Stuff Catholics Like

I’m talking about Sanctification–making things holy.  Or more accurately, turning things over to God, to be used for his purposes.  Catholics do this all the time–usually with the help of a priest. We do it to metals, strings of beads, necklaces–things that for non-Catholics are jewelry, we have blessed, made holy, sanctified, and voila! They’re sacramentals now!

We do it to babies, to ourselves–all that splashing around in holy water isn’t just Catholics “freshening up” before Mass!  We’re rededicating ourselves to the service of God–if not exactly making ourselves holy, then at least reminding ourselves that we should be trying to make ourselves holy.  We already know about marriage and sex.

We do it to churches, altars, statues, oils, pagan practices going waaaaay back–we sanctify them, make them holy, turn them over to the service of God. We even do it to Protestant things, for example: Feels like an auditorium, used to be a Baptist church, add statues, get a priest and some holy water, sanctify the place, and you’ve got yourself a new chapel! What about music? Go to your local college parish or youth Mass and you’re bound to hear some stuff that doesn’t really sound like it should be in a Church.  Rather, you may have heard it on a Time Life commercial somewhere along the way.  But take some instruments (like synthesizers and acoustic guitars) that have clearly been turned over to the service of God (or something), and play pop during Communion, and instantly it’s Catholic.  Right?  Even if the theology is a bit of a stretch. . .

But how, you might wonder, can we Catholics do this?  Is it magic?  Sounds pretty suspect to most non-Catholics, gotta tell you.  Well, Jesus started it, you might say. Not only did He take the most shameful and painful death that the Romans could come up with and turn it into something glorious, He did the same for us and for our lives and deaths–made us new, brought us into His service.
And He told His followers to do the same, and they passed it on down to us (which is why a priest is generally involved). So when we sanctify things, we are partaking of this Grace, really.  Not doing it ourselves, but asking God to do it through us and for us.  Sanctification–get some.

Guest post from Literacy-chic.