April 21, 2024 - Pastor Message
05/03/2024GRACE AND VIRTUE (cont.)
“If anyone loves righteousness, whose works are virtues, Wisdom teaches moderation and prudence, justice and fortitude, and nothing in life is more useful than these” (Wisdom 8:7).
Concluding our reflection on the life of virtue to counter sin and vice, we look this week at the human virtues. Unlike the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity, which are supernatural gifts from God and require the intervention of special grace in our lives to cultivate them, the human virtues originate in our natural powers as human beings. They are “firm attitudes, stable dispositions, habitual perfections of intellect and will that govern our actions, order our passions, and guide our conduct…acquired by human effort” (CCC 1804). The human virtues prepare the soil of our minds and hearts to receive the seeds of the theological virtues so that we may fully grow in the moral life until, free of all sin, we obtain our ultimate prize - perfect communion with God and neighbor in the Kingdom of Heaven.
There are many human virtues, but four stand out as the key, or “cardinal”, virtues around which all others are ordered: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. Prudence “disposes practical reason to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it” (CCC 1806). Prudence means practicing good judgment, recognizing in every situation what is truly good and right and choosing the best course to accomplish it. It also means recognizing what is not good and right and avoiding it. Finally it means weighing in our minds multiple options, all of which are good, and choosing the best to achieve our purpose. Prudence is the foundation of all other virtues and so helps us root out all forms of sin, beginning with pride.
“Justice is the moral virtue that consists in the constant and firm will to give their due to God and neighbor” (CCC 1807). Acting with justice toward God, giving him his due in all things, such as offering him right worship, is called the virtue of religion. Acting with justice towards other people means respecting the rights of other people and working with them to promote the common good of all in society, ensuring that all people have access to everything necessary to live a fully human life. Cultivating the virtue of justice helps counter the sins of avarice, envy, lust, sloth, and gluttony.
Fortitude, sometimes also called courage, “ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good. It strengthens the resolve to resist temptations and to overcome obstacles in the moral life” (CCC 1808). The moral determination to do what is right, no matter what, is necessary to cultivate all the virtues and to resist the power of sin in all its forms. It can be especially helpful in rooting out the sin of sloth, firmly resolving to serve God, even when we don’t want to, and the sins of passion - wrath and lust - which so often overpower us emotionally.
“Temperance is the moral virtue that moderates the attraction of pleasures and provides balance in the use of created goods” (CCC 1809). Temperance is the mastery of our intellect and will over our instincts and desires, keeping them in their proper place and preventing them from overflowing the limits of what is morally good or acceptable. Our appetites are a natural part of our lives and as such are “very good” (Genesis 1:31), but sin can corrupt and misdirect them. Cultivating temperance is especially helpful to counter the sins by which we overuse or abuse the good things of creation, including avarice, lust, and gluttony.
Fr. Marc Stockton
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