A Call to Holiness & Response in the Light of Christian Anthropology

A CALL TO HOLINESS

INTRODUCTION
This call to holiness is a divine call. It is a call to humanity to be and to act according to its nature. The nature of every human person reflects the nature of his or her Creator who created him or her in his own image and likeness. The image of God who created all things, in this context, finds expression in his holiness. This has to do with the awesome and saving presence of God who is himself Love. To be holy, therefore, is the have the capacity to share in this divine nature and to be able to experience, express and communicate this awesome love of God with all it implications. Every human being is basically endowed with this capacity since all are created in this divine image of God that is LOVE. This is why a call to holiness is a call to reflect the image of God that man is. This call is addressed to the entire humanity, but first to the Jews who were the first chosen “People of God”. God calls ALL to be holy as he himself is holy. He says: “Be holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy” (Leviticus 19:2). This call is repeated in a special way by Christ himself when he says: “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect”. (Matt.5:48). Recalling the true identity of every Christian, St. Peter reaffirms this when he says: “as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in every aspect of your conduct, for it is written, ‘be holy because I am holy’” (1pt 1: 15-16).

A. AN AUTHENTIC RESPONSE TO HOLINESS CALL FOR KNOWLEDGE OF CHRISTIAN ANTHROPOLOGY

But, in this time and age, secularism has made it almost impossible to hear this call, and so, for the human person to perceive the sense of mystery or sense of holiness in his or her life. There is identity crisis in the world today. This is why our world today has an urgent need for basic knowledge of anthropology in general and Christian anthropology in particular in order to overcome the identity crisis and to recapture the sense of mystery and to answer the call to holiness. The father of philosophers, Socrates said, “The beginning of wisdom is self knowledge.” Man knows thy self”. In order to know ourselves here, there are some Fundamental questions which can help us to know ourselves in the light of Christ’s revelation of who man is, i.e., in the light of Christian anthropology.:

1. Who am I? You must know who you are
2. Where do I come from in to this world?.
3. What is my vocation in this world? What reason has God in mind for creating me? From Prophet Jeremiah, Chapter 1:5,“Yahweh said, before I formed you in your mother’s womb I knew you. Before you were born I consecrated you and appointed you to be a prophet to the nations.” So from our mother’s womb God knew what he was forming. Each and every one of us. That is how precious we are.
4. What have I been doing with this vocation since I came into this world? What have I been doing with my life?
5. What do I still want to do with the rest of my life?
6. Where do I go when I leave this world?

These are the questions that touch the fabric of human existence -- from the womb to the tomb. They are the questions which every wise person must always ask himself or herself. Such questions lead to self-knowledge which is the beginning of wisdom. Many philosophers, psychologists and anthropologists have tried in their different fields to understand “who man is” in order to answer these questions. I do not know how much they have succeeded. But we know that no human knowledge of man is sufficient. We are convinced that only divine knowledge is complete. That is why God sent his Son Jesus to come into the world to share knowledge with humanity and to give answers to these questions and other related ones. So only in Christ, with Christ and through Christ can we find the answers to these questions, for he is the Way, the truth and the life. (Jn.14:6). He is the only Way through which the mystery of man can be unfolded. That is why we talk about Christian anthropology, which has to do with Christ’s revelation of “who man is” -- what Christ has revealed the human person to be. Christ is the fullness of revelation. He has come with two-fold revelation:
1. Christ came to reveal God to man
2. Christ came to reveal man to man, the human person and this again recalls the important of Christian anthropology. It focuses on what God has revealed to us about the human person in Christ, through Christ and with Christ.
This will be the key to our appreciation of a person’s true identity and of his or her vision of life.
From Christ we come to know that the human person has a Trinitarian Origin. He or she is created in God’s image by God the Father, redeemed in his blood by God the Son and he or she is sanctified, consecrated and unified to the Trinity and to Church and to all people of good will. This is the authentic identity of the human person from where his mission flows.

B. SELF-KNOWLEDGE: AN INDISPENSABLE MORAL RESPONSE TO A CALL FOR HOLINESS
The fundamental starting point for discovering the nature of the morality of the human person can be found in the very nature of man. In other words the morality of the human person flows from his very nature, i.e. from who he or she is. So what a person ought” to do flows from who the person is. I have a special way of putting it. The “ought of the human person flows from the person’s “is” (My “ought ” flows from my” is”). This means that what I ought to do, flows form who I am. That is why we must know ourselves; we must know who we are so as to know what we ought to do. If you do not know who you are, you cannot know what you ought to do. Self-knowledge is therefore very important for any one who wants to know what he or she ought to do in life and in any given situation.

It is this vision of self-knowledge that led me to come up with what I call “revelation-response morality”. This is an approach that recognizes the individual’s revelation of himself or herself in Christ. The individual’s recognition his or her identity-in-Christ demands a moral response for the individual. The individual recognizes himself or herself as a mystery because he or she shares in the mysterious nature of God in whose image he is created. So the human person is mystery because God is a mystery and He allows him to share in His mysterious nature having created him or her in His own image and likeness.
Thus every one should ask himself or herself this question: “Do you know yourself fully”? The answer, of course, is “No”. I am still learning from God, who I am. God continues to reveal to me who I am. Every one is called upon to respond to this revelation. Life becomes a daily struggle to search and discover who we are as persons and more to discover the mystery of God that we are; it is a mystery of our being.
This is the task of Christian anthropology helping us to discover, in the light of Christ, the authentic identity and nature of the human person. Within this context of understanding the identity of the Christian, I am hereby proposing six characteristics of Christian anthropology:

1. Being-in-Christ: By virtue of the mystery of Incarnation and Baptism, Every Christian becomes a being –in-Christ. No person is complete except in-Christ. Only in Christ with Christ through Christ can one realize who one is. Christ will teach you who you are. That is why at Mass we pray: “In him with him and through him”. Only through Christ can we give glory to God. Little wonder then that Paul says; “I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live no longer I, but Christ lives in me” (Gal.2:20). This means that every Christian become one with Him. Every Christian, by Baptism, has entered into a covenant sealed with the blood of Christ. So every one is thus united with him you cannot be separated from him except if one decides to get out of him. Separation from Him causes Christ a lot of pain. He shed his blood for humanity and thus binds to it in an everlasting covenant. This is what we celebrate at Mass. “This is the cup of my blood the blood of the new and everlasting covenant which shall be shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sin”. Therefore, through this covenant every Christian we becomes a being-in-Christ by virtue of Baptism and this bond is constantly strengthened through Holy Communion Therefore an authentic response to holiness means being a being-in-Christ. It involves reflecting and celebrating in one’s daily life the mysteries of Christ.

2. An Ecclesial Person: Every Christian is an “ecclesial person”: Christ founded a family when he came into the world and that family is the Church. And by virtue of their baptism the faithful are incorporated into this family. That helps us to appreciate that the Christian life here should form part and parcel of the community of the Body of Christ - the Church. Therefore, all Christians are sons and daughters of the Church so their actions must reflect this being-in-Christ. Through their participation in the sacramental and non-sacramental activities of the Church, they show their authentic identity as “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a people set aside to sing the praises of God who call us out of darkness into this marvelous light”. (1Pt. 2: 9). To be holy, therefore means to celebrate and translate into one’s daily life the sacramental life of the Church. It involves holistic sharing in the priestly, prophetic and kingly functions of Christ within and outside the Church.

3. A Sacramental Person: Every Christian is a “sacramental person”. The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council present the Church as “Sign and Instrument of Salvation” Lumen Gentium (No. 1). That is why every member of the Church becomes a “sign and instrument of salvation” -- a sacramental person -- a sign of God’s love for the world, a sign of God’s joy and God’s peace. So as members of the Church, Christians become signs of God’s love to others. Their lives must constantly reflect the love of God and the loving presence of God in our world. Thus to be holy means to be a visible of salvation to the whole world and this should be carried out in one’s thoughts, words and actions.

4. Spiritual Person: To be a spiritual person means to recognize who you are – the temple of the Holy Spirit. “Do you not realize your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.” (1Cor. 6, 3) The Catholics have tabernacles in their churches and chapels but they should see themselves also as are “living tabernacles”. Therefore, Every Christian is temple of God and in this context God the Holy Spirit. Holiness here means a constant awareness of the presence of the Holy Spirit in one’s life and allowing the Holy Spirit to effectively produce His fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.etc. (cfGal.5:22-25).

5. Historical Person: Christians are historical persons in that God decided the time and place that they are created. Their history is begun by God. In every stage of that history, for the 9 months in their mother’s womb, God was at work in their development and growth. They were born and grew to be who you are today. At each stage of their development, the God of history is always there. According to developmental psychology here are the different stages of development - 0-5 is infancy; 6-11 is childhood; 11-18 is adulthood; Then early adult is 21-35; middle adulthood ; 35-50plus is late adulthood. In each of these stages God has plans for each person as a historical person. They pass journey through history in union with God until they arrive in heaven. To understand ones history from the womb to the tomb one must consider “the history of God’s love” in the life of the person – God’s work of salvation in the life of the person. Holiness here involves a recognition, acceptance and communication of God’s love in every sector of the history of the human family.


6. Convertible Persons: There is always room for improvement in the life of every individual. With God, there are no hopeless cases. Every person has the capacity to grow always from bad to good, from good to better and from better to the best. In the same way sinners have the capacity to grow from being sinners to being holy and from being holier to being holiest. That is the journey of all must undertake. This understand of the human person can found through the individual’s sharing in the life of Christ, in the person of Christ, in his actions, and in his teaching. Therefore, the individual’s vocation as human being and as Christian is not complete without growing daily towards perfect in Christ. This convertible growth towards perfection is a response to a call to holiness and love.
Little wonder then that St. Theresa said “I have found my vocation and my vocation is to love”.
God created man in his image and likeness male and female he created them so man is created in the image of God. Who is God? What is the greatest definition of God in the Bible? God is love. So since men and women are created in the image and likeness of God therefore, they are love. Their life is love. It will then be a contradiction to the identity of the human person when they fail to love. They are created to love. That is man’s vocation, i.e. vocation to love, vocation to communicate love, and vocation to experience and express God’s love. Sometimes the Christians are so carried away by trying to show “their love for God”. That is good. But this is secondary. The primary thing is “God’s love for us”. St. John says: “It is not so much your love for God but God’s love for you.”
So the primary thing is to meditate daily on how much God loves you how precious you are. Christian must first learn to experience God’s love from the moment of conception to death and experience him every morning you wake up. They must begin to see in your daily experiences how much God loves them. They are surrounded with so many blessings of family, friends and the gifts of one another in community to help them. In his love, Christ has promised them, “I will be with you always to the end of time.” And he shows it in every stage of your life as a historical person. It is only then they are able to experience God’s love and understand how much he loves them. Then, they have no option but to respond by sharing that love with others.
In conclusion, in this invitation to holiness, Christ is inviting the faithful to know who they are, to understand what they are called to do and to try to live out their vocation of holiness and love in union with Christ. Being-in-Christ. The only thing Christ brought from heaven to us is love. He came to “contaminate” the whole world with his love so that the whole world will be overflowing with the ocean of his love. If a Christian is a being-in-Christ, he or she has no choice but to experience that love and express it in your day-to-day living. Experience, express and communicate it daily to the world. So, as a being-in-Christ, Christ is loving in every one, working through every one, with everyone and in everyone. He helps every one to experience his love, and to communicate it. And as an ecclesial person, the Church was born through the love of God the blood of Christ through the Holy Spirit “The love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit“ (Rom. 5:5). So no one should say, “I cannot love”. As members of the Church of Christ, the Christian vocation is to live out this love.

As a sacramental person, the Christian ought to communicate this love and show it by the way he or she lives. As a spiritual person guided by the Holy Spirit, he or she needs to continue to communicate this love. As a convertible person, the faithful are still growing in love. No one has come to the climax in living out this love. Everyone is still learning how to experience and how to communicate this love. Every one remains a “student” for the rest of our lives in the school of Christ. All are called learn how to live a life of love and how to share this life of love.


FUNDAMENTAL OBSTACLES TO AN AUTHENTIC RESPONSE
TO A CALL TO HOLINESS TODAY

Our secularistic age has made it so difficult to appreciate God’s call to holiness. This age has been experiencing an “eclipse of sense of mystery”, which makes it so hard to hear the mysterious voice that call for holiness of life. The following phenomena are largely responsible for this “eclipse” and consequently for preventing people from hearing the call to holiness. They really constitute fundamental obstacles to an authentic response to holiness.

Secularism: This is a type of theory that dethrones God and enthrones man. Man is presented as the centre of everything. “He can do any thing”. He can even go to the space and he has gone to the moon. Man is in charge of himself. With his technology he can do everything. This idea has entered into the management of the society so much so that he tries to control everything in the society without any reference to God. This secularistic notion has gradually penetrated into various technologically advance societies. American society is not an exception to this. This is what makes secularism is so complex today. One of the consequences of this is that the human person, who is created in the image and likeness of God, is treated without reverence and holiness he deserves. Since the secularism has created a “disposable society”, everything has become disposable. Even human beings are being treated as “disposable”. Any person who is no more “useful” to the society becomes a burden. Therefore such a person could be disposed of. Consequently husbands become “disposable”. Wives and even disposable children became disposable – even babies in the womb. Little wonder then the some people today continue to agitate for the legalization of abortion and euthanasia. Since human beings are now enthroned and God dethroned, they feel they can do any thing they like without reference to God or to the sacredness of man or to any thing divine. This new secularistic culture is what Pope John Paul 11 calls the “culture of death”. Abortion and euthanasia have become a common practice as a result of this new culture of death. (cf. Pope John Paul II in Evangelium Vitae calls it a culture of death. This makes it difficult and almost impossible to live out one’s Christian life and to appreciate God’s invitation to holiness. So many people now practice a type of “morality of convenience” instead of practicing authentic morality based on sacredness of human person.

Commercialism and Mass media: These have a lot of good things to offer to the society. They create awareness to the public of the things available. However, there are a lot of bad things associated with them.. For example. A lot of pornography goes with the subliminal advertisement. There is something hidden in what they advertise. In the process of advertising a good item a lot of bad images go with that. There is no room for God in their advertisement. This make is almost impossible to think of God’s call to holiness. This is why it continues to be a danger to Christian life and a threatening danger to any authentic response to holiness. If the faithful really want to give an authentic response to a call to holiness, they must recognize the dangerous phenomena and fight against it.

Consumerism: We are in a society of consumerism. Every one wants to have everything there is. Many people teach the young that they must have new things at every new season. The commercialism creates needs for people and tells them they have to buy whatever they advertise or their identity and place in the society will be questionable. Many people are ‘forced’ to obey them or they will not be recognized as a “modern” person in the society. These are the things that can destroy our society and the Church. This again is a serious danger to an authentic response to God’s to holiness. So any Christian who wants to respond to God’s call to holiness should not only ignore all forms of consumerism but must strongly attack it.