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Continuation of Commentaries
on the Maxims on Love of St. John of the Cross
by Fr. Bruno Cocuzzi, ocd
Maxim 35.
Perfection does not lie
in the virtues which the soul knows it has, but in the virtues which our Lord
sees in it. [This] is a closed
book, and hence one has no reason for presumption, but must remain prostrate on
the ground with respect to self.
One of the first things worth
mentioning with regard to this Maxim 35 is that it confirms what scholastic
philosophers and Catholic Church theologians have been teaching for at least a
millennium, namely, that the virtues are what render a man “perfect.” In previous conferences we have stated
that the natural virtues perfect a human being in so far as he is the “natural”
image of God, and that the supernatural virtues perfect a human being in so far
as he is a “child of God” by adoption.
Among the supernatural virtues are the purely and totally supernatural
virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity.
And also the “elevated natural virtues, also called the “infused moral
virtues.” It is important to think
of these latter “infused virtues” as the “elevated” natural virtues because they
only become operative as the “natural virtues” are acquired. Sanctifying Grace, through which Faith,
Hope and Charity are conferred upon the soul “add a dimension” so to speak, to
each of the natural moral virtues as they are acquired. In other words, these Theological
Virtues call all who are children of God by adoption to a higher
standard. It no longer suffices
for a baptized Christian to try to obtain the mere natural perfection of the
status he enjoys as the image and likeness of God. The higher standard of perfection the
baptized Christian is called to is Jesus Himself, a Divine Person who has taken
to Himself a human nature. Because
Jesus did transcend “natural human perfection” by going above and beyond the
limits of the natural virtues, we are held to that standard in virtue of our
incorporation into His Body by Baptism.
How are we to understand what
the new standard adds to the standard set by Moral Virtues? well, let us examine them, the Cardinal
Virtues, one by one.
The four Cardinal Virtues
are: Prudence. Justice, Fortitude,
and Temperance. All other virtues
we consider most worthy of acquiring are subdivisions of the three latter
Cardinal Virtues. Honesty, loyalty,
obedience, gratitude, piety, affability, amiability, cheerfulness are virtues
that are akin to Justice.
perseverance, magnanimity, magnificence, generosity, longanimity
(long-suffering), patience, meekness are akin to Temperance. The extremely valuable virtue of
humility would be akin to all three:
Justice, Fortitude and Temperance.
I can’t think of any more (off-hand) but any you can think of would have
to fall under one of those three, at least.
The standard that each of these
virtues must attain is seen by comparing it to our understanding of what causes
a human nature to function “perfectly.”
That perfection can be described as “orderliness.” Lack of “perfection” is then
“disorderliness.”
We can speak of “order” because
there are several constituent elements in human nature. In a human nature considered in the
abstract or all by itself, there is the body and the soul. We humans are embodied spirits. In the body there are the five sense and
“bodily” life. In the soul there
are intellect, memory and imagination, and free will. The soul has its psychic life. Then, because of the close relationship
between body and soul, there is an “emotional” life. But among the three there is an order of
importance or of value. The life
of the soul is the most important, then comes emotional life, and
last in importance is bodily of physical life. Although the ideal is that all
three enjoy perfect health, in practical situations, it is necessary for a human
being to choose among which of the three he/she will affirm and foster to the
detriment of one or the other or both.
Because of fallen human nature, “disorderliness” tends to rule in each
human being that is born into this world.
The exceptions are, of course, the sinless humanities of Jesus and His
Virgin Mother Mary. Although the
“tendency” to disorder was never in them, the possibility of choosing
disorder did exist in them, in virtue of their free wills, just as in the case
of Adam and Eve, created in “orderliness,” but free to choose
disorderliness, as in fact happened without the “tendency” to disorderliness to
mitigate their guilt.
But the tendency to
disorderliness, compounded by the darkening of the intellect and the
weakening of the will, brings it about that we humans tend to give
greater importance to bodily life.
We tend to strive hardest to keep bodily life from being damaged and
diminished. That is, we strive most
mightily to avoid pain, sickness and death. Along with that, we tend to work hard at
filling all our senses with gratification, granting them the experience of, only
that which is pleasant and agreeable, or in a word, what gives them
pleasure.
Again, because of the “disorderliness”
found in our nature because of original sin, we tend to give least
importance or value to the “life” of our souls. As we need to nourish our
In both of the above, we have
prescinded from considering human nature as a social entity. It is in our social relationships that
we find what nourishes our “emotional life.” The disorderliness of original sin
causes us to value our emotional well being over the life of our souls,
and the bodily well-being over our emotional life. Thus, we see now what the virtues are
meant to accomplish in us. They are
intended to restore the orderliness by canceling the tendency to choose the
lesser lives over the higher lives at the expense of the lesser or lower
lives. And this is so even with
regard to ourselves as the mere “natural” image and likeness of
God.
Can we give examples of the
disorderliness that the virtues overcome by restoring order? Well, let’s take the example if the
cardinal virtue of Temperance.
Temperance inclines us to moderate the tendency to gratify the desires of
the flesh, through the senses, for comfort and enjoyment of one’s primary goal
in life. When sensual pleasure is
one’s primary objective, emotional life suffers because it usually harms the
necessary relationships we have with others, notably the members of our
families. In addition, the powers
of the intellect, memory, imagination and free will are put to work devising
means to maximize comfort and enjoyment of the body, rather than to pursue
truth, spiritual beauty and goodness as their proper object. The soul, being imperishable is clearly
capable of living only on imperishable food. In truth, the powers and sense of the
body were created by God to sub-serve the emotional life of our humanity, and
bodily life and emotional life both were created to sub-serve the purely
spiritual life of the soul.
A few moments ago, I stated
that continence, chastity, sobriety, moderation [in taking food], modesty and
austerity are subdivisions of Temperance.
These seek the true good of the body by helping it to remain
healthy and fit so as to be a capable
servant of the higher needs of human nature, particularly sobriety,
moderation and austerity.
Continence, chastity and modesty are virtues that seek the true good of
our emotional life by preserving our relationships wholesome and intact,
especially with the members of our families and our neighbors. Where these are in accord with the
truth of our interconnectedness and interdependence as willed by God in
creating us, the spiritual beauty and goodness inherent in them satisfy the
deepest natural longings of our souls.
We consider now the virtues
akin to Fortitude, mentioned above.
Patience, meekness, perseverance and longanimity (long suffering),
magnificence enable us chiefly to endure the bodily weariness and inconvenience,
and even chronic pain that our fleshly nature is subject to as we strive to put
the physical powers and faculties of our humanity at the service of our
emotional life and the life of our souls.
Magnanimity and generosity are concerned chiefly with putting our
emotional life at the service of the soul in its effort to achieve truth,
spiritual beauty, and goodness in relationships. But really, both enable a human being to
find the true good of bodily life and emotional life as they sub-serve
the needs of an authentic and wholesome life for the soul.
Since the virtue of Justice
governs our inter-relationship and inter-dependence with other human beings,
they perfect us as social beings and bring orderliness into our mutual exchanges
and companionships because they enable us to give to every other human being
exactly what they have a right to, based upon the specific social ties that
exist between us and them.
In speaking above of the
virtues that sub-serve a perfect emotional life we can see how closely allied is
our emotional life and spiritual life.
When we are perfect in our relationships, our emotional life becomes
perfect, and the truth, beauty and goodness inherent in them causes intellect,
memory and will to find their perfect “natural” life and
fulfillment.
Honesty is the virtue which inclines us always to speak the
truth about ourselves and about things in general, so that other’s lives may not
be wounded by error and falsehood.
Loyalty is the virtue which
inclines us to remain firmly united to those persons with whom we are co-members
of a distinct social unit, particularly the family. Obedience inclines us to submit
our wills to the lawful authority in the family and any other social unit of
which we are members.
Gratitude is the virtue which
inclines us to acknowledge that others have given us more than they were
strictly obliged to give us, based upon the relationship existing between them
and us.
Piety is the virtue that
inclines us to manifest special reverence and affection and marks of dedication
to be visible signs that acknowledge the bond of relationship that exists
between ourselves and the authors and co-members of the social units to
which we belong. For the family,
that is the parents and brothers and sisters.
Affability (easy and pleasant
to talk to and be with), amiability (friendliness), and cheerfulness are the
virtues that introduce a special beauty, peace and charm into social
interactions. These latter
qualities obviously feed, nourish and perfect our emotional life and the
“natural” life of our souls.
Let me back up a bit now and
state what it is that the virtues akin to Temperance and Fortitude inclines us
to do.
As you know, Continence,
chastity and modesty are the virtues that incline us to overcome any and all
temptations to seek illicit sexual pleasure. These include avoiding looks and
touches, as well as saying or hearing things that would aggravate or cause the
temptations to bring about illicit sexual pleasure.
Sobriety and moderation (in
taking food) incline us to avoid the temptation to overindulge our appetite for
intoxicating drink and the temptation to go beyond the good and lawful
gratification of our sense of taste and what we need to be
healthy.
Austerity is the virtue that
inclines us to keep necessary and lawful enjoyment of all pleasure
of sense, if not at a minimum, at least well within the boundaries permitted
according to our state in life and legitimate needs.
I have yet to say how the
Cardinal virtue of Prudence perfects us as human beings from the natural point
of view. A part of the disorder the
virtues are intended to overcome is the fact that the desires of the flesh and
the desire of the will for any kind of “gratification” of our perceptive
faculties are able to cloud and further darken the intellect wounded by original
sin so that it is able to deceive itself concerning what is good and lawful, and
indeed necessary for the “life” of the body and the “emotional” life of our
human nature. Thus, Prudence is the
virtue that inclines a person to avoid uncritically listening to and blindly
accepting the promptings of the flesh and pride as to what is good and lawful to
do or to enjoy. It inclines a
person to consult lawful authority in moral matters and thus to form a “correct”
conscience. It is, naturally
speaking, the virtue that inclines us to be thoroughly ethical and blameless in
our conduct, whether for the good of our bodies, emotions or our souls, and not
only for our human nature considered as a separate entity, but also and
especially considered as a social entity.
At last we come to the
Supernatural virtues and to the Infused (supernaturally) Moral Virtues. Remember, I said these hold us to a
higher standard. Actually, it is a
standard that transcends the “natural”.
Otherwise the virtues could not be
supernatural.
The Theological Virtues of
Faith, Hope and Charity are clearly “super”-natural because they present to
Intellect, Memory and Imagination, and Will, an object these faculties are
incapable of attaining in and of themselves. They present the Infinite
God-Divinity-under the aspect of Supreme, eternal Truth, beauty and
Goodness. By Faith the human soul
gets to know the truth about God as He is in Himself, though not
entirely. By Hope, the Memory and
Imagination are able to grasp God as the infinite power capable of conferring
the perfect life our humanity craves in all its aspects. By Charity, the Will is able to enjoy
the Infinite, uncreated Goodness which is God.
These virtues also give rise to
conduct. Faith instructs the
cognitive faculties to perceive the truth of human relationships, indeed, the
truth of everything that exists as God perceives it.
Hope enables a person to remain
calm and confident in the face of obstacles to perfect life and happiness that
exceed the natural powers of human nature by relying on the power of God in
virtue of the promises He has made to us and in virtue of the memory of the
overwhelming evidence that this power has already been exercised and is always
ready to go to work on our behalf.
Charity enables us to love as
God loves. Naturally speaking, not
one of us is able to be good to someone who has manifested hatred and enmity
toward us, especially if such persons have already inflicted evil and harm upon
us or upon anyone closely related to or associated with us. Charity gives us that
supernatural power to love.
Otherwise Jesus, a Divine Person, who cannot deceive nor be deceived,
would never have commanded us to “Love one another as I have loved
you.”
With regard to the Infused
Moral Virtues, the higher standard, as I have said, is Jesus. The natural standard is pretty much
limited to personal good.
Even in those situations where a person “naturally” is able to sacrifice
personal interest to the good of the family or social unit to which he belongs,
he achieves a more noble personal good that wins him honor and
prestige. This remains good and
reasonable to the “natural” powers of perception. But to love one’s enemies and to
sacrifice personal interest for the good of that enemy is pure
foolishness to the natural reason.
Naturally speaking, our reason cannot embrace foolishness or
absurdity. Naturally speaking, our
wills cannot embrace evil. Our
memory and imagination cannot embrace what is ugly and repugnant to it,
naturally speaking. Thus, in all
our conduct, both in regard to our bodies and our senses, our emotional life
(relationships), and our “natural perception” of truth, beauty and goodness, we
are required to act as God’s children by adoption, as persons who share God’s
life. The infused moral virtues are
intended to help us attain the orderliness that is found in the Divine
Nature. Clearly the
orderliness in human nature considered apart from its being elevated to
the status of a Child of God is disorderliness when compared to the
infinite orderliness which is God.
St. John himself affirms this over and over again. That is why the moral virtues need to be
raised to the supernatural level.
And here is where we can locate the second half of the first sentence of this Maxim. “Perfection lies... in the virtues which our Lord sees in it.” Each of us may have certainty that we possess the moral virtues considered from the natural point of view. But that alone does not make us perfect from the Divine point of view. Only Jesus, only the Father and the Spirit, along with Him, see and know to what extent the orderliness in our nature approaches the orderliness which is God. Therefore, in truth, that knowledge remains a closed book to us, and the remainder of this Maxim does not require an extended comment. we simply cannot presume that the degree of Divine orderliness in us has come up to what God in His Merciful Providence has called us to and is achieving in us. We have no other lawful course of action open to us but to remain humble in our own estimation, or as the Maxim says: remain prostrate on the ground with respect to self. And in saying this, we see why it is that humility is the most valuable of all virtues.
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Holy Hill, 1525 Carmel Rd., Hubertus, WI 53033-9770. Texts for the Maxims
on Love were taken from The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, by Fr.
Kieran Kavanaugh, O.C.D. and Fr. Otilo Rodriguez, O.C.D. 1979 Edition. Copies
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