Personal Holiness

In addition to reading Mountains Beyond Mountains, I recently also started reading, "Getting on Message: Challening the Christian Right from the Heart of the Gospel," a collection of essays. The first chapter, written by Marilynne Robinson, talks about personal holiness, which she describes as something not related to our actions or inactions,

“I believe holiness is a given of our being which, essentially, we cannot add to or diminish, and whose character and reality is fully known only to God, and fully valued only by him. What I might call personal holiness is in fact openness to the perception of the holy, in existence itself and above all in one another.”

Kidder makes references to Paul Farmer’s religious ties and how he uses them (and many others) to reach out to individuals who need care on the basis of love for the person, not economic feasibility. The apostle Paul, to paraphrase I Corinthians, says if he has knowledge and faith that will move mountains, but not love, he is nothing. It seems that doctor Paul is better able to put this into action than so many of our country’s leaders who concern themselves overmuch with abortion, gay marriage, etc… When was the last time you voted against poverty (i.e. the perpetual suffering and struggle for survival thousands experience every day) outright at the polls? I often find myself wondering when the members of Christian Right lost their way. Not only are they distracted from the political/human issues that really matter, they are besmirching the image of the faith I share with them by name, a faith that I would hope to see as the embodiment of love rather than condemnation. To this end, I say kudos to Paul Farmer, the embodiment of Christian love and respect for the holiness of every individual.

I am not the most eloquent writer. Much of what I’ve written comes in the form of quotes and to finish my food for thought train, I’ll end with one now.

“We ought to embrace the whole human race without exception in a single feeling of love; here there is no distinction between barbarian and Greek, worthy and unworthy, friend and enemy, since all should be contemplated in God, not in themselves. When we turn aside from such contemplation, it is no wonder we become entangled in many errors.”

-John Calvin