The Life of Virtue - A Look Back at Justice

We are half-way through our series on the life of virtue and so far we have had one post on prudence and nineteen on justice and its allied virtues. The plan is to have twenty-one further posts, on the virtues of fortitude and temperance and their allies. Clearly justice receives significant attention in Aquinas's consideration of the moral life and this guides our presentation also: just under half of our series is devoted to justice as just under half of his treatment of the moral virtues is devoted to justice.

This is how it ought to be. At the heart of the Biblical revelation is the righteousness of God, God's justice, integrity, holiness, reliability, and judgement. His people are to be holy as God is holy and this means becoming just as God is just. For the Bible, justice is virtue, righteousness is morality. The Messiah comes bringing that justice which is a light to the peoples (Isaiah 51:4). The ten commandments are ten ways of doing justice. One cannot claim to know God while acting unjustly. 'Is not this to know me, to judge the cause of the poor and needy' (Jeremiah 22:16). One cannot claim to worship God while acting unjustly and to try to do so makes such worship abominable (Isaiah 1:11-17) - first 'seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow'. One cannot claim to serve God while acting unjustly. 'Is this not the fast I want, to loose the bonds of injustice' (Isaiah 58:6).

Jesus comes to enact these prophecies, establishing in his own body the kingdom of justice and peace. 'We know that God is righteous and that everyone who does right is born of God' (1 John 2:29). Jesus more than anybody else lived according to the rule of the prophet Micah: 'what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God' (Micah 6:8).

Aquinas develops principles and values about justice already acknowledged in Greek philosophy and in Roman law, but the inspiration for what he writes is the Bible and the paradigm of justice is Jesus, 'the righteous judge', for whose appearing we long (2 Timothy 4:8). In this he follows the approach of St Paul, appealing to what human culture and civilization have to say about truth, goodness and justice, but seeing it all in relation to Jesus. God 'has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead' (Acts 17:31).

The Life of Virtue - Epieikeia

Aristotle alerts us to this difficulty about knowledge, that there is nothing apart from individual things and yet knowledge is universal, drawing things into unity and identity. How there can be universal knowledge of particular things is the hardest difficulty of all, he says (Metaphysics III.4) .

The place where we see this difficulty most readily is in regard to moral action. St Thomas says that human acts are always singular and contingent, infinite in their possibilities. It is therefore impossible to frame a law which will cover all cases: 'it is impossible to institute a legal rule that will not be inadequate in some situation' (Summa theologiae II.II 120, 1). Legislators work with what generally happens but there will be cases where observing the law would be 'against the equality of justice and the common good', precisely the things laws are meant to establish and protect. Aquinas gives a couple of examples of situations where observing what the law requires would be bad: returning his sword to a lunatic, or his assets to an enemy. These are cases where following the law as it is given would be evil. The good, in such circumstances, is established and protected by ignoring the letter of the law (praetermissis verbis legis) in order to be faithful to 'the meaning of justice and to common utility'.

The virtue that enables us to make such decisions well is, in Greek, epieikeia, in Latin aequitas, in English equity. This virtue teaches us when it would be vicious to follow the letter of the law (art.cit., ad 1). It does not mean that we have become judges over the law but we are obliged to make a judgement in the particular situation in which we find ourselves (art.cit., ad 2). This virtue is needed therefore for situations of doubt, exceptional situations (art.cit., ad 3). Aristotle says that equity is a part of justice taken as a general virtue and so is higher than legal justice (Nicomachean Ethics V.10). St Thomas says that equity is thus a higher rule of human acts (superior regula humanorum actuum) than are the positive laws enacted by parliaments and monarchs (Summa theologiae II.II 120, 2). Equity is needed to moderate law which becomes cruel if it is not somehow moderated. (It is a crucial point: elsewhere St Thomas says that justice alone is cruel and must always be tempered by mercy.)

The great virtue of prudence is entirely concerned with the application of universal principles to particular situations and circumstances. It has an ancillary virtue called gnome which seems to be the basis for equity: gnome brings a perspicacity of judgement across the whole of the moral life, enabling a person to know when a higher principle takes precedence over a lower one (Summa theologiae II.II 51,4). Some of this is common sense. In England one drives on the left hand side of the road but if there is a person lying there one does not continue to drive on that side (as the law requires) and may even decide in the circumstances to drive on the right hand side: it is the reasonable thing to do thus serving the spirit of the law while ignoring its letter. Some situations will, however, be much more complex.

Does what Aristotle and Aquinas say about equity, prudence, and gnome, mean that there are no exceptionless norms governing human action? Some moral philosophers and theologians think it does, that one cannot say murder, adultery, rape and cruelty are always evil since circumstances might arise where one of these would be the right course of action. But such a view is only possible where moral norms are understood as purely legal norms, where natural law for example is understood as if it were exactly the same as positive law. There are things that the virtuous person will never do and if such a thing appears as a possible course of action he or she will immediately reject it. This is because moral norms are about more than social good or utility, they are about the values and goods without which human beings cannot begin to flourish and against which one ought never to act no matter what the circumstances.

At the same time what Aristotle and Aquinas say about equity teaches us something very important about the limits of legislation.

8 August - Our Holy Father St Dominic

Lord, let the holiness and teaching of Saint Dominic come to the aid of your Church. May he help us now with his prayers as he once inspired people by his preaching. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Article in l'Osservatore Romano

[The following article by fr Robert Gay OP was published in the English language edition of l'Osservatore Romano on the 5th of August 2009. It is republished here with permission.]

On the importance of the physical in Catholic spirituality and sacramental life: Sanctified body and soul through the Incarnation

These days there seems to be a great interest in the spiritual life. Many people make the claim to be "spiritual", and its expression takes many forms. Most book shops in the Anglophone world now have a section labelled "Spirituality", and the content of these sections is often a vast array of competing titles, many of which have a New Age or self-help flavour and propose a variety of theories of the human person and the spiritual life. In every understanding of the spiritual life we may come across, there is either an explicit or an implicit understanding of the human person. How we understand the human person has a bearing on how we understand the spiritual life and what its objectives are. Each "spirituality" we may come across will also have its own doctrinal framework, and the spiritual practices that each proposes will be based around those ideas. Books about Catholic spirituality are now few and far between in mainstream bookshops, and represent just one among many competing belief systems in such a section. And yet as Catholics we would claim that our concept of the spiritual life is rich and varied, offering something above and beyond its "competitors". This is rooted in two things: the Catholic understanding of the human person, and the doctrines of the Church.

What is distinctive about the Catholic approach to the spiritual life is the importance that it gives to the physical. This is rooted in the notion that as human beings we are a unity of body and soul. We see this beautifully expressed in the Book of Genesis, where we have an image of God creating the first man from the "dust of the ground, and breath[ing] into his nostrils the breath of life" (1). St Thomas Aquinas, taking his lead from Aristotle, believed that the soul is the form of the human person, "the first thing by which the body lives" (2). Without the soul, the body cannot carry out its proper functions. But at the same time, St. Thomas held that the soul has no natural existence outside the body (3). This close union between body and soul is the reality of what each and every human being is. If we accept this truth, then it follows that it will have an impact on how we conceive of the spiritual life. We can see that the spiritual life is not about an escape from my physical reality, as some New Age perspectives might propose, but about accepting and making use of that reality.

If we consider Creation as a whole, we can learn from both observation of the world and revelation that there are three levels of the created order. The first of these is the purely material, as in the case of the objects that we see in the world around us. There is also creation that is purely spiritual, as in the case of the angels. As humans we are matter and spirit united, and our encounters with the world are influenced by this fact. We should not then be surprised that this reality is also fully utilised in God's dealings with us.

The most concrete way in which we see the importance of the physical comes by looking at the doctrine of the Incarnation. The fact that God makes himself known to us in Jesus the Christ raises the importance of the physical and material world to a new level. The Gospel accounts are entirely focused on the person of Jesus Christ; on what he said and on what he did, and on the significance of his words and his deeds. And Christ's saving work is continued in the Church, in particular when the sacraments are celebrated. It is then significant that through the mystery of the Incarnation, the second person of the Trinity, the Divine Word, became flesh in Jesus. Through the hypostatic union he reveals to us the mystery of the Divine life, which is not accessible by means of observing the world around us. The hypostatic union means that the human acts of Christ are divine acts, which "bring salvation" and are "causes of grace" (4).

The sacraments are an important part of the way in which God communicates his grace, his own life to us. And when we consider our physical reality, we can see how fitting it is that God should give us his grace in precisely this way. Indeed, for St. Thomas, it is essential that a sacrament has a component that requires the use of the senses (5). When we think of the seven sacraments, and look at their rites, we think immediately of visible signs, such as the laying on of hands, the washing with water, the marking with oil and so on.

But sacraments are more than just signs: they are signs which bring about effects. As the old penny Catechism has it, "a sacrament is an outward sign of inward grace... by which grace is given to our souls"(6). The external signs, which involve hearing, seeing and often the sense of touch, are effective because they both impart grace and makes things vivid to us. In the case of the sacraments, it is our faith which becomes vivid (7). When reading St. Thomas' treatment of the sacraments, we can see how he places emphasis also on the words that accompany the symbols of the sacraments (8). This is not surprising, since the sacraments are a means of communicating the Divine life to the people of God.

If we choose to reject the importance of the physical, as is the case for much of the New Age spiritualities, then the sacramental economy ceases to be relevant. And this is problematic in several ways. Rejecting the material can easily lead to the same kind of dualistic ideas that St Dominic founded the Order of Preachers in the thirteenth century to preach against, namely a belief that the material world is somehow a bad thing. However, to hold such a view is to go against the sense of the material, sensible world that we get from reading the creation narratives, namely that what God created was indeed good. Our bodies and senses, far from being an unfortunate hindrance, are a natural part of the way we were made. This is not to say that the fall does not have consequences that damage our ability to use our bodies and senses in the way that is wholesome and good. There is a need for grace, which builds on our fallen nature and redeems it. This is why the salvific grace that comes to us in the sacraments is so necessary and comes to us in such an apt way. Receiving the sacraments is truly an encounter with Christ, and is thus a powerful part of spiritual growth and development.

It is also important that we remember that encountering Christ cannot be seen as a solely individual experience. The celebration of the sacraments is always an action of Christ through the Church. So if we accept the importance of the sacraments in the spiritual life, we also accept the importance of being part of the believing community that is the Church. Rather than the individualistic and private spirituality that New Age spiritualities can often encourage, Catholic spirituality must instead be communitarian and corporate in order to be true to its name.This means that the spiritual life cannot simply be reduced to a vertical "I-Thou" relationship, but requires interaction and relationship with other members of the Church, the people that form the mystical body of Christ.

So for the individual Catholic, the spiritual life necessarily has an ecclesial dimension. The private prayer and devotion of an individual is fed and nourished by being part of a believing community, and by participating in the sacramental life of that community, and can not be separate from that. There is a need for us to recognise how relationships with others are an important part of being human, and the sacraments help to shape our relations with others, and build up the whole Church as the body of Christ.

Indeed, another aspect of taking the physical existence of the human being seriously is taking the social existence of the human being seriously, which means living life as a member of the body of the Church. In our efforts to evangelise, then, we should always be sure that we give special attention to the role of the sacraments in the spiritual life, bearing witness to the fact that the sacraments meet the reality of who and what we are as human beings. A sacramental spirituality one which is realistic about who and what we are as human beings and which shows how that reality is used by God in our salvation will surely be attractive to those who are sincerely trying to search for God. The sacraments speak powerfully of a God who communicates his life to us, taking us as we are and building us up and shaping us through his Son. And in making the power of the sacraments more widely known, we have the perfect response to the spiritual hunger that we see in our world today.

Notes

1. Cf. Gen 2:7

2. St Thomas Aquinas. Summa Theologiae Ia, qu. 76. art. 1

3. Ibid. art. 7

4.Schillebeeckx, Christ the Sacrament of Encounter with God, p. 13

5.Summa Theologiae IIIa, qu. 60, art. Note especially: ‘Est autem homini connaturale ut per sensibilia perveniat in cognitionem intelligibilia'

6. See ‘A Catechism of Christian Doctrine', republished by CTS in 1999

7. See Selman, St Thomas Aquinas:Teacher of Truth, p. 65

8.This is treated in IIIa, qu. 60, art.6, 7 and 8

Columba Ryan OP

Our brother Columba Ryan died this afternoon. He was born on 13th January 1916 and so would have been 94 at his next birthday. He made profession on 30th September 1936 and so was almost 73 years professed. He was ordained on 25th July 1941 and so had just celebrated 68 years of priesthood. His was a remarkable life. After schooling at Ampleforth he spent a year in France before joining the Order. He was master of (lay)brothers for many years, taught philosophy, and was bursar at Hawkesyard, and was later regent of studies at Oxford.

The second half of his life was spent in Glasgow and London. He was chaplain to Strathclyde University and became a well known figure in Glasgow, his solitary presence in a remarkable flat on George Street paving the way for the return of a Dominican community to that city. In London he was very much loved by people from very different social, political and religious backgrounds. Having walked in CND marches in the 1950s he joined the many hundreds of thousands who marched in London on 15th February 2003 in protest at the invasion of Iraq. He was already in his 90s when he ceased editing the weekly St Dominic's Newsletter but continued preaching his remarkable homilies until very recently. He had many long-standing friendships with men and women in politics, the arts and the academic world. His contribution to philosophy and theology was more through the people he taught than through any major publication. One short piece (which he said he wrote on a train on the way to give it as a lecture) has been very influential however. This is his chapter on 'The Traditional Concept of Natural Law: an Interpretation', which, though first published in 1965, is still a fresh and stimulating introduction to the question. Gifted with a remarkable intelligence, he was a pastor at heart, always ready to visit the sick, to comfort the sorrowful, and to spend time with the many friends who loved him very dearly and whom he loved.

There will be many tributes to Columba in the coming days that will fill out what is said here. Please join us in praying for him:

Lord, hear the prayers we offer for Columba, your servant and priest. He faithfully fulfilled his ministry to your name. May he rejoice for ever in the fellowship of your saints. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Blessed Sacrament Parish reaches out to the local community

For the last few weeks, Br. Robert Gay has been working in Blessed Sacrament parish in the west of the city of Leicester. The parish was originally run by the Blessed Sacrament Fathers, but is now in the hands of the Diocese of Nottingham, and run by Fr John Joe Maloney. As well as getting sacramental and preaching experience as a Deacon, Br. Robert has also been involved in leading a team of young people in outreach to Catholics and others in the parish. Here is the team's account of their work and its value.

For the last two weeks, we have been carrying out a census of Blessed Sacrament parish, under the guidance of Br Robert. The aim of the census was to discover how many Catholic households there are in a particular area of the parish, and also to tell people about the Church, the faith, and about parish life. The area we covered was an estate to the west of the city of Leicester, close to the boundary of the parish. It is a new development, built in the last ten years, and there are still areas under construction. So we felt it was important that we provided information to these new families about the parish.

In our travels, we were pleasantly surprised at the reception we received from many families, even if they weren't from a Catholic background. We discovered many people who showed an interest in the Catholic Faith, and some who, although they were lapsed Catholics, were interested in returning to the Church. Now that we have made contact with these families, the parish will be able to liaise further with them to help them develop their ideas about the faith.

We have very much enjoyed meeting people in this way, both because of the reception we received, and of how we were able to give new information to people who would otherwise not have known about the Church. Although knocking on people's doors may seem like a lot of work, with a well organised team, it is possible to make an impact on a large number of people in a short amount of time. We would encourage other parishes to consider such a method of outreach.

Luke, Lottie and Bernadette

The Life of Virtue - Liberality

Liberality – the virtue concerned with the right use of money (and, by extension, material goods) – seems like a particularly important one to consider in the light of recent events in the financial sector, which many have blamed on an irresponsible attitude to money both on the part of bankers and of those to whom they lent.

The first important thing to note about this virtue, then, is that it is precisely concerned with the right use of money: money is a means which we acquire and keep in order to expend in the pursuit of various ends (i.e. providing for our needs and those of others). If money ever becomes an end in itself, something we seek just for the pleasure of acquiring it or having it, then we are no longer using it in the right way.

At the same time, St Thomas, following Aristotle, considers virtue to be the mean between two extremes, and warns also against the profligate spending of money: if liberality is concerned with the right use of money then yes, first of all we must use it, not horde it for its own sake, but we must also pay attention to what we use it for. We expend money in the pursuit of various ends, as noted above, and so in order to use it properly we need both to select the right ends to pursue and how money can best be spent to achieve those ends. Thus, for example, we may conclude that giving food, rather than money, to the beggar we meet on the street is the better way to help him, if we feared the money might otherwise be spent on something less beneficial.

In the Gospel account of the widow’s mite (Mark 12: 41-44), Jesus praises the poor widow who gives all that she has to the temple, saying the she has given more than all those who had given much larger sums, which were for them, however, only a small proportion of their wealth. This should remind us that liberality is not so much concerned with the amount we give away, but the attitude we adopt towards money: as St Paul says (2 Cor 9: 7), ‘God loves a cheerful giver.’ In talking of virtue as a mean, too, this doesn’t imply that our expenditure and our giving should be in some kind of arithmetical balance between ‘too much’ and ‘not enough’, even relative to each person’s means: there are some things for which it might be right to give away every penny we have (e.g. supporting a sick relative or, for that matter, entering religious life). Rather, just as the virtue is concerned with our interior attitude to money, so the balance is to be in our attitude: on the one hand not getting obsessed about money in itself, but on the other not ignoring the consequences of our disposal of it.