Holy, Holier, Holiest

Friends,

I was in The Hub this morning, and on CNN it had something scroll by about the "holiest Catholic church in Mexico." And I got to thinking, what makes something holiest? And how does that one church out holy the second holiest place? And where are those rankings posted? Are they fluid like the NCAA rankings? Can the second most holy place out-holy the first somewhere down the line? Would the parishioners hold protests over losing the "most holy" title? Would they try to host miracles to get it back?

I know Catholics rank sins and whatever, so it makes sense that holiness gets ranked as well. But, how? Is holy a subjective ranking? Clearly something like the mount that held that one sermon is holier than say the place where some minor saint ate some miraculous sandwich. But, how does one distinguish between the lower level holy places? Like is that miracle sandwich joint more or less holy than a miracle coffee shop? Is the Virgin Mary on a piece of toast more or less holy than the Virgin Mary in an smeary window? I suppose they could be equally holy, but how is that decided? Is there some kind of holy rubric for measuring the holy quotient of a particular place, or is it completely subjective depending on the holy measuring committee, which in my mind are priests decked out like a combination of a Ghostbuster and a surveyor.

And isn't the idea of subjective holiness really strange? Shouldn't it be objective?

What do you think?

viva el mustache