Holy Fish and Flowers!

Today I spent some time looking at etymologies and defintions of the word "holy" and I discovered some interesting tidbits. I first explored the history of the word in the English language. The meanings were not surprising: a good omen, whole, healthy,sacred. But any foray into the history of words leads into a forest of related words. Much to my surprise, I discovered a fish and a flower in this holy word family: halibut and hollyhock! Other family cousins include hallow, holiday, and Halloween. Digging a bit deeper, I discovered that these words evolved out of "hal," a word that meant sound and happy. The sense of the word is closely related to the Latin word sacer which means dedicated to religious use, belonging to or coming from God, consecrated, sacred, spiritually perfect or pure, untainted by evil or sin, and regarding with or deserving of deep respect, awe, adoration, or reverence. Sacer also suggests reconciled.

Holy. Sacred. What seems simple in reality is complex, rich, layered with meaning, constellations of meaning. In my own incarnational approach to theology, I celebrate the holiness of fish and flowers.