Accelerate, brake, accelerate

THAT seems to be the rhythm of our life. We are in some kind of travel here on earth. We encounter different terrains, different challenges and issues. But just like in a road trip, we need to move forward, apply the brakes sometimes, regulate the speed, etc., and try to reach our destination.

            That’s why we have to develop two particular virtues, half of the fundamental cardinal virtues, to assure us that we travel and reach our end safely. These are the virtues of fortitude and temperance.

            Fortitude enables us to tackle the challenges, to push us to the goal, to bear the rigors of the trip. It helps us build our spiritual life, our life’s core. Its main purpose is to resist what obstructs, what is difficult and unpleasant on our way to our goal.

            Temperance, on the other hand, frees us from distractions, both internal and external, and helps us to get focused on our objective. It helps us moderate our appetite for pleasure which can go wild. It includes other virtues like modesty, a healthy sense of shame, sobriety, austerity, mastery of curiosity, etc.

            These two virtues are an integral part of our human maturity. They, of course, presume that we have a clear idea of our destination and also a realistic understanding of our human condition, which means that we know what factors help us in our life’s journey and what would drag us.

            In short, for them to be real virtues, they have to based on the correct and complete vision of who and what we are, what our purpose is in this life, what are the ideal and theoretical vision of how we should be, as well as the current, practical conditions we are in.

            This knowledge would provide us with the parameters within which these virtues have to operate and develop. Our first problem lies in this area, since very often people go about their life without regard so much as to have a global picture of our nature and purpose in life. They seem to be just coasting along. This has to be corrected.

            Besides, there are now many competing ideologies that try to redefine man, often undermining the Christian concept of man or Christian anthropology. And so the question of fortitude and temperance, if they enter at all, gets founded on uncertain if not wrong grounds.

            We should always foster the interest to know more the goals we have to reach. We should not be satisfied with a theoretical, academic view of these goals. Without of course neglecting the theory which provides us with a working guideline, we should try our best to know the raw data on the ground.

            Remember that in the gospel we are told that he who searches finds, he who knocks would have the door opened to him. We should not remain indifferent and passive to the changing conditions of our life in all its aspects and levels. We need to monitor them closely.

            What need to have a fresh grab of the challenges we have in us and around us by praying, studying and observing. Doing this would fire us up, infusing us with the “carpe diem” sensation, as we get out of our own shell and get involved in the exciting dynamics of our human drama. We have to try our best to escape the clutches of complacency, laziness and self-satisfaction that can easily come to us.

            With fortitude, we would know how to keep up the fight of life without surrendering to the difficulties, tiredness or our own weaknesses. We would learn to bear the pressures of life with patience and good humor, avoiding getting upset or discouraged.

            We should react to things not only with our emotions or even with reason. Rather, our fortitude should be based on faith that would help us see the hand of God in everything, including our problems. With faith-based fortitude, we can always have hope, we can see how good can come out even from our difficulties.

            Temperance is urgently needed these days since many are the distractions and temptations along the way. These days, people are easily trapped by an all-consuming fascination for the new technologies. We have to be ready to do battle against these powerfully psychological tyrants that practically enslave us, giving us a distorted picture of reality.

            Of course, temperance is needed in our lifelong war against sensuality. Let’s remember that once the devil succeeds in trapping us in our sensuality, we become incapable of entering the spiritual and supernatural reality.