Ages preceding Aggiornamento
in 1963.
To be a (traditional) Catholic (that is to say, one faithful to the
historical Magisterium and teaching of the Catholic Church … in other
words, a Catholic) was to be “intolerant” — although this
intolerance oddly did not apply to Judaism, Protestantism, Buddhism,
Hinduism, or Islam (which did not and still does not accept or tolerate
most Catholic dogma) — or even Atheism and Secularism within that same
period … and even now. Only Catholics, apparently, have the capacity
for and susceptibility to “intolerance”. Anyone, of course, who holds
fast to a teaching, doctrine, or dogma, does not accept as licit anything
to the contrary and vigorously opposes what conflicts with that teaching:
for it is what of necessity differentiates ideas, concepts and,
yes, religions, rather than conflating them into a contradictory
and irreconcilable pudding that is meant to be agreeable to everyone
(but God) however much it flies in the face of reason and logic (demigods
in modern theology's pantheon of gods of a lesser nature than the real
God, but equally repudiated in favor of emotivism — that is to say,
how we feel and what makes us feel good).
The impediment of logic
Even logic
itself is tossed aside as an impediment to the countless irreconcilable
contradictions inherent in Ecumenism. To wit, the Law of the non-contradition
holds that two things cannot both be and not be
at one and the same time. You are reading this column
or you are not reading this column. You cannot
be both reading and not reading this column. It is an inescapable contradiction.
“The
Holy Eucharist is really and truly the Body and Blood
of Christ
”
and “The
Holy Eucharist is not really and truly the Body and Blood
of Christ”
are reciprocally contradictory and mutually exclusive statements (and
beliefs). It either is, or it is not, really and truly the Body and
Blood of Christ. It logically (and even existentially) cannot be both.
Perhaps logic itself was the first casualty of Vatican II and Ecumenism.
Capitalists, as another example, have very distinct and differing concepts
of economies from Communists. Each will argue that its own ideology
is incompatible with and contradictory to the others’. Ideologically
there can be no Capitalist Communists, or Communist Capitalists. They
are not just different, or even contrasting, but opposing ideologies.
Pro-Lifers and Pro-Abortionists also have distinct and differing concepts
that logically conflict with one another. Ideologically there can be
no Pro-life Pro-Abortionists, or Pro-Abortion Pro-Lifers. Once again,
they are not just different, but opposing ideologies. Each is subtended
by differing and opposite views on life, conception, death, and murder.
However … and oddly enough, only Pro-life advocates are intolerant,
while Pro-Abortion advocates are not … hmmmm….
But to return to holiness: as we have seen, Christ calls us to perfection,
and this entails denying oneself daily (very difficult, but doable),
taking up the Cross (not a very pleasant thing to do) and following
Him (the success of which alone is afforded by both Sanctifying Grace
and Actual Grace — century-old terms no longer used because they are
no longer taught or understood).
The hard work of holiness
This is the
work of holiness, of personal sanctification — and there is no
more urgent need in our lives.
Forget about:
-
“oppressive and
sinful ‘structures’ in the world”
-
“inclusivism”
-
feminist “language
neutering”
-
“structural sin”
-
“collaborative ministry”
-
“oppressive patriarchal
structures”
-
“social justice”
(this comes with holiness, not before it)
-
“social and political
'activism'”
This is the language of
the world, of liberal academia, of militant feminism — not of Christ.
It is the language of those who detest the Church but remain within
her for “a living”; it is the childish and neologistic ravings of dissident
theologians and radical feminists (also making a living off the Church).
They are “catholic” in being “universally” contemptible of the Church
and Her teachings. They have left being “Catholic” long ago.
None of this will lead you to holiness. None of it.
Only Christ can. And He does:
-
If any man will come after me, let him deny himself,
and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”
(St. Luke 9.23)
-
“Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father
is perfect.” (St. Matthew 5.48)
An intimate affair
Holiness is
an intimate affair — between you and God.
He does not ask you, anywhere in the Gospels, to change the world
… but to change yourself — to take up your Cross and
to follow Him ... not the world. 2
He is our paradigm
of Holiness ... as is His Holy Mother Mary who gave us that beautiful,
immemorial utterance, "Be it done to me according
to thy word." (St. Luke 1.37) In other words, as we said earlier,
only conformity to the will of God — not the world — is
the essence of holiness.
Imitate them. Not the world, just as Saint Paul did:
“Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.”
3
Please God, let us now also say with Saint Paul,
“I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me.”
4
Saint John, perhaps, sums it up best:
“Love not the world, nor
the things which are in the world. If any man
love the world, the charity of the Father is not in
him. For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence
of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and
the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is
of the world. And the world passeth away, and the concupiscence
thereof: but he that doth the will of God, abideth for
ever. (1 John 2.15-17)
Whom and what, then, will
you follow if you seek to be holy? Christ or the world? It is
absolutely clear that you cannot follow both. Each path diverges
totally from the other, and the longer you remain on one path the
farther you will be from the other.
Geoffrey K.
Mondello
Editor
Boston Catholic Journal
Printable PDF Version
Comments? Write
us:
editor@boston-catholic-journal.com
_________________________________________________
1
http://www.dioceseofraleigh.org/news/view.aspx?id=1289
“Pope Benedict XVI leads an interfaith peace meeting in the Basilica
of St. Mary of the Angels in Assisi, Italy, Oct. 27. Pictured, from
left, are: Archbishop Norvan Zakarian of the Armenian Apostolic Church,
Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury and Ecumenical Patriarch
Bartholomew of Constantinople, Pope Benedict, Rabbi David Rosen, representing
the chief rabbinate of Israel; Wande Abimbola, president of a Nigerian
institute that promotes the study of the culture and traditional religion
of the Yoruba people; and Shrivatsa Goswami, a Hindu delegate”.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/10/27/rainbow-religious-leaders-join-pope-for-peace/
“ASSISI, Italy (AP) – “Pope Benedict XVI joined Buddhist monks, Islamic
scholars, Yoruba leaders and a handful of agnostics in making a communal
call for peace Thursday, insisting that religion must never be used
as a pretext for war or terrorism. Benedict welcomed some 300 leaders
representing a rainbow of faiths to the hilltop Italian town of Assisi
to commemorate the 25th anniversary of a daylong prayer for peace here
called by Pope John Paul II in 1986 amid Cold War conflicts.
Standing on the altar of St. Mary of the Angels basilica, Wande Abimbola
of Nigeria, representing Africa's traditional Yoruba religion, sang
and shook a percussion instrument as he told the delegates that peace
can only come with greater respect for indigenous religions.
"We must always remember that our own religion, along with the religions
practiced by other people, are valid and precious in the eyes of the
Almighty, who created all of us with such plural and different ways
of life and belief systems," he said.
http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/sant-egidio-founder-on-1986-assisi-meeting-of-religious-leaders
Blessed John Paul II, on the contrary, intuited the public force of
religions, despite secularization. He knew that religions could be attractive
to war-like passions. Worried about the cold war, he invited leaders
of Christian religions and other world religions to Assisi.
2
St. Matthew 4.8; St. Mark 4.19; St. Luke 4.5, 12.30; St. John 7.7, 14.17,
15.19, 16.33, 17.9, 17.14, 17.16; Gal. 6.14; Colossians 2.8, 2.20; 2
St. Peter 1.4, 2.20; 1 St. John 2.15-17
3 I Cor. 11
4 Gal. 2.20

Totally Faithful to the Sacred
Deposit of Faith entrusted to the Holy See in Rome
“Scio
opera tua ... quia modicum habes virtutem, et servasti verbum
Meum, nec non negasti Nomen Meum”
“I
know your works ... that you have but little power, and
yet you have kept My word, and have not denied My Name.”
(Apocalypse
3.8)
Copyright © 2004 - 2023 Boston Catholic Journal. All rights reserved. Unless
otherwise stated, permission is granted by the Boston Catholic
Journal for the copying and distribution of the articles
and audio files under the following conditions: No
additions, deletions, or changes are to be made to the text
or audio files in any way, and the copies may not be sold
for a profit. In the reproduction, in any format of any
image, graphic, text, or audio file, attribution must be
given to the Boston Catholic Journal.
|
|