Integrity - a truly 'Christ'ian quality

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 24th week in Ordinary time

September 17, 2019: 1 Timothy 3: 1-13; Luke 7: 11-17

The Word today summons every person of a Christian community to recognise and reassess the place and the importance of the quality of Integrity, in our life and community today. More than any quality of  efficiency or intelligence, it is personal integrity that St. Paul outlines as the quality needed utmost for anyone who wants to serve a Christian Community. 

Jesus, most obviously, is the model presented to us by the Gospel, in this all-important virtue of integrity. Not merely a sermon or a discourse, but we see Jesus moved with compassion for the helpless widow on the streets of Nain. 

The Responsorial Psalm drives home to us the crux of the message today: "He who walks in the way of integrity shall be in my service" (Ps 101:6). The psalm offers us two other terms to understand the quality of integrity: blameless heart and the way of perfection. Yes, it is not about staying away from cutting a bad figure before others, nor about being extra careful with our behaviour in public or in those fora which could create a scandal! It is about being good, choosing good, and doing good, regardless of a public opinion or acknowledgement.

The less the disparity between our talk and our walk, the more is our Integrity! Integrity, in fact, is the internal peace that leads to Universal Peace! It is what we choose to be, in order that we create around us what we want the world to be.