Why Should I Want To Be Holy?
Great question! And the short answer is this: it will make you happy!
And who doesn’t want to be happy?! But, let me go ahead and deal with what you’re probably asking now: “How do you know that being holy will make me happy?” Oh, and maybe you’re also thinking “Wait, don’t holy people just pray, do crazy penances, and avoid everything fun and exciting in life? I thought holy people kind, like, agreed to just suffer a bunch in this world so they can be happy in the next…”
Let’s deal with that second question first. The answer is no… at least, not all of them. Yes, there are plenty of saints who did (or still do) pray for 6 hours a day, fast 3 times a week, never drink or dance, and seem to always have some kind of intense physical or emotional suffering going on in their life. But – and here’s the crazy part – those people are actually kind of happy even then. Yes, the whole selling point of Christianity is eternal happiness in the next life, but some of that happiness does in fact start now. And, for the Christian, happiness and suffering are not mutually exclusive. Padre Pio suffered constantly from his stigmata, and even wrote “I wish to be inebriated with pain” in one of his letters. Yes, in some odd way, he wanted to be in pain, not as a masochist, but because it made him happy to have some share in Christ’s own redemptive suffering. So, holy people can indeed be happy – or perhaps we should say “joyful” – while they are in pain and, by some paradox of grace, even because they are suffering, if they are suffering for the right reasons.
But wait! I’m not saying you have to want to be in pain!
I’m just pointing out that people are wrong to assume that anyone in pain must therefore not be happy. By that definition, no one is ever really happy. Still, this website doesn’t exist to convince you to embrace a life of radical suffering. It’s here to help you embrace three simple things:
- You are an ordinary human being, which is actually a good thing.
- You can and should be holy in your ordinariness.
- Your holy ordinariness is what will make you happy.
How will being holy make you happy? Because being holy is about relationship, it is about love, and it is about worshipping God. Human Beings are happy when they are fulfilled, and every human being needs relationships and love to be happy. Those two claims shouldn’t really be controversial, but maybe that last one is a new idea to you, so let me explain.
Human beings instinctively worship something. It’s one of the reasons that every human culture throughout history developed some sort of religion. There is some deep, innate desire to serve something else. It’s connected to that desire to “be part of something bigger than myself.” But, if we do not worship the one, true God, we will inevitably worship something else.
Some cultures worshipped trees. Others worshipped their ancestors, and still others worship a vague idea of God as some sort of cosmic consciousness. Those who do not worship anything that they call God end up worshipping something even less impressive like money, or political power, the idea of a utilitarian society, their spouse or children, or their own bodies. Take a moment to reflect on what the people around you seem to care about most… chances are that that thing is their God.
But if you worship anything other than God, it will inevitably make you miserable. Money can’t deliver on it;s promises and depression rates are fairly high among the super rich. Other human beings are just as fallible as you are and they will fail you. Animals, plants, and the impersonal “consciousness of the cosmos” cannot speak to your need for intimacy and relationship, nor can they really display any kind of care for your well being.
But God… He is the one person actually meant to be worshipped. He is all-powerful, all-loving, and capable of looking out for what is truly best for you. That reality rarely looks and feels like we wish it would, but we can wrestle with the problem of evil later. The point right now is this: if you do not worship God, you will, subconsciously at least, worship something else and that something else will make you miserable. But if you worship God, if you become holy in your worship of God, you will find purpose, relationship, and love deeply woven into your life, and that will give rise to the mysterious state of being we call “happiness.”