Holiness: What it is, Why it Matters, and How it Fits You

Begin with the end in mind.—Steven Covey, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Note: This begins a year-long series on some of the key teachings of St. Francis de Sales’ masterpiece Introduction to the Devout Life. Here I will use the term “holiness” where most translations use “devotion.”

One day Diogenes, a disciple of Socrates, was walking backwards through the marketplace in Athens. Since it was the busiest time of day, he inevitably ran into someone. That someone was Gorgias. Shocked and indignant, Gorgias exclaimed, “What are you doing?!” Calmly, Diogenes answered: “I’m doing with my body what you’re doing with your soul.”

Like Gorgias, we can live without paying attention to what matters most: our souls’ holiness. How easy it can be to focus on things that don’t ultimately matter in life: Quarterly evaluations, kids’ grades, spouse’s comments, friends’ judgments, home décor, beach bod, meager paycheck, church fundraisers.

From the light of reason alone, without the benefit of Christian (or Jewish) faith, this ancient Greek philosopher, Diogenes, believed the human soul was the most important thing in the world, and that virtue, aka holiness, was the greatest good of the soul.

Following in the footsteps of de Sales, the Second Vatican Council teaches that all men are called by God to be holy. This is the goal of our lives. This is what we’re made for. But what is holiness? Is it desirable or depressing? And still more, is it even for us today? These 3 questions are at the foundation of Introduction to the Devout Life.

The Blueprint Problem: What Is Holiness, Really?

Holiness is the perfection of charity. Charity is the love of God that moves us to do the good. As charity’s perfection, holiness moves us to do the good carefully, frequently, and promptly.

We all have an idea in our minds of what holiness is. The first problem Francis addresses is not that we don’t know what it is, but that our ideas about holiness are wrong. As Mark Twain said, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know that just ain’t so.” Here are some examples from de Sales:

• He who is in the habit of fasting will think that because he fasts he is very holy, even though his heart is filled with hatred… speaking ill of his neighbor with false statements.
• Another considers himself holy because of the great number of prayers he recites every day, even though soon after this, he speaks words that are annoying, full of pride, and hurtful to his family and neighbors.
• Another very gladly opens his purse to give alms to the poor, but can’t take any gentleness from his heart to forgive his enemies.
• Yet another will forgive his enemies but will not pay his debts unless legally forced to do so.
• All such persons are generally looked upon as holy, but in reality they are not… They are no more than statues or illusions of holiness.

Holiness and charity are not differences of kind, but of degree. To use an analogy, a hen flies short distances with great effort. An eagle soars for miles with ease.

Charity is spiritual flapping. Holiness is spiritual soaring.

If grace is a spark and charity is a fire, then devotion is a white-hot flame.

Another time Diogenes interviewed Tyresias the merchant. After listening to Tyresias spend an hour explaining the virtues of various fabrics, Diogenes commented impertinently: You know so precisely the value of your goods, how do you not know the value of your soul?

The Discouragement Problem: Is Holiness Desirable or Depressing?

Once our misconceptions are cleared away, there’s still the question: do we want to be holy? Those in touch with the world see the sacrifices saints make and the pleasures they reject and may conclude their lives are bitter, depressing, unbearable. They assume that if holiness is important, then it is serious, and if it is serious, then it is sad.

There have been a few sad and serious saints, but they were not saints because they were sad, and hardly because they were serious. Nor would it take much research into the saints to stumble across a St. Francis of Assisi singing of “perfect elation” or a St. Philip Neri who kept a book of jokes in his pocket so he wouldn’t float off into ecstasy. Holiness is not dreary.

De Sales teaches that holiness is the best thing there is:

• Holiness is the delight of delights and the queen of virtues since it is the perfection of charity…
• If charity is milk, holiness is its cream.
• If it is a plant, holiness is its flower.
• If it is a jewel, holiness is its luster.
• If it is precious balm, holiness is its perfume…

Holiness carries with it a secret: Whatever may seem bitter in following our Lord, holiness makes sweet like a bee drawing forth bitter thyme nectar and transforming it into delicious honey. The reality is that life is harder NOT striving to be a saint. Life will still send us plenty of struggles, but we will not have God’s strength, wisdom, and love to sustain us. If our struggles in life are so hard with the Almighty’s help, do they not become impossible without it?

But what if holiness is good, the best thing there is, and it’s impossible for me?

The Mismatch Problem: Is Holiness for Me?

It is possible to believe holiness is “not for me” because the forms of holiness presented to us don’t fit, just as we may not fit in another’s pair of shoes. Like our footwear, devotion is different for a workman than for a CEO, for a widow than a wife, for a wife than for an unmarried woman, etc.

De Sales goes on to say: “Even more than this, the practice of devotion has to be adapted to the strength, the life-situation, and the duties of every individual.” Holiness is not 1-size-fits-all. It’s not a cookie-cutter, a box we all fit in, or a checklist. Holiness is differentiated, adapted, personalized, tailored to fit you perfectly and no one else quite like you.

In Genesis 1:11, God orders the trees to produce fruit, each one according to its kind. He doesn’t tell the apple tree to grow figs or the lemon tree to bring forth pineapples. He didn’t make you one way to call you to be the opposite. He wants to purify, perfect, and elevate who you are as He did with these three ladies:

• Therese of Lisieux was sensitive to the point of hysteria before she was a saint. She was both more sensitive and more calm after she was a saint.
• Teresa of Avila could talk anyone’s ear off before she was a saint. She was just as talkative, but with more to say, after she was a saint.
• Mother Teresa had a heart for the poor before she was a saint. That heart grew beyond the bounds of imagination when she became a saint.

God calls us to be the way He made us to be. He calls us to be our “perfected” selves: strong, wise, loving, vibrant, free, unshakeable, unrelenting, in tune with the Holy Spirit. And perhaps many things that seem to us to be “problems” with our personalities are saving graces if we allow them to be perfected by Him.

The biggest mistake we can make in our journey to holiness is to try to be someone we’re not. Don’t do that. Don’t fall into that trap. Be you the way He made you to be.

One day a man came to Athens to meet Diogenes:

“I am Alexander” (Yes, the Emperor Alexander the Great)

“I am Diogenes”

“I have heard much of your wisdom. Ask me a boon, and I shall grant it.”

“Could you please step aside? You’re blocking my sun.”

Alexander went away marveling to his entourage: “If I were not Alexander, I would wish to be Diogenes.”

Alexander was meant to be Alexander.

Diogenes was meant to be Diogenes.

Who were you meant to be?

“In the coming world, they will not ask me, ‘Why were you not Moses?’ They will ask me, ‘Why were you not Zusya?’” —Rabbi Zusya in Brothers Karamazov

Over the next 12 months, are you willing to explore what holiness might mean for you and try some things that are outside your comfort zone to see if they can help you to grow in holiness?

___ Yes           ___ No

If you’d like a little help reflecting deeper on this, check out the worksheet here.

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