The Limits of Holiness

Ancient Faith Ministries ^ | April 21, 2021 | Fr. Stephen Freeman

[Carpe Cerevisi]

I saw a commercial recently that proclaimed, “Freedom has no limits!” It sought to capture the modern imagination with what is a patently absurd statement. Everything in creation has limits – that is the nature of created things. It is nonetheless the case that we can imagine our life without limits – a shameless existence where nothing impedes our pleasure. This was the inner world of a young woman in Alexandria who would later be known as St. Mary of Egypt.

She left home, according to her own testimony, and took up a life of unbridled pleasure: sex, alcohol, whatever she imagined and desired. From what we can tell, that lifestyle came without consequences, for she was running ahead at full throttle when she came face-to-face with a limit. The limit was an invisible force that would not let her cross the threshold of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.

She had traveled to Jerusalem on a lark, partying with pilgrims, using her shamelessness to draw others into her pleasure. The True Cross of Christ, fully intact (it was the 6th century), was set to be displayed for veneration on the Feast of the Cross. The Cross, the Church, the Tomb, Golgotha, all that filled that holy place, were themselves to be reduced to objects of her pleasure, souvenirs of a good story. But there are limits.

[Carpe Cerevisi]

The latest from Fr. Stephen Freeman.

[aquila48]

“It is nonetheless the case that we can imagine our life without limits – a shameless existence where nothing impedes our pleasure.”

It isn’t just hedonistic pleasures that should have limits, but even what we normally consider “good” acts, such as compassion. There is such a thing as being overly compassionate, what I call “pathological compassion” that does more harm than good for both the person you’re trying to help and for the helper.