LITTLE HEAVEN

HOLINESS

                                       By Gladstone Pereira

As we continue to experience the presence of Jesus among us, let us spend two minutes in prayer and meditation.

"We are called to holiness, and not to unholiness. Holiness is a gift of God. We cannot please God without being holy. In the book of Joshua ch.3: 5 we read,' Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you'. "If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you." May Jesus fill us with his grace and the spirit of holiness." Amen. Praise the Lord.

My dear brothers in sisters in Christ Jesus, first of all, I wish to give you my joy and happiness in the name of Jesus, our Lord and Saviour.

This evening we are going to listen and understand how important it is to be holy and to live a life of holiness. God from the very beginning, in exhibiting his glorious splendour and majesty in his creation, wanted man to be holy, sharing in his divine holiness, thus created him little below than the angels, when God said," Let us make man in our image and likeness." Man shared the total happiness of God's Kingdom, the paradise, in fullness and lived face to face with God.

But that terrible thing happened, the most unwanted thing that ever should have happened, that man sinned. He subjected himself to the test of evil spirit and disobeyed his creator. He ran into darkness and he was in shame. He could not stand before God in sinfulness. He was driven out and lost that heavenly happiness he shared with his own creator. And the paradise was lost.

Therefore to the holy is to seek the kingdom of God. God said to Moses "remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." Is.ch.1: 16-17 says, " wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes, cease to do evil."

I Peter ch.1: 14-16 "Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires that you formely had in ignorance. Instead, as he who called you is holy. be holy yourselves in all your conduct, for it is written," You shall be holy, for I am holy." Jesus told us therefore, be perfect as my heavenly Father is perfect." Every human being is renewed from within.

Rev.3: 20says, "Listen, I am standing at the door, knocking. Yes, it is the Lord, who comes to us, searching for a dwelling place to enter. But it is closed from inside. "If you hear my voice, and open the door, I will come into you and eat with you, and you with me." It is only through inner cleansing that we can hear and recognize the voice of the Lord and make our hearts his dwelling place, the temple of the Holy Spirit..

Jesus sanctifies us by washing away our sins. "Unless I wash, you have no part with me, said Jesus to Peter. Sanctification is not by punishment but by saving the sinner.

Jn.3: 17 say, "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."

Sin dwells in us. And that is the knowledge and recognition that we are sinners. St. Paul in Romans ch.7:19-20 says, " For I do not do the good I want but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me."

Therefore, in order to enter into the kingdom of God, Jesus says, "You have to be born of water and spirit." "No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit (Jn.ch.3: 5). To be born again means to be filled with the Holy Spirit and be transformed from within. The Holy Spirit gives life to the mortal body to rise up into the grace of God, which is otherwise dead on account of the sinfulness within us. This is the new life, the life of holiness. It calls for and demands total surrender to Jesus and total repentance of our past.

To surrender means to break open our hearts and reveal to the Lord all the hidden secrets of our life and seek pardon from the Lord. We are cleansed by the word of God. In 1 Peter ch.1: 23 we read, "You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed through the living and enduring word of God." So much is the power of the word of God that at its utterance the evil spirit turns back and gets away. When we receive this new life, it is our duty to endure in the grace of God. St. Paul issues a stern warning and says in Heb.ch.12: 14-15 "Pursue peace with everyone, and the holiness without which no one see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and through it many become defiled."

Holiness is God's gift. A life in holiness is that which is pleasing to God.

1Thessalonians ch.4: 3-8 we read, " For this is the will of God, your sanctification that each one of you know how to control your own body in holiness and honor. For God did not call us to impurity but in holiness. Therefore whoever rejects this rejects not human authority but God, who also gives His Holy Spirit to you."

Holy Spirit is the Spirit of holiness. In John.ch.20: 22 we see Jesus breathing on the apostles, i.e., communicating the Holy Spirit to them. Jesus says, " Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven." Therefore, the most obvious sign of this new life is the power to forgive sin. Wherever the Spirit of holiness is poured out, whatever is opposed to holiness, i.e. sin is destroyed. The Holy Spirit is the one who will convince the world of sin. He makes aware of sin, but at the same time it is he himself who forgives sins.

The Spirit of the Lord not only destroys sin, but also accomplishes the sanctification and divinization of man. God chose us," says St. Paul, " from the beginning to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in truth. (2 Thes.2: 13). This love given by God the father is received by Jesus and Jesus communicates to us through his redemption and thus each one becomes a 'new man', a "new creation." We Christians, are not only purified from sin, but are also reborn and sanctified. We receive a new life, since we have become partakers of the divine nature, we are called children of God, and so we are (I Jn.3: 1). It is the life of grace; the free gift by which God makes us partakers of his Trinitarian life. This is the fullness of holiness in us.

Holy Mass, is the perfect act of worship that sanctifies us and leads us to a sacramental life through which we draw the grace, grace upon grace, and we ourselves become channels of this grace that overflows and from which others too draw that power to Holy living. It is then we look at each other and say, 'Praise the Lord'.

The rich man in Mk.ch.10;17-22 goes away from the presence of Jesus without inheriting the Kingdom of God because he had many possession which he was reluctant to leave or sacrifice for the sake of Jesus. When Jesus asked him to sell what he owns, he was shocked and went away grieving. Whereas Zachaeus, in Lk. Ch. 19 receives Jesus into his house and declares before everyone that he surrenders everything for the sake of Jesus, and enters the kingdom of God. Zachaeus received the salvation from the Lord.

Mother Mary stands as a perfect symbol of God's sanctification and divinization she is "Hail, full of grace". She is Mary, Immaculate, and the one who gave Jesus to mankind at the will of God the Father. Jesus forgave the whole mankind from the cross, and he sought this forgiveness from His Father. The Father will not refuse whatever the Son asks of him. And again from the Cross-, Jesus gifted his mother to the mankind, to be the mother of each and every one of us. 

Co-redeemer with Jesus, working for the sanctification of the people God.

Life in Jesus is life in the Spirit of holiness. And we must all be able to say with

St. Paul, "it is not I who live, but the Lord who lives in me."