Conferences on the Virtues

By Fr. Bruno Cocuzzi, ocd

Number 5

Naming of Virtues continued…

In our last conference on the virtues we spoke of the intellectual virtues (speculative and practical) and the moral virtues, a distinction based upon the particular power of the soul in which they reside. The former reside in the intellect or understanding, the latter in the appetitive faculties (the will – the rational appetite – and the sense appetites). There are distinctions based upon other considerations as well.

There are the natural virtues and the supernatural virtues, depending upon whether they help us tend toward the perfection or our mere human nature or toward the perfection of our new, supernatural status as children of God by adoption. Our supernatural perfection consists in the Beatific Vision. (As an aside, therefore, we do well frequently to remind ourselves that the “vision” of God given to us on earth by supernatural Faith is the counterpart and secure preparation for the Beatific Vision in Heaven).

We may also speak of “acquired” virtues and “infused” virtues. The former we owe to our own individual effort, while the latter are given us by God as a gift. We do not “merit” the infused virtues, because none of the gifts of God, strictly speaking, are merited, otherwise they wouldn’t be gifts. We can, however, by our own efforts, dispose ourselves to receive them. What that amounts to is removing the obstacles that prevent the gifts from being bestowed. We do not speak of a “refusal” to accept God’s gifts, because a person acting in all good faith does not refuse God anything. But even though we strive to act in good faith at all times, we very often are not aware that we do indeed place obstacles in the way of the gifts God wishes to bestow. That is why trial and testing, dryness and darkness are so necessary for us. They lead to self-knowledge, i.e., discernment of those obstacles we tend to place in the way of receiving, accepting God’s graces, from which we also derive some idea about how to remove them.

All of us have heard and accepted the dictum: Empty your heart of all created things and God will fill it with Himself. It happens so surely that we are tempted to believe that we “earned” His taking possession of our hearts, as is true of thinking that by removing obstacles we have earned the graces of God. Yet we can speak of having a strict “right” to the inflowing of God and the bestowal of His graces in those circumstances because Jesus has earned that strict right for us by His redemptive suffering and death.

The infused virtues can be further distinguished into the purely supernatural virtues, (the theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity), and the quasi-supernatural moral virtues. These are not entirely “supernatural” because they do not entirely transcend the limits of human possibility. They are supernatural only in the sense that they direct our distinctively human activity to a higher, a superhuman perfection.

One might object that since Faith resides in the intellect, our knowing by Faith is a distinctively human activity, and we say Faith is a totally supernatural virtue. The answer to that would be that God-as-He-is-in-Himself is the “direct object” of our knowing by Faith, the “direct object” of our human faculty to rest secure (Hope) and the “direct object” of our human capacity to love (Charity). The direct object of our distinctively human activity by means of the infused moral virtues is not God-as-He-is-in-Himself, but other human beings or creatures.

Finally, the moral virtues, whether natural or infused, are distinguished into Cardinal virtues and Annexed or Subordinated virtues.

The Moral Virtues

The generic name of these virtues is derived from the word “mores”, which means “usage” or “custom”. As is suggested by what we have said thus far, they are habitual tendencies of our appetitive faculties to apprehend by means of human activity those good things, which are in accord with right reason. A technical definition would be: “A moral virtue is an elective habit (the choice of a good as expressed in conduct) consisting in a “happy medium” (avoids excess and defect in relation to the possessor) as determined by one who is truly wise (sees and understands all things in their deepest relationships).

In the above definition, it is well to emphasize that the happy medium is always considered in reference to the actor, the one who possesses the virtue. The moral virtue of temperance, for example, enables one to adhere to the fine line that exists between “too much” and “too little” in regard to activities that give sense pleasure. Now obviously, that would depend upon circumstances such as age, state of health, state in life, even the day or the time of year (as in the penitential season of Lent, the joyful seasons of Christmastide and Eastertide, and Sunday). There could be others besides. For example, a foundry worker would be entitled to more in the way of food and drink than one whose daily occupations require little physical exertion. Also, one who has accepted a call from God to a life of austerity and self-denial for love of Him and to bear witness to His transcendent Goodness would not be entitled to as much in the way of life’s legitimate pleasures as one who is not so called.

From that we see that we simply can never presume to judge the conduct of others in this or in any other regard. Any judgment as to the “goodness” or “evil” of another’s conduct always tends to be “rash” because we seldom know enough about a person’s relationship with God or other factors having a bearing on their personal situation to make reliable judgments. If we don’t fully understand ourselves, how can we ever expect to understand others?

Since we have already spoken about the natural passions and of how the “integrity” of human nature has been injured by original sin, it is easy to understand why the moral virtues are absolutely necessary. Each of our appetitive faculties, the Will, (the rational appetite where “ego” is so strong), and the various sense appetites (one’s eyes can be bigger than one’s stomach – as they used to remind us in Navy mess halls) tend to operate as if they alone existed within the human psyche. Each has to be bent toward that conduct which contributes to the greater and proper “good” of the entire person. It is the role of the moral virtues to do just that. Here again, we see why we need them to constitute within us a second nature. So often we have to act spontaneously, on the spur of the moment. If we did not have the virtues as coordinative and integrative habits to enable us to conform quasi-instinctively to the rule of reason guided by Faith, we would not be able to make our way along the path of holiness of life. We would easily stray from the road that leads securely, and sweetly, to union with God in love, i.e., in total conformity with His Will.

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