This is the will of God, your holiness. What exactly is holiness? We tend to think of it as a personal quality when we don’t make any mistakes, say lots of prayers, and keep our hands folded. In this sense holiness smells like incense. However, there is a providence that in English the word holiness sounds alot like another word, wholeness. It is the notion of wholeness that captures better the biblical understanding of holiness. “Be holy as I, the Lord your God, am holy.” God’s holiness models wholeness. Certainly it starts with our virtues and behaviors but holiness immediately ripples out into our relationships. Are we treating the people in our lives in a Godly manner with compassion, forgiveness, generosity. But wholeness extends further to include all the connections which are part of human life — immigrants, those of other races or cultures, opposing political views. They too are wrapped in God’s holiness that we share. Finally, as Pope Francis reminds us, holiness includes the created world. How we use the resources of Planet Earth, how we situate ourselves in the universe is part of God’s will as well. To be holy demands throwing our whole selves into the effort.
