Be Safe and be holy

My friend Meg’s salutation on the update of her life I requested since we last spoke keeps ringing in my head: “Be safe and be holy.” That phrase, “Be safe,” has become endemic since the arrival of the corona virus and, to me, connotes the obsessive cleaning, masking and endless governmental mandates of the last three years.

Because I was mired in all the “c” stuff of her “be safe” phrase, her conjunction of safety with holiness didn’t make sense at first. Hence I replied to her FB message update this way: “The gap between safety and holiness seems very wide, maybe we must choose be safe or be holy?”

But then I thought of who Meg is. Throughout the many changes in her life, some difficult, painful and not of her choosing, I know her as implacably Christocentric. Without question, all things, events and people revolve about Christ, He is her anchor. And so I decided that Meg meant exactly what she said.

Because her phrase is so evocative, I put the piece I’d intended for today on hold for next week.

“Be safe and be holy,” my friend prays, because she knows that holiness is the only path to safety. All others are, at best, illusory, at worst, deception from the trickster, Satan. A recent Pauline reading in the Divine Office reminds us that we live in “later times— in the age of “plausible liars” [the St. Paul inspired title of my new novel:]

“The Spirit distinctly says that in later times some will turn away from the faith and will heed deceitful spirits and things taught by demons through plausible liars—men with seared consciences who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by believers who know the truth.”

Everywhere we turn are the effects of people with seared consciences turning away from the faith to implement demonically inspired programs and policies. We’ve not yet reached the “requiring abstinence from foods God created to be received with thanksgiving.” But it may be close. A top “influencer/controller” of our culture has been opposed to the eating of meat for a very long time.

Regardless, “Be safe and be holy” is axiomatic for Christians universally.

Meg’s phrase cuts through “do we have a right to aim for holiness?”

I’m guessing your brain landed in the same place as mine: “I’m not holy!”

Or, “I’m weak, filled with doubts and flaws. How do I go about being holy?”

And then there’s, “There was only one holy person, Mary, the mother of God.”

As I think about personal holiness and look around at our world, the people in it—including, maybe especially, our politicians, I know: There’s only one answer: we’ve no other option. We’ve got to beg for the grace to become saints.

I know. Believe me I know all the reasons that this sounds audacious, presumptuous and downright terrifying. In the past, I’ve heard from far holier souls than mine, “I’m hoping I can just make it into Purgatory.” Or very holy women sharing powerful experiences in prayer and then diluting them with, “But I know I’m no saint!”

But here’s the thing. Actually, several things.

• We’re chosen to be holy! St Paul exhorts the Ephesians and us{ “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.”
• Our main purpose in marriage is the sanctification of one another.
• Over and over we are told, “Ask and you shall receive.” Be not timid but persistent.
• Our citizenship isn’t here but elsewhere. “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”
• To Saint Faustina, He said,” “’Oh how much I am hurt by a soul’s distrust! Such a soul professes that I am Holy and Just, but does not believe that I am Mercy and does not trust in My Goodness. Even the devils believe in My Justice, but do not glorify My Goodness. My Heart rejoices in this title of Mercy.’”
• God calls us by name, Satan by our sins.

It was just a few weeks ago that I wrote about St. Paul’s exhortation to Timothy,

but the actions of some of us are so crazed that a repeat is warranted. This time in even more detail, thanks to Dr. Brad Pitre. We’re speaking here of St. Paul’s exhortations to young Timothy about how Christians are to pray. Here’s that passage again:

“First of all, then, I ask that supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone, for kings and for all in authority, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity. This is good and pleasing to God our savior, who wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth.”

Immersing us in the culture of the first century, Dr. Pitre observes that Nero, Calligua, and their cohorts-“These were not nice people!”

And yet Paul is teaching Timothy not only to intercede for them in prayer but to give thanks for them. And just as importantly, to live respectfully in their pagan culture.

Why?

Because God desires that all be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. We are to intercede for all—believers and non, for that’s what Christians are to do.

We know, don’t we, that He can work through us only if we’re persitent in climbing the ladder of perfection.

Right, perfection. “Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

Undeterred by our flaws, failures and weaknesses. Confident that despite our wretchedness, we expect everything promised to us by Jesus. He came to save the sick, each and every one of us.

We have our marching orders, we soldiers of Christ.

On cultures: Christopher Dawson:

From what source did humankind’s many cultures arise? Why, from cults. A cult is a joining together for worship—that is, the attempt of people to commune with a transcendent power. It is from association in the cult, the body of worshipers, that community grows…. Once people are joined in a cult, cooperation in many other things becomes possible. Common defense, irrigation, systematic agriculture, architecture, the visual arts, music, the more intricate crafts, economic production and distribution, courts and government—all these aspects of a culture arise gradually from the cult, the religious tie.“

Christopher Dawson: Wielding the Sword of the Spirit

Veritas- The Lord’s Prayer

A dear friend, now gone, introduced me to this magnificent interpretation.