We use the word "holy" a lot. We talk about the Holy Bible or the Holy Ghost, a holy place, or a holy person. Roman Catholics call their pope "His Holiness," which is the title of a book about John Paul II. And we sense that when some things or some persons are called "holy," there is a different aura about them. Somehow they seem set apart from our profane, everyday life, and we are tempted to speak in whispers about them.

 

We are not wrong in the way we treat holiness. The root meaning of the word, "to be holy," is to be set apart, to belong to the realm of the divine. A holy person or a holy place is one set apart for God's purpose. Holiness belongs to God.

 

So it is that the center of this account by Isaiah of his call to be a prophet in 746 B.C. is that song of the seraphim in verse…