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Selflessness as the Heart of Holiness

Think again about my friend Josh who changed a flat tire for an elderly woman he didn’t even know. I think his action says something quite important about holiness. Like countless others before him whom we consider to be holy, Josh selflessly responded to the need of the present moment. That reminds us that holiness is a lot simpler, less dramatic and, consequently, more challenging than most of us think.

By his own admission, Josh would have arrived at the coffee shop on time had it not been for his spontaneous response to a stranger’s flat tire. Seeing her need, without even thinking about it, he pulled over and offered her a helping hand. I believe this is exactly what holiness is all about: it isa selfless openness and response to God’s call in this sacred moment. And that call of God comes in the need that presently goes unmet or in the duty that is required in the present moment.

Holiness, then, is the lifelong journey out of slavery to the ego and its consuming preoccupation with self-concern self-image, self-gratification and self-preservation. It begins when we move out of the house of mirrors that most of us choose to live in and take up residence in a house of glass where we are constantly looking beyond ourselves, our concerns, our interests and our worries. It begins with selflessness.

A Perfect Example

Paul tells us that Jesus provides the perfect example of selflessness. In the letter to the Philippians, he encouraged the church, “Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:4-5). The apostle explained this mindset by saying that Jesus did not exploit his equality with God and use it to his own personal advantage or for his own personal gain. Rather, he “emptied himself, taking the form of a slave” (Philippians 2:7).

To the Corinthians, Paul wrote, “For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). This becoming poor to enrich the lives of others, or “self-emptying,” formed the very backbone of Jesus’ ministry. We see it in the incarnation, in Jesus’ friendship with sinners and the marginalized, in his total dedication and obedience to the will of his Abba, in his washing of feet, and in his surrender to and acceptance of the cross. Jesus himself described the limits of this self-emptying in this way: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). Selflessness is the very marrow of Christian holiness.

This attitude of selfless openness attacks the ego head-on, since the ego wants to control and manipulate everything and everyone within its range of influence. A selfless openness and response to whatever the present moment is asking of me, rooted in the desire to imitate the self-emptying of Jesus, incapacitates the ego and renders it powerless.

The belief that the need of the present moment is an invitation from God to forget myself and enrich the life of another is the motivating force and insight behind selfless openness. Indeed, the present moment as it unfolds before me is an expression of God’s will for me. That’s why this moment—and every moment—is sacred. God calls for a response in the cry of an infant, a neighbor’s need, a bloated stomach in Darfur and the near extinction of an animal species.

Ideally, our selfless acts should be the blossom of an openness and response to the present moment’s duty or need. An adaptable flexibility to what unfolds in the present moment made Josh’s act of charity possible. However, don’t be deceived; this approach can be tricky and downright risky. It demands living a life outside the confines of the ego with its constricting and exploitative obsession with what we have, what we do and what peop