Q. Ok. Now can we deal with the other principle that seems to contradict our first one that real friendships never end.
A. Indeed! The one for prudence dictating that some friendships should end?
Q. Exactly!
A. And what's your query on that?
Q. First of all, what are these instances where prudence dictates that we should end a certain friendship?
A. I don't think we can make a list of such instances... There are too many variables to be able to compile a neat list. That said, there is one fundamental idea that should guide us in trying to identify such instances...
Q. Which is...?
A. Order.
Whenever you have something made of parts, order is paramount for its good working. Take a car engine or a rugby team or a mobile phone: individual parts could be of the highest quality; but if they don't work together in harmony - in order, they will either not work/function at all or else they will work/function but terribly inefficiently. What is more, if the disharmony is really great, then the parts could even harm, injure and break each other.
Now our soul, though it be spiritual and thus immaterial and thus has no parts per se, does have different faculties with different functions just like in a car engine or rugby team or mobile phone. And if this be true, then order among these parts and within each part becomes fundamental. If this order be missing, then we will either not work/function at all or else we will work/function but terribly inefficiently. What is more, if the disharmony is really great, then the parts could even harm, injure and break each other.
One gentleman from Greece would thus like repeating that order "informs all virtues" (a virtue being a good habit or a habit that perfects the human person); that there is a hierarchy among the virtues and within each virtue.
Another gentleman from Spain would say, "Virtue without order? Strange virtue!"
Q. What does all this mean?
A. It means that every virtue has an order it addresses, or a way it works. It does not work in any which way... just like pistons in an engine, wingers in a rugby team or speakers in a mobile phone.
A disordered virtue is not really a virtue.
In this regard, one common temptation many people face is to live virtue but to live it disorderly. So for example we could be punctual in meetings and dates and assignment deadlines etc. but we don't live punctuality in getting home to our family or in our meeting times with God in prayer. And if we consider that God and family are more important than work and friends, then we begin to realise that our punctuality is really disordered. It's like copied homework: yes the homework is done, but then again it wasn't really done, was it? It benefits the student zero. So too with the instances of punctuality we're considering: punctuality in all those other instances while missing the more important ones is a hollow punctuality, a pretend-virtue, an imitation of the real thing.
And the reason such a temptation is so effective is that it fools one to believe that they've really done the homework, that they have lived the virtue of punctuality.
Have a super orderly week!
30th August 2016