Should I try to develop human virtues?
There are two levels in the virtues (or ‘powers’ of man), the human virtues and the supernatural virtues. The latter ones develop our relationship with God with the help of grace. Human virtues constitute the foundation for the supernatural virtues.
First, we must develop the human virtues to be friends of freedom and personal responsibility; to be sincere, loyal, generous, self-sacrificing, optimistic, tenacious, determined, rightly-intentioned, and capable of working hard.
“These human virtues, when supernaturalized, enable us to practice the theological virtues and to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit with greater docility."
We need both human and supernatural virtues to be mature. Thus, hardly could a person be sincere with God if he is not sincere with his companions.
“Human maturity, the Second Vatican Council teaches, will be chiefly attested to by a certain stability of character, the ability to make carefully weighed decisions, and a sound judgment of events and people." People who are humanly mature judge themselves realistically and objectively. They recognize their limitations and know what they want as well as what they can do. And so, they are self-confident and balanced, and can always act consistently and responsibly.
Very different is the attitude of immature people. Such individuals have not achieved full human development and deceive themselves by hiding their timidity beneath a façade of arrogance or false humility. They live in a state of insecurity, avoiding openness and commitment. Above all, immature people fear themselves.
In their relations with others, mature people can always find the right place. This is how God wants us to be: “prudent, thoughtful and measured in all we do; ready to learn and diligently carry out whatever we are asked; prompt to avoid danger, with a balanced spirit of initiative; ready to judge - if it's our duty to - when we possess all the necessary information; and quick to flee from excessive concern for temporal things."
By contrast, people who are not yet mature are uneasy in their relations with others. They are either weak and condescending, or they take refuge in an authoritarian and barren rigidity. “A clear sign of ... immaturity is the desire to reform everything and do so immediately. Such people think that all their predecessors and their superiors were fools."
Immature people are stubborn and grumpy, incapable of listening to others or rectifying their mistakes. We must have the sense of proportion, the calm, the fortitude, and the sense of responsibility that many acquire only after years have passed.
In our efforts to acquire rapidly the necessary maturity, we also must rely on the powerful help of a life of piety. “By fulfilling the Norms of piety, St. Josemaría wrote, we will learn to practice the necessary virtues. And along with these virtues, they will acquire a whole range of spiritual values: shining precious stones that we must gather along the way and place at the foot of God's throne: simplicity, cheerfulness, peace, small mortifications, and the faithful fulfillment of our duty..."
Nov 8 Sat