If the virtues could be given images from modern culture, then zeal would be the superhero/action figure. In what is probably the best description of zeal in the New testament, Saint Paul describes the sufferings he has endured in spreading the faith:

 

"Five times at the hands of the Jews I received forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I passed a night and a day on the deep...in toil and hardship, through many sleepless nights, through hunger and thirst, through frequent fastings, through cold and exposure. And apart from these things, there is the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches" (2 Corinthians 24-28).

 

Saint Catherine of Siena, who epitomized zeal in her love for the Vicar of Christ and His Church, said that "If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world on fire." May zeal for the Lord consume us!