7 Days of Virtue; Day 2 – Justice
Think of virtues like your muscles. You work your muscles out so that they can perform for you when needed. Virtue is the same way. You practice, work on the virtue and then, when the time comes, the virtue is there and ready.
Day 2 of the 7 Day Journey through the Virtues: DAY 2 – JUSTICE.
Justice is the good due to others. This removes the emphasis from self and places the emphasis on others. Overemphasis on rights misses the concept of justice. There are seven sub-virtues of Justice:
- Honor – recognizing the worth (value) of something. In ancient times, if something was weighty, it was valued (ie: gold). In ancient Greece, dishonor was symbolized by mist or steam.
- Religion – a head virtue. Habitually honoring and praising God in all we do.
- Piety – Honor and Service. Honor through obedience and respect.
- Observance – honoring our leaders/those in positions of authority over us. Observing the office they hold.
- Gratitude – honoring our benefactors. St. Thomas Aquinas suggested that we 1. Recognize the favor 2. Express thanks 3. Repay the favor.
- Kindness – intending comfort/pleasure for those around you. Anticipating others’ needs, habitually.
- Truth – our words and deeds correspond to reality. We owe reality to one another.
Practically, I am a justice-seeker, meaning that if I see someone who is not receiving “the good due to them”, I tend to step in and make it right. I’ve done this since I was a kid – if I saw someone bullying someone, I stepped in and forced the bully to respond to me. (Most often, the bullying stopped.) Knowing this, regularly for me, seeking justice can easily overlap with anger, which is dangerous. We want to afford people with the ability to receive the good that is due to them, yet we must be careful of how we go about that. Use the virtue of prudence to know when to purposefully seek justice and when to not step in.
Man up!
7 Days of Virtue; Day 1 – Prudence
Think of virtues like your muscles. You work you muscles out so that they can perform for you when needed. Virtue is the same way. You practice, work on the virtue and then, when the time comes, the virtue is there and ready.
Day 1 of the 7 Day Journey through the Virtues: DAY 1 – PRUDENCE.
Prudence is wisdom for practical everyday life. This means that you take practical knowledge and right reason and you use them to make decisions throughout your day.
“Knowing how to do the right thing, at the right time in the right way.”
Prudence directs all of the other virtues; therefore, we must always have the end in mind so that prudence can guide us to our goal. There are three sub-virtues to Prudence; 1. Counsel 2. Judgement 3. Decisiveness. Counsel is gathering information to make a good decision. (You seek help in making your decisions.) Judgement is sort of like being a court judge; you gather information using counsel and then you weigh that information. Decisiveness is the action that you take after counsel and judgement.
Prudence comes down to choices and actions. Our choices are incredibly important, thus we must know what to do, how to do it and when to do it. Being prudent means that you react out of knowledge and information, not out of emotion, impulse or passion. Being prudent means that you have given the choice a good deal of thought. Being prudent means that you aren’t afraid to commit to a decision.
If you want to grow in the virtue of prudence, practice being prudent. (Practice seeking counsel, making good judgements and being decisive. You must also pray that God presents you with opportunities to receive grace so that you may become prudent.)
Man up!
A TrueMan is Virtuous – the start to a 7 day look at Virtue
***My apologies for the delay in posting over the past few days, I was on retreat all weekend and away from technology.***
Virtue (in Latin: virtus) means manliness. In order to truly be manly, we must possess virtue. Virtue means having the “firm and habitual disposition to do the good”. If a man possesses the virtue of Courage, that means that he’s courageous 1. with joy 2. with ease 3. promptly and 4. consistently. Every time, without fail. In order for a man to gain virtue, he must practice. He must also ask for God’s grace to help him acquire virtue. (Note: women can attain virtue as well, and it doesn’t mean that they become manly.)
I’m kicking off a 7 day look at virtue, starting tomorrow. I’ll dive into each of the 4 Cardinal Virtues and each of the 3 Theological Virtues, one each day. Prudence, Justice, Fortitude & Temperance and Faith, Hope & Love. If you want to be a TrueMan, become a virtuous man.
Man up!
