Part 3 A recap/interlude

The Practice of Freedom: Learning to Live the Virtues

What Do We Mean by Virtue?

When we hear the word virtue, we may think of being respectable, well-mannered, or morally upright.
Christian virtue certainly affects how we behave, but reaches much deeper than good manners or social ethics.
Virtue is the life of God taking shape in a human life.
Love, mercy, truthfulness, faithfulness, patience, and humility do not begin with us.
They have their source in God.

We love because God first loved us.
We become merciful because we have received mercy.
We learn faithfulness from the One Who remains faithful even when we do not.
The Holy Spirit does not merely tell us to become better people and then leave us to manage by ourselves.
He comes to dwell within us, healing what has become disordered and restoring in us the likeness of God.
The early Church spoke of this as sharing in the Life of God.
We do not become God by nature, nor do we lose our unique personhood.
Rather, by grace, we become truly human—aLive with the Life for which God created us.
This is what the early Church sometimes describe as participating in the uncreated energies of God.
The expression may sound lofty, but its meaning is wonderfully practical: God truly acts within us.
His grace is not merely an encouraging thought or a distant message.
God’s grace is His Living Presence and work within the human heart.

We might say more simply: Virtue is what the grace of God looks like when welcomed and lived!

Healing the Passions

The virtues are also medicines for what the Church calls the passions.
A passion is not simply a strong feeling.
A passion is a natural desire or ability that has become disordered and begun to control us.
Hunger is natural; gluttony makes food our master.
The desire to be valued is natural; pride requires us to be above others.
Anger can alert us that something is wrong; uncontrolled anger wounds both our neighbour and ourselves.
The passions often promise immediate relief, pleasure, or protection.
For a time, they may even appear reasonable.
In the end, however, they diminish our freedom and cause suffering to ourselves and others.

Virtue heals and redirects these desires:
Humility heals pride by helping us see ourselves truthfully before God—neither greater nor less than we are.

Temperance heals excess by teaching us that our desires can be guided rather than obeyed.

Patience heals anger and resentment by helping us endure difficulty without striking back.

Courage enables us to do what is faithful even when we are frightened or the cost is real.

Faith teaches us to entrust ourselves to God when we cannot see the way ahead.

Hope holds fast to God’s promises when present circumstances appear dark.

Love gathers all the virtues together, turning us toward communion with God and faithful care for our neighbour.

Some virtues help us avoid two opposing dangers.
Courage, for example, lies between cowardice and recklessness.
Generosity avoids both stinginess and wastefulness.
Humility guards us against both self-exaltation and self-contempt.

The virtues are not acquired instantly.
They grow through grace, prayer, repentance, worship, fasting, generosity, forgiveness, and the ordinary choices of daily life.
We practise them imperfectly, fall, rise, and begin again.
This is not a programme for earning God’s love.
This is the patient healing of people who are already loved!
Nor is this an attempt to make everyone alike.
The medicine is common, but the prescription is personal.
Patience will take one form in a parent, another in a caregiver, another in someone living with pain, and still another in a person learning to forgive.
The purpose of virtue is not to produce impressive religious people.
THe purpose of virtue is to make us free—free to love God, free to love our neighbour, and free to become the people God created us to be.

Questions for Reflection

1. When I hear the word virtue, do I think mainly about obeying rules, or about allowing God to heal and transform me?
2. Is there a desire, fear, or habit that has begun to control me rather than serve what is good?
3. Which virtue do I most need at present: humility, love, faith, hope, temperance, patience, or courage?
4. What might that virtue look like in one ordinary situation I am facing this week?
5. Am I trying to change through willpower alone, or am I asking for the grace and help of the Holy Spirit?
6. Can I recognize even one small way in which God has already been growing a virtue within me?

A Prayer for the Life of Virtue

Gracious God, You created us in Your image and call us to grow into Your likeness.
Where our desires have become disordered, heal us.
Where fear rules us, give us courage.
Where anger takes hold, teach us patience.
Where pride blinds us, give us humility.
Where we have become discouraged, renew our hope.
Where our love has grown cold, warm our hearts again.
Deliver us from the belief that we must change ourselves by our own strength.
Fill us with Your Holy Spirit, that Your love, mercy, truth, and faithfulness may take living form within us.

When we fall, help us to rise. When we wander, draw us home. When growth seems slow, keep us from despair.
Make us free—not merely to do as we please, but to love You with our whole heart and to love our neighbours faithfully.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.