Good Mornin Digital Neighbors! Happy Tuesday ADD Irregulars, WSN Contributor & Curators, Wanderers & Lurkers across Locals. Yesterday's post on Momma Peggy prompted me to some further thoughts and prayers on piety & holiness. The two are related but not identical and I think the confusion of the two often leaves people with a very disjointed view of holiness which we should all be striving to for as Disciples of Christ if you happen to be one.

PIETY

Religious, reverent, mindful, an awareness of the Divine & Luminous presence & Persons that are with us always and carrying about yourself an evident composure because of that awareness. It is easier to see a pious person than to accurate describe one. Genuine piety is gold. And I have met many people who are about as authentic in their piety as I can gauge. There is a natural politeness and charity about them than points us back to the innocence we had as children's before the world got its hooks into us. They are innocent but not naïve. Piety scoffers should note that and the worst of scoffers will try to bait the Pious to the breaking point. Those are some the people I like to insult the most for their inability to just leave others alone. You don't have to understand piety, but you you can show some respect for it.

Genuine piety, and give people the benefit of the doubt when pondering them, receives my respect and I do my best to not scandalize them by my general lack of piety. I tend to model more piety when I celebrate Mass and the other Sacraments, but I am still who I am and do my best not to be false or phony about it. I do my best to exercise pious tact when I am around unfamiliar people, children and the elderly so that my language and actions do not cause them scandal or confusion. I am still me, the witty smart-@ss I can't escape, but I can be tactful. I know some of you may find that hard to believe, I don't blame you. Genuine piety is always linked to prayer & service.

FALSE PIETY

False piety tends to go for all the trappings of the pious but nothing beyond the show that takes place in life & worship. The Frauds will look as holy as can be but beyond their private relationship with God the rest of us are more of an obstacle, sources of shame and sinners to be avoided. It is what the Master found so frustrating about the Scribes & Pharisees. Many of them were about public piety and religiosity that viewed most of their neighbors as contemplable and avoidable. False piety gets caught up in the show of faith and the private relationship with God, neighbors tend to be inconsequential.

HOLINESS

Related to piety and often nourished by authentic piety, but not dependent on piety to be real. Holiness is the calling of every Disciple of the Master and the Children of the Covenant with Abraham. There is some disagreement among the Disciples if works make us holy or not, Catholics, Orthodox and some Protestant tend to think that works allow us to participate in holiness, others not so much. It is the divide on the question of human nature - are we fundamentally good or so profoundly broken that we forfeited that goodness and it is lost to us only to be imputed by the singular action of Christ.

I believe humanity is crated good, but profoundly broken. The operation of grace is to restore that original holiness and wholeness. The Master is the model and surgeon to help us do that. We cannot achieve holiness without Him, but we do possess the ability to make it our own and an offering back to Him and the rest of the Divine Persons. We are much more than filth covered by pleasing grace that makes us acceptable to God, we are children in the process of spiritual adoption and mature transformation.

The distilled Christian path of holiness are the Works of Mercy. I'll write more on this tomorrow but here are the Corporal Works of Mercy as revealed in the Gospel of Matthew and found throughout the Jewish Scriptures in their exhortation to be like the God of the Covenant. The Spiritual Works of Mercy are revealed in scripture as well but take a little more time to distill and implement.

CORPORAL WORKS OF MERCY
Feed the hungry
Give drink to the thirsty
Clothe the naked
Shelter the homeless
Visit the sick
Visit the imprisoned
Bury the dead

SPIRITUAL WORKS OF MERCY
Counsel the doubtful
Instruct the ignorant
Admonish sinners
Comfort the afflicted
Forgive offenses
Bear wrongs patiently
Pray for the living and the dead

The Works should flow from worship and authentic piety, but the works can often be there in the absence of piety. They are not pious dependent but meant to be the foundation on which piety can rest with authenticity. Piety without works is performative, works with piety is genuine but in need of continued renewal and reform.