Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”

St. Paul to the Church at Ephesus:

Husbands love your wives, just as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for Her, that He might sanctify and cleanse Her with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present Her to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that She should be holy and without blemish (Ep. 5:25-27).

St. Peter quoting Leviticus:

As obedient children, . . . as He Who hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of living, because it is written: ‘Be ye holy, for I am holy’ (Lv. 11:44; 19:2; 20:7; 1 Pe. 1:14-16).

St. Paul to his beloved Thessalonians:

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Th. 5:23).

And, again, the Apostle to the Thessalonian Church:

“For this is the will of God, your sanctification [holiness]: . . . .” (1 Th. 4:3).

Holy brethren, what are we to make of this? You see, even just now, I have identified you as holy, as my sanctified brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, despite the fact that you may or may not feel particularly holy this morning. Holiness is not a feeling or an emotion. It is the new reality that is ours in Jesus Christ. The Sacred Scriptures are clear: if we are in Christ God, having been washed with the baptismal waters of grace in the Holy Spirit (Ep. 5:26; Ts. 3:4-7), then you and I, scoundrels we may very well be, are nonetheless called to be saints and are identified as such by the Apostle in his Epistles (Rm. 1:7; 1 Cr. 1:2; 2 Cr. 1:1; Ep. 1:1; Pp. 1:1; Co. 1:1).

There is no question as to our divine and holy calling to be saints, God’s holy ones. But, what does this mean? What does holiness look like? As one who stands before you in all my prevalent weaknesses, I am keenly aware of just how unholy I truly am! Who am I to dare speak to you, holy brethren, of God’s holiness to which we all have been called and are being called? Yet, to us pitiful creatures of dust, Almighty God has entrusted “this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us” (2 Cr. 4:7). “For it is God,” St. Paul assures us, “Who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, Who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cr. 4:6). We, then, who are blessed to behold His glory “are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cr. 3:18). “Now we see in a mirror dimly,” St. Paul tells us, but one day we will see “face to face” (1 Cr. 13:12).

God is holy! God is perfection! God is whole and complete in and of Himself, having no deficiencies whatsoever. We, on the other hand, are not! The seraphim cry aloud, “’Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory’” while with the Prophet, we, too, confess, “’Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; . . . .’” (Is. 6:3, 5). Quite plainly, then, we are not holy. We are imperfect and full of weaknesses, fallen creatures. If we are holy, it does not come from us but is wholly outside of ourselves. It comes to us as gift and grace by the Spirit of holiness Himself bestowed to the Church on the Day of Great and Holy Pentecost.

Holiness is one of those words that defies exactitude of definition. Holiness is an experience of God, an encounter with the One Who is Wholly Other, very much akin to Jacob’s experience of God at Beth-el and Moses at the Burning Bush on Mt. Sinai. Both men are awe-struck by the Presence of God, the Patriarch Jacob exclaiming, “’Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. . . . How fearsome is this place! This is none other than the House of God, and this is the gate of Heaven’” after which he consecrated that ground, sanctified it, set it apart from the ordinary, and makes it holy (Gn. 28:10-22). Likewise, the Prophet Moses encounters the Angel of the Lord, and God speaks to him, warning him to doff his shoes for the ground upon which he stands is holy. “And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God” (Ex. 3:1-6).

These responses are not out of the ordinary when God Who is utter Mystery is encountered. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” says the Proverbs, “and the knowledge of the holy is understanding” (Jb. 28:28; Ps. 110 [111]:10; Pr. 1:7; 9:10). Holiness instills the fear of God into us. Not a fear like the fear of snakes or fear of darkness, but rather a fear that is a profound and utter humility and reverence. This fear – this holy fear – is the foundation of wisdom and the path of our growth in the holiness of God that sets us apart and makes us unlike others. In his Epistle, St. Peter says of the Church and Her baptized, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, . . . .” (1 Pe. 2:9). Like Israel long before us to whom these appellations originally applied and now transferred to the New Israel, we are different . . . . . very different, peculiar, God’s special or unique or treasured possession (Ex. 19:5-6; Dt. 7:6). For no longer are we of the kingdom of this world, but rather we are of the Kingdom of God which, as our Lord has said, “’is not of this world’” (Jn. 18:36). God has “delivered us from the power of darkness,” says St. Paul, “and conveyed [translated/transferred] us into the Kingdom of the Son of His love, in Whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Co. 1:13-14). This, then, is the new reality of our Christian life – of our life in Christ – Who is the Holy One of God (Mk. 1:24). For He now is the Wisdom of God – our righteousness and sanctification [holiness] and redemption (1 Cr. 1:30).

Although we cannot attain the holiness of God on our own apart from God, we can nevertheless attain unto it through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit – the Spirit of God Who makes us holy within the womb of the Church which is holy because the Word dwells within Her. We were created for our holy God to partake of His divine nature which entails His divine holiness without which, says Sacred Scripture, “no man shall see the Lord” (Hb. 12:10, 14; 2 Pe. 1:4). Holiness is to separate ourselves from our passions and sins; to come out from among them. For “what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness” (2 Cr. 6:14)? Holiness is to have a pure heart for only those who are pure in heart shall see God (Beatitudes). It is a heart being purified by the fire of holy love itself “because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit Who is given to us” (Rm. 5:5). Thus, says St. Paul, God “hath chosen us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, . . . .” (Ep. 1:4). Holiness, in part, is the love of God being perfected in us as Temples of the Living God, just as Paul has said in today’s Epistle! In Jesus Christ, from within the womb of His Church, we “put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ep. 4:24; Co. 3:10). What God is by nature, we have been created to be capable of by His renewing and regenerating grace. A healing of the divine image in us so that we may attain to His own divine likeness (Gn. 1:26; WS 2:23).

Do we wish to taste the holiness of God? Then, we must be in His holy Church. Do we yearn to be like God and His holiness to which we have been summoned as the redeemed because this is what we have been created for? Then, we must worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness and render as a sacrifice “the glory due unto His Name” (Ps. 28 [29]:2). And, again, “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His Name; bring an offering, and come into His courts. O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; fear before Him, all the earth” (Ps. 95 [96]:9). It is in the Church and in the beauty of Her worship, in the courts of the Lord’s House, we receive the heavenly Spirit and through Her sacramental Mysteries the Holy Spirit is renewed ever and again in us so that we may may partake of His holiness and be made holy. Here is where we “build ourselves up on our most holy Faith, pray in the Holy Spirit, and keep ourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto Eternal Life” (Ju. 1:20-21).” In so doing, we “grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” Who alone is holy (2 Pe. 3:18; Anaphora). Here, then, most holy and beloved brethren, is where we together as one Body in Jesus Christ “perfect holiness in the fear of God” and “with faith and love, draw near.”

Through the prayers of our holy Fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.

Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

PROPERS:

2 Cr. 6:16-7:1

Lk. 6:31-36