So, for clarity sake, the opposite of the term “integrated life” is a divided life. The divided life is made clear by the very real struggle within ourselves that St. Paul called out in Romans 8,12-17. He said that we live two lives within one body. There is the life we live that is a slave to sin, to our passions – which brings the fruit of death and the life of the servant, a child of God which produce the fruits of life. As Job put it “The life of man upon earth is a warfare.” (Job 7,1).
We are constantly at war with those two opposing lifestyles. The fruit of either lifestyle are kind of like an “acid test”. It becomes easy then to see where people are on the sin-sanctity spectrum based on their activities, what they say, what they support, where they spend their money, and in general how they live their lives. Matthew hammers away on the same theme writing “For where your treasure is, there will be your heart also.” (Matt: 6:21)
Living a divided life means that a person lives differently, acts differently depending on the situation or context. A person living a divided life acts one way at Mass, another way at home and yet another way when conducting business. An integrated business leader acts and behaves the same way in every situation. They are whole, complete people, not divided.
The Latin word “integritas” means whole or complete. It’s where the word integrity comes from.
It's the lack of living an integrated life, or disintegration that pulls our lives apart.
It’s easy to give up and go with the flow. I’ve talked to one too many Catholic business leader who has given up the fight in order to “be on the right side of history” – those are my words but their actions. Listen to what St. Paul had to say about that. “Today, when you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” (Heb 3:15) He’s calling all of us to be on the right side of salvation history, the only history that counts. It’s the lack of living an integrated life, or disintegration that is pulling our lives apart. One direction is the immediate delights of the temporal world, the other the spiritual world that seems so far from our grasp and so far in the future.
Thankfully St. Paul gives as some light, some uplifting news regarding our internal conflict. He says that although this struggle is a lifelong issue that we shouldn’t despair, nor should we give up the struggle to live an integrated life. He says that “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but received the spirit of sonship (adoption)”. (Romans 8:15)
We are to be fearless knowing that God, Abba! Our Father is with all of us always as long as we have accepted His adoption.
