"The process of consecration, 'sanctification,' includes two apparently opposed, but in reality deeply conjoined, aspects. On the one hand, 'consecrating' as 'sanctifying' means setting apart from the rest of reality that pertains to man's ordinary everyday life. Something that is consecrated is raised into a new sphere that is no longer under human control. But this setting apart also includes the essential dynamic of 'existing for.' Precisely because it is entirely given over to God, this reality is now there for the world, for men, it speaks for them and exists for their healing. We may also say: setting apart and mission form a single whole." (Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week)
This is beautiful! Did you catch what he's saying? We are consecrated in Christ (made holy/set apart) "for the world... for their healing."The world needs us to be real Catholics! We need to be going deep in prayer, loving sacrificially, in the heart of the Church, for the sake of all of the people around us. We need to come out of the sin in the world... so that we can go back in and set it free from that sin, in Christ!
It's a good ol' Catholic "both-and." If we try to transform the world without being holy, that will seriously flop. On the other hand, we won't actually be holy if we become arrogantly or selfishly closed in on ourselves! We really can't do one without the other! (Don't you just love the way the Church sees the whole picture? She's such a good mother, making sure her silly little kids don't go to crazy extremes!)
I pray that we all continue to go deeper and deeper into the heart of Christ, so that we live in a way that heals the world!
"They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world." (John 17:16-18)
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