“Holiness is not simply righteousness, for which the righteous merit the enjoyment of blessedness in the Kingdom of God, but rather such a height of righteousness that men are filled with the grace of God to the extent that it flows from them upon those who associate with them. Great is their blessedness; it proceeds from personal experience of the Glory of God. Being filled also with love for men. Which proceeds from the love of God, they are responsive to men’s needs, and upon their supplication they appear also as intercessors and defenders for them before God.”¹St. John the Wonderworker

When I first read this, it helped me understand holiness a bit better. There’s a difference between maintaining an aesthetic of holiness versus actually being consumed by God and thus being made holy through union with Him. It is not of works that I may boast, but through the grace given to me through Jesus Christ. I am the chief of sinners and unworthy of such a gift from God, but He has allowed me to enter into it because He has reconciled me to Himself through Christ. It is the true aim of any Christian’s life, but we will not fully know it for ourselves until we are standing toe to toe with the Holiest of Holies.