Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be heard.
He who follows righteousness and mercy finds life, righteousness, and honor. (Proverbs 21:13, 21)
While the Scriptures call us to be righteous, our argumentative nature places the emphasis on our being right instead. We are more eager to prove we are right than to show we are righteous.
As a race, we are much more likely to want to be right than to want to be good. However, the Gospels do not call us to be right, but to be righteous. (Fr Meletios Webber, STEPS OF TRANSFORMATION, p 110)
The righteous are charitable, merciful, gracious, patient, kind and loving, all characteristics of our God. “You are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love..” (Nehemiah 9:17).
Interestingly enough, Jesus never once suggested to His disciples that they be right. What he did demand is that they be righteous. In listening to His words, we find that we spend almost all our energy in the wrong direction, since we generally pursue being right with every ounce of our being, but leave being good to the weak and the naive. (Archimandrite Meletios Webber, BREAD & WATER, WINE & OIL, p 40)
Righteousness is not limited to piety, asceticism or even morality. It also means being charitable, hearing the cry of those in need and helping them. Righteousness is related to mercy as well as truth.
Fraternized 