Everyone be sober!

In traditional translations of today's first reading (Titus 2:1-14), St. Paul exhorts Titus to pass on various exhortations to various kinds of people.

In some traditional translations, an exhortation that is common to all the different kinds of people is to "be sober."

Sadly, in the impoverished lexicon of contemporary culture, being "sober" means only to be free of the influence of alcohol and drugs.

To be sure, that meaning is not alien to Paul's intent here, but to be "sober" means so much more: to be dignified, steady, clear-eyed, rational.

These qualities of life and behavior are consistent with our Christian faith (they "become sound doctrine"). We should carry ourselves with the dignity of being children of God. We remain steady when our lives, hearts, and minds are grounded firmly in the truth of faith, which also enables us to see clearly amid the fog of this world's deceptions and allurements. We are totally rational when we conform our minds to the mind of Christ, the eternal Wisdom of God through whom all things were made.

For the grace of God
that bringeth salvation
hath appeared to all men,
Teaching us that,
denying ungodliness and worldly lusts,
we should live soberly,
righteously, and godly, in this present world;
Looking for that blessed hope,
and the glorious appearing
of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
Who gave himself for us,
that he might redeem us from all iniquity,
and purify unto himself a peculiar people,
zealous of good works.