"Holiness is Wholeness," by German, Jungian priest Josef Goldbrunner, when I read it circa 1968, engaged my fascination with the interplay of psychology, healing and the faith. I found it compelling as it applied Jungian depth pschology to spirituality and pschological health. But the simple identification of the two troubled me, although at the time I couldn't say why. Now, after 55 years of considering their relationship I am certain: holiness is not wholeness! Wholeness is not holiness!
Holiness is closeness to God, in Christ. With such intimacy we become like our Lover. We receive and radiate God's holiness. But this does not always make us whole. Indeed, the norm seems to be that God loves us in our very brokeness, fragmantation and pathology...and strangely often leaves us in that condition. Indeed, persistent trust, serenity and acceptance in that very un-wholeness is a trademark of holiness. Holiness flows from an intimacy in relationship with God, but does not flow inevitably or necessarily into a healing of our psychic pathologies. Yes holiness tends to healing of the heart and intellect, but that flow is not automatic, inevitable or necessary.
Wholeness indicates an emotional-psychological condition that is integral, vital, energetic, positive and healthy. A person could be physically disabled but emotionally whole; likewise one could be emotionally whole but spiritually indifferent to God. Soloviev in his classic portrayal of the Anti-Christ describes him as integrated, wholesome, gifted, generous, charming...pacifist, ecumenist, vegetarian, diplomat, scholar. He is the epitome of wholeness...except for his covert hatred of God. He exemplifies the "unholy wholesome."
Theologically we might agree that as we are created to love and be loved by God, any wholeness that does not open up to the Divine is at best shallow and vulnerable if it is not covertly hostile to God and deeply pathological. Clearly, as holiness moves us into wholeness so will genuine wholeness move us into holiness as the two flow from and move into all the Goodness of trust, receptivity, gratitude, generosity, serenity, sobriety, wisdom and all the virtues. Nevertheless in real life we find holiness often camouflaged under pathology and the unholy disguised by apparent wholeness.
Three examples of pathological saints.
St. Mark Ji Tianxiang, canonized by John Paul as a martyr in 2000, died in his drug addiction. An esteemed physician, father of a large family and active Catholic, he became addicted to pain meds taken during a sickness. He became the classic homeless, pathological addict: he could not kick the compulsion. He was imprisoned because of his faith and went happily to a martyr's death...still in his addiction! He is proof positive that unwholeness can coexist with deep holiness! How many of our homeless, imprisioned and hospitalized are hiding their holiness? Amazing!
Some fifty years ago, my friend/co-teacher Sister Martha Joyce told me that earlier she had cared for an older sister of charity who was in an almost permanent psychotic state, entirely out of touch with reality. But every day, just after dinner, she would emerge for a few minutes into reality. She would smile serenely, and radiate a boundless, mysterious radiance of Joy. Martha was convinced she was a saint. I believed her. I have always cherished that image of holiness!
A trickier, more ambiguous case: Brennan Manning, a favorite of mine. I found his writings to be very inspirational in the 1970s as he was a popular charismatic writer and preacher. He left the Franciscans, the priesthood and the Church to marry. But his alcoholism never left him. It ruined his marriage. It eventually killed him. But he maintained a fervent ministry even in his alcoholism. His relentless message: God loves us as we are! He believed it. But he couldn't beat the habit. In later years he would preach (to Evangelicals) for three days in California, but before flying to a similar event in Boston, he would find a hotel and binge drink for three days. I was happy to learn he was buried with a Catholic funeral in St. Rose, Belmar NJ. His Catholicism, whatever his lifestyle, was indelible. In my view, so was his holiness, however foul, dirtied and unwholesome.
At the moment I was reading Goldbrunner, my generation, and Western Society en masse, was undergoing the catastrophic slide from Christianity into Culture Liberalism. It could be understood as the pivot from holiness to wholeness! It is the triumph of the therapeutic! The decision for personal fulfillment, satisfaction, indulgence and narcicissm! The flight from objectivity into subjectivity! The loathing of law, tradition, authority, paternity! The craving for the motherly as unconditional acceptance and approval! The denial of sin but the desperation to be freed from shame! The flight from suffering, sacrifice, powerlessness as holiness into safety, comfort, security, and "wholeness."
As I write this, I consider the women I have known over the last dozen years in our Magnificat homes: their intractable anxiety, sadness, compulsions, lethargy, passivity. But underneath that: a deep, quiet faith. A capacity for compassion. A humility. It would take a Flannery O'Connor to describe this miraculous holiness so disguised by unwholeness!
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