Vatican II at 50: The Universal Call to Holiness

Two weeks ago, a photograph of a New York City Police Officer giving a homeless man socks and boots for his bare feet went viral.  Officer Larry DePrimo noticed the shoeless Jeffrey Hillman on the streets of Times Square on a cold November evening.  He spoke with him and then went into a nearby shoe store to buy him thermal socks and all-weather boots.   The gesture was caught on a cell phone camera by a tourist and then posted to NYPD’s Facebook page.  From there, it reverberated around the world via the media, YouTube and Facebook, generating hundreds of thousands of comments and “likes.”  As these testimonies show, it’s gratifying to witness such acts of kindness.  On the other hand, the massive response generated by the event is somewhat striking.   We could argue, after all, that the purpose of the police is to protect the common good.  I wonder what would have happened if an ordinary citizen without a title and without a uniform performed the same act of kindness.   Would that photo have generated the same response?

According to the documents of Vatican II, all the baptized are called to perform acts of charity because all the baptized are called to holiness: 

Therefore in the Church, everyone whether belonging to the hierarchy, or being cared for by it, is called to holiness…it is expressed in many ways in individuals, who in their walk of life, tend toward the perfection of charity.  Lumen Gentium, #39

This teaching was a striking moment in our history.  For the first time, the Church was explicitly stating that our faith is all about holiness.   Further, the council erased the pre-conciliar notion that only priests and nuns were called to a life of godliness.   Now all the baptized, by virtue of baptism, are called to live a life of holiness, a holiness which begins with an interior humility and expresses itself exteriorly  in loving service to others.  If we took this call seriously, the random act of kindness experienced by Mr. Hillman would be the norm rather than an overnight sensation.  Amen!