Word of the Week

Twenty Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Excellence: Arete (Gk.): Means “goodness” or “moral virtue and strength”
Each human being is created in the image and likeness of God and therefore is a reflection of God’s own infinite wisdom and particular excellence. Man must adhere to the will of God so that every human being and creature of God would constantly be set in truth and beauty, the fashion of order (CCC 339). Man must constantly give the best of himself in a life of virtue, a life endowed with sensory and spiritual powers to strive toward the good in concrete action. This is virtue par excellance (CCC 1803).

Excellence is found 7 times in Sacred Scripture: 3 in the Old Testament and 4 in the New Testament. The OT vision of excellence can be found in the book of Sirach. In two separate cases, Sirach ties excellence to faithfulness within the life of a community. Whether it is the unswerving fidelity of a friend or the generosity in the gift of food, Sirach makes note, excellence abides in selflessness and is a “precious” gift (Sirach 6:15, 31:23). The aforementioned Greek term ‘arete’ can be found four times in the NT. The great apostles, Peter and Paul, each use it to describe both the wonderful deeds of God and our participation in the glory of God. Peter uses it to describe the mighty works of the Lord displayed in the Gospel (1 Peter 2.9) and the manifestation of how God’s power works in us to produce lives of ‘excellence’, lives of piety (2 Peter 1.3, 5) (Hahn and Minch, 22). “When Paul uses the term, he challenges us to contemplate all that is virtuous in order to crowd out every impure and unworthy thought out of our minds (Phil.4.8)” (Hahn and Minch, 22).  In Paul’s catecheses, excellence equals purity.

In our contemporary age, we often equate excellence with high achievement on the battlefield or the sporting arena without really considering what makes the achievement so special. Every Medal of Honor awarded or trophy raised high has a story of discipline, struggle and courage that defines that particular moment. The supernatural life demands the same discipline, struggle and courage. The Christian life requests that we not only see the call of excellence as a fundamental discipline, but one of virtue, bound by a series of rights and wrongs, and ultimately attained in the embrace of the higher good. Excellence is not something that we achieve on a rare occasion, but what we need on a daily basis. We need excellence to achieve great things but great things are not always excellent if they are void of ‘goodness’ and ‘strength.’

“Excellence is achieved in loss.”

--St. Maximillian Kolbe

Primary Texts Consulted

•  Catholic Bible. Suggested trans. Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition.
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition, 1997.
•  Hahn, Scott and Minch , Curtis. Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: Paul’s Letter to the Phillipians, Colossians, Philemon.  RSV, 2nd ed. San Francisco : Ignatius Press, 2001.

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