False Virtue
By Richard Salbato
As in keeping with my obsession that we
are in a war with secularism, the secularism of governments and that we are
loosing this war. I want now to show
one of the many reasons we are loosing this war. First understand that Relativism, bred Secularism, which bred
Communism and now Pluralism.
Relativism means
that there really are no standards. One thing is just as good as another; there
is no right, there is no wrong, it is all relative. Coming from the so-called
Enlightenment Philosophers that bred the French Revolution and taught that all
morals were a result of social historical environment and could change with
time and place and that there was no fixed moral or natural laws, this found
its way into governments, who adopted secularism. Secularism believed that God's natural and moral laws did not
belong in the laws of governments and all reference to God or his moral laws
should be removed from governments.
Because of Government schools preaching this garbage for from 60 to 120
years depending on what country you are in, this relative attitude spilled over
into religions and we call it "Pluralism". Pluralism is just the same atheistic Relativism with a stamp of
Religion on it. Pluralism is a man centered
moral law instead of a God centered moral law.
It places anyone's idea of religion and morals as right for that person
because to pluralists their conscience is the moral guide and not God.
Pope Benedict is
going to do to relativism what Pope John Paul II did to Communism; he is going
to deal them a deadly wound. Are we going to be with him or against him. What I see in the Catholic Church even among
priests and nuns is not very encouraging.
Before they can help in this war they have to re-educate themselves in
Virtue and Sin.
The Object of True Virtue
In the end
virtue has as its goal to love God, ourselves and others. Loving God, ourselves and others means to do
what is good and right to God, to ourselves and to others. A truly virtuous person stands out today
like a beacon in a dark sea. A truly
virtuous person (very rare today) stands out and we say: "What a
lady!" or "What a gentleman!" but often we do not know why we
see them that way. They radiate
confidence, softness, politeness, courage, gentleness, neatness, and such
goodness that we just like being around them.
They are not self-conscious and pay no attention to what people think of
them but only what they can do to make others happy and better for their presence
with them. The virtuous person is not
afraid to walk up to a total stranger with a smile and greeting. He is not afraid of what others think. He is only interested in making others happy
without thought of himself.
The best way to
understand the true lady or gentleman (virtuous people) is to look at the
non-virtuous people. Without talking
yet about false virtue, look at the obvious signs. Self conscious people lack virtue and it is obvious. They walk into a room worried about what
people think of them - are they dressed properly, will they be accepted, will
they be liked. As a result of this self
absorbed mental state they do not smile unless others do so first, they do not
greet you unless you greet them first, they do not, in short, make any effort
to make anyone happy unless you make them happy first. A thin man will be intimidated by a strong
man, a fat woman will hate the thin woman, a plan man will hate the good
looking man, etc. Why, because they are
self absorbed. In truth a true gentleman
is so confident in all situations that he is envied and it does not matter what
gifts he was born with, he just does not pay attention to them and loves
everyone with equal love and is never intimidated by others for any reason
because he does not compare. As a
result the plain man looks handsome and the plain woman looks beautiful.
So, as you can
see, even though it is not the reason for virtue, the results of virtue in
every case is happiness for the virtuous person and those around him or her. A
virtuous person is loved because you must love a loving person.
False
Virtue Does Not Produce Happiness
To sum up false
virtue before giving some examples, is that it does not produce any fruits even
though it pretends to be virtue and mostly it does not produce happiness in the
subject or the object. The greatest
example of this is excessive self-observation.
I think when Christ said that we must be like little children, He was
talking about how children enjoy things without reflecting on why they enjoy
them. They see what is around them
without looking at their own reaction to what is around them or how they might
be perceived by others. Why do we think
little children so beautiful? Because
they smile and laugh and enjoy things without inter-reflection of why they
enjoy, they just enjoy and we love to see this. We must become like this, like children who see others and things
in the light of beauty and enjoyment without an self-absorption.
To really enjoy
the sunset, good music, beauty of any kind, we must forget ourselves and enter
into the object. The self absorbed can
never really love because he does not enjoy the other person's beauty but
remains reflected on his own emotion, his own attitude, his own acceptance or
rejection. Only in self-forgetfulness
do we find we can love.
Pope Benedict
XVI said:
"if young men see priests highly
isolated, sad, tired, they say: if that is my future, forget about it.
Such communion of life must truly be created to show the young: yes, this can
be a future for me too, this can be life ...
we need to attract the young to the Church. ... It is important that
young people can discover the beauty of faith ... that it is beautiful to have
God as a friend. ...This intellectual factor must then be accompanied by an
affective and social factor, that is by a socialization in faith...so that
faith forms community, offers places of life and convinces in an ensemble of
thought, affection, friendship of life."
The nun who
walks down the street with her hands folded in prayer but never greets or
smiles at anyone does not reflect true virtue and will not attract people to
vocations. The priest who constantly
talks about himself, selling himself more than God, does not have true virtue
and will not lead people to God.
Consider the
young girl who dresses for attention then acts as if she is upset if anyone
looks at her. How stupid! Compare that
to a a person, man or woman who lights up even a coffee shop just by coming in because
they show their love for everyone, no matter who they are. Virtue is not meant to show but it
does. A truly virtuous person looks
into the eyes of everyone with real interest in who they are, what they think,
and what they need without even a thought of what impression they might be
making in the situation. This is true
humility.
False Humility
Liberation from one's self is called Humility. True humility is not having any
opinion about oneself except truth, truth in light of God's revelation. The truth that whatsoever good value we have
comes from God. This truth is what
humility is all about. If God calls us
to something, like He called Ratzinger to be Pope, the humble leaves this to
God and not to his own feeling of being unworthy. This feeling of questioning God's providence is not humility but
pride. Humility is not cowardice or
complacency but requires the same heroic abandonment of self as does faith,
hope and charity. Some people use
values or false virtues to glorify themselves, whereas the humble will use his
talents to help others and to glorify God.
The person who hates himself, or wallows in self pity or is depressed
over his shortcomings is not humble but is wallowing in pride, which is a
preoccupation with the self. Humility is
not spineless. Cowards are afraid of
conflict. The humble handles conflict
with the other person's gain in his heart and not his own gain. Nonetheless, he is not afraid of conflict.
False Simplicity
Simplicity is a unity of life anchored in
God. When we see God's gifts and work within our gifts and abilities without
detours into areas we are not called to, we can say that we have
simplicity. The true enemy of
simplicity is a dependence on what people think of us one way or the other,
pleasure in being spoiled or depressed from being rejected. The simple person is always heroic because
he does not look this way or that but goes strait to the highest good and for
no other reason than the good itself.
Because of some modern ideas of simplicity it is associated with
stupidity. But the truth is that
Einstein could be called simply because he keep his thinking and his work
within the limits of his ability and did not try to work on things he knew
nothing about. Damian, of the leper
Island, was simple. He was good with
his hands but not a good speaker, so he used his hands to convert and help the
lepers and not his tongue.
False Trust in God
Nothing is more stupid and even
aggravating than people who see injustice and say they will pray that God helps
them but do nothing to correct the injustice themselves. St. Francis said that he stayed before the
altar of God and logically thought out what he should do each day. He trusted that God would guide his actions
and inspire his own thinking but in the end it was his free will and his
action. This is why in modern times
people say, "Evil triumphs because good people do nothing." The virtuous person trusts in God's promise
that if we do what He commands us, He will help us in this life and in the
next. God does not cause everything to
happen but He does allow it, and we should except the good and the bad with
equal trust that God knows what is good for us. Often people, while living idle from sloth or levity, expect God
to sustain them. We must not expect God
to repair by a miracle the damage our unreasonableness and our omissions have
inflicted upon ourselves.
False Freedom
For virtue to be virtue it must come from
our free will. Sometimes we will what
we do not feel like doing and this is real virtue. We cannot feel love, joy, or fervor at the command of our will,
although we can in time move by the will of our upper being the feelings in our
lower being. However, even when we do
not feel loving we can love, and even when we do not feel joyful we can show
joy to others to make them feel better.
We are in the image of God and therefore we have free will to do good or
evil. Be we are not free to choose what
is good and evil because the tree of the knowledge of good and evil belongs to
God. The new false freedom is those who
pick and choose what laws they want to obey and say that their conscience is
clear and therefore they are not sinning.
This is a false freedom that leads to destruction.
False Love
Love is an action and not a feeling. We are commanded to love. People who have a preoccupation with
themselves as mentioned about are not capable of love. Love must have no other motive than the good
of others. But because we live in a
Narcissian age today most people only show love if they can get something out
of it for themselves. They love to be
loved, they love if loved in return, but if they are not loved in return they
take back their love. Love is only real love if it expects nothing in return. We almost never find this true love today,
except maybe in mothers for children.
Even then in this Narcissian age this love diminishes with age as the
mother expects to be paid back for her love.
We also have selected love, which is also false love. People will love there own kind, French for
French or white for white, but will not love any other nationality or race.
This is not the way God wants us to love.
We even have a false love for God, in that people love God when things
go well but withdraw that love when things go badly. True love has no price.
Empathy
Empathy -- sensing and being in tune with
other people's emotions, is good and requires that we pay attention to other
people which cannot be done when we are preoccupied with ourselves. But always catering to others emotions is
not always a virtue.
One with a proper empathy can see when his
conversation is not going well and will stop it or change it. But when speaking the truth about important
things brings about bad emotions in others we must not sacrifice truth to cater
to the emotions of others. We must look
at the impression our conversation is likely to produce, but we must never
become dependent on the anticipated and often, in fact, merely imagined
impression on others. Even if true we
must not rally to another's opinion just becaue it has been set forth with an
impressive vigor, but only if convinced by objective truth. Some people use emotions to control weak
people, cry to get their way, threaten to get their way, or put them in a this
or that situation where both are wrong.
Truth or Public Opinion
Nothing that is out of accord with the
doctrine of the Holy Church must be accepted, no matter if all the world is
against you. Today truth is not truth but what the majority thinks truth
is. Nothing is objectively true today
but only what the majority can be convinced of no matter how stupid. Public opinion as such should have no hold
whatsoever on a true Christian. We may
not think we are affected by public opinion and we are free thinkers, but is
that true. How about the reason you are
a Catholic. It is because you have
found the truth or because your father and mother were/are Catholics. Maybe your objective reason is based in what
you think has always been held as true such as our new Traditionalist and not
necessarily because of objective truth. Or maybe like what we call, Liberal
Catholics, we want change for the sake of change on not for a true and applied
method of seeking what is good for all and in keeping with God' will at this
time. These people's values are
conditioned by public opinion, whether in the masses or the family or the group
they belong to.
Forgiveness or Justice
"Blessed are those who hunger and
thirst after justice, they shall have their fill." Matthew 5:6. But what about forgiveness.
Is, in fact, Justice the opposite of Forgiveness? No! In fact, forgiveness requires a hunger
and thirst for justice. Justice implies
that we seek the good of all and that we will seek the good of all even when it
requires fighting against the few to protect the rights of the majority. When, in fact, we have won the justice, we
then seek to make the few see their faults and if then do, we are to forgive
them. WE DO NOT FORGIVE SIN UNTIL SIN
IS STOPPED.
Patience or Lazy
Patience is another misunderstood word. Most often it is used by people who are just
procrastinators or lazy. I cannot see
any case where we should be patient with ourselves (if someone does, let me
know) but we must be patient with others and especially with God, who has His own
time table. Patience implies being at
peace with whatsoever we have no power over to move quickly. If the action is in our power, patience is
just wasting time.
Peace or Comfort
Ignoring a wrong done to us or to other
for the sake of peace, is a false peace.
It is almost always the result of laziness, faintness of heart, or fear
of tension or hostility. Fear of our adversary or fear of retaliation is not
peace but surrender.
I remember reading about 6 young men
beating and rapping a young woman in the center of a New York street with
hundreds of apartments on both sides of the street. Many people watched from their apartment windows, but not one
person went down to help or even called the police. Not my problem. It will
bother my comfort. I do not want to get
involved. I am a peaceful man, and they
might find out that I called. This is
not peace, this is a coward, a spineless disposition.
Even when it comes to our own
relationships, not to defend one's own rights, out of sheer cowardice or love
of comfort, has nothing to do with the true spirit of peace. These kind of people you cannot trust to even
have a conversation with because they will agree with you just to avoid
disagreement. In other words, they will
lie to avoid conflict.
True peace means that even in conflict we
have the interests of our adversary in our hearts. Truth and justice is the only road to true peace. Peace without justice is jail.
Silence or Condoning
Silence is a great way to listen to
God. Silence is the sound of
inspiration. Silence is the wise, who
prepare well before speaking. But
silence is the face of sin is affirmation.
The wife and daughter of Saint Thomas More pleaded with him to just say
nothing about King Henry IIX and his marriage.
By just not saying anything the Saint could have saved his life. However, he told the King that if he was
released from jail he would shout to the heavens that the King was sinning. To his wife and daughter he said,
"Silence is affirmation." We
are either against sin openly or we are condoning it. There is no middle ground.
Meekness or Good natured
Some people are born with a good, jovial
nature and they love harmony. This is
good and everyone loves to be around them.
But this has nothing to do with the virtue of Meekness, which is a
tender spiritual attitude of love for people.
Meekness needs an attitude of union and well wishing to others, it is
not harsh but can be firm if the goal is the good of others.
Common Sense or Illusion
Some people are so convinced of their own
goodness, that they become easy pray to the devils. They think of themselves and those they meet with uncritical
confidence forgetting the Psalmist's warning that "Every man is a
liar." If something has the
appearance of good, they believe it to be good, without any discernment. Convinced of their own purity of intentions,
they underestimate the snares of the evil Enemy. These are those who trust in themselves and not in the teachings
of the Church or the Authority of the Church.
Every illusion that comes their way with smooth words of comfort, will
be their truth and no amount of logic will convince them otherwise.
Heroism or Fear
Heroism is not the lack of fear but the
doing of what is right even faced with fear.
Heroism is not always a physical action but sometimes just a verbal or
written thing that must be done for the good, in spite of knowing that it will
cost friends and make enemies. True
heroism does not weight the cost of doing good, but marches forward because it
is right.
The fear might be there for a few moments
but when measured against the good, the fear goes away. It must be done so it is done. Fear of what people will think is the enemy
of all virtue. Lingering fear of
anything has no place in the virtuous person.
Contemplation or Tension
Contemplation is a most misunderstood
word. Most people who sit and think
about the past and the future may think they are contemplating but they are
not. Some sit quietly in Church without
praying and just think about religious things or their own religious life, good
and bad, but this is not contemplation.
In must cases this form of thinking brings some form of tension. But
true contemplation, natural or religious, does not bring any tension. Contemplation is always in the present and
never in the past or future. It could
be just looking at something beautiful and soaking it in. In the religious sense it may be viewing
with the soul's eye, God or Heaven, but always in the present and not with past
or future considerations.
Author's Warning
If these
explanations of what virtues and related items are and are not has offended you
and you think that I am a little far out in left or right fields, I will now admit that all these definitions are
short summaries of the writings of Dietrich von Hildebrand, who Pope Pius XII
called the greatest theologian of the 20th Century.
Richard Salbato