Is this an age of chaos?
In our first presentation we acknowledged that we do live in an age of unprecedented opportunities in terms of communications, diet, healthcare, technology and travel.
Nevertheless, our present era gives much evidence of grave moral collapse including the widespread loss of the Christian faith, the rise of the Culture of Death and the growing acceptance of the Occult.
Various ethical commentators acknowledge that the crisis is becoming so grave that it could even pass over into the total collapse of democracy or even of civilization itself. The philosopher Peter Kreeft explained in his book Back to Virtue: Traditional Moral Wisdom for Modern Moral Confusion, that nothing short of a return to the acceptance of a universal moral code can prevent such a demise. Fr. Bernard Green SDS agrees; in his CTS booklet Rediscovering Virtue, he recalls that uncontrolled individualism harms the social order. Without moral sensitivity we descend into a state of being in which power, rather than goodness, makes things right. Whoever gains power can control society according to their own ideology. This results in the paradoxical destruction of freedom and democracy.
The Virtue Tradition
The good news is that the Catholic Church is the guardian of an ancient virtue tradition which was formulated by Plato in ancient Greece. He is not the inventor of these virtues because they can be known by all human beings with sufficient reflection and support. Other ancient cultures including China, the Indies and the Hebrew worlds exhibit similar virtue traditions. We can thus think of Plato as formulating the laws of virtue in the same way as Newton formulated the laws of motion; they discovered rather than invented them.
Virtue means moral goodness or strength. Cardinal means hinge. The 4 Cardinal virtues of Prudence, Justice, Temperance and Fortitude are thus thought of as the virtues upon which all others hinge. They are good in themselves and help us to live virtuous lives in order to flourish as individuals and as a society. Prudence helps us to act with respect for truth in itself. Justice helps us to act with respect for the truth as applied to others - including our enemies. Temperance (which includes chastity) and Fortitude help us to act with respect for the truth as applied to ourselves. These virtues can be acquired by human effort to become stable dispositions. The more we practice virtue the more we grow in each of the virtues. Prudence is thought of as the 'charioteer' of the other natural virtues. By these we control our passions and govern our actions. We are always focused on the greater good.
However the natural virtues are insufficient. We have the problem of Original Sin and the tendency to fall into actual sin after Baptism. The 7 deadly sins of Covetousness, Envy, Sloth, Gluttony, Lust, Anger and Pride - the root of the others - make the practice of virtue very difficult.
Also we are a unity of body and soul; we do not just have a natural destiny but a supernatural destiny. We long for supernatural truth, prudence, justice, temperance and fortitude. We have an eternal end.
The Christian moral life cannot therefore be understood healthily apart from Grace. We need God to pour out upon us His Divine Life. Because of sin He is not obliged to do this for us even though we stand in total need of His love. Nevertheless, He chooses to lavish His Grace upon us and constantly works to prompt us to accept His Grace.
The Christian accepts the Priority of Grace and then responds by living the moral life as an act of love. We cannot be moral by our own efforts. To be a virtuous Christian then is to accept the life of virtue as primarily a gift. It does not leave us passive however. It is both a gift and a task.
The 3 Theological Virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity are thus infused into us at Baptism. Unlike the natural virtues we could not have known about them by natural reason. We needed Divine Revelation. They have God - the Blessed Trinity - as their origin, motive and object. We need them to be pleasing to God and for our eternal salvation. Grace builds on nature and so the Theological Virtues build on the foundation of natural virtues and raise them to new heights of perfection which they could not otherwise have reached.
Many young people - indeed many Catholics of all ages - are not being taught these basic aspects of the Faith. This is one of the reasons why so many of them leave the Church. Peter Kreeft quotes a survey which asked young people what was the main thing which they felt that the Church did not give them. The number one answer was: A high and heroic ideal! This demonstrates that these young people have been denied the full teaching of the Faith in their families, parishes and schools.
In truth, there is nothing higher or more heroic than Christ's call to discipleship. In our age we need to respond to this call so radically as to become saints. The Second Vatican Council reminds us that everybody is called to holiness. In order to do this we need to become people who depend upon Jesus Christ and His Grace through the Sacraments, prayer and sharing the pilgrim walk with our fellow Catholics. We need to teach virtue both by working with God to become virtuous and by teaching the full Faith. This includes its more demanding elements. As Jesus said in John 14:15, 'If you love me keep my commandments.' We owe our young people nothing less if we are to help them to discover the full meaning of life. This is the New Life in Jesus Christ. The future salvation of our souls - and of our society - depends on this.
Will we accept God's call to become saints? Hopefully we will!
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