I think most Americans are familiar with the line from the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” But as Catholics there is one pursuit that ranks above these, the pursuit of holiness.

When we think of a holy person, we immediately think of the saints. But they lived  life on earth just as we do, facing all the temptations that we face. Sometimes they succeeded in the battle against sin and sometimes not. Only two people lived without sin: Jesus and His Mother Mary. There may be a priest or religious that we may consider as holy, chalking it up to their vocation. But holiness is not limited to those professing religious vows. All baptized Christians are called to a holy way of life that will result in eternal happiness with God, and thus also becoming a saint. So what does it mean to be holy?

In the Old Testament, to be holy was to be set apart from the everyday, the ordinary, and to be dedicated to the service of God. God is what made things holy, His blessing and His grace. Israel, as a nation, was to be holy — set apart from the rest of the nations and called to live according to God’s commands. Israel, however, struggled in this endeavor. They sought a king to rule them, just like the other nations around them. Interaction and intermarriage with those nations exposed them to other religions. They soon began to practice them and failed to keep God’s commands. 

How can following God’s commands make us holy? That’s not quite the right question to ask.  We cannot make ourselves holy by what we do, but instead we need to participate and respond to God. We need to seek a relationship with God. If we ask how we can seek this, the answer is by following the Commandments, especially the first three.

First, in order to seek God, we need to put Him first in our daily lives. We need to reach out through prayer, being open to His response. While we may pray through words and speech (or thought), God can answer in a myriad of ways: in another’s response to us, in coincidence, in a surprise or in an unexpected event or encounter, etc. Secondly, we need to be mindful of our speech. What we say indicates our attitudes towards that of which we are speaking. If we deny God’s ability to help us, He will respect just that, even if deep down we wish that He would. If we throw around God’s name, or even the name of Jesus Christ, as if it is like any other word, we abuse any relationship we have with Him. Thirdly, we are called to take time weekly to dive deeper into our relationship with God, dedicating time spent with Him in the Mass as well as other spiritual practices. Lastly, we need to follow all other Commandments and Beatitudes, as a relationship with God does not mean excluding or ignoring everyone and everything that bears the signature of the Creator. 

If we want happiness in our lives, if we want to live free, then we need to pursue holiness first throughout our life on earth. The result will be to have the best life there is: eternal life spent in the presence of God.