Conferences on the Virtues

By Fr. Bruno Cocuzzi, ocd

Number 6

In the previous conference we began speaking of the Moral Virtues, and we continue now with further observations concerning them.

Moral virtues that reside in the will govern our relationships with other human beings. Generally, they have to do with what it is we owe them. And that depends upon the nature of the various relationships to which we can be a party. There is a different and distinct name given to each of the virtues that govern different and distinct relationships. Because of that we do not owe to each and every individual the exact same kind of conduct. One element in all such conduct, however, is always the same. It is what we owe each and every person in virtue of our relationship to him/her as a fellow human being.

What we owe to some individuals is determined strictly by some kind of agreement we have reached with them. With others, it may be determined by some kind of unsolicited promise we have made to them, or by the fact that we have received from them some unsolicited favor or benefit. Then again, depending upon whether another is a superior, a peer, or a subordinate with regard to other members of the civil or religious societies to which we belong, but also with regard to natural abilities, gifts and talents. Some of those differing virtues that reside in the human will, and which we will consider separately further along are: Religion, Justice, Piety (this differs from the piety we associate with religious sentiments and devotion), Gratitude, and veracity, to name a few.

Among all the moral virtues there are four that are called the Cardinal Virtues. The name derives from the Latin word, cardo, cardinis, which means a hinge. They are given that name because a morally good life hinges upon the exercise of these virtues. Thus, all other virtues are related to one or another of them either as a subdivision or as a special case. There are four because each one of them resides in and governs one of the four appetitive faculties of the soul. Their names are: PRUDENCE, JUSTICE, TEMPERANCE AND FORTITUDE.

PRUDENCE perfects the spiritual appetitive faculty, which is our Intellect. Functions of the Intellect are: Reason and Understanding. Through these the Intellect satisfies its hunger for Truth, or better, Knowledge of Truth. Knowledge of Truth keeps the soul in touch with Reality.

JUSTICE is chief among the virtues which perfects the human Will, the spiritual appetitive faculty which hungers for good, particularly good in human relationships (as touched upon briefly above).

TEMPERANCE is the head of the virtues that perfect, by controlling and keeping within proper limits, the Concupiscible sensitive (or sense) appetite, which hungers for its own proper good, namely, pleasurable or gratifying sense perceptions and feelings.

Finally, FORTITUDE is chief among the virtues that perfect, also by controlling and keeping within limits, the Irascible sensitive appetite. This appetite experiences a kind of negative hunger, that is, the hunger to be free of painful and repugnant sense perceptions and feelings. It should be evident from the above why the individual faculties in which these Cardinal Virtues reside are called appetitive.

When exercised in the highest degree and in difficult matters, Prudence enables one to fulfill the obligations of authority in a perfect manner. The purpose of prudence, in one possessing lawful authority, is to decide what is right and good for all the members of a society, considered as a social unit. To a lesser degree Prudence is exercised in matters such as giving good moral advice to others and in making good moral decisions for oneself personally.

Justice is exercised in the highest and most difficult degree when it enables an individual to render to a person of equal status and standing his/her exact due. Then it is called Commutative Justice. There are also subdivisions of Justice called Distributive Justice and Legal Justice. The former enables a Superior to render to his subordinates those things he owes them, and the latter enables the subordinates to render those things they in turn owe to their lawful Superior, or perhaps, better, to the society presided over by the Superior. Above we’ve already named certain virtues related to and under the banner of Justice: Gratitude, Piety and Veracity (Truthfulness). Although also considered to be related to and under the headship of Justice, the virtue of Religion is an altogether special case. That is because it governs the unique relationship that exists between us human beings and God, the Supreme Being. As finite beings, we can never hope adequately to render to Him, an Infinite Divine Being, the things we owe Him as our Creator and Father.

The purpose of Temperance, when exercised in its highest degree, enables an individual to adhere to the proper and lawful measure in the enjoyment of tactile pleasures of sense. To a lesser degree, it is exercised in the control of other forms of pleasurable sensations.

Fortitude finds its highest expression in enabling an individual to endure the greatest possible physical evil, death itself, rather than to suffer the greatest possible spiritual evil, the death of the soul. Lesser degrees of Fortitude are exercised in enabling one to sustain lesser physical evils rather than suffer a spiritual evil less grave than spiritual death. From what has been said, most of us never are in situations wherein we are required to exercise Fortitude in the highest possible degree. An individual can exercise Fortitude in its highest degree but once, and when he/she does, we reckon him/her among the martyrs.

In the previous conference we said that the virtues have an integrative or coordinative function to perform for us, since our souls are endowed with complementary powers and faculties. We also said further back that Prudence is the Queen of the Virtues, and there can be no Queen without her subjects, which are the strictly moral virtues. When the faculties and powers of our humanity work together in a perfectly orderly and harmonious manner in our pursuit of blessedness (our proper end), then each and every one of our appetitive faculties finds its own proper good in everything that we do. In other words, in any human act that is thoroughly good, the one who performs it would be exercising at least one virtue that belongs to each of the categories headed by Prudence, Justice, Temperance and Fortitude. After all, our reason plays a part in anything we choose to do. And, as individual persons, we are situated in a network of human relationships (even what we owe ourselves must take into consideration God’s rights over us). Then there is always the necessity to resist an attraction toward doing something more gratifying to the body and to the ego than what we must do for the greater good of our souls. Similarly there is always the necessity of standing firm in enduring the physical and emotional discomfort or repugnance that accompanies conduct that sub-serves and promotes the spiritual health and eternal welfare of our souls.

The process of integration and coordination achieved within our humanity by the exercise of the virtues does not reach perfect completion overnight. But when it does, then we are saints. Until that point is reached, none of our actions are thoroughly good. Thus it happens that, by a particular act, we may achieve the proper good of one or the other of the appetitive faculties, but fail to attain it for one or more of the others. For example, one may have a strong tendency to act fairly and squarely in his/her relationships with others (Justice), but at the same time might be weak in Fortitude, with the result that the individual would not succeed in being just where grave personal inconvenience or bodily harm would befall him/her. From this latter example, we can see that the proper good of the irascible appetite often consists in the endurance of pain and inconvenience, strange as that may sound. But despite the fact that complete integration and coordination of all the faculties of soul and body in the pursuit of goodness and blessedness is not realized in all our actions, the general principle always holds: As we make progress in attaining perfection in the exercise of one of the moral virtues, each of the other moral virtues also grows in some degree, however slight, toward its own perfection.

We have already seen in the first conference in this series, that original sin has thrown the natural appetites, or rather the appetitive faculties of the soul into disorder. One effect we mentioned is the darkening of the intellect. Until the order with which God endowed the faculties of our humanity when He created Adam and Eve is restored, every human being (Jesus and Mary excepted) is prey to the three-fold concupiscence spoken of by St. John the Evangelist. Because of them the human intellect, that is, the practical Reason, is so clouded over that it cannot easily discern what is the right, good and true conduct in particular situations and circumstances. That being the case, the virtue of Prudence cannot properly fulfill its role as required in those same circumstances. It is only when, little by little, the proper order among the appetitive faculties is restored, that the practical intellect is able to discern moral truth and goodness with less and less distortion. When the order among them is complete and perfect, as God intended them to be, then Prudence really does become the Queen of the virtues, and Justice, Temperance and Fortitude are exercised in all their perfection.

We will never completely understand how it is that the grace of God works in us and begins to overcome the disorderliness in one of our appetitive faculties, and through it, begins to introduce orderliness into all the others. But we do know that, even from the mere human, unredeemed point of view, it is possible for a person to begin to impose a semblance of order upon the lower faculties for the sake of the good of a more noble faculty, even if that same more noble faculty, in relation to God’s Will and the life of grace, is itself in disarray. In one of his letters, St. Paul mentions how athletes of those times would do violence to themselves (that is, to certain appetitive faculties in their humanity) as part of their training for a contest in which they hoped to take the prize. Human respect, NOT a reliable motive for conduct in regard to the soul’s eternal welfare, CAN therefore be the cause of someone’s overcoming a disorderly appetite for gratification of the senses, so as to gratify the ego, which loves to look good in the eyes of others. This itself is a disorder when it excludes the individual’s looking good in the eyes of God.

In any event, God can and does make use of an unhealthy (for the soul) love of the self to lead a person to a healthy self-love, one that leads to eternal life as the proper end and goal of one’s existence. The same can be said of one’s love for other human beings. True love for another, namely, putting the welfare of the beloved above one’s own, even when it remains on a purely natural level, does overcome a selfish, disorderly love in the lover. That, in turn, gradually helps the intellect to better discern and embrace eternal truths and supernatural good. And please note it is always some kind of love that takes one onto a more noble level of human existence.

Since mere human love is capable of helping one to go counter to the disorder in his/her human nature wounded by Original Sin, imagine how more effective Divine Love is in restoring that order completely. It is when we fully realize and embrace the fact that God loves us to folly (as proven in Jesus’ Incarnation, Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension), and then begin to make sincere efforts to respond to that Love by giving Him our entire heart in return, that we begin to let in the Divine Light our intellects need to perceive the proper role each of our appetitive faculties must play in the pursuit of eternal blessedness. At the same time, we also begin to strengthen our will so that it can control those same appetitive faculties and make them function in the manner necessary to unite itself in all things with the Will of the One, True, Eternal GOOD, God Himself.

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