done habitually - 32nd week saturday 2013

A virtue becomes a virtue because it is done habitually, a firm disposition in the person to do good.  It is not a virtue when it is done once in a while.  It is not a virtue when we do things because at the moment we are so fired up to do good or at the moment we are bombarded situations of pity.  Virtue is habitual, it is persistent, it is a firm disposition to pursue the good at all times.  In other words it is the good that perseveres to the end.

This is the attitude taught to us by the woman in our gospel today.  We do not acquire the virtue of piety when we are prayerful once in a while or when we pray only if we feel like it.  We cannot say we have acquired the virtue of obedience when we obey only the orders we like to obey.  To be a virtue it needs to endure whether it is easy or difficult, whether it is opposed or encouraged, whether it is rewarded or ignored, whether in public view or in the privacy of a room.

A professor in culture once told us that it is hard for Filipinos to become saints, not because we are not good, not because we are incapable of righteousness but because we easily forget, we lack persistence, we cannot persevere.

Is this a correct observation?  I don’t know.  Let us just hope and pray that our caring and our sharing, our compassion and our concern will last longer, and not limited to calamities.