The Life of Virtue

The Gospel reading for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) is a portion of the Sermon on the Mount ( Matthew 5:17-37 ), "the greatest sermon ever preached by the greatest Preacher who ever preached," according to Peter Kreeft.  In this segment of the sermon, just a few sentences after listing the Beatitudes, the Lord provides His audience (the hearers on the mount and us in the modern age ) a new and fulfilled understanding of the Law.  Those who follow Christ must examine their attitudes and actions in a way that is different than the legalistic culture of His day and the world in which we live.  Quite simply, a person who claims to be a disciple of Jesus must be ready to cultivate virtues, which will help her to choose rightly in the face of anger, lust, or even cultural tradition. Virtues are the habitual dispositions of mind and heart that lead individuals to act according to God's gracious plan.  It is no coincidence, then, that there are certain vi...

Last week, a popular news site posted a story entitled "Why this millennial quit his 6-figure job and gave away most of his possessions."   The young man about whom the story was written admitted that his "six-figure salary, impressive [job] title, and big house full of stuffed closets" didn't fulfill his deepest longings.  In fact, he noticed that his obsessive work habits and a vicious cycle of consumerism had destroyed his life and relationships, even his marriage.  Thus, he turned to "minimalism,"which he defines as "a lifestyle dedicated to clearing the clutter in your life and making room for the things that are truly important to you." This fellow is clearly on to something, except it isn't his original idea.  The thing that this young man calls minimalism, the Church has called detachment for centuries; and it's the reality that Jesus called poverty of spirit, which He listed as the first Beatitude (Matthew 5:3).  Indeed, fo...

An envelope arrived in my mailbox, sometime late last year.  Above my name and address, this envelope encouraged me to "Give the World What It Needs Most..."  The return address bore the emblem of my alma mater.  Given that I attended a really big, state-funded university without religious affiliation, I was curious as to the claim about "what the world needs most."  I was virtually certain that my answer and the university's answer would differ greatly. The claim surprised me.  My university wasn't trying to give the world more technology or more business professionals with higher degrees or more access to secularized "arts."  My university wants to provide leaders to the world.  With some slight adjustments of their understanding of leadership and the value that it provides to the world, I just might be able to get behind this project.  If there were dollars in my family budget to give toward cultivating great leaders for the next generation, ...