“Hallow” is a word that has fallen into disuse in the English language. Most people encounter it only in the second line of the Prayer of Jesus, “Hallowed by your name.” And even there, that line is often the subject of jokes with people misquoting it as “Howard by your name,” or “Harold by your name.”
People don’t know the word “hallow,” so they understandably substitute something more familiar. It’s a shame that we’ve lost this beautiful word from our active vocabulary because the world could use more hallowing.
The verb “to hallow” means to see as holy or sacred, to revere, to sanctify or consecrate. To hallow something means to look for and honour the sacred or the holy in it. How often do we remember to do that? Do we see the sacred beauty of the earth? Do we honour the holy at the core of our own being? Do we greet the sacred mystery of another human being with reverence? Do we approach God with worshipful and awed hearts?
What we see and experience in life depends a lot on how we look at things. If I look only at the surface of things then I will see dandelions as only weeds, the neighbour or co-worker who is driving me crazy as merely a nuisance, the person suffering next door or around the world as none of my concern, my own life as having value based on what I achieve and God as something to pay attention to when I find the time (which I will rarely do).
By contrast, if I approach the entire world, including myself, as holy and filled with the presence of God, it changes everything. I cannot hate anyone. I cannot say that the suffering of any living being is unimportant. I cannot believe that the earth exists solely to meet the consumption desires of humans. I cannot live as if my own value is measured solely by what I accomplish.
Rather, I must open myself to the holy. I must embrace the awesome mystery of being loved just for being me regardless of my successes or failures. I must let my actions be guided by a deep and abiding love for humanity in all its diversity and complexity. I must cherish the exquisite beauty of the Earth as a marvellously-interconnected whole. This is what it means to “hallow,” and this is why I think we need so much more of it in our hurting world today.
So this spring, let us seek to hallow all we find, keeping in mind the wisdom of Elizabeth Barrett Browning:
“Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.”
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Beth Kerr serves as pastor at Trinity United Church (Listowel) and Atwood United Church.
