Universal Call to Holiness

Msgr. Luigi Giussani states: "[T.S. Eliot] asked himself "Has the Church failed mankind, or has mankind failed the Church?" . . . Both, both, because first and foremost it is mankind who failed the Church, because if I need something, I chase after it if it goes away. No one chased after it . . . The Church began to fail mankind, as I see it . . . because she forgot who Christ was, she did not rely on..., she was ashamed of Christ, of saying who Christ is."(Interview, 2004)

 

For all Christians, the fundamental vocation is holiness. The fundamental vocation applies to every single Christian no matter what kind of status that they are in. In regards to the call to holiness, that is something that the church has already done in the past time and time again. The Church is the holy people of God; in addition to that, the members within the church are called saints, or holy persons. Towards the church, it is held in a matter of faith and to be unfailingly holy. Reason for this is because God and the Holy Spirit are regarded as “alone holy”.

So now the big question is what exactly is holiness? It means that the church is holy, also that the members of the church are holy. Also, we are participation in the divine nature.  Holiness is also a property of divine nature and nothing else is a part of that. This information was given to us by the First Commandment. Then it is fundamentally given to us through Jesus Christ, who is the divine Word of God. As then Jesus and God’s nature unites into a personal union. The two natures are united into the Word of God.

Now the big puzzle comes back into the conversation. In baptism, it is said that we are made by the members of Christ’s body. However, if we are baptized through the body which is unfailing holy, how can anything be perfect? Wasn’t holiness, given us the members of Christ body, perfect itself. Baptism gives us new life through Christ, and then we become adoptive sons and daughters of the All-Mighty father, members of the church and the temples of the Holy Spirit. Because of this, every person who is baptized is incorporated into the Church. Also, with baptism, it brings about the death of sin, and the entry into the life of the Most Holy Trinity throughout configuration to the mystery of Christ.

With baptism, we are formed into Christ likeness. So whoever has been made in the likeness of him have died and also risen with, then they are taking up into the mysteries of his life until we end up reigning with him. With Christian theology, it has traditionally considered such biblical events as the crossing of the red sea as baptism. That is how the Catechism talks about how baptism works. The crossing of the red sea was the liberation for Israel from slavery, and also the liberation of baptism.

The people of Israel were enslaved by the Egyptian people. However, God delivered his people from Egypt. Then the crucial images of the Egyptian people from the plaques the fire from God, were all liberation for Israel. As Moses said, they were going to get out of the situation that God said they would get out of. That is exactly what happened to them, and this is recalled as a baptism for Israel. Then after, they were free from the Egyptians as baptized people are free from sin.