The Concept of Holiness

Contemporary language frequently employs such expressions as “sacred” obligation, will, or commandment, a “holy” person. In semantic evolution the terms “sacred” and “holy” were detached from their roots and have taken on a moral meaning quite different from their original ontological significance. 

Above all, holiness is the opposite of the reality of this world and presents itself as the eruption of what is absolutely different, that which Rudolf Otto termed das ganz Andere (the wholly Other). The Bible supplies the fundamental definition. Only God is holy, and a creature is such only in a derived sense. The sacred and the holy can never be of the creature’s own nature but only and always by participation in the nature of God. The terms kadosh, agios, sacer, and sanctus imply a relationship of totally belonging to God, and of being set apart. The divine act of sanctification or consecration takes a person or an object back from its empirical condition and places it in communion with the divine energies and grace which change its nature and immediately makes it experience, within its natural or original location the mysterium tremendum, the sacred trembling before the coming of the supernatural and its “awesome purity.” This has nothing at all to do with fear of the unknown, but is rather a mystical awe which accompanies every manifestation of the Transcendent One. “I will send my fear before you and will destroy all the people to whom you will come” (Ex. 23:27). Again: “Take off your shoes from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground” (Ex. 3:5). 

This is, in the world’s false realities, the overwhelming experience of a reality which is “innocent” because it is sanctified, purified, and returned to its original state, to its destiny of being the pure vessel of a presence. The holiness of God abides there and shines from it. Thus “this place is holy” because of the presence of God, as that part of the Temple was holy because of the presence of the Ark of the Covenant, as the Holy Scriptures witness to the presence of Christ in their words, as every church building is holy because God dwells there, speaks to us and feeds us with Himself. The “kiss of peace” is holy because it seals the communion of those who exchange it in Christ, who is present. The prophets, apostles, and the “saints” of Jerusalem are holy because of the charism of their ministry. Bishops have the title “holy brother,” a patriarch is addressed as “His Beatitude/Holiness,” not because of any personal virtue but because of their participation in the unique, holy priesthood of Christ. Each baptized person is confirmed or chrismated, anointed, sealed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit in order to “share in the nature of God” (2 Pet. 1:4), participate in the “holiness of God” (Heb. 12:10), and it is in this sense of participation in divine holiness that St Paul calls the members of the community “saints.” 

The liturgy teaches this holiness most explicitly. Before offering the eucharistic gifts, the celebrant says: “Holy things are for the holy” and the assembly responds, moved by this awesome invitation, confessing their unworthiness, “One is holy, one is Lord, Jesus Christ, in the glory of God the Father. Amen.” The One who is uniquely holy in his nature is Christ. Those who are His members are holy only through sharing in His unique holiness. 

Isaiah (6:5-6) provides a most illuminating image of this. “Woe is me! … I am a man of unclean lips … Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand which he had taken with tongs from the altar, and he laid it on my mouth and said, Lo, this has touched your lips and your iniquity is taken away.” The energy of divine holiness is a fire which consumes every impurity. When it touches a person this fire cleanses and sanctifies, conforming him to the holiness of God. The priest, after receiving communion, recalls this vision of Isaiah, kissing the rim of the chalice, which is the image of the pierced side of Christ, saying, “Lo, this has touched my lips and taken away my iniquity and healed me of my sin.” The spoon with which the priest distributes Holy Communion in the Orthodox liturgy is called in Greek lavis, “tongs,” of which Isaiah spoke in his vision and of which the Fathers, with respect to the Eucharist say: “You have consumed fire…” 

“Be holy, as I am holy.” Every degree of consecration and sanctification is through participation in the one, unique divine source. Thus is every being in the world “deprofaned” and “devulgarized.” This “permeating” of the world is the very action of the sacraments which teach that in every life there is a sacred power, that every Christian is destined for fulfillment liturgically by participation in the mystery of divine life. Thus as at the feat of the Transfiguration and at Pascha (Easter), the faithful bring to church fruit and other food to be blessed, for all our nourishment is like the Eucharist, an offering to be consecrated, a gift to be sanctified. The destiny of water is for sharing in the Epiphany mystery of the Jordan in which Christ was baptized. The destiny of wood is to be the tree of life and the Cross; of earth to receive the body of the Lord into the rest of Holy Saturday, the great Sabbath; of stone to seal the sepulcher and then be rolled back by the angel for the myrrh-bearing women. Oil and water are fulfilled in baptism, chrismation, and the other anointings. Wheat and the vine culminate in the eucharistic bread and cup. One sees very clearly here that everything refers to the Incarnation, everything is presented to the Lord as a splendid liturgy, the cosmic synthesis of all created being. The most basic actions of life, eating, drinking, washing, speaking, moving – all of these are integrated and directed to their ultimate end by the liturgy, namely participating in the holiness of God. “At last all things are the furnishing of our temple, instead of being our prison,” Paul Claudel says quite rightly. Thus holiness by participation is the restoration of our nature in Christ, His healing, “the return from what is contrary to nature to that which truly belongs to it.” 

~Paul Evdokimov, “Holiness in the Tradition of the Orthodox Church”

*Register for the Eighth Day Symposium ("For I Am Holy: The Command to Be Like God") before regular registration rates begin on January 7.