THE NECESSITY OF HOLINESS

SAINT AGATHA, VIRGIN, MARTYR  

Heb 12:4-7,11-15; Ps 103:1-2,13-14,17-18; Mk 6:1-6

Nobody can see God without Holiness

Joining the great cloud of witnesses around Jesus Christ requires a steady focus on him and faithfulness in going through the circles of presentations, purifications, and sacrifices. To rise to the cloud is to move against the force of gravity. Regarding spiritual matters, the gravity here is the attraction of sins and sinful lifestyles. The author of the letter to Hebrews states clearly in the present passage that it is a fight against sin that requires dying to self. “In the fight against sin, you have not yet had to keep fighting to the point of death.” If it requires fighting, we cannot rise to the cloud unconsciously but consciously and intentionally. Our being intentional in living a life of holiness involves fasting and practicing other forms of self-mortification and denials. These are our self-propelling efforts to raise ourselves to join the cloud of witnesses. The best result these self-efforts can achieve in and for us is the all-important orientation of the Son, namely, self-sacrifice. The author implies this orientation when he refers to the text: “My son, when the Lord corrects you, do not treat it lightly; but do not get discouraged when he reprimands you. For the Lord trains the ones that he loves and he punishes all those that he acknowledges as his sons.” What is important is not our self-mortifications as such, though they are needed, but the acquisition of the orientation to self-sacrifice for the love of the Father.

Our efforts at self-mortification or purification are comparable to the efforts of a baby to bathe itself. We cannot rise against the gravitational pull of sins by our human effort alone without God raising us. For God to raise us, we need a change in attitude. We need to acquire the Son’s orientation. The orientation is made present in us by the Holy Spirit of adoption. Thus, being raised to the cloud of witnesses is the same as transforming into Jesus Christ. It is the same path that Jesus walked to his glory at the right hand of God the Father in heaven. “Suffering is part of your training; God is treating you as his sons. Has there ever been any son whose father did not train him? Of course, any punishment is most painful at the time, and far from pleasant; but later, in those on whom it has been used, it bears fruit in peace and goodness.” The perfection of the Son’s sacrificial orientation in us comes when the mind of Christ Jesus develops in each of us. Thus, it is not what we suffer as such, but the purification the suffering works or produces in us is most important.

According to Saint Augustine, the same treatment that purifies the good reduces the sinners to ashes. It is possible to suffer in vain without gaining the needed orientation or mindset of the Son. The sacrificial orientation of the Son is the holiness we need to see God. “Always be wanting peace with all people, and the holiness without which no one can ever see the Lord.” The possession of this orientation is to see the will of God in every event of our lives. Without it, it is impossible to please God or see his hand in miracles. The people in the hometown of Jesus refused to believe in his divinity and could not receive healing from him. “‘This is the carpenter, surely, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joset and Jude and Simon? His sisters, too, are they not here with us?’ And they would not accept him.” Our Christian life is a following of Jesus Christ, as Saint Agatha, who imbibed the heavenly orientation of sacrifice very early and embraced the supreme sacrifice of death for the love of Jesus Christ. She was martyred at Catania in Sicily during the persecution of Decius around 250-253. May her prayers assist us in living a life of sacrifice as Jesus did for us.

Let us pray: May the Virgin Martyr Saint Agatha implore your compassion for us, O Lord, we pray, for she found favour with you by the courage of her martyrdom and the merit of her chastity. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.