“…Purse righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness. Compete well for the faith. Lay hold of eternal life…” Can we live this simple instruction of St. Paul?
            Righteousness. Righteousness is not a stern and severs religiosity; rather righteousness is to be in right standing with God and with neighbor. The two are inseparable. We have to grow daily in our love for God and our faithfulness to God that will be evident in how we treat other persons because all persons are the bearers of God’s image and likeness. We cannot claim to love the God we do not see, if we do not love the God who is present in every human being.
            Devotion/Faith. Faith is not the absence of doubt or a blind trust in God. Faith is a commitment to God based on our lived experience that our God loves us and wants only the best for us. If we have experienced the love of God for us individually, and in the life of God’s people, and have experienced the care of God for us and for God’s people, then we trust in what God asks of us even when sometimes we have doubts or when it is hard for us to accept what God asks of us. We say “Yes” to God because we have experienced God’s faithful love for us.
            Love. This is the hard love of Jesus Christ. It is a love that demands a total gift of self. It is a love that embraces all and excludes none. It is a love that forgives all persons. It is a love that has a particular concern for the poor and the powerless of our world.
            Patience/Gentleness. In a society that is very aggressive and that expects immediate results, it is hard to cultivate the virtues of patience and gentleness. We begin by being patient with ourselves – patient with our faults, failures and quirks. This should allow us, then to be patient with others – with their faults, failures and quirks. We are also gentle with ourselves when we fall short of what we aspire to be as persons so that we can be gentle with others when they do not rise to our expectations for them.
            If we commit ourselves to these virtues, St. Paul assures us that we will enjoy eternal life.
                            Fr. Mark Hallinan, S.J.