The Four Cardinal Virtues: Walls of the Interior Life

More often than not, I have directees asking me to teach them how I discern God’s will. In Scripture, Saint Paul mostly focuses on the Theological virtues, the greatest of these is Charity (1 Corinthians 13:13, NIV). In order for us to reach this height, we need to be practicing the Cardinal virtues, starting with the charioteer virtue, Prudence, followed by justice, fortitude, and temperance. I suggest you see these four as the walls to your house. Without these walls, you are vulnerable to all sorts of calamities. One of the most precious gifts a child of God can give themselves is the Catechism of the Catholic Church. This book comes in two formats, and I suggest you purchase both. This book is like the road map to our faith. It not only offers Scripture cross references but also, with councils, synods, pontifical documents, and my favorite, ecclesiastical writers, the saints. 

Flipping through the contents of this book, you can find just about anything you need advice on about discerning God’s will. For us to resemble Christ’s behavior, we can turn to the Life of Christ, and for this article, we are going to look at the entry on The Virtues, and particularly the Cardinal Virtues. As I previously mentioned, Prudence is the charioteer. We need self-discipline and strength to hold tight to the reins, so our passions don’t run away from us.  Think of the early settlers in our country who used horses and buggies to get around. The reins were how we steered, and if we were not awake, strong in the biceps, and holding tight to the reins, the horse could easily drift off course. Think of what Saint Peter says to us regarding prudence, 1 Peter 5:8 (NIV)  Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

In my formation for Spiritual Direction, Saint Ignatius of Loyola spoke about how if we give the enemy a foothold, he sinks his teeth in it, causing us great harm, and the struggle to break free is exhausting.  Saint Ignatius of Loyola uses false-friend imagery in rules thirteen and fourteen. He is basically saying that it is in our vulnerability that the enemy pounces. The enemy wants your ego to hide its pain from others; keeping it a secret allows it to stay put.  Prudence is required when dealing with a heart wound, a soul wound.  Any wound that is not brought to Jesus remains unprotected, allowing another to occupy your space. It is as if a wall to your home is exposed to elements that can harm you. By bringing this into the light, you expose the enemy.

I like to use the emotion of anger as a signal to the virtue of prudence that we need to steer this towards God and Love, rather than fear, where the darkness lies and waits.   As long as you are talking to Jesus about it, you are moving in the right direction, and the enemy will back away.

The next wall in your structure is justice; this, too, can be tricky since we are dealing with a wound that wants vengeance. This wall is not standing alone but butted against prudence. Prudence ensures that our response is powered by love instead of the ego’s desire for revenge.

Any other justice is ego and fear-related. Forgiveness is the first step in seeking justice. When you forgive, you move out of ego, self-centeredness, and fear reactions towards love and healthy boundaries responsiveness.  Your anger can still be here, but it's not from an eye for an eye, but in righteous anger (Matthew 21:12-13 NIV). Jesus demonstrates that this emotion is powerful and has a place, but only to correct the flow of love. They were taking the Temple, something sacred, and desecrating it. We are taught that we are a Temple of God and that we need to allow Jesus to come in and clean us up by utilizing the miracle box, the Sacraments of Reconciliation. 

In cooperating with our Lord, we move to the next wall of our home, fortitude. Fortitude is built with the will when our feelings are not cooperating with us. It is endurance, strength, and perseverance in the face of aridity when we think nothing is happening, but it is actually necessary for emotions to learn to adjust to not having their own way. Think of it like when a seed is planted, and one day, we see its life popping up from the soil.  Aridity is this moment, and it is with fortitude that we continue the course of prayer and the sacraments when we don’t feel like it.

This is where you begin to realize that the will is stronger than your emotions. Your faith is there, and you continue on the journey even though you're not receiving any consolation from it.  It’s where you are actually growing the most, because you are moving from wanting gifts to being in the presence of the Giver. Here is another way of looking at this virtue: it’s at that moment, if you had one more day to be with that loved one who is no longer present.  The yearning to be with the one you love. God wants you to feel that way about Him. Can you say, I long for God?

Moving to the last wall of your structure is temperance, which is the detaching of the ego and passions. It's interesting that we call our desires "passions" and Jesus’s way of the cross His "passion."  While there is play on this word, in spiritual life, the things we like most are the things that will cause us the most suffering.  Temperance is to balance the ego from self, “look what I did,” to stewardship.  Saint Therese of Lisieux said to do small things with great love. She would provide a small bouquet of flowers for our Lord, and another sister would move hers and put a larger one there. This little saint teaches us not to let ego dictate how we should feel, but rather to move past it to see the beauty in both offerings. She tells us not to respond to the first impulse but the second. And for some of us, it might take a bit longer.  Temperance is pulling the reins of the ego: from self-centeredness toward stewardship, and the virtue of humility is born. Which becomes your foundation, and then the final piece of the structure is put in place, the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity.