Today we live in a crisis. A crisis of customs, of doctrines and of virtue. The greatest crisis of all, however, is that of holiness. On every side we find models of business executivos, athletes and film stars… Saints, however, are somewhat absent from view, to say the least.
Someone might argue that it is inevitable that saints will always be rare, since few are able to achieve heroism in the practice of virtues. This is because sanctity is often understood as something arcane and utopian, although it is in fact an evangelical imperative: “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48).
Everyone can and must be holy, in any condition of life and from “every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues” (Rv 7:9). During his conversion process, St. Augustine asked himself: “Why can others be saints and not I?” In other words, if Isidore, who was a farm labourer, and Crispin, who was a shoemaker, became saints, why not I, as well?
It is true that there are false models of holiness. Our Lord Jesus Christ clashed with the Pharisees, perfect “whitewashed tombs” (Mt 23:27), whose examples should never be imitated. And the Revolution, in its various phases, has also tried to present as “anointed ones” or national saviours individuals such as Luther, Robespierre or Marx, whose lives were far from exemplary.
Much more harmful than open evil, however, is the false appearance of holiness. As Camões said, “there is no enemy so harsh and fierce as the false virtue of the sincere.” Today, this opposition can be seen above all in the error that Dr. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira called “white heresy”, that is, an undefined heresy, muted, sugar-coated and sealed by indifference, which confuses holiness with sentimentality, with a lack of combativeness and sacrality.
For the followers of “white heresy”, St. Francis of Assisi, a crusader saint, becomes a kind of hippie protector of animals; St. Therese of the Child Jesus – a nun with great missionary horizons and a pioneer of the “dark nights” of suffering both physical and spiritual – becomes a meek and spineless “saintling”; St. Thomas Aquinas, called a “dumb ox” in his student years due to his discretion and simplicity, is rendered a scowling and irreligious scholar.
This counterfeiting of holiness is all too often done consciously. Even the wicked know deep down who is truly holy. For example, on the occasion of the death of St. Joan of Arc, a secretary to the king of England cried out: “We are lost; we have burned a saint!” And the devil himself recognized the holiness of Christ: “I know who you are, the Holy One of God” (Lk 4:34).
Taking the Greek and Latin etymology of the word holy – agios and sanctus – St. Thomas Aquinas identifies two essential and counter-revolutionary characteristics of holiness: purity and firmness, both as detachment from sin and union with God, and as resolute perseverance in virtue. And this covenant is well summarized in the Psalm: “Create in me a clean heart, and put a new and right spirit within me” (50:12).
From these considerations we conclude that holiness is being increasingly distorted and abandoned, and that in the relativistic society in which we live, not to be an apostle is to be an apostate. To embrace holiness according to this world is to tread the path of heresy; and not to be holy, or at least not to seek holiness, is to betray evangelical principles. In the end, we can only be or be holy: there is no other option. ◊
