Do you know what it means to be holy?

Only God is holy and we can only be holy if we are fully dedicated to God, dedicated to serving Him and doing His holy will in all things.

The Lord is calling you this very day to be holy: ‘Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.” Leviticus 19:2

We call Jesus, Mary and Joseph, the Holy Family. Jesus, Mary and Joseph were fully dedicated to serving God and fulfilling God’s plan of salvation.   Jesus, God incarnate, came into the world to save all souls. Joseph died before the Passion and Death of Our Redeemer Jesus Christ, but the Virgin Mary had to watch her Son Jesus, Our Lord and Saviour, be brutally tortured and crucified. Mary would have to stand at the foot of the Cross of Jesus and watch Her holy Son die.  Can you try to imagine her pain? What an enormous sacrifice Our Holy Lord made for us, and what a sacrifice the Virgin Mary and Joseph made too.

We live today in a society that preaches instant gratification and fulfillment of self, so the notion of self-sacrifice is often something foreign to us and as a result our communion with God is not what it could be or should be.

Many years before Jesus was born, it was prophesied that Jesus would become the “desire of all nations.”

“This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of hosts. The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the LORD Almighty. The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the LORD Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the LORD Almighty.” Haggai 2:7-9

If we want to be holy, then we must let Jesus “shake up” the way we think first and foremost. We must embrace Jesus as our heart’s desire and when we do that our lives will begin to transform. When we become truly consecrated to God’s service we will repent of our sins and begin thinking about how we can please God. We will begin realizing that whatever wealth we have belongs to God. Remember the silver and the gold belongs to God. (Haggai 2:8) Whatever resources we have, our time, our money, our relationships must serve God and then God will come to dwell in us. We become His temple and His glory can now be proclaimed because we are all His! His holiness changes our hearts, our minds and our lives. God becomes the patriarch of our family and our family is focused on listening to Him, learning from Him and serving Him. And the greatest part of all is our family seeks to be defined not by bloodlines, but by God’s global definition of family.

Too often in today’s society we define our families by biological and genetic lines. People go to great lengths to understand their family trees and their ancestry. It’s ok to understand our ancestry but let’s not be limited to allowing that to restrict our view of who is our family.  If God is to be the center of our lives, then we must embrace His definition of family.

I see a Muslim man and a Muslim woman as my brother and sister. We are family. I see a Jewish man and a Jewish woman as my brother and sister.  We are family. I see an Atheist man and Atheist woman as my brother and sister. We are family.

Faith defines who I see as my family, but a person need not have faith for me to acknowledge them as a brother or a sister.  I am Christian and to be Christian is to believe in the salvation that comes through Jesus Christ. I believe it also requires that I love all people for we are all God’s creatures. I know Muslims and Jews believe in different things, but what matters most is that we can love and respect and forgive one another irrespective of our beliefs and I pray every day for peace on earth and love and respect amongst all people.

God is Our Father in Heaven. God is Our Saviour Jesus Christ. God is the Holy Spirit that dwells amongst us, in our hearts and in our world. I pray today that all people will embrace the notion of a global holy family where we will live consecrated and dedicated to God, loving and serving and honouring one another just as Our Lord Jesus taught us to do.

Let’s stand for human dignity and lift one another up by the way we speak, through an unceasing, continuous prayer to God and through good deeds that promote prosperity and fairness for all, especially those most oppressed and disadvantaged.

Remember God teaches us to speak with respect and refrain from violence: “‘Do not go about spreading slander among your people. Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor’s life. I am the LORD.’” Leviticus 19:16

Jesus, YOU are my heart’s desire! I pray that all people will embrace You as the “Desire of all nations.”