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Here is where we come to “the mystery of the moral virtues.” (If I had not set it up properly, what follows would make no sense.) Said another way, the theological virtues direct us to our End (God), but the moral virtues direct us in our means to that End. The moral virtues dispose us to good acts, but not to God, at least not directly. “Flesh and blood hath not revealed this, but my Father who is in Heaven” our Lord said to Saint Peter concerning the act of faith the Apostle had made. They are not and cannot be acquired by any human effort. That is, they order us to God and are infused by God directly into our souls. These have God as their immediate object and their direct source. Over and above the moral virtues, of course, are the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity.
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In a catalogue that he does not consider exhaustive, Saint Thomas enumerates over fifty moral virtues, explaining that “For every act in which there is found a special aspect of goodness, man must be disposed by a special virtue.” For example, the virtue of religion, by which we render to God what is His due, is part of the virtue of justice, whereby we render to others what is owed to them. All the moral virtues are considered “parts” of these cardinal virtues. 397), and the scholastics refined the study of them in typical lapidary fashion in all their various summae. Catholic theology has spoken of them as “cardinal” since at least the time of St. Prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude are a quartet recognized by the ancient Greeks and Latins, as well as in the book of Wisdom in the Old Testament: “her labours have great virtues for she teacheth temperance, and prudence, and justice, and fortitude, which are such things as men can have nothing more profitable in life” (Wis. There are four moral virtues which, by their nature, are so pivotal that they are called “cardinal” virtues, that is “hinge” virtues (from cardo, cardinis, meaning “hinge” in Latin).
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Moral habits that are good are called virtues moral habits that are bad are called vices. Moral habits pertain to man’s ethical behavior. Once we acquire the habit, it becomes like a power in us, a potency we can put into act on demand.
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In fact, there is an aspect of all three in any human undertaking. All the various human endeavors are either arts, sciences, or moral acts. Study of the sciences, that is, any field of ordered knowledge (e.g., mathematics), builds certain intellectual habits. From scales and arpeggios, I can eventually tackle a Liszt Transcendental Étude (if I am really good!). The act of playing it strengthens in my mind, attunes my senses, builds coordination in my body, etc., all to make me a better piano player. I practice my piano and acquire the habit of being a piano player. In this, it is like other habits: arts and sciences. A virtue is a good habit, one that (normally speaking) we get from repeated acts. This may at first seem to be a dry-as-dust academic curiosity, but, to my thinking, it is not only one of the most practically applicable parts of mystical theology, but it also helps us to answer something that nags many of us when we look at our non-Catholic (or even utterly irreligious) neighbor and see that, in him, there is something good - not only good, but positively virtuous. The particular non-problematic mystery I wish to consider here is that of the relation of two different classes of moral virtues: the acquired moral virtues and the infused moral virtues. Meditating on mysteries is therefore not futile, but fruitful, if properly done. It should also be recalled that a mystery is not something about which we can know nothing rather, it is something about which we cannot know everything. A similar sense of awe in the face of divine revelation ought to lead us to respect supernatural mysteries and not render them so “problematic.” Saint Augustine famously asserted of Rachel’s clever Jacob-Esau switcheroo: Non est mendacium, est mysterium (“It is not a lie it is a mystery”). No, they are mysteries, and many mysteries are and will remain - to borrow the title of a television program I have thankfully never seen - “Unsolved Mysteries.” These things are neither moral problems which show a defect in our dogmatic system, nor mathematical problems that can be solved with advanced calculus, nor even problems of a logical or ontological nature.
Virtues and vices catholic free#
In modern theology, biblical criticism, and other sacred sciences, articles are often entitled, “The Problem of X,” or “The X Problem,” as in “The Problem of Free Will” or “The Synoptic Problem.” Modern folk have the bad habit of looking at a mystery and calling it a problem.