The Cardinal Virtues

As Catholics, we're all familiar with the 3 theological virtues of faith, hope, and love, but less attention gets paid to what's known as the 4 cardinal virtues. They are prudence, courage, justice, and temperance. They're called cardinal virtues because all virtues depend on them. The word cardo in Latin means hinge.

The other virtues hinge on these cardinal virtues. All the other virtues depend on them, and we should all be striving to grow in both faith, hope, and love, but the cardinal virtues as well, prudence, courage, justice, and temperance. Now the one that's called the mother of all virtues is prudence. It is the virtue of making wise and practical decisions. It involves discerning the right course of action in any situation and acting accordingly. Prudence helps us to judge correctly what is right and wrong and to act with foresight.

Another one of the key cardinal virtues is fortitude, or another word for that, of course, is courage, strength in facing difficulties and challenges. We know life brings us those things, doesn't it? Well, fortitude enables us to endure suffering, overcome fear, and remain steadfast in pursuing good even in the face of adversity.

Justice is another cardinal virtue. It is the virtue of giving others what they are due, whether it's respect, rights, or resources. Justice governs our relationship with others, ensuring fairness, and that we respect the rights of other people and the community at large.

Finally, temperance. It's the virtue of self control and moderation. Temperance helps us to balance our desires and use of pleasures, ensuring that we do not overindulge or become enslaved to our passions. Temperance keeps our appetites in check and promotes a balanced life. Temperance is also important in the other virtues. For example, too much courage or too much fortitude might lead one to become reckless, or too little courage could make someone a coward. So there's a balance, a temperance, even in the other virtues.

Now if we turn to the catechism of the Catholic church, it has some very enlightening things to teach us about the virtues. Remember, Saint Paul writes to the Philippians, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Now a virtue, the catechism says, is a habitual and firm disposition to do the good. It allows us to not only perform good acts, but but to give the best of ourselves. The virtuous person naturally tends toward the good with all of his sensory and spiritual powers. He pursues the good and chooses it in concrete actions. The catechism says the goal of a virtuous life is to become like god.

It's very important that we do not confuse virtues with the word values. A virtue is something that is always good, but a value, that's not necessarily the case. Just look at some politicians. They'll talk about their values. Our values are this. Our values are that. Many times, it's in opposition to the teachings of the church or the natural moral law. So values, that's a word you should not instantly think is a good thing. A virtue is a good thing. A good value is a good thing if it's virtuous, but just the word value alone is one of those words that politicians use to promote themselves as an advocate for good, which is not always the case.

Now the cardinal virtues are praised in many passages of scripture, and the saints advocate for us to be virtuous. Saint Thomas Aquinas, following Aristotle, said that prudence is, quote, right reason in action. Now some people might think of prudence as maybe timid. Maybe you don't want to get involved in something or fear, but that's not the case. At the beginning, when we started talking about these cardinal virtues, I mentioned that prudence is the mother of all virtues. Another way to say it, it's the charioteer of all the virtues. Prudence guides the other virtues by setting rule and measure. It's by prudence that we can guide the judgment of our conscience.

When I first mentioned the virtue of justice a few minutes ago, I mentioned that it's the virtue of giving other people what they are due. Scripture is replete with admonitions to do right by people and to give people their due. As we think about the heavenly virtues, which is both the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity, and the cardinal virtues of prudence, courage, justice, and temperance, think of them as a to do list. We're to be growing in love. We're to be hopeful at all times even when we don't feel like it. We're to be growing in charity. One way we grow in the moral virtues is through education. So, that might be reading about the virtuous saints, reading the catechism, reading the sacred scripture. We go in virtue through deliberate acts. Think of the works of mercy, feed the hungry, get involved in a Catholic charity.

We go in virtue through persevering in a struggle by remaining hopeful even in a bad situation. As we do our part, divine grace purifies and elevates the moral virtues in our own life.

So do the prudent thing and grow in faith, hope, and love, in prudence, courage, justice, and temperance. And by doing so, you'll be growing in love for the Lord.