“Be perfect like your heavenly Father is perfect.” Basically, be holy. In Catholicism, we use the word “holy” for a variety of different aspects of the Faith. This can cause us to lose sight of its true meaning. Listen to Richaél Lucero draw you back God’s meaning of  holiness—to be set apart. She uses scriptures from the Old and New Testament, customs from the Early Church, and lives of the saints to illustrate what it means for you to be holy today.

SHOW NOTES

Clumsy THeosis merch shop

quotes referenced

Holiness is not perfection according to human criteria—it’s not reserved for a small number of exceptional persons. It’s for everyone—it’s the Lord Who brings us to holiness, when we are willing to collaborate in the salvation of the world for the glory of God, despite our sin and our sometimes-rebellious temperament.

St. Pope John Paul II

A saint is someone who says “yes” to God and never stops saying “yes.”

Fr. Benedict Groeschel, C.F.R.

The holiest person is the one who loves the most. (paraphrased)

Fr. Jean-Pierre de Caussade, S.J.

Scriptures referenced

Our Lord told his disciples, “you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world.”

John 15:19

St. Peter wrote that the Church is a “holy nation…called out of darkness.”

1 Peter 2:9

St. Paul urged the Christians in Rome, “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind…”

Romans 12:2

And St. James got right to the point, “Unfaithful creatures! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

James 4:4

Jesus’ command. “Be perfect like your heavenly Father is perfect….”

Matthew 5:48

catechism Paragraphs on Holiness referenced

2012 “We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him . . . For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.”

2013 “All Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity.” All are called to holiness: “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” 

In order to reach this perfection the faithful should use the strength dealt out to them by Christ’s gift, so that . . . doing the will of the Father in everything, they may wholeheartedly devote themselves to the glory of God and to the service of their neighbor. Thus the holiness of the People of God will grow in fruitful abundance, as is clearly shown in the history of the Church through the lives of so many saints.

2014 Spiritual progress tends toward ever more intimate union with Christ. This union is called “mystical” because it participates in the mystery of Christ through the sacraments – “the holy mysteries” – and, in him, in the mystery of the Holy Trinity. God calls us all to this intimate union with him, even if the special graces or extraordinary signs of this mystical life are granted only to some for the sake of manifesting the gratuitous gift given to all.

2015 The way of perfection passes by way of the Cross. There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle. Spiritual progress entails the ascesis and mortification that gradually lead to living in the peace and joy of the Beatitudes: 

He who climbs never stops going from beginning to beginning, through beginnings that have no end. He never stops desiring what he already knows.

2016 The children of our holy mother the Church rightly hope for the grace of final perseverance and the recompense of God their Father for the good works accomplished with his grace in communion with Jesus. Keeping the same rule of life, believers share the “blessed hope” of those whom the divine mercy gathers into the “holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”

Catechism of the Catholic Church 2012-2016