by the Rev Father Dennis Cassidy, of St Joseph's Presbytery, Keighley

WHEN faced with great beauty we all have slightly differing reactions, but I guess most of us would be filled with a sense of appreciation and goodness.

Holiness has a similar effect upon us. We find it attractive and want to emulate it but, as each of us will know, the mere wanting of holiness does not necessarily mean we gain holiness.

Two great figures filled with holiness that the Catholic Church celebrates the memory of this week are St Peter and St Paul.

When Peter first met Jesus he cried out, “Leave me, Lord, I am a sinful man.” Paul was a great persecutor of the early Church and it was only after his encounter with the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus that he came to faith in Jesus. There is something very humbling to hear these two great holy men echoing what we too would probably initially say in the face of great holiness.

When the great prophet Isaiah turns to God aware of his sin God freely gives him the means of cleansing himself as a gift. Similarly when Peter cries out, Jesus does not turn and say, “Yes you are and you are a rubbish fisherman too!” but he gives him a way out, to have hope. Hope in the God that will forgive and save.

I suppose what is hard for us to fathom is that God is very different from us.

If someone hurts us we become weary of that person, God on the other hand is always ready to forgive with no strings attached.

Following the ways of God, even if there are times that we follow in faltering steps, is leading us to holiness to become the people God wants us to be.

“I hardly deserve the name apostle; but by God’s grace that is what I am, and the grace that he gave me has not been fruitless.”