Conferences on the Virtues

By Fr. Bruno Cocuzzi, ocd

Number 1

Preface: The reason for choosing The Virtues as the topic.

[About ten years ago] while reading certain parts of the various documents of Vatican II that deal with the Laity, I encountered the following:

It is through the sacraments and the exercise of the virtues that the sacred nature of the priestly community is brought into operation (The Church, Sec. 11. Emphasis is mine).

In that Dogmatic Constitution, the Council identifies the priestly community as the entire people of God: Clergy, Religious, Laity, i.e., all the baptized. Then more recently it came to my attention that Our Holy Mother Saint Teresa, in the Way of Perfection, Chapter 16, tells us that meditation is the basis for acquiring the virtues, and that these dispose one for contemplation. It seems to me, therefore, that anyone who wants to be a full-fledged, contributing member of the Church and of the Order should know as much as possible about the virtues, and, more importantly, put them into practice. (End of Preface).

What is meant by the Virtues? In general, virtues are strengths. Strength is the basic meaning of the Latin word virtus, from which our word virtue is derived. In the plural form [virtutes], however, the word can have other related meanings. The Latin version of Psalm 44, verse 10 says, literally: Now however you have repulsed and confounded us and no longer go out with our virtues (cum virtutibus nostris). The translation of that verse of the Psalm found in the one-volume Christian Prayer reads: Yet you have rejected us, disgraced us; you no longer go forth with our armies. It is reasonable to conclude that the virtues are, for the life of grace (and for the Church and the Order), what armies are for our human lives (and for our nation). I find this very interesting because in the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which our older Lay Carmelites are familiar with, one of the symbols applied to Our Lady is that of An Army in Battle Array (Acies Ordinata). Thus, virtues are those strengths and those powers which protect and defend us against the enemies of the life of grace, and which enable us eventually to conquer and destroy those enemies.

But I am getting ahead of myself. Even the pagan philosophers of ancient Rome used the word virtus in the transferred sense of goodness, worth, moral perfection. To them, virtues made a person good from the natural point of view. In other words, we may truly say that, naturally speaking, virtues cause a person to be true to his or her humanity (or human-ness), considered as being created in the image and likeness of God. We, the baptized, have had our human-ness elevated (transformed) into our current status as Children of God by adoption. But because grace builds on nature, we still need the virtues in order to attain perfection as adopted children of God, even though divine grace gives the virtues a new form and a new content, even as it enobles them. We shall say more about that later in this series of conferences.

More specifically, what are the virtues? Virtues are a subdivision of a larger category of entities called Habits. A habit is defined as a constant, often unconscious, inclination to perform a particular kind of act or deed, or alternatively, as an established trend of mind or character. Habits are acquired through frequent repetition of a particular act or deed. In the American Heritage Dictionary, the plural, habits, is defined as a customary manner or practice, as in: a man of ascetic habits. From what has been said above, it follows that virtues are good habits which strongly and powerfully dispose a person to be morally good, that is, disposed to act in perfect accord with what is true and good. As an established trend of mind or character, virtues become ingrained in the soul. They become as much a part of the soul as the grain is a part of the wood in a tree. We can also say that virtues become rooted in the soul. AS such they become the immediate sources of one’s deeds and conduct, producing the corresponding flower and fruit in daily activity, thus making that person pleasing to God and to men.

For every virtue, there is a corresponding vice, or bad habit. Vices also operate strongly and powerfully to make a person evil. That is, they cause him to act in a manner totally in disaccord with what is true and good. Vices cause a person to deny and negate by his deeds and conduct his status and dignity as a human being. They violate, disfigure and ultimately destroy the natural image and likeness to God in which we humans were created. Vices, too, become ingrained and rooted in the soul. Once established, both virtues and vices are difficult to eradicate, although virtues are more easily lost, given the woundedness of human nature due to Original Sin. Virtues can be lost by the mere lack of exercise.

How are virtues acquired? As stated in the definition given above, by frequent repetition. Perhaps the habits we are most familiar with are the mechanical habits, such as typing, playing a musical instrument, or operating complicated machinery. The ordinary person has to work hard and practice long hours to acquire these mechanical habits, that is, to do those things while giving hardly a deliberate thought to what they are doing. Some people though, are by nature more apt than others. The process of learning to type, for example, can be painful and frustrating. But, with perseverance, facility is eventually achieved. With continued practice and use the habit of typing becomes so ingrained that it is done automatically. The same is true of the virtues.

With regard to acquiring virtues, at first one has to try to force himself to act in accordance with what is good and true, which thereby affirms and confirms him in his status and dignity as a human being and as a child of God. One rarely succeeds at first. But with courage and perseverance, one gradually brings his conduct into greater and closer conformity with the True and the Good. Eventually, as a result of frequent repetition, the inclination, the tendency, the disposition to do always what is morally good becomes ingrained. At that point, one’s response to all situations in life is automatically and morally a good one. Then that person does what is right and acceptable to God out of instinct or second nature.

Why must one, at first, force himself to do what is morally good in a given situation? The answer to that is found in the fact of Original Sin and its consequences. Even though the guilt and the eternal punishment due to Original Sin, with which we were born, have been removed by the Sacrament of Baptism, our human natures remain wounded (as was stated above). The intellect has been darkened and has difficulty in discerning doctrinal and moral Truth. The Will has been weakened and has difficulty in embracing what it knows to be true and morally Good. Then there is disorder in our humanity involving our sense appetites, our emotions, and our rational appetites. Whereas our sense appetites should be subordinate to the emotions, and both sense appetites and emotions should be subordinate to the rational appetites, the order is completely reversed. As a result we are drawn to pursue bodily (temporal, perishable) comfort and well being much more strongly than to emotional and psychic well being (also temporal and perishable). And we experience little if any attraction to the spiritual and eternal well being of our souls. In a person who operates out of his natural instincts, when there is competition among the appetites, the lower ones always prevail over the higher.

Thus we see why it is that vies are so easily acquired. In fact, no effort at all is required. All one has to do is let his natural instincts take control of his life. In the absence of a determined and continuous effort to restore the proper order among the appetites, one tends constantly and consistently to conduct himself in a manner utterly unworthy of his true dignity and worth. Vices, when fully formed, plunge the intellect into almost total moral darkness and render the will almost totally powerless to do good. This last statement sounds rather extreme, but do not dismiss it before re-reading what St. Paul writes in his letter to the Romans (7:15-24).

In the next conference we will consider questions which arise logically from what has already been said, to wit:

How do I get to know what is morally good conduct in a given situation?

How do I get the strength to force myself to do what I know to be morally good in a given situation.

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