Universal Call to Holiness
As I have suggested many times in previous issues of this article, the call to holiness is a call to an authentic spirituality which, in turn, engages us in a process of personal transformation or change. I realize that there is a tendency in many to EITHER believe that they do not have to change OR to fear what personal change they might have to make if they really respond to God’s call to holiness. As we look around our world, we quickly realize that humans don’t like change and seem to do whatever they can to resist any real and significant change.
So, one of the first things we do if we truly want to respond to God’s call to holiness is admit that all people have things in their lives that need to change. Why? Because none of us can ever say that we can unconditionally love and forgive all others and completely refrain from judging others. Unfortunately it seems to be built into the human psyche to judge others so that we can feel better about ourselves.
I believe that, like St. Gregory Palamas, a beginning point in this process is to affirm and believe that even in this present life we are called to direct and unmediated communion with God Himself. Once we truly believe and accept this fact, we will do everything in our power to become engaged in a process of real, personal change. We can strengthen this belief by engaging in authentic prayer. Prayer is at one and the same time the chief means by which this communion with God is attained, and, in its truest form, communion with God Himself. Prayer as communion, prayer as theology, is nothing less than the face to Face encounter with Christ. Prayer helps us build a real relationship with God when we relate to Him as the God-Man, Jesus Christ. When we think of God in terms of Jesus, the Christ, we find that we can relate to God since He also has a human nature just as we do, although now glorified. We know, in reading about His life, that He faced the same life challenges that we have to face and that He clearly demonstrated how to effectively deal with life challenges. Jesus is our model of how to live.