VIRTUES: ABOVE AND BEYOND

Today, from the First Book of Samuel, (cf. 1 Sam 26: 2, 7-9. 12-13, 22-23), we read of what Abishai said to David, as an admonition against Saul who was out to kill him. ‘God has given your enemy into your hand this day. Now please let me pin him to the earth with one stroke of the spear, and I will not strike him twice’. David has this response to Abishai, ‘do not destroy him…’ To King Saul, he said, ‘here is the spear, O king! Let one of the young men come over and take it. The Lord rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness…’ His words and action towards King Saul remain relevant. This is made manifest in the teaching of our Blessed Lord in the gospel passage of today from St. Luke 6: 27-38.  

Beloved People of God, our Heavenly Father is not just perfect only in his justice. He is perfection. God is perfect in everything: mercy, love, generosity, forgiveness, compassion, graciousness, etc. It is in his being to go above and beyond in expressing and manifesting goodness, kindness and all the virtues that his children are encouraged to emulate. To be as perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect, we also ought to go above and beyond the social and standard paradigm. The least we can do is to embrace the golden rule as made known in the Scripture passage of today that says, ‘…as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them’ (Lk 6:31). Yet, this ideal way of being and living is an aspiration possible only for a person who is willing ‘to bear the image of the man of Heaven’(cf1.Cor.15: 45-49).

Learning to emulate our merciful Heavenly Father involves the will. It requires discipline. It needs grace. We pray for that grace that will enable us to desire virtues, and to go above and beyond while putting them into practice in our thoughts, our words and our deeds.

Fr. Ted