Zeal For Zeal
By DONALD DeMARCO
The first clue in today’s crossword puzzle was “the fanatic’s feeling.” The answer, as I fully expected, was “zeal.” Now, it is asking too much of a crossword puzzle to be philosophically meticulously. One cannot be cross with a crossword puzzle. Nonetheless, it is a window to the secular world and tends to represent whatever is trendy.
Zeal, despite the fact that it is a virtue, is now scorned as if it were a deadly vice. Its diametric opposite is spiritual sluggishness or, in the traditional language of the Seven Deadly Sins, “sloth.” According to the distinguished philosopher, Josef Pieper, sloth is the characteristic sin of our day. It enters people’s hearts and leads them to tip-toe around certain Gospel passages for fear that they might offend someone or lose their comfortable status with their audience. Thus, they turn a virtue into a vice and a vice into a virtue. Hence, zeal becomes a menace while moral inertia gains attractiveness.
In the fourth ring of the winding path up Purgatory Mountain, Dante and Virgil come upon a band of souls who are running and weeping at the same time. They are trying to make up for their slothful lives. Those who ran nearby cried out, “Come on, come on, don’t let time slip away for lukewarm love! Zeal in well-doing makes grace green again.” There is nothing politically correct in any of the pages of the Divine Comedy. Dante’s zeal for poetry is matched by his zeal for truth.
Wasting time, settling into a comfort zone, living in the lap of luxury, minding our own business, and refusing to get involved are all examples of sloth. Moreover, they are forms of sloth that we easily justify. Christ, however, is rather severe toward those whose moral temperature is lukewarm: “Because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth” (Rev. 3:16).
These are, indeed, shocking words, but they do indicate Christ’s extreme displeasure concerning those who remain in a state of spiritual torpor. We are not created to be lazy. “Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise,” reads Prov. 6:6-8.
Zeal, St. Thomas Aquinas tells is, “arises from the intensity of love” (Summa Theologiae, I-II, 28, 4). In saying this, he cites both the Old and New Testaments: “With zeal I have been zealous in the Lord of Hosts” (3 Kings 19:14): “The zeal of Thy house hath eaten me up” (John 2:17). In another text, he speaks of zeal that centers around virtuous acts as being praiseworthy (S.T. II-II, 36, 3) and quotes St. Paul who advises us to “Be zealous for spiritual gifts” (1 Cor. 14:1).
Aquinas was a model of zeal in his personal life. In his brief lifespan of 49 years, he produced a stupendous amount of writing. His literary output is all the more remarkable considering the fact that he spent a great deal of time praying, reading, teaching, and traveling. His prodigious contribution to posterity would not have been possible except for his genuine zeal for the truth.
The Angelic Doctor exemplified the words written long ago by Confucius: “When you are laboring for others let it be with the same zeal as if it were for yourself.”
Whereas people today are, in general, distrustful of any form of religious zeal, many somehow manage to find it praiseworthy when it is for the wrong thing. Nancy Pelosi and President Joe Biden are unquestionably zealous in their fanatical promotion of abortion. In such cases, zeal is not the result of intense love, but quite the opposite: an intense hate.
Zeal may be the most problematic of all virtues. There are two salient reasons for this. One is historical, the other is contemporary. We look with suspicion on those Christians of yore whose zeal was not counterbalanced by moderation, prudence, or even common sense. John Brown’s zealous opposition to slavery drove him to atrocities such as the Pottawatomie Massacre in which five men were dragged out of their cabins and hacked to death.
Fanatical zeal is blind. Nonetheless, this type of errant zeal is a longstanding part of human history. The terms “zealot” and “zealotry” add to our suspicious of anything that has to do with zeal.
In the contemporary world, our pluralistic society does not welcome any group that expresses religious zeal. The fear of imposing one’s values or offending people can cool any thoughts of being zealous. In addition, zeal for the truth, which establishes zeal as a virtue, is resisted in a world that denies the very existence of truth.
There is no doubt that the legitimate and praiseworthy zeal of St. Thomas Aquinas has fired many of his readers with a similar zeal, even those who are not Dominicans. There is an erroneous legend that Martin Luther burned a copy of Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae along with a papal bull in the marketplace at Wittenberg. The truth of the matter, as Josef Pieper explains in The Silence of St. Thomas, offers us a far more positive story. Although Luther did intend to burn a copy of the Summa, he could not locate one since he could not find anyone who was willing to part with his copy.
Zeal begets zeal. We should not be fearful of this virtue for it springs from the heart and does not exclude either moderation, patience, or prudence. It fires our passion to a flame and enables us to be more effective, productive, and alive in serving God.
- + + (Dr. Donald DeMarco is professor emeritus, St. Jerome’s University, and an adjunct professor at Holy Apostles College. He is a regular columnist for St. Austin Review and is the author of 38 books. Some of his latest books, including The 12 Supporting Pillars of the Culture of Life and Why They Are Crumbling, and Glimmers of Hope in a Darkening World, are posted on amazon.com. He and his wife, Mary, have 5 children and 13 grandchildren.)
