Holiness as Wholeness

Embracing everyone as the path to holiness

09/19/2019

Luke 7:36-50 A certain Pharisee invited Jesus to dine with him, and he entered the Pharisee's house and reclined at table. Now there was a sinful woman in the city who learned that he was at table in the house of the Pharisee. Bringing an alabaster flask of ointment, she stood behind him at his feet weeping and began to bathe his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and anointed them with the ointment. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner." Jesus said to him in reply, "Simon, I have something to say to you." "Tell me, teacher," he said. "Two people were in debt to a certain creditor; one owed five hundred days' wages and the other owed fifty. Since they were unable to repay the debt, he forgave it for both. Which of them will love him more?" Simon said in reply,

"The one, I suppose, whose larger debt was forgiven." He said to him, "You have judged rightly." Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? When I entered your house, you did not give me water for my feet, but she has bathed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but she has not ceased kissing my feet since the time I entered. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she anointed my feet with ointment. So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; hence, she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little."

How would you define holiness, or who would you say is a holy person? Most of us would point to external appearances and visible actions and use those to measure holiness. People sometimes say to me: “Fr. John, you will go straight to heaven!” Man, I hope they are right. But how did they come to that conclusion? They see me at Mass, I am usually wearing my priestly collar, they watch me interact with people, they hear me speak at bible study. Based on those exterior criteria, they conclude that a priest must be holy. And those are certainly helpful hints of holiness, but they are not guarantee.

If there’s one thing the recent clergy sexual abuse crisis has proven, it is that putting on a Roman collar does not make a man immune to mortal sin. In a certain sense, the Roman collar makes him more a target of temptation for the Evil One. In a wary, you do more damage by killing a captain than by killing a private. In other words, holiness cannot be just skin deep; holiness must abide in the heart, and what abides in the heart is love.

In the gospel today, the question of what determines holiness is precisely what is at stake. The Pharisees contended that holiness consists of external purity and visible behavior, a lot like most of us would define it. In fact, the name “Pharisee” comes from the Hebrew word “perushim” which literally means “the separated ones.” Holiness, therefore, requires separation from those who are unholy, defiled or impure. To be holy is to quarantine yourself from the rest of the world which is diseased with the defilement of sin. We might compare holiness of the Pharisees to modern day zombie movies, where there are a few, healthy people trying never to touch all these zombies that are like walking dead. And that is precisely why the Pharisees reacted so strongly when Jesus touched the sinful woman in the gospel.

Our Lord, on the other hand, defines holiness not as separation, but as integration. Not as running away from the walking dead in loathing, but rather running toward them in love. Think of all the times Jesus reaches out his hand to touch people the Pharisees would consider unclean, and to be avoided. Jesus touched the dead son of the widow of Nain a little earlier in Luke 7:11-17; Jesus is touched by a woman who is hemorrhaging blood for 12 years in Mark 5; Jesus speaks to the Samaritan woman in John 4 and shocks his apostles; and today, Jesus is anointed and even kissed by a sinful woman in Luke 7:36-50.

Integration comes from the word “integral” which comes from “integer.” Do you remember what an integer is in math? Don’t worry, I had to look it up too. An integer is a whole number that can be written without a fractional component. The basic point is that a integer is whole, and to integrate is to make separated pieces whole again. That is Jesus’ definition of holiness: to reintegrate all the separated and scattered children of God back into God’s family, back into one Church, back home under one roof. In a word, holiness is wholeness, integration rather than separation. And the key to holiness as integration is love.

Now, let’s return to our initial question: how do you define holiness? Do we have the attitude that holiness is separation? So we may quarantine ourselves from people or places or situations we consider unclean or sinful. We look at people who are different from us like so many zombies, the walking dead. But one of the chief qualities of the saints is to run to those people and places and situations with great love. Mother Teresa ran to the slums of Calcutta, Blessed Stanley Rother faced his persecutors in Guatemala and was killed by them, St. Damien ran to live in a leper colony on the island of Molokai. The list goes on and on. Why do they do that? They believe holiness is basically integration. The saints use Jesus’ math, and their holiness tries to make the world whole again. They see the people who are different not as zombies but as separated brothers and sisters.

St. Thomas Aquinas taught that the chief effect of the Eucharist was the unity of the Body of Christ, the Church (ST, III, Q. 73, Art. 3). As we come forward to receive Holy Communion, let us ask for the grace to define holiness like Jesus does: holiness is wholeness.

Praised be Jesus Christ!