Homily: February 19,2024, Monday of the first week in Lent (Be Holy)

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Two phrases that struck me today are from the first reading. The first one is, “Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am holy,” and the second one is: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.”

For a long time, I have always thought that holiness was something that I could never attain. I just felt it was too far and impossible for me to reach.

When I was little, all the saints I knew about were born in countries a great distance from India, like St. Anthony of Padua, St. Dominic Savio, St. Padre Pio, and so on. I believed that people from other countries were holy, and Indians can never be.

It is only recently that there are saints from India being canonized. I am sure there must have been many unknown, unnamed and uncanonized saints who lived and died in India throughout its history, but their cases were never brought to the Holy See for the canonization process. Similarly for many countries in Asia and around the world.

After my ordination, as I encountered more people who lived authentic Christian lives, I began to realize that there are many living saints. And the place I encounter most of them is usually in the confessional. They come to confess themselves as the worst sinners, but I see them as shining saints as I reflect upon my own sins in comparison.

What does it mean to be holy?

Often, we think that to be holy is to be perfectly good, and that is when holiness becomes impossible for anyone to attain. But if we understand holiness based on what the Lord told Moses, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD”, then we can see how we can be holy.

What do you do when you are hungry? Feed yourself.

What do you do when you fall sick? Take good care of yourself.

What do you do when you are thirsty? Yes, get water to drink.

In the very familiar Gospel reading, Jesus has given us the same instructions: love others as you love yourself. Just do the same things you would do for yourself in the same situation. In that way, you are loving your neighbor, and you would be loving Jesus.

Finally, the critical words that the Lord said to Moses, “I am the Lord.”

We cannot love our neighbor, we cannot do good, we cannot attain holiness on our own. We have to turn to the Lord all the time for the graces we need to be holy like Him.

The saints were holy not because they were born in holy countries, but because they were always receiving graces from the sacrament of reconciliation. Holy saints are born from the confessionals. From there, they emerge humble and full of God’s grace. They are then able to see the face of Jesus in everyone and are able to love and serve them sincerely.

Enter the confessional a sinner and emerge from there a saint. Holiness is born in the confessionals, through the graces received from the sacrament. No one can be holy without God, no one can be saint without forgiveness, no one can enter heaven if not a saint. Amen.


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