The fifth and last Vincentian value that St. Vincent wants his followers to practice is the virtue of zeal. Zeal is a fiery excitement and life‑energy for something you care about. I call it passion — passion for a cause, for a goal, for a project, or for a person.
Imagine a life without passion; imagine a world without fire. It must be dark, cold, and dull — walang kabuhay‑buhay, mediocre, pathetic, lethargic.
On the contrary, a life of passion is full of ardor and fervor, zest and warmth, purpose and intensity, drive and motivation — buhay na buhay! People with passion possess inner fire, put into action what drives them, and give their best efforts to achieve it.
In the Bible, God rejects mediocrity: “Because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth” (Rev. 3:16). On the contrary, He praises the zealous. The Psalmist proclaims: “The zeal for your house devours me” (Ps. 69:9).
Ultimately, zeal refers to our passion for God. St. Vincent told us: “If the love of God is a fire, zeal is its flame; if love is a sun, zeal is its ray.”
Love is not just fire; it should have flame. Love is not only affective; it must be effective — expressed in zealous action.
“Let us love God, my brothers, let us love God,” St. Vincent exclaims, “but let it be with the strength of our arms and the sweat of our brows. So very often, many acts of the love of God… although very good and very desirable, are nevertheless to be suspected if they do not reach the practice of effective love.”
Like Jesus, Vincent de Paul was fired up to care for the poor and proclaim God’s liberation to them. He made Jesus’ passion his own.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Lk. 4:18–19).
He wanted his followers to be fired up with the same passion, with the same zeal. He made these Lucan verses the motto of his Congregation: evangelizare pauperibus misit me — “He sent me to preach the Good News to the poor.”
He told many stories about missionaries and their zeal: two missionaries from Genoa who died caring for plague victims; missionaries in Algiers passionate in serving Christian slaves; sisters who died helping the sick during epidemics; Vincentians who volunteered for the mission in Madagascar despite harsh conditions, even unto death.
St. Vincent admonishes: “Let us examine our conscience… do we experience that zeal within ourselves? Oh, what a happiness if we do! If we do not, let us admit that we are in the wrong and say that we are not Missioners; for true Missioners are simple, humble, mortified, and filled with ardor for their work.”
He himself said that if he could, he would volunteer for the mission despite his age: “As for myself… I do not feel exempt from the obligation of laboring for the salvation of those poor people… If I cannot preach every day, all right! I will preach twice a week… and if the people do not hear me, then what is there to prevent me from speaking in a friendly, homely way to those poor folk…?”
What undying passion! To be consumed for God’s Kingdom, to be zealous in loving God and neighbor — this should be the trademark of every Vincentian.
St. Vincent exclaims: “We must all be God’s and given over to the service of our neighbor; we must give ourselves to God for this, consume ourselves for this, give our lives for this, undress ourselves, so to speak, to clothe Him.”
Three Faces of Zeal Today
1. Pastoral commitment to the peripheries
The lack of joy and zeal in today’s Church comes from self‑referentiality, self‑absorption, and self‑preservation. The antidote, according to Pope Francis, is mission in the peripheries — encountering the poor and listening to their experiences.
In Evangelii Gaudium, he writes: “In fidelity to the example of the Master, it is vitally important for the Church today to go forth and preach the Gospel to all… The joy of the Gospel is for all people: no one can be excluded” (EG 23).
He adds: “I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets… rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined…” (EG 49).
Wherever we are, whoever we are with, we must preach the Good News — not by being preachy or pious, but through gentle words, listening ears, and kind gestures. We do not need to go to Madagascar; the suffering are around us every day.
2. Creativity and perseverance
Times change. Needs differ. Cultures vary. For the Good News to be good, it must be understood and felt in our language and context. St. Vincent said: “Love is inventive unto infinity.”
Creativity must lead to perseverance. Martin Luther King Jr. said: “If you can’t fly, then run. If you can’t run, then walk. If you can’t walk, then crawl — but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.”
St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that perseverance is founded on courage. Zeal operates between courage and hope — grounded in human determination and God’s promise.
3. Avoiding the extremes: overwork and idleness
Overwork (indiscreet zeal) and idleness (sloth) are two sides of the same coin: burnout and lethargy; trivial busyness and meaninglessness. Both destroy zeal.
Burnout and depression appear as irritability, loss of joy, unhealthy self‑doubt, spiritual dryness, compassion fatigue, anxiety, cynicism, and more.
St. Vincent warns: “Be careful to conserve your health for the love of the Lord and His poor members. Be careful not to do too much. It is a ruse of the devil… when he incites good persons to do more than they can, in order that they might not be able to do anything.”
Father Daniel Franklin Pilario, C.M., is the President of Adamson University in Manila. He is a theologian, professor, and pastor of an urban poor community on the outskirts of the Philippine capital. He is also the Vincentian Chair for Social Justice at St. John’s University in New York.
