The Lord commanded us to be holy as He is holy, to be "holy in every aspect of (our) conduct" (see 1 Pt 1:15-16).
Holiness is the very character of God, and our heavenly Father wants His children to act and look like Him. We are
called to be a "holy nation" (1 Pt 2:9), and the Lord is coming back a final time for a holy Church, "holy and
immaculate, without stain or wrinkle or anything of that sort" (Eph 5:27). Without holiness, we cannot go to heaven
and see God (Heb 12:14).
PRESENTATION CHURCH
The following example illustrates this. The publisher of this pamphlet, Presentation Ministries, is named after Our
Lady of Presentation Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. This church was in a neighborhood of several thousand materially
poor people. When I preached, I exhorted the parishioners to reach out to the elderly, sick, poor, young, and
suffering thousands in the neighborhood. The parishioners seemed very apathetic. If they went to church on Sunday,
they thought that was all there was to Christianity. I was angry at the parish for its apathy and selfishness. The Lord
dealt with me by giving me a picture of the spiritual condition of my parish. He showed me that my parishioners
were in "intensive care," starving to death. And I was wrong in expecting starving people to reach out to the poor
and suffering.
After this experience, we cut back on the normal activities of a parish and spent a year doing everything we could to
free and feed a spiritually anorexic and starving people. We tried to free the anorexic by prophetically prayerfully,
painfully challenging our parishioners not to live the typical American life-style but live a simple life. To feed those
who were not spiritually anorexic or not completely anorexic, we doubled the number of weekday Masses. We
planned Masses for every kind of special group we could think of. We had Bible studies at church, in houses, in
apartment complexes, and on the street. We taught the Bible for hundreds of people or just for one. We did
everything we could to get even a "spoonful" of spiritual nourishment to the starving, anorexic members of our
church.
After a year of feeding, we once again called people to ministry. Instead of apathy, we received an enthusiastic
response. Many of our parishioners thirsted for holiness. They wanted holy Mass, holy Communion, the holy Bible,
and the holy rosary. Our people wanted long Masses, long sermons, daily communal prayer, and intensive
evangelization and ministry. Nourished people respond much differently than starving ones do. (For more about
spiritual anorexia, see our book, Living in Reality.)