Article April 6, 1981 Issue

Man is wholly holy

SHEILA P. GEIER

Holiness. An unfashionable word in today's sophisticated world. Yet holiness is the key to healing, whether for a sick body, a sick church, or a sick world.

Holiness is not an ethereal state to be enjoyed in the hereafter. It is a divine reality to be demonstrated now. The "how to" of holiness can be seen as consisting of two parts: (1) seeing what man really is and (2) bringing this out in life practice. We work at the first by discerning each day more of man's innate holiness, and we work at the second by striving to express the qualities that evidence man's innate holiness.

Paul, writing to the young church at Rome, wanted them to realize that in Christ all are God's and of holy stock. "Hath God cast away his people?" he asks. "God forbid .... For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches."^{Rom. 11:1, 16.} although some Bible scholars interpret this "root" as referring to the ancestry of the Israelites, its broader meaning for all of us is made clear in Revelation: "I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star."^{Rev. 22:16.} Christ, therefore, is our family tree, just as it was for the members of the early Church. The man Jesus was reckoned as a descendant of the family of David, but the eternal Christ he presented antedates all men, including David. This holy heritage reveals our spiritual identity, and the awareness of the Christ-idea brings us into harmony with our divine source. The effect is to frame our day with serenity and fill it with achievement.