It is 23rd August 2018. We celebrate the memorial of St. Rose of Lima. She dedicated her life for homeless children, the elderly, and the sick. With her professional skill of needlework made fine lace and embroidery, and her special interest in garden produced most attractive and beautiful flowers sold them to raise funds for the poor. Pope Clement IX beatified her and declared patron of Lima; Pope Clement X canonized her and proclaimed her patron saint of South America, the Indies, and the Philippines. The readings are from Ezekiel 36:23-28; and the Gospel from Matthew 22:1-14. God wants to express God’s holiness through us. God needs us and of those little moments of our charity, love, tolerance, attentive listening to the pain and sufferings of the others, promoting peace, harmony among people. Our prayer life is only a manure for our holiness. Being prayerful without sufficient charity does not click well with holiness. The Holy Father Francis in his Apostolic Exhortation, On The Call To Holiness In Today’s World teaches us (no.9) “Holiness is the most attractive face of the Church.” God’s holiness can be witnessed and experienced with the one who is willing to allow God to cleanse the drooping spirit. In the first reading God expressed God’s desire to clean our spirit and heart to manifest God’s holiness. God wants us to fill us with God’s Spirit so that we could listen and internalize God’s Word. “Through you I display my holiness before their eyes.” (Ez.36:23). God sanctifies us through restitution and restoration of our lives. God’s holiness is displayed in our lives when we are able to know who God is and to share the same sentiments of faith without distortion with others. God sanctifies God’s name in our humble service to the suffering humanity around us. God exhibits holiness in the way we encounter and handle one another. God’s love is manifested in God’s holiness. “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances” (Ez.36:26,27). Holiness is a new life in God leaving our sinful attachments and embracing with the wings of love and compassion. By the virtue of our Baptism, we are enjoying that new heart that longs and seeks the relationship with God over anything under the Sun. God cannot remain silent when God’s name is profaned and destroyed by us. God wants us to change our destructive behaviours totally and to make us honour God’s name by making us a new creation and restoration. The responsorial Verse intercedes, “I shall pour clean water over you and all your sins will be washed away.” (Ez.36:25). The Gospel reminds us all telling that God repeatedly invites us to be the partakers of God’s loving banquet of the Prince of Peace, Jesus. Day after day, God invites us to come closer to the Altar of Love and Mercy. It is the open call to all kinds of people yet the ones with the mantle of holiness become the worthy partakers. Our personal holiness is the wedding garment. Unless and until we put on Christ in all we do and say, our life remains meaningless, clueless, hopeless and surplus of pain and suffering. May we make a serious effort to allow God to express holiness through us. May you have a good day.