Commentary on frustration cont’d
We finished yesterday commenting that we seek and remain at the centre of the circle through a tag-team of human and supernatural virtues: prudence, justice, temperance and fortitude together with faith, hope and charity.
We are pulled away from the centre of the circle by the bad habits – “vices” we call them. All possible vices can be summarised into seven “mother” vices: pride, sloth/laziness, envy, avarice/greed, wrath/anger, gluttony and lust. These seven are collectively known as the seven “capital” vices (sometimes called the seven capital “sins”). “Capital” because they form like the “caput” or “head” of this 7-headed monster that’s constantly battering us.
Prudence, justice, temperance and fortitude are like the “mother” good habits. All other good human habits are related to one of these four. The ancients preferred to call them the “cardinal” virtues because they form the “cardis” or “hinge” that all other human virtues revolve around like a well-oiled door.
The four are also the remedy to the chaos and weakness we observe in ourselves (see Part 59). Prudence remedies the weakness of the mind; justice
the weakness of the will; temperance of the pleasure-seeking passions and fortitude of the aggressive passions. Prudence is the practical power to identify what is good in any situation and the best means to achieve it; justice is the constant and firm will to give everyone his due (“everyone” meaning God and neighbour); temperance moderates the attraction of pleasures and provides balance in the use of created goods; fortitude ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of good.
These “fantastic four” work as a tag-team with the “three musketeers”, the three divine good-habits, what we call the “supernatural” virtues: faith, hope and charity.
Faith is the virtue by which we accept all that God has revealed because He cannot deceive nor be deceived. Hope is the virtue by which we firmly trust that He will fulfil all His promises to us. Charity is the virtue by which we constantly want the greatest good (heaven) for all others i.e. to love them as God Himself loves each of us.
The four cardinal and the three supernatural virtues wage a real war on the seven capital vices. Both armies are fighting for control over your body and your soul. The army that wins, is the one you feed with your daily life-style, your daily actions in body, in mind and in soul. (See Annexes 62a & b).
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