The call to holiness is a call to bear witness to the revelation of God through the Person of Jesus. True evangelization, I believe, is all about bearing witness to this truth. It means living in such a manner that the words of John become true reality: If you make my teaching your rule of life, you are truly my disciples: then you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.

You and I are more slaves than freed persons. The call to holiness is a call to true freedom. Part of our slavery consists in having forgotten what true freedom as children of God means. We often are content to live in the narrow confines of our slavery, mainly because everyone else is in the same prison. Blindness would not be so great a suffering if all human beings were born blind and never could know any other possibility. But blindness would become unbearable for all if there were even one man among them all who really could see.

The way we perceive ourselves, God and the world is pretty much the same way others perceive the same relationships. That is precisely part of our slavery. But   Jesus Christ came among us with the eyes of God. He was one with the Father. He came to witness to the truth about God’s community of love and told us that the Father and Holy Spirit love us with as much passion unto death as He, the Divine Word incarnate, displayed when He was here on earth. He was the true light that enlightens all men.  That light shines in our darkness and cannot be overpowered by our darkness.

So the call to holiness, which is a call to witness to God’s revelation and evangelization, requires that we demonstrate to others our belief in Jesus as the true light. Again it is not by preaching that we do this but by the way we think and behave. God doesn’t force us to respond to His call. It is our choice.