INTEGRITY
Seeing the
wholeness of God’s words of truth
The summation of
the fruits of the Holy Spirit implanted within us at Confirmation
The fullness of
the relationship between God and man
Expressive action
of man’s gifts for which he was to live, for which he was created
Ultimate example
of oneness with God
Visible sign of
unity of man and God’s words of truth and life
Integrity is like
mercy, requiring a process of prayer, meditation, dialogue, reading God’s words
in order to incorporate integrity into one’s life. Some call the process intuition, a process of
seeking not through reason, but acquiring a sense of what God intended man to
become after Christ’s Ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit at
Pentecost. Some call it becoming fully
human and some call it following the will of God for man.
I first
encountered integrity from a CFO of a multi-conglomerate food processing
company. Integrity was what he was called at his retirement party; he had the
ability to lead many different divisions because he could see the intent of the
whole entire company- to feed the world with healthy, nutritious, sustainable
food.
I
first knew this man as a man of prayer; he would ask me for what could he pray
for me that day or he would ask me to pray for him on a decision he had to make
for the company. At 6:30 am on a snowy
Mn winter-asking for prayer- that stayed in my mind and heart.
Years
later I hear integrity spoken in regard to the late Cardinal George, “ a man
with authority to speak for the church and get his fellow bishops to bracket
their differences and act as one for the good of the church. He could do it because of who he is; his
character and insight made him the reference point when things were very
serious.” (George Weigel)
One
who follows God’s plan for his life in humble, thoughtful ways; one who knows
the truth which is Christ; one who seeks oneness in all to become whole,
complete with God; this is one whom man can say, “he has integrity.”
