Growing in virtue is akin to strengthening our moral muscles. Just as body building requires hard work and discipline over time, developing virtuous habits also necessitates a strict regimen. This week, our spiritual training program exercises the four “P‘s–prepare, prioritize, practice, and pray–to coach our growth in human virtue.
Our preparation is based largely upon understanding what is good for us and recognizing what detracts us from pursuing that good. Setting priorities in our lives helps us to keep things properly ordered so we can promptly choose the greatest good. Practice promotes muscle memory which shapes us to respond easily and consistently to our challenges. Prayer elevates everything by cultivating our spiritual joy and disposing us to receive the gift of grace.
Our efforts to grow in the cardinal virtues certainly contribute to the general betterment of both ourselves and others. However, Saint Thomas Aquinas notes that the moral virtues remain incomplete and imperfect unless they direct us toward the light of God. Charity, the highest form of love, binds all virtues together and orients them toward God.
Saint Augustine relates the cardinal virtues to four forms of love: “temperance is love giving itself entirely to that which is loved; fortitude is love readily bearing all things for the sake of the loved object; justice is love serving only the loved object, and therefore ruling rightly; prudence is love distinguishing with sagacity between what hinders it and what helps it.” In such a way, the cardinal virtues curtail our sinful inclinations and enable us to yield to charity. In turn, charity orients us toward God as the proper source of our fulfillment.
Realizing the ultimate object of our love is God, Saint Augustine’s definition of the cardinal virtues is refined accordingly: “temperance is love keeping itself entire and incorrupt for God; fortitude is love bearing everything readily for the sake of God; justice is love serving God only, and therefore ruling well all else, as subject to man; prudence is love making a right distinction between what helps it towards God and what might hinder it.”
We open this month with a statement from the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
“It is not easy for man, wounded by sin, to maintain moral balance. Christ’s gift of salvation offers us the grace necessary to persevere in the pursuit of the virtues. Everyone should always ask for this grace of light and strength, frequent the sacraments, cooperate with the Holy Spirit, and follow his calls to love what is good and shun evil” (CCC 1811).
Let’s close the month reflecting on how we can live a life of grace. Scripture teaches us to “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Practically speaking, we can pause and renew our connection to God as we encounter various situations throughout our day. We can rely on the Holy Spirit to guide our responses. We can attempt to execute the will of God by answering the question, “what would Jesus do?” United with Christ, we can love with his charity, be humble with his humility, forgive with his mercy, and endure with his patience. Inspired by Saint Paul, let us learn to say: “yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20).
