“Holiness: A Biblical Perspective”

“Holiness: A Biblical Perspective”
Religion 4th Year
La Consolacion College
Bais City


Activity:
Holiness Story: Augustine
By Doak Felix
(Source: http://urbanskyesoul.blogspot.com/2008/02/holiness-story-augustine.html)

Augustine was born in the town of Hippo (present day Algeria). He was reared in the Christian faith of his mother, but as a teenager he began to rebel. He studied law, logic, and rhetoric in Carthage. Augustine became such a skilled speaker that by the age of twenty-one he moved to Rome and founded his own school of rhetoric. At this time he renounced his Christian upbringing and launched himself into the study of philosophy. By thirty, Augustine had risen to be the most well known orator in the Roman Empire, yet he found his life was full of stress.

His mother, Monica, had never ceased to pray for her son nor neglect counseling him in Christian teachings. In 386, Augustine put away his concubines (and his fiancee), his partying and converted to Christianity. Five years later he became a priest (against his will) in his home town. He founded a monastery in Hippo and preached from there for more than thirty years. Outside of the Bible, Augustine's writings have been more influential on Christian doctrine, theology, and practice than anyone else's.

Augustine was a rebellious teenager, a student, a libertine, an academic, a preacher, an author, and a son. He dealt with the same issues that we deal with today... the accumulation of wealth, diet, social injustice, personal betrayals, sex, drugs, war, civil strife, political corruption, family illnesses, emotional stress, job fulfillment, and spiritual indecision.

In his magnum opus, Confessions, Augustine detailed his inner turmoil over his struggle with temptations. He knew the heart of Paul's Epistle to the Romans (ch. 6-8) by heart because he lived it. He dealt with the problem of a person, saved by faith in Christ Jesus, who has trouble accomplishing tasks that are spiritually beneficial. He knew the awful feeling of succumbing to temptation. He knew the guilt. He also knew the blessings of temptation... namely patience, humility, and sympathy.

Discussion:
What lesson does St. Augustine’s life story want to teach us?

Christian Message:

To some “Holiness” means sacred, however the word “Holiness” would mean set apart or separated. Prophet Isaiah in one his writings noted that:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9

As shown, God is holy because his ways are totally different from our ways. (cf. Jose Ma. Ygoa, Called to Holiness, Phoenix Publishing House) In most cases man wills and does things only if it is beneficial to him, contrary to that of God or Yahweh wills only what is good for his people a good act that violates no precept of love. God’s ways then is selfless.
Furthermore God wishes to extend holiness to us men by invoking Moses to tell his people to be holy. He said to mosses: "Speak to the whole Israelite community and tell them: Be holy, for I, the LORD your God, am holy.” Leviticus 19:2. But the question however is how can we be holy. If we continue reading Leviticus chapter 19 we will find another presentation of the Decalogue of the Ten Commandments.
We may then conclude that humans can also be holy if they translate into action the will of God and follow his ways.

Moving onwards, the word holy in the Christian perspective applies to the Church which is the people of God; the mystical body of Christ, a community of believers united in the love of Christ manifested in his death on the cross redeeming man from the bondage of sin. (see CFC 1905) New Testament teaching would further emphasize that we humans became holy after Jesus unites us into His body. St. Peter in his letter preaches that: “But you are "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises" of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were "no people" but now you are God's people; you "had not received mercy" but now you have received mercy.” 1 Peter 2:9-10. If we dig into details 1 Peter 2:9-10 it would stress these points on God’s invitation for Humans to be Holy: 1. We become Holy because Jesus unites us into His body. 2. We become holy because we become God’s possession 3. We become holy because the Holy Spirit dwells in us; our body became the temple of the Holy Spirit.