Positional. Progressive. Perfect holiness.
Last Sunday, I had an unexpected conversation with a priest that I have never met before. I went to visit a new church to complete my weekly prayers and as I walked inside, a Father greeted me with a warm smile and said “hello.” After some small talk for a few minutes, I eventually mustered up the courage to ask Father to receive the sacrament of reconciliation as I was not able to go the week before. I thought that it was at least worth me asking and I mean, what did I have to lose from asking him anyways?
To my luck, Father was available. I’d like to think that God planned this whole situation out. As I walked into the confessional I did something that I don’t normally do. I sat in front of Father, face to face. For some people this may be easy for them but for me I find the experience to be very intimidating. However after I confessed my sins, I found that being in front of the priest was actually quite liberating. It was as if I was sitting face to face with Jesus!
What really stuck out to me though was something Father said before He absolved me from my sins. The words he said really touched my heart and I know that God was using Fr. Sebastian to speak directly to me and the concerns of my heart at the time.
He said three things. (Note: I have paraphrased the next few points as I tried to remember as much of what he said but of course, I forgot a few.)
- When we are brought into this world we are born with original sin. However, we have the wonderful opportunity to receive the sacrament of Baptism to wash away these sins. This stage is what we call “Positional Holiness.” Since we are too young to make a conscious decision to say yes to Christ and to choose to grow deeper in our relationship with Him, we remain positionary in our journey towards holiness. Yes, the desire to be holy is still there but we may not know how to get to on that path just yet.
- Eventually we grow up. And as we grow up, we are faced with many distractions that keeps our gaze away from Jesus’ face. However, that does not mean that we stop trying in our faith journey and give up completely. This is what we call “Progressive Holiness.” This means that we must continously work towards becoming holier people of Christ. Our progress may not show right away and we may stumble some times but that is alright! The path towards holiness is a day to day process that we must work towards. Keep walking onwards and upwards to Jesus!
- The last stage is called “Perfect Holiness.” This is where God is. Even though we may not be perfect people, we must try our best to follow Christ’s example in our lives every day. It is possible to achieve but we will not know if we reached this goal until we enter Heaven.
To summarize these points up, Father concluded our conversation by saying these next few words. This is what really spoke to my heart.
“God may be present every where, yes, but there is one place He needs to ask permission to, before He can enter. Do you know where that place is? It is in your heart. God may be every where around us, freely and He does not need to ask to be there, but your heart is a different story. You must give Him your “yes” before He can enter inside. So be open; fully open so He can be present in your life and most especially, your heart.”
Thank you God for speaking through Fr. Sebastian today! I will cherish our conversation dearly.
Praise be to God!