The Life of Virtue - Eutrapelia

One day, so the story goes, some people came across St John the Evangelist playing games and telling jokes with his friends. They were shocked. Not the thing, so they thought, for one so close to the Lord. He got one of his friends to take up a bow and to fire arrows from it, one after another. ‘Why is he doing that’, asked the scandalised folk. ‘If he goes on using the bow, and does not relax it occasionally, the bow will break’, replied Saint John.

The point is clear: the human being needs time to relax and to rest, time for enjoyment and games, for the witty conversation of friends, time for re-creation. If we are to be useful to our friends and are to respect the limitations on our energies, then we must become skilled in knowing when to stop, turn aside and relax. It is only common sense, you might say. Nevertheless we often hear about people ‘burning out’, exhausting themselves and running close to physical and emotional breakdown. It can be in any walk of life, any profession or business, but often it is people in the caring or helping professions who over-do things: social workers, nurses, clergy, parents, teachers. Rather than being a sign of dedication and selflessness such experiences may simply show a lack of wisdom, a failure to respect oneself and one’s needs, ignorance of one’s limits, a failure to listen to the messages of the body.

Aristotle believed that what was required for proper relaxation and enjoyment was not just a social skill but a special virtue, another kind of temperateness. He called it eutrapelia (another good name for a cat!). With this virtue a person will know that he or she must relax, and will know when and how to do it. Because it is a virtue, concerned with what is morally good, it will not allow us to enjoy ourselves at the expense of others or in a way that is wrong (destructive or obscene, for example). Like all virtues it stands between two extremes, buffoonery (stupid carry on) and boorishness (inability to take a joke). Eutrapelia strikes the right note, helping us to relax in a healthy way. Aquinas once again takes up what Aristotle says and includes it in his account of the good human life (Summa theologiae II.II 72,2; 168,2)

This common sense and Greek wisdom is found also in the Bible. After the work of creation God rested, teaching us the need for special days and years, times of rest and celebration, Sabbaths and jubilees (Gen 2.2-3; Exod 20.8-11; Lev 23-25). The point of God’s work is to share his delight and happiness with human creatures. God’s wisdom says: ‘I was by his side, a master craftsman, delighting him day after day, ever at play in his presence, at play everywhere in his world, delighting to be with human beings’ (Prov 8.30-31).

The Father is the Lord of the Dance (Zeph 3.17-18) who invites us to dance before him as David did before the ark of the covenant (2 Sam 6.16). For the early Christians the dance went on in the paschal experience of Jesus. The resurrection is God’s great joke, at the devil’s expense, an unexpected and witty response to the apparent victory of Satan so that ‘he who sits in the heavens laughs’ (Ps 2). Dance continued in the liturgy, the Lord’s Day was the day of rest and recreation, the holy days became the holidays: a resting in the Lord who pours gifts on his beloved while they slumber. Our holidays and Sundays are not just necessary relaxation to rest the bow and gather our strength for the coming week. This rest from our work reminds us that it is God’s world and not ours. The progress of the world depends on Him before it depends on us. Human life is a gift and a grace to be received and lived with joy, so that we may eventually enter the place of rest reserved for God’s people (Heb 4.1-11), God’s place of peace and delight.

Eutrapelia is the virtue that enables us to give ourselves fully to the very serious business of enjoying the delights of friendship and love, family and friends, books and games, wine and Guinness. Some people are fortunate enough to live in places where they can be joyful in the sunshine!

The Life of Virtue - Studiosity

Study is one of the central components of Dominican spirituality. To be studious is to be appropriately eager to study. It is having the desire to apply one’s mind to something; to learn about it, to know it, so that one may understand it. To develop, foster and have the virtue of studiosity is a good thing. It is just as natural and proper for humans to desire knowledge, as it is to desire the pleasures of food and drink. Aristotle observes in his Metaphysics “all human beings have a natural desire for knowledge." Apart from this natural inclination, we are commanded by God to: “Study wisdom, my son, and make my heart joyful, that thou mayest give an answer to him that reproacheth." Ultimately we all desire to know that which is true, that which is Truth itself; and that Truth, which is God, wishes us to know him.

Studiosity is a desire; it therefore belongs to temperance. If we have an appetite for study, like all appetitive movements, it will need to be moderated. We can easily fall into the vice of curiosity, when we allow our pride to drive our yearning for knowledge. When we do this we try to put ourselves above God. We also do this when we separate our study from the due end: God. This does not mean that when learning about the Imperial German Armee-Inspektion or Cornish cheese- production, we have to insert God; but we must remember that what we are learning about is not the be all and end all of everything.

Also if we engage in study in order to sin, we put ourselves against God. We must be careful in what we study. This requires an element of humility. We might not intend to sin but we can easily fall into sin by studying things that might be above our intelligence. This can lead us into error. Likewise our natural curiosity can become superstitious. St. Augustine gives the example of many being excommunicated by their interest in studying demonology and witchcraft.

We must also remember that there is a hierarchy of our studies. At times we have an obligation to certain pursuits but also some areas are more important than others. We cannot let our curiosity take us off track. St. Jerome observed: "we see priests forsaking the gospels and the prophets, reading stage-plays, and singing the love songs of pastoral idylls." This is not to say that we can not have other studious interests, outside our primary focus, but they must be subordinate.

The Life of Virtue - Humility

Humility – just another ‘monkish virtue’! That was British philosopher David Hume’s opinion in the eighteenth century and I would hazard that many share it now. We are told that if we want to get anywhere in life we have to ‘sell ourselves’, be forward and build ourselves up because if we don’t nobody will do it for us. As such, humility is often incorrectly seen as something which just belongs in the cloister because it degrades us unnecessarily or, just as perversely, shows itself as ‘the worst form of conceit’.

As Christians we must learn that there is a lot more to this virtue than always going around thinking, or telling others, how awful we are! St Thomas informs us that the word humility is derived from the Latin humus or that which is from the earth beneath us. Rather than grinding ourselves into the ground it would perhaps be best to begin to view humility as a virtue that allows us to see where we stand and can keep us grounded. Thomas teaches us that “the virtue of humility consists in keeping oneself within one's own bounds, not reaching out to things above one, but submitting to one's superior” (Summa Contra Gentiles, bk. iv, ch. iv). The superior to which we must all submit is evidently God but we must also be prepared to submit to others for God’s sake, it is therefore important that we know what true humility consists of and how to practise it.

We must firstly guard ourselves against false humility and learn to see how our talents and gifts may be viewed aright against those of others. It is not simply a matter of viewing ourselves inherently as beneath all others, “otherwise each one would have to esteem himself a greater sinner than anyone else”, as Thomas points out with characteristic bluntness (Summa theologiae II.II 161 art 3). It is important to note that we should not see our supernatural gifts, given to us by the grace of God, as being less than those others possess. Nor should we see those natural gifts we possess as necessarily being inferior to those of our neighbour. Instead we must be honest with ourselves and acknowledge when we lack a good that our neighbour may possess or exhibit an evil that they do not. We must then be humble enough to recognise this and in doing so we subject ourselves but we must be wary of outward acts of subjection as Thomas warns, “due moderation must be observed in the outward acts of humility even as of other virtues, lest they conduce to the detriment of others” (Summa theologiae II.II 161 art 3). Instead our acts should be ultimately directed to God and thus out of love and not false humility which seeks some other reward. As St Paul states, “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you” (Romans 12:3).

Humility is allied to temperance in its potential part because it represses or moderates our excesses of appetite, in this case pride or vainglory. As such it is often viewed as a great spiritual foundation because it removes the obstacles to faith which we daily face. Pride is often our greatest stumbling block and without humility we cannot hope to remove its harmful influence from our spiritual lives’. We would do well to heed the words of St Peter, “All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble’. Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time” (1 Peter 5:5-6). For our truest example of humility we should always look toward Christ who being “found in human form, humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8).

The Life of Virtue - Modesty

Modesty, like so many of the Christian virtues, has been largely disregarded by Western liberal societies. In the latter half of the twentieth century, modesty in dress was rejected outright by radicals, particularly radical feminists, who saw it simply as a way for men to oppress women and of determining their self-image according to how they dressed. Any criticism of less than modest dress in women was taken to be a cynical attempt by men to make women feel ashamed of their bodies, and thus their identity, something that would in turn make them to be subservient to men.

An emphasis on the importance of modesty in dress was also thought to lead many women to see themselves as moral failures because they did not wish, or did not feel able, to live according to the standards set by society. This guilt was thought to do great psychological harm to these women, leading the most rebellious amongst them down a path of moral decay, through which they would become the means to satisfy the lusts of the very men who publicly criticised immodesty. This was the theory presented by many liberal thinkers in the twentieth century and was partly caused no doubt by the hypocrisy and/or genuine failure of many who publicly condemned immorality whilst privately behaving immodestly.

This way of thinking is too simplistic, however, because it neglects to address many important aspects of the issues involved. For instance, just because some people criticised others publicly for behaviour that they were themselves undertaking in private, this does not make the behaviour any less wrong. Simply because some people failed to live up to a high moral standard, this does not mean the standard does not truly exist or that it has no value for contemporary society. Furthermore, it could be argued that by buying into the notion that the acceptability of women dressing immodestly is empowering for women, these women have in fact disempowered themselves, for they have given many men exactly what they wanted without any benefit to themselves, aside from the perceived benefit that they are freer because they can reject the “constraint” of modesty in dress. It is interesting to note that a perceived lack of modesty in dress in Western society has been a major factor, judging by what they say themselves, in leading many Western women to convert to Islam, where they think that the rules for modest dress are very clear.

It is also crucial to remember that modesty of dress applies to men too, something that many people seem to forget when addressing the issue. Many people are often tempted to focus excessively on the aspect of modesty as an avoidance of revealing clothing. However, modesty is much more than this, because it is concerned with much more than even modesty of dress. In fact Aquinas, when discussing modesty, describes modesty of dress as the fourth and least significant of the four aspects of this virtue. One might argue, for example that taking an excessive amount of time over putting together a particular outfit that was in all other regards perfectly modest, might make the outfit immodest. By giving something non-essential so much of one’s time, one risks prioritising the superficial over the practical and fundamental matters of life. Another obvious example is the amount of money spent on clothes that appear to be modest, money that could be better spent on helping one’s brothers and sisters in Christ. Let us ask Our Lady, the model of modesty for us all, to pray for people in our society that they may rediscover the beauty and integrity that comes from having a modest heart.

The Life of Virtue - Gentleness

In the letter to the Ephesians, St Paul says "Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil." Anger is not necessarily sinful, but it is a passion that can easily lead us into sin and to hatred of our neighbour. Whilst on occasion it might be right to desire vengeance for the sake of the good that it may achieve, it is always wrong to take pleasure in the evil suffered by another person because this is incompatible with charity.

However we would not be free from vice if we never became angry. On this point, St Thomas quotes St John Chrysostom: "He who is not angry, when he has cause to be, sins. For unreasonable patience is the hotbed of many vices, it fosters negligence, and incites not only the wicked but even the good to do wrong."

Since we are much more likely to be angry to excess or with the wrong person than not to be angry enough, the habit of being angry to the right level and in the right situation is greatly facilitated by the virtue that restrains anger, and this virtue is called gentleness. Gentleness is a secondary virtue of the principal virtue of temperance. Whilst temperance moderates the pleasures of nourishment and procreation, gentleness moderates the desire for vengeance. The virtue of temperance takes precedence over the virtue of gentleness because it is usually more difficult for a person to show restraint when it comes to food and sex than to show restraint in the situation when a person has been wronged. Other virtues such as faith, hope, charity, prudence and justice are yet greater still than gentleness because whilst gentleness restrains a person from committing evil, these other virtues direct a person to do good.

Still, it is very important that the virtue of gentleness is fostered. An angry person is liable to become an irrational person, one who acts rashly and lacks self-control, and so anger can be a great obstacle to attaining knowledge of God. If we are gentle we have a disposition in which other greater virtues can take root in us so that we can become acceptable before God.

The Life of Virtue - Clemency

Clemency is the inclination to lessen punishment and it originates in love. Love as justice will sometimes require punishment; love as clemency will want to mitigate that punishment. Because it responds to a higher reasonableness, clemency is counted as a virtue.

A distorted form of clemency is 'favoritism' where a person is less demanding in relation to one he prefers than he is to one he does not love so much, but at least it shows the connection between clemency and love. The real opposite of clemency, however, is cruelty. Aquinas says that to take pleasure in the sufferings of another human being is to lack normal human affections since even at a natural level we are inclined to love, and to feel for, other human beings. To be cruel to another, therefore, is to be mad.

Clemency's tendency to mitigate punishment when this is the reasonable thing to do aligns it with epeikeia in relation to legal justice: a virtue which enables us to know when a strict and severe application of the law would be contrary to right reason.

Here is an interesting thing: most of Aquinas's consideration of clemency and gentleness depends on the work of the pagan philosophers Aristotle, Cicero and Seneca. Where is the teaching and example of Jesus, we might begin to wonder? In the first three articles of the question (Summa theologiae II.II 157,1-3) there are just two scriptural references, to Matthew 5:4 on the beatitude of meekness and to Galatians 5:23 on gentleness as a fruit of the Spirit. In the final article however, 157,4, what might seem like a simple endorsement of pagan morality is thrown into a completely different key. Now his authorities are biblical, with additional comments from the Christian teachers Ambrose, Augustine and Pseudo-Dionysius.

Are clemency and gentleness the greatest of virtues, Aquinas asks? Who would have thought so? Perhaps only someone who has come to know Jesus Christ, and the Father through him. Faith, hope and charity are the greatest of virtues, Thomas replies. However, among virtues that help us to resist depravity, the distortion of our souls, gentleness and clemency are the most powerful, the first because it tempers anger enabling us to be calm enough to accept the truth, and the second because it already comes close to charity, the greatest of all the virtues.

The person who is clement and gentle is merciful and so has become like the Heavenly Father. If the structure of Aquinas's thought is taken from the great pagans, the light that animates it is the light of the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ.

The Life of Virtue - Continence

If temperance is the virtue concerned with moderating our physical desires, then where does continence (which seems to be about the same thing) fit in? To understand, we need to remember that, as we’ve seen in the course of this series, to possess a virtue involves more than just acting in the right way. It requires a disposition to act in whatever way we determine to be the right one in a given set of circumstances.

And yet it’s clear that in many cases, we are not disposed to act in the way we know to be right: even if on every occasion someone does choose to do what they know to be right, this may still come after an internal struggle, during which doing the opposite (even though known to be wrong) was considered. In such a case it is continence, rather than temperance, that is being demonstrated: the person acts well, but only because the strength of their will allows their reason to overcome passions which incline them to act against it. As St Thomas says (Summa theologiae II.II 155, 1), continence is something like a virtue, but cannot really be classed as such: it involves repeated good action, yes, but good action which is chosen on each occasion after a struggle, and which thus cannot be properly called a habit of good action. We should note, of course, that even the temperate can be subject to temptation: the distinction between them and the continent is that the latter countenance the possibility of actually doing what they know to be wrong.

All of this reminds us, then, that the acquisition of virtue is a process that takes time, and that there are stages on the way to the fullness of virtue where our behaviour might have some of its attributes, though not all of them. Continence is a step on the way to the acquisition of the virtue of temperance, the strength to choose repeatedly to act well which enables us to acquire the habit of doing so with respect to our physical desires. So let us ask the Lord for this strength, that with it He may bring us at length to the fullness of virtue to which He calls us all.

The Life of Virtue - Virginity

Virginity is not seen in a positive light by many in society. The first of the seemingly endless series of American Pie films and the more recent The 40 Year Old Virgin reflect the mainstream view that one’s virginity, one’s bodily integrity and purity, is a social and emotional monkey-on-the-back, that must be kicked as far as possible into touch as early as possible. Virginity has been devalued by society, so much so that people are happy to auction it on eBay. This has of course led to a reaction, especially among Christians. Celebrity virgins, such as Britney Spears and the Jonas Brothers, and the American chastity movements, such as ‘The Silver Ring Thing’, have become one of the cultural markers of both Ronald Reagan’s moral majority and the G.W.Bush era. Movements of that kind are now found across the world and are growing still. However, whilst I sympathise and agree with much that these groups do and say, I find that they do not promote the full meaning of Christian virginity. I always feel that they focus too much on the physical side, especially abstaining from only penetrative sexual intercourse. There is also a tendency to concentrate on the negative aspects of sex such as sexually transmitted illnesses and unwanted pregnancies.

Of course the physical side of virginity is very important - "virginity resides in the flesh", as St. Augustine says - but the spiritual side is crucial. St. Thomas, in defining virginity, states that this spiritual side “stands in the position of form and complement, because the essence of morality is perfected in that which concerns the reason”. The material element is the integrity of the flesh but the important part is why we keep our virginity. As St. Augustine says, “we do not praise virgins for being virgins, but because their virginity is consecrated to God by holy continency.”

This purpose allows us, even if we are not physically virgins, to recover the virtue of virginity. St. Jerome says “other things God can do, but He cannot restore the virgin after her downfall”. This is true only of the material element of virginity. The formal element, the purpose of virginity, can be recovered. Whilst we may not be in the position to recover the material element, our minds and our souls can be so prepared that we have the purpose of safeguarding this same integrity of the flesh. By practicing the virtue of virginity we imitate our Lord and Mary, His Mother, Who both preserved both material and formal virginity. By practicing the special virtue of virginity, as St. Paul tells us, our focus is directed to contemplating and thinking on the "things of the Lord" (1 Corinthians 7:32-35).

The Life of Virtue - Chastity

When chastity is spoken of in these times most people simply associate it with the edict of ‘not having sex outside of marriage’. Whilst this is not wholly untrue there is a lot more to chastity than one, or even a list, of prohibited actions. Chastity is above all a way of living our lives aright before God in accordance with right reason, living according to the example and teachings of Christ and being courageous enough to separate ourselves from the crowd and not bow to the mores of secular society.

Chastity has as its Latin root the adjective castus, meaning pure and we must remember that this purity for which we aim is not only bodily but it must stem from a purity of the heart and mind. We must strive to be pure as God is pure. This is why in striving for the virtue of chastity we must be aware that it really is an attitude to life, an approach that should govern not simply our physical actions but our thoughts and our words the very way we live before God and our neighbour.

Thomas Aquinas identifies for us two ways in which we can view chastity, the first he terms ‘properly’ and the second ‘metaphorically’ (Summa theologiae II.II 151, 2). The former relates to chastity as “a special virtue having a special matter, namely the concupiscences relating to venereal pleasures” and we can thus identify lust as the vice contrary to chastity. The second approach states that the “spiritual union of the mind with certain things conduces to a pleasure which is the matter of a spiritual chastity.” In other words, the human mind delights in a union with the things of God but when we stray and unite our minds to sinful pleasures we commit, in effect, spiritual fornication.

Society, of course, increasingly makes the possibility of straying sinfully in our minds all the easier. We are daily faced with a barrage of propaganda on a whole host of issues – particularly ‘lifestyle’ issues – which would draw us away from the example of Christ. To stray in thought is often a precursor to straying in deed. It is certain then that we must be watchful and brace ourselves against the many temptations which daily cross our paths. We must be mindful of the words of St Paul, "but among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving" (Ephesians 5:3).

As the Church teaches, “the virtue of chastity comes under the cardinal virtue of temperance, which seeks to permeate the passions and appetites of the senses with reason" (Catechism of the Catholic Church §2341). Self-mastery over our unruly passions is vital if we are to be truly free and fulfilled and the choice is clear, “either man governs his passions and finds peace, or he lets himself be dominated by them and becomes unhappy” (CCC §2339). This is no easy thing and we must all learn to persevere. If we fall we must try to pick ourselves up again as quickly as we can and seek God’s forgiveness. His mercy is abundant and we must put all our trust in Him because without Him we can make little progress. As Aquinas states “chastity consists principally in charity and the other theological virtues, whereby the human mind is united to God” (Summa theologiae II.II 151, 2). Charity then, the love of God for us and our love for Him must be our guide: if we can unite ourselves to Christ in prayer and persevere in this, His grace will allow us to flourish and to cultivate this most important virtue of chastity

The Life of Virtue - Sobriety

At first sight the notion of sobriety as a virtue might seem rather dull, or even worse, puritanical, but St. Thomas is careful to make clear that this is not at all what he has in mind by this virtue of moderation in drink. Like all virtues, sobriety is a good and useful habit that is essential for those who are in the pursuit of a happy and peaceable life. The scriptures are full of exhortations and encouragements that counsel us always to show restraint when drinking, so as to avoid drunkenness, a state that is the cause of so much strife, violence and unnecessary heartache in our society: “wine drunk to excess is bitterness of soul, with provocation and stumbling” (Sirach 31:29). The need to know one’s limit in drinking and the harmful consequences of disregarding it can be plainly in any of our city centres on a Saturday night, where anti-social behaviour and alcohol-related fights are an all too frequent occurrence.

However, sobriety does not mean a rejection of all alcohol as sinful (this cannot be the case, for we know from scripture that Our Lord drank wine). In fact, Thomas stresses in many articles in the Summa Theologiae, that a moderate intake of wine is good for the health of the body and cheering for the heart, especially when it is drunk as a means of making merry with friends, as Aquinas holds friendship in the highest regard, “wine drunk in season and temperately is rejoicing of heart and gladness of soul” (Sirach 31:28). Thus in drinking, as with other pleasures of the flesh, the virtue is to be found in the mean, since the virtuous man is one who has accustomed himself to drinking within what he knows to be his sensible and enjoyable limit. With young people, it may take a few incautious drinking sessions before they learn the unpleasant side effects of reckless drinking, but this is a lesson well-learnt, since it will stand them in good stead throughout their lives. As followers of Christ, we are called to be models of good behaviour for others to follow and therefore should avoid drunkenness, but we can enjoy a drink or two with family and friends, content in the knowledge that we are practicing the virtue of sobriety.

The Life of Virtue - Virtue in Sport?

John Paul II, a handy goalkeeper in his youth, often lauded the positive aspects of sport:

The correct practice of sport must be accompanied by the virtues of temperance and sacrifice; frequently it also requires a good team spirit, respectful attitudes, the appreciation of the qualities of others, honesty in the game and humility to recognize one's own limitations. In short, sports, especially in less competitive forms, foster festive celebration and friendly coexistence. While playing sports Christians also find help in developing the cardinal virtues — fortitude, temperance, prudence and justice.

In modern professional sports it seems very few of these virtues are evident. This has been symbolised this summer by the investigation into the fake blood injury scandal during Harlequins’ Heineken Cup tie against Leinster. A player, aided by the club physio, faked a blood injury with a blood-capsule to allow a specialist kicker come onto the field in his place. This has of course damaged the traditional image of rugby football as the game for ruffians played by gentlemen but has also been seen as the embodiment of the lack of sportsmanship, ethics and virtue in professional sport.

In the traditional association football season curtain opener, the Community Shield, the victorious Chelsea team (although Manchester United are no angels) seemed to be lacking virtue. Michael Ballack’s off-the-ball challenge or “blocking” of United’s Evra and the Chelsea team’s failure to kick the ball out, after Evra went down, resulted in the west London team scoring a crucial goal. The fact that Ballack was “happy” that the referee did not blow for a foul but would have been “ok” if he had, suggests a less than virtuous motive for his use of the elbow.

Even cricket has suffered to some extent. The brilliant Ashes series between England and Australia has been overall a good example of sportsmanship but at times has been marred by 12th men and overzealous physios and the pragmatic slow over-rate that is all too common in test cricket in the modern era.

Professional sport especially at the highest level is now an industry. Major matches have become events worth millions not only to the teams, clubs and players, but also to sponsors and the media. It is understandable that teams and players feel the need to win at any cost. This does not make it right. Winning is important but how you win is more important. It was therefore refreshing to hear Arsene Wenger, the Arsenal manger state this in a rare interview this summer. Monsieur Wenger stated that football is an art. In the course of his interview, The Professor, as he is affectionately known among the Ashburton Grove faithful, echoed St. Thomas Aquinas. The Angelic Doctor defined art as:

... simply a right method of doing things. The test of the artist does not lie in the will with which he goes to work, but in the excellence of the work which he produces.

Wenger is mainly talking about the technical way a team plays the game and anyone who has watched the Arsenal teams he has built will not deny that they play some of the most beautiful and attractive football in England if not the world, but sportsmanship and fair play have a part in this. He admits he has had moments of selective blindness when his players act in unacceptable ways but he sees these moments of so-called pragmatism as damaging to the “canvas” he is creating. Sport, when performed properly, can have a moral aspect.

There are moments of inspirational sportsmanship in modern sports. Robbie Fowler purposely missing a penalty he did not deserve in 1996; Andrew Flintoff consoling Shane Warne after Australia lost the ashes in 2005; the atmosphere at a London Irish St. Patrick’s weekend match. Sadly these are the exceptions to the rule. The bad influence of elite athletes trickles down to the amateur and junior levels. Some of my worst sporting experiences have been playing in amateur rugby matches! This is such a shame, as sport really is a practice ground for the development and strengthening of virtue. If there is not a change in the mentality of those at the top this will not be the case for much longer.

The Life of Virtue - Fasting

By fasting, St Thomas means to go without food for a period of time. According to this definition, we are fasting when we are not eating between meals. However, fasting such as this does not automatically come under the category of virtuous acts. In order for fasting to be virtuous, it must be done for a reasonable purpose. Thus, St Thomas makes the distinction between the natural fast of simply going without food, and the faster’s fast of going without food with the intent of achieving some good end.

Whilst there are obvious physical benefits to limiting the amount of food we eat, such as good health, when it comes to cutting out food altogether and experiencing hunger, the benefits are more spiritual. St Thomas gives three possible reasons for fasting which he backs up with scriptural references. Firstly, fasting helps cool the lusts of the flesh. Secondly, fasting helps the mind to rise more freely to contemplate heavenly things. Thirdly, fasting can also be a way of repenting of the sins we have committed. These are honourable aims - that our passions should be subject to our wills, that our minds be focused on God, and that we be committed to turning away from a life sin. However there are also obvious dangers with fasting if it is undertaken too zealously. As with all acts of virtue, a midway point between two extremes has to be established, and this appointed by the virtue of abstinence which is part of temperance. If we were not to fast at all, we might miss out on the possible benefits, but to fast to the extent that our bodies could not function properly would be to offer a sacrifice of stolen goods.

Because most people are in need of the benefits of fasting and because there are certain times in the year when it is especially fitting that people should receive these benefits, it is a precept of the Church that Christians should fast on certain assigned days such as Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. On such fast days, people should have only one full meal. However this precept of fasting is not binding on all people, because there may be some special reason why it would be unwise to fast. Thus, the old and the sick are not under this obligation. Neither are pilgrims who need to eat in order to sustain themselves on their journey. Having said that, St Thomas suggests that if possible, pilgrimages should take place at times that do not coincide with the fast days of the Church.

The demands on us that the Church makes with regard to fasting are really very light and they are in no way opposed to our freedom, because by fasting we become less enslaved to sin. In addition to these fast days, we may voluntarily fast on non-feast days. If we are in good health, and if fasting in no way inhibits our ability to fulfil our duties, it is worth remembering that this virtue is available to us if we want to conform our lives more to Christ.

The Life of Virtue - Abstinence

It used to be very much part of Catholic culture and consciousness to abstain from meat on Fridays. Indeed, this laudable practice led to such a decline in hamburger sales on those days that the McDonald's fast-food chain created their 'Filet-O-Fish' to cater to their Catholic customers. Such was once the influence of Catholic practices!

Of course, the current Code of Canon Law still maintains that every Friday in the year (which is not a Solemnity) is a day of penance, and canon 1251 specifically prescribes abstinence from meat as the form of penance. However, in some countries, this penance can be substituted by another or by the performance of a good work. Either way, the Church prescribes the practice of some virtue on a Friday.

The specific virtue that has traditionally been practised on Friday is abstinence, which St Thomas says is a "special virtue" that falls under temperance. He says this special virtue is needed because food, which is a natural good and necessary for health, is so pleasurable that one can easily over-indulge in a way that violates temperance and the good exercise of our reason. Abstinence from food and specifically from meat can thus be seen as a way of controlling our desire for the pleasures of the flesh, so to speak. And this virtue, of course, helps us to control our sensual appetites, so that we also abstain from those other pleasures of the flesh that are controlled by the virtue of chastity.

Thus, St Thomas says that abstinence combats the vice of gluttony and is "a help to chastity, since one virtue helps another." He also notes that the more one gives in to the pleasures of the flesh - whether through gluttony or lust - the more these temptations of the flesh increase in force. St Thomas' observation has a long pedigree, coming from the experience of the Desert Fathers and other Christians ascetics, and in the 20th-century, this link between the sensual appetites has also been observed by Christians like C.S.Lewis.

The food and beverage industry is huge these days, and people who can afford it will stop at nothing to acquire all manner of gastronomic delights. And this is nothing new. As St Thomas rightly noted: "the pleasures of the table are of a nature to withdraw man from the good of reason, both because they are so great, and because food is necessary to man who needs it for the maintenance of life, which he desires above all other things." So, we require the virtue of abstinence, so that we will eat and drink temperately. This means we eat to live rather than live to eat. All pleasures have to be moderated by temperance lest they distract us from the Giver of all that is good and pleasurable, He in whom our ultimate pleasure lies and who feeds us with his divine life in the form of bread and wine.

Running concurrently with all this gastronomic indulgence is a certain abstention from food that does not always stem from the virtue of abstinence: dieting. There is a plethora of trendy diets, and although it is good and virtuous to have a concern for one's health and well-being, this can become obsessive or ill-directed. Hence, St Thomas says: "right reason makes one abstain as one ought, i.e. with gladness of heart, and for the due end, i.e. for God's glory and not one's own." Therefore, the Church in her wisdom directs us every Friday to work to acquire the virtue of abstinence. We abstain from meat or some other food, motivated by love of Christ who died for our salvation. We refrain from enjoying these transient pleasures of the flesh for the sake of Him who died in the flesh that we might enjoy eternal pleasure with God.

The Life of Virtue - Honesty

I met an old lady once who had given her life to the 'care of the well body'. This was how she described her subject and as far as I remember she was the first person in the United States to have a teaching position in it. She was not a medical person nor was she simply a beautician. Her task was to encourage people to keep well, and to present themselves well, with proper self-esteem and with the dignity appropriate to a human person. The life of virtue ought to move us towards this, a self-regard that is neither arrogant nor selfish, a humility and graciousness that are neither self-deprecating nor irritating.

Contemporary understandings, particularly in psychology, give a lot of attention to things like shame and self-esteem. Aquinas notices the importance of these in identifying diffidence (or shame) and what he calls 'honesty', honestas, as integral parts of the virtue of temperance. Temperance is about health, the health of the well person we might say, meaning not just good physical health with desires and appetites working properly but moral and spiritual health in those desires and appetites. The temperate person will be chaste, disciplined, humble, and restrained, as Aquinas goes on to explain, but these forms of temperateness, when they are truly the virtues in question, do not produce lean, cold, and anxious people but people who are warm-hearted, physically at ease, and sensitive to beauty in all its forms. We are animals with animal appetites that become gross and ugly when they are vicious (think of gluttonous excess, drunkenness, and sexual licence) but the same appetites are beautiful when they are properly virtuous (think of Babette's Feast for food and drink, The Song of Songs for erotic love).

In his classic work on The Four Cardinal Virtues Josef Pieper says that the gift of beauty is particularly co-ordinated to the virtue of temperance. Temperate people are beautiful, glowing with the truth and goodness that radiates from every ordered state of being (this is their 'honesty'). The temperate person is therefore strong so that temperance becomes the wellspring and premise of fortitude. Pieper writes that the infantile disorder of intemperance not only destroys beauty, it also makes a person cowardly, unable to 'take heart' against the wounding power of evil in the world. Temperance or intemperance, he concludes, loudly proclaim themselves in everything that manifests a personality: in the order or disorder of the features, in the attitude, the laugh, the handwriting. Temperance is the inner order of the human being but it cannot remain purely interior but must show itself in gracious and attractive physical presence and action.

Psalm 29:2 says we are to worship the Lord 'in the beauty of holiness'. Diffidence and honesty, fear of depravity and esteem for our own well-being, keep us on the road towards that goal.

The Life of Virtue - Comments & Questions I

Thank you all you who have been following our series on The Life of Virtue. Many interesting comments have come in as well as many questions. Here we respond to the questions that have not received any response so far.

Under JUSTICE there was a question about what happens when restorative justice is impossible. One of the points of punishment is to oblige an offender to restore an order of justice that has been disturbed. If you steal £1000 from me I will not be completely happy if you are obliged to pay back just £500. In fact you should really pay back more than you stole to compensate for the distress, inconvenience and infringement of my rights. Clearly, if somebody has been killed or abused there is nothing that can be done that will make the situation as good as if what had happened had never happened after all : things can never be restored to where they were before. The law of 'eye for eye and tooth for tooth' is one way of articulating the need for restorative justice. It has a primitive truth about it but a moment's reflection will lead us to see that justice needs to be a bit more sophisticated than that. To apply that principle alone would make justice a matter of vengeance simply and a society would tend to become as cruel as its worst elements. Where justice cannot be restored in a literal, commutative sense then a society has to decide what form punishment ought to take so that at least symbolically 'justice will be done'. The fact that some injustices can never be set right in this world is one reason why believers look to a final judgement on the part of God that will definitively vindicate the rights of all who have suffered injustice.

Under JUDGEMENT there was a question about positive law and natural justice. Our post was not intending to imply that all positive laws are just simply because they have been enacted by legitimate human authorities: it is clear from history that not all positive laws have been just. Laws that persecute the Church, for example, or that promote discrimination against some citizens for the sake of others: these cannot be regarded as just laws. The natural law tradition would say that they are not laws at all to the extent that they fall short of natural justice. Catholics and other Christians have often been obliged to disobey laws that are unjust in these ways. See what is written under EPIEIKEIA, the virtue that enables us to know when a lesser law is over-ruled by the requirements of a higher law. Aquinas argues that it will sometimes be necessary to tolerate some evils for the sake of preserving a common good. Many of the martyrs are people who have decided that that point has been passed and something is being asked of them that is not compatible with the faith. St Thomas More, patron saint of lawyers, is a classic example of this.

A further comment under JUDGEMENT wondered whether the term will always be paradoxical for Christians, referring presumably to the fact that Jesus says 'do not judge' but in fact judgement is necessary about many things. Another way of thinking about such uses of concepts and language is in terms of analogy, not so much conflicting meanings giving rise to paradox or dialectic as complementary meanings that can be tracked across different levels of reality, different situations and relationships, different contexts of meaning. One can say that the Christian use of 'judgement' is paradoxical but it is perhaps better to say that such use is analogical, leading us into shades and degrees of meaning in our various uses of the same term.

The Life of Virtue - Diffidence

Shamefacedness, the state of being ashamed, is not a virtue according to St. Thomas but neither is it a vice, it is only related to vice. Diffidence cannot be a virtue because, under a strict definition of virtue, only those things which belong to perfection can be described as virtues. Furthermore, diffidence cannot be said to belong to perfection because the state of being ashamed belongs to fear; those who are ashamed fear the consequences of the action that they have performed, or potential damage of some kind that may occur to them because of the situation in which they find themselves. For example, if a man steals a watch from a shop and is later confronted by somebody who saw him perform that action, the shame that he experiences cannot be virtuous because he is simply afraid of what might happen if the witness reports him to the police. This is to be afraid is a consequence of sin. We can see this in scripture: right from the beginning of the human race, Adam and Eve have nothing to be afraid of in the state of paradise in which they lived before the fall. It is only after sin enters the world and corrupts every relation between every creature that our first parents have something to be afraid and ashamed of, their nakedness and their guilt. As scripture says, "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and he who fears is not perfected in love" (1 John 4:18).

Also, for something to be a virtue it must be something that is done out of habit, an action that is performed because one wishes to do what is good, that is the way in which the virtuous person approaches life. However, the state of being ashamed is not a habitual action, or even an action at all, for it is a passion, an emotional state. St. Thomas says that the person who is perfected in virtue does not feel ashamed and does not fear the consequences of sin, since his mind is not set on things that are evil, they do not trouble him. Let us pray that we may all know, in this life, that blessed state, in which are minds, hearts and bodies, our whole being, is continually turned towards the Lord in one great act of praise, thanksgiving and adoration until we attain that perfect loves that knows no fear.

The Life of Virtue - Temperance

Temperance is one of the four cardinal (or, as we might say nowadays, 'key') virtues, along with prudence, justice and fortitude, which form the basis of the virtuous life, and from which the other moral virtues are in some way derived. With the other three, it's fairly clear how they function as general principles structuring the virtuous life, but what about temperance, the virtue of moderating our physical desires? Why is that a general principle of the virtuous life?

In order to understand this, we must first think about what moral virtue is. In the Aristotelian tradition followed and developed by St Thomas Aquinas, moral virtue is a habit of acting in accordance with right reason: this is because moral virtue is what determines whether we are good or bad (rather than other virtues, such as intellectual virtues, which make us good at something), and for human beings, it is our reason which allows us to identify what is good for us, and so how we should act.

With that in mind, it is clear that, in order to live the life of virtue fully, we must be free to act in accordance with our reason, and not be dominated by desires for food, drink, physical intimacy or anything else arising from the senses, with all of which the virtue of temperance is concerned. Furthermore, since virtue is an acquired habit of acting well (and not acting well on each occasion after some kind of struggle), it seems to follow that the virtue concerned with these desires will not just involve fighting desires and winning each time, but moderating the desires themselves: after all, in a reasonable measure, food and drink are necessary for the good of each individual, and procreation for the good of the human race, but in an unreasonable measure, each of these can distract a person very powerfully from the pursuit of other goods.

Thus, temperance is one of the cardinal virtues because it is necessary for a human to live well as a bodily being, giving due attention to the needs of our body, but also assigning the satisfaction of them its proper place among the many things we do.

The Life of Virtue - Perseverance

When a chick pecks its way out of an egg, it is performing an action that is much more than a break for freedom. The process of pecking at the shell begins weeks before and will have much bearing on the chick’s life outside its ovoid prison. Over the weeks that it pecks away; the chicken grows and gets stronger. When and if, it is strong enough to survive in the outside world, it will break through. If however the egg is cracked by an outside agent, such as a hen or a farmer, the chick will be too weak to survive in the outside world and will die.

Like a chick we too are trapped in a prison, a prison of sin and suffering. The Christian life allows us to break out and to know and love God. Like the chick, perseverance is essential to this breakout. Every day we meet difficulties, obstacles and hindrances to our Christian journey. These barriers are both internal and external. Perseverance allows us to stay focused on the good during difficult times. It allows us to continue in the virtuous life when times are tough. When we persevere we are strengthened by God’s gifts of habitual grace. The example of the chick is only helpful to a point. The chick can achieve liberty by his own action. For a Christian the perfect act of perseverance is persevering in Faith, Hope and Charity until death. The act of persevering is accomplished at death; but we need more than habitual grace in this instance because it is not in the power of our freewill to abide in goodness unchangeably. St. Thomas points out that final perseverance requires the “gratuitous help of God sustaining the human being in the good until the end of life”. Humans, on their own, can only fall into sin. The death and resurrection of Christ repairs the rift between God and humanity. By the grace of Christ we are lifted and raised up: we are set free! As St. Augustine says we "receive not only the possibility of persevering, but perseverance itself".

The Life of Virtue - Patience

‘Wait your turn – patience is a virtue you know!’ How many times have we all heard patience being referred to in those rebuking tones? Of all the virtues patience is perhaps one of the most widely referred to in everyday life but it is often done so glibly and with little real thought. However, the virtue of patience is of great importance in our everyday lives because no day passes without some measure of suffering, however small. Patience or patientia in the Latin is formed from the same root as pati which means ‘to suffer’. For Aquinas, suffering or grief formed the matter of patience and true patience can help us both to withstand and to overcome those evils which cause us to suffer. “It is necessary for a virtue to safeguard the good of reason against sorrow, lest reason give way to sorrow: and this patience does” ( IIa IIae, q.136 art 1). These sufferings can be great or small and our lives are full of trial, for instance we may be confronted with disagreeable tasks at home or at work or indeed disagreeable people! We may have to bear the burdens of ill health or find that the close friendships we have forged seem to be breaking down because the more we give of ourselves, the more we expose our shortcomings, the more likely we are to cause irritation!

If we are to endure and ultimately overcome these sufferings we need to practice the virtue of patience and the only way to become a patient person is to make acts of patience. In prayerfully disposing ourselves to humbly accept the trials we face and the burdens we must bear, we can cultivate this very Christian virtue. Difficult though it is, we must see these hardships as God-given opportunities for us to acquire patience. If we shy away from every difficult or disagreeable situation, if we fail to accept the cross in our lives, then we not only deprive ourselves of the opportunity to practice patience and thus grow in holiness but leave ourselves open to greater evils and the sufferings they bring. We must trust in God and face our trials. As St Paul reminds us “everything written before our time was written for our instruction that we might derive hope from the lessons of patience and the words of encouragement in the Scriptures” (Rom 15:4).

It is certain that this is no easy virtue to cultivate. Sometimes we will fail but we must persevere and we must remember that we do not do so alone. God’s love for us is beyond our understanding and we must turn toward Him in love and humbly ask Him for the grace we so deeply need. As Aquinas states, “Patience, insofar as it is a virtue is caused by charity…from which it is clear that patience cannot be obtained without the help of grace” ( IIa IIae, q.136 art 3). St Paul also insists that “charity is patient” (1 Cor 13:4.) and so we must recognise our acts of patience as being rooted in love and learn to humbly trust God to give us the grace we need to suffer for love of Him.

The Life of Virtue - Magnificence

Magnificence is a virtue that expresses courage in situations where big projects require substantial expenditures. A glimpse at pettiness, the vice most directly opposed to it, helps to show what magnificence is about. The petty person is concerned to keep expenditure down - not a bad thing in itself - but allows that concern to unsettle the balance there ought to be between the cost of something and the value of doing it. The magnificent person, on the other hand, looks to the greatness of the work being undertaken, its value, and not simply to the cost. Of course he or she is not indifferent to the cost but the magnificent person does not allow fear of the cost to prevent wonderful works being done.

Tom Hamrogue, a very fine group psychoanalyst who died prematurely some weeks ago (may he rest in peace), once commented that money is the easiest way to pay for something. There are other costs involved in great projects and schemes, sometimes great personal costs in terms of anxiety, management, and, as likely as not, perseverance in the face of opposition. The person with the virtue of magnificence will not be daunted by these costs either.

Pettiness might look like miserliness but they are not exactly the same. Pettiness is concerned with large expenses, miserliness with ordinary expenses (and so miserliness is a worse vice).

There is another vice opposed to magnificence, the vice of waste, where the balance between the value of something and its cost is tipped in the other direction: we don't pay sufficient attention to the cost of something in relation to its value. In Latin this vice is called consumptio, consumption, in Greek banausia or apyrocalia (good names for a pair of kittens!). Aquinas notices that these terms have a connection with fire and this illustrates well, he says, what is involved in the vice of waste.

This opens the door to what would be an interesting reflection about the consumerism that is a key element in the market economy, where advertisers and others play games with our appreciation of what is really valuable and necessary, where obsolescence is built in to so many things, and where there is so much waste. It is interesting that the virtues we need to stand up to this are not just virtues allied with justice and temperance but also virtues allied with courage.

Writing about the deadly sin of gluttony (also linked with consumerism) Dorothy Sayers commented that 'the great curse of gluttony is that it ends by destroying all sense of the precious, the unique, the irreplaceable'. The virtue of magnificence gives us the courage to stand up for the precious, the unique and the irreplaceable, and to sponsor works of great value particularly in education, in the arts and crafts, in strengthening the life of communities, and in making more beautiful our worship of God.

The Life of Virtue - Magnanimity

In order to be virtuous, it is necessary to have emotional responses that are appropriate for the situations in which we find ourselves. Because certain types of situation occur more frequently than others, certain virtues may more readily be displayed than others. Perhaps one of the less frequently observed virtues is magnanimity, the virtue pertaining to great honour. Whilst most of us are capable of deeds worthy of some level of praise, few of us manage to accomplish truly great deeds, the sorts of achievements that are remembered for generations to come.

There is a virtue associated with small honours – it would be wrong to despise honour and it would be wrong to love honour too much – but Aquinas is very clear that the virtue of magnanimity is not to do with small honours, but only with great honours. The magnanimous person sets their mind on achieving great things. When faced with the prospect of attaining a difficult good, they possess a certain resolve and hope which means they are not afraid of success, of being brilliant, and they undertake their great deeds with a noble dignity. They know they are worthy of great honour, but they don't feel the need to remind others of this fact.

This doesn't mean that the magnanimous person lacks the virtue of humility. Magnanimity makes a person deem his or herself worthy of great honour only in consideration of the gifts received from God. Humility on the other hand, is revealed in a different sort of situation, the kind in which a person's weaknesses are exposed. So the person who acts magnanimously in a situation in which they excel, may also act with humility in another situation if that is appropriate.

Aquinas says that all the moral virtues are connected and if someone possesses one, they possess them all. However this has to be qualified, by adding that the moral virtues are connected only as regards their principle of origin rather than the act of virtue itself. Thus, all virtues are connected because they stem from prudence and grace - if we have these, then whatever task we undertake, whether great or small, we will have the disposition to exercise the appropriate virtue.

The Life of Virtue - Martyrdom

We recently celebrated the Feast of the Transfiguration (6 August), and in the Preface for that feast, the Church recalls that Christ "revealed His glory to the disciples to strengthen them for the scandal of the cross". What we see on the occasion of the Transfiguration (see Mark 9:2-10) is a huddle of terrified disciples, not knowing how to react when they see the transfigured Jesus. But something calms them, and strengthens them. It is the admonition to listen to the voice of Jesus, who is the Father's eternal Word. So, earlier on in the Gospel, when the Lord comes to them across the stormy waters, the disciples huddle together in fear. But the command of Jesus calms them, and stills the storm. He says: "Take heart, it is I; have no fear" (Mark 6:50).

In the same way, those disciples of Jesus who look to Jesus, and who listen to his voice, are also given the courage, or fortitude, to endure all things, even death and the scandal of the Cross. Thus, the Acts of the Apostles recounts the death of the Church's first martyr in this way: "Full of the Holy Spirit, [Stephen] gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God", and so he endured being stoned to death. It was the Spirit who enabled St Stephen to see Christ, and it was by fixing his gaze on the Lord (an act of faith and love), that St Stephen had the fortitude to endure martyrdom for Christ's sake.

Why does this gazing on the Lord cause one to endure martyrdom? St Thomas Aquinas explains that "charity inclines one to the act of martyrdom, as its first and chief motive cause, being the virtue commanding it". This means that the martyr is able to endure pains and torments because he or she loves Jesus Christ above all other good things, even his or her own life. However, one might love Christ immensely, and desire to die for him (as St Peter said he would), and yet in the moment of peril, one might flee because of fear. Fear, after all, is a good and natural response, but it is an instinctive response. Fear, as St Thomas sees it, is a passion, a feeling that acts upon us. In order to counteract this instinct and to act according to what we know by the light of faith and reason to be truly good and right, we need more than just the commanding virtue of charity. We also need the virtue of fortitude which helps us to act courageously in the face of suffering and death. This virtue "regards the preparation of the mind, so that in such and such a case a person should act according to reason. And this observation would seem very much to the point in the case of martyrdom, which consists in the right endurance of sufferings unjustly inflicted".

How do we acquire the virtue of fortitude? Through those practices and daily penances that are acts of endurance, patience, perseverance, and so on, but always with the right objective in sight, which is for the love of God and the good of our neighbour. The death endured by the martyr is thus the most perfect of heroic acts, for it is motivated by great faith and perfect charity. As St Thomas says, "endurance of death is not praiseworthy in itself, but only in so far as it is directed to some good consisting in an act of virtue, such as faith or the love of God". Therefore, St John says: "greater love has no man than this: that he should die for his friends" (John 15:13). So, it is with one's eyes fixed on Jesus Christ, the king of martyrs, and by listening to his voice, that one is able to bravely suffer martyrdom for his sake, and so win the crown of unending glory.

The Life of Virtue - Fortitude

In normal, everyday situations, the process of deciding how to act involves our emotions, the use of reason and the will. Making good decisions means making sure that our emotions do not run away with us. This means that we need to make sure that they are tempered by the will and reason, so that decisions are made in a balanced and sound way. This can be hard enough at the best of times, but what about extraordinary situations, extreme situations, where the emotions are likely to be very strong, say in the face of extreme danger or death? The virtue of fortitude is one which we require in such situations. In most situations where we face possible death, we obey our emotions and take flight. If we are in the middle of a road, and a large lorry comes around the corner at speed, we are clear as to what we should do. But what if there was a small child standing in the middle of the road a few meters away? Clearly, leaving her to be run over by the lorry would not be in accord with the good; it would not be in accord with preserving life. Running towards the danger momentarily to save her is then making a decision to act in accordance with the good, even though it involves an increased risk of death for us.

This is an example of fortitude, and St. Thomas Aquinas explains what is happening in this situation as follows: 'fortitude of soul... binds the will firmly to the good of reason in face of the greatest evils' - i.e. fortitude is the virtue that allows me to act to save the girl, which is what my thinking tells me I must do, despite the fact that I may die myself. St. Thomas counts fortitude amongst the cardinal virtues, placing it third of the four in terms of rank. It belongs to the cardinal virtues because it is a virtue concerned with steadfastness of reason in the most extreme of situations, making it important in safeguarding the good

The Life of Virtue - A Look Back at Justice

We are half-way through our series on the life of virtue and so far we have had one post on prudence and nineteen on justice and its allied virtues. The plan is to have twenty-one further posts, on the virtues of fortitude and temperance and their allies. Clearly justice receives significant attention in Aquinas's consideration of the moral life and this guides our presentation also: just under half of our series is devoted to justice as just under half of his treatment of the moral virtues is devoted to justice.

This is how it ought to be. At the heart of the Biblical revelation is the righteousness of God, God's justice, integrity, holiness, reliability, and judgement. His people are to be holy as God is holy and this means becoming just as God is just. For the Bible, justice is virtue, righteousness is morality. The Messiah comes bringing that justice which is a light to the peoples (Isaiah 51:4). The ten commandments are ten ways of doing justice. One cannot claim to know God while acting unjustly. 'Is not this to know me, to judge the cause of the poor and needy' (Jeremiah 22:16). One cannot claim to worship God while acting unjustly and to try to do so makes such worship abominable (Isaiah 1:11-17) - first 'seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow'. One cannot claim to serve God while acting unjustly. 'Is this not the fast I want, to loose the bonds of injustice' (Isaiah 58:6).

Jesus comes to enact these prophecies, establishing in his own body the kingdom of justice and peace. 'We know that God is righteous and that everyone who does right is born of God' (1 John 2:29). Jesus more than anybody else lived according to the rule of the prophet Micah: 'what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God' (Micah 6:8).

Aquinas develops principles and values about justice already acknowledged in Greek philosophy and in Roman law, but the inspiration for what he writes is the Bible and the paradigm of justice is Jesus, 'the righteous judge', for whose appearing we long (2 Timothy 4:8). In this he follows the approach of St Paul, appealing to what human culture and civilization have to say about truth, goodness and justice, but seeing it all in relation to Jesus. God 'has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead' (Acts 17:31).

The Life of Virtue - Epieikeia

Aristotle alerts us to this difficulty about knowledge, that there is nothing apart from individual things and yet knowledge is universal, drawing things into unity and identity. How there can be universal knowledge of particular things is the hardest difficulty of all, he says (Metaphysics III.4) .

The place where we see this difficulty most readily is in regard to moral action. St Thomas says that human acts are always singular and contingent, infinite in their possibilities. It is therefore impossible to frame a law which will cover all cases: 'it is impossible to institute a legal rule that will not be inadequate in some situation' (Summa theologiae II.II 120, 1). Legislators work with what generally happens but there will be cases where observing the law would be 'against the equality of justice and the common good', precisely the things laws are meant to establish and protect. Aquinas gives a couple of examples of situations where observing what the law requires would be bad: returning his sword to a lunatic, or his assets to an enemy. These are cases where following the law as it is given would be evil. The good, in such circumstances, is established and protected by ignoring the letter of the law (praetermissis verbis legis) in order to be faithful to 'the meaning of justice and to common utility'.

The virtue that enables us to make such decisions well is, in Greek, epieikeia, in Latin aequitas, in English equity. This virtue teaches us when it would be vicious to follow the letter of the law (art.cit., ad 1). It does not mean that we have become judges over the law but we are obliged to make a judgement in the particular situation in which we find ourselves (art.cit., ad 2). This virtue is needed therefore for situations of doubt, exceptional situations (art.cit., ad 3). Aristotle says that equity is a part of justice taken as a general virtue and so is higher than legal justice (Nicomachean Ethics V.10). St Thomas says that equity is thus a higher rule of human acts (superior regula humanorum actuum) than are the positive laws enacted by parliaments and monarchs (Summa theologiae II.II 120, 2). Equity is needed to moderate law which becomes cruel if it is not somehow moderated. (It is a crucial point: elsewhere St Thomas says that justice alone is cruel and must always be tempered by mercy.)

The great virtue of prudence is entirely concerned with the application of universal principles to particular situations and circumstances. It has an ancillary virtue called gnome which seems to be the basis for equity: gnome brings a perspicacity of judgement across the whole of the moral life, enabling a person to know when a higher principle takes precedence over a lower one (Summa theologiae II.II 51,4). Some of this is common sense. In England one drives on the left hand side of the road but if there is a person lying there one does not continue to drive on that side (as the law requires) and may even decide in the circumstances to drive on the right hand side: it is the reasonable thing to do thus serving the spirit of the law while ignoring its letter. Some situations will, however, be much more complex.

Does what Aristotle and Aquinas say about equity, prudence, and gnome, mean that there are no exceptionless norms governing human action? Some moral philosophers and theologians think it does, that one cannot say murder, adultery, rape and cruelty are always evil since circumstances might arise where one of these would be the right course of action. But such a view is only possible where moral norms are understood as purely legal norms, where natural law for example is understood as if it were exactly the same as positive law. There are things that the virtuous person will never do and if such a thing appears as a possible course of action he or she will immediately reject it. This is because moral norms are about more than social good or utility, they are about the values and goods without which human beings cannot begin to flourish and against which one ought never to act no matter what the circumstances.

At the same time what Aristotle and Aquinas say about equity teaches us something very important about the limits of legislation.

The Life of Virtue - Liberality

Liberality – the virtue concerned with the right use of money (and, by extension, material goods) – seems like a particularly important one to consider in the light of recent events in the financial sector, which many have blamed on an irresponsible attitude to money both on the part of bankers and of those to whom they lent.

The first important thing to note about this virtue, then, is that it is precisely concerned with the right use of money: money is a means which we acquire and keep in order to expend in the pursuit of various ends (i.e. providing for our needs and those of others). If money ever becomes an end in itself, something we seek just for the pleasure of acquiring it or having it, then we are no longer using it in the right way.

At the same time, St Thomas, following Aristotle, considers virtue to be the mean between two extremes, and warns also against the profligate spending of money: if liberality is concerned with the right use of money then yes, first of all we must use it, not horde it for its own sake, but we must also pay attention to what we use it for. We expend money in the pursuit of various ends, as noted above, and so in order to use it properly we need both to select the right ends to pursue and how money can best be spent to achieve those ends. Thus, for example, we may conclude that giving food, rather than money, to the beggar we meet on the street is the better way to help him, if we feared the money might otherwise be spent on something less beneficial.

In the Gospel account of the widow’s mite (Mark 12: 41-44), Jesus praises the poor widow who gives all that she has to the temple, saying the she has given more than all those who had given much larger sums, which were for them, however, only a small proportion of their wealth. This should remind us that liberality is not so much concerned with the amount we give away, but the attitude we adopt towards money: as St Paul says (2 Cor 9: 7), ‘God loves a cheerful giver.’ In talking of virtue as a mean, too, this doesn’t imply that our expenditure and our giving should be in some kind of arithmetical balance between ‘too much’ and ‘not enough’, even relative to each person’s means: there are some things for which it might be right to give away every penny we have (e.g. supporting a sick relative or, for that matter, entering religious life). Rather, just as the virtue is concerned with our interior attitude to money, so the balance is to be in our attitude: on the one hand not getting obsessed about money in itself, but on the other not ignoring the consequences of our disposal of it.

The Life of Virtue - Affability

One of the most frequent criticisms northerners direct at London and the south is that the people are so cold and unfriendly in comparison to the cheery Geordies, smiling Scousers, and friendly Tykes. My own observations are inconclusive but their evaluation indicates an important point: friendliness or affability is an important and good thing. Humans are social creatures. We are linked by our common humanity to every person by a special general friendship. As St. Thomas says “we are naturally every man’s friend”.

This special virtue of Friendliness is, however, not necessarily about affection. It is about behaving in a becoming manner. Of course there are different degrees of intimacy and behaviour: a relationship with a stranger is very different to that with a friend of longstanding years; likewise our friendly behaviour in a library is very different to friendly behaviour at a dinner party. Nevertheless the common friendship should underline all our social interactions. When we practise this virtue it obliges us to live in an agreeable manner. When we practise this virtue we bring a little bit of joy, we make life pleasant for others. As Aristotle points out “no one could abide a day with the sad, nor with the joyless".

St. Thomas shows that the special virtue of Friendliness is part of justice. Whilst this might seem strange, we each owe one other a natural debt. We are obliged by a natural equity to be pleasant, amicable and friendly, due to the social nature of humanity. It can be a difficult virtue to practise but it helps us to flourish both morally and within society.

The Life of Virtue - Truth

Veritas or truth is one of the mottos of the Order of Preachers and one which goes to the very heart of our mission and to the heart of what it means to be a Christian. The truth, though often expressed in many and varied ways, is one, for truth not only has God as its source but, as Aquinas states, God ‘is truth itself, the supreme First Truth’. If then we understand God to be Truth and the source of truth we must see His Son, Jesus Christ, as the full manifestation of that truth. As Christ himself declared before Pilate “for this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice” (John 18:37). Elsewhere in John we are reminded that we are to live by his truth and that ultimately this truth is to be found in His word, “if you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:31-32).

As Christians we are duty bound to follow and to seek the truth and we are truly fortunate insofar as we have Christ’s Body, the Church, to lead us and guide us on this journey. However, this does not mean that we can rest on our laurels and expect others to do all the work for us. We must each take responsibility for seeking the truth in our own lives and for providing a credible witness to the truth for others. In the Summa theologiae, Aquinas reminds us that we must be careful to acknowledge the truth about ourselves and that in expressing the truth we find we must seek a balance between boasting and understatement if we are to cultivate truth as a virtue. Truthfulness in our daily lives is essential if we are to point to and to realise that ultimate truth we naturally seek. We rely on each others' truthfulness and, as Aquinas again states, we are honour bound to express it. As such truth resembles justice and is allied to it – without truthfulness we simply could not live with each other let alone hope to seek and follow the ultimate truth that is the Word made flesh. It is clear then that love and truth must underpin our thoughts, words and deeds. As St Paul tells us, by “speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ” (Ephesians 4:15).

The Life of Virtue - Vindication

When we hear the word Vindication, or Vengeance, virtue is probably not the first thing we would think of to describe it. We tend to think of vindication as something undesirable at best and sinful at worst, the desire to see oneself triumph over another, to demonstrate that we are right and to show the world that they are wrong. Most of the connotations that the word vindication has in popular usage we would not normally regard as particularly Christian.

Nevertheless, Scripture and Tradition are both clear that there is a place for a virtue of vindication within our faith, when the term is properly understood. St. Thomas understands vindication to be when someone seeks to punish the sin of his brother by imposing some penalty on him. In judging whether this is a good act or not, the crucial thing to keep in mind is the intention of the person who imposes the penalty. If the intention of the one who seeks to punish is focused on the evil committed by his brother and does not move beyond this then it must be understood to be completely unlawful. This kind of vengeance is in danger of itself becoming sinful, since to take pleasure in or get some kind of satisfaction out of the sin of another does great harm to the charity that should exist between brothers and sisters in Christ, who should seek to encourage one another in the life of virtue. If, however, the intention of the one who seeks to punish is to bring out a greater good, if he hopes that the sinner might turn from his evil deeds when punished, for instance, then it a lawful and righteous thing to do. Of course, care should be taken that the punishment itself is not unlawful and that it is not disproportionate to the severity of the crime committed.

Furthermore, only those who are in a position of legitimate authority, whether that is the authority of parents, religious superiors, or lawful governments, for example, can righteously undertake to punish another for their misdemeanours. Thomas, following Aristotle, regards just vindication as a virtue because it can lead a miscreant away from harm and back onto the path that leads to life eternal with Christ our Lord, the exemplar of all virtue and the one who has won vindication over all the sin of the world.

The Life of Virtue - Gratitude

Whilst most people would agree that we should be grateful for the good things we have received, thanking someone is not always the first thing that comes to mind when we receive something good from them. In Luke's Gospel, when Jesus healed the ten lepers, only one of them came back to thank him. The inclination to give thanks is the virtue of gratitude and it perfects our capacity for acknowledging the benefits we have received.

Gratitude is the part of justice whereby we pay what is due to our benefactors. It is distinguished from the virtue of religion by which we pay what is due to God and piety by which we pay what is due to our parents. Ultimately God is the source of all good things, and so all our indebtedness is primarily due to Him, but part of the debt we owe to God is to be paid by honouring our parents and showing gratitude to our benefactors.

[left: the winning contrada (district of the city) gather in the cathedral of Siena to thank Our Lady for their victory in the palio]

St Thomas argues that as far as possible, we should always show gratitude to our benefactors, but the way and the extent to which we show our gratitude will vary according to circumstances. People may do us favours for a variety of mixed motives, but when we excel in the virtue of gratitude, we more readily see the good in people's actions rather than the evil, and it is for the good that we give them thanks.

St Thomas also gives advice on the manner in which we should thank our benefactors. For an act to be benevolent, it doesn't depend so much on the deed itself, but rather on the heart of the benefactor being directed to the good of the beneficiary. Likewise, the gratitude shown to a benefactor originates in the heart. It doesn't matter if someone is too poor to give a benefactor anything they might need. No matter how poor someone is, they can still show honour and speak well of someone else. In other situations, it may be possible for a beneficiary to show their gratitude to a benefactor by doing some act of kindness in return. In such situations there is the danger a favour might be returned out of a desire not to be indebted to someone rather than out of a sense of gratitude. But part of the virtue of gratitude is being happy to be indebted to someone. The virtue of gratitude involves choosing the appropriate moment for repaying a favour.

The great challenge in being truly grateful, is that it is not enough just to return what has been received. Since the original gift was freely given, the favour returned should also be freely given. This implies something more has to be paid back, and we are only able to do this if we let gratitude flow from our hearts.