Temperance
One
When I first started to study and understand virtue, I remember thinking, ‘this sounds like too much work. Virtue is a chore! How could I ever become a great saint?’
Studying the virtues is challenging, living them is harder, because we assume that our starting point is also the ending point. Beginning anything good is always difficult at first! Whether it's thirty minutes of meditation each day, frequenting Mass or reconciliation, or any other holy habit: it can all so easily feel like weights on my life and limits to my freedom. We are like the rich young man. The rules are not enough, we want to have happiness—eternal happiness.
Temperance, like all virtues, requires strength and effort. However, as our love of God increases, it does get easier. As we work for the good desires, our desires for the good grows. We must choose to seek the good, and that’s what makes it easier.
Two
Today we focus on the virtue of Temperance. The temperate person is able to enjoy pleasure without being ruled by it. Temperance means knowing how to enjoy good things, such as food, drink, or sex, but never to excess or disproportion. Pleasure is not a bad thing, but it is not the source of happiness. The temperate person recognizes this helpful truth: happiness and pleasure are different things. Often, the state of happiness is pleasurable, but not always. The temperate person maintains a state of happiness, like a hot coal in a fire; able to instantly catch fire while also retaining an inner heat apart from the flame, which springs up and dies.
In this fallen world, pleasure does not often follow the path of sanctity. Pleasures too easily enslaves and addicts, which eventually ruins the delightful effects and numbs us to greatness. It doesn’t satisfy. Virtue does, and I have never known a joyless virtuous person.
Three
Temperance keeps our desires for the things of the world in proper balance and calls us to restore that balance when we overindulge. The story of Zacchaeus is a good example of how this virtue works.
“Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short, he could not see over the crowd. So, he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him… Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay it back four times over.” Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house” (Luke 19: 2-9)
Zacchaeus was rich, yet he finds salvation when he repents from his over-attachment to wealth once He recognizes and desires Jesus. Money can buy pleasure but can’t buy the happiness found only in Christ. When he placed his goods at the service of Christ, and therefore sacrificed his desire for them, he found in Jesus what he was looking for. The two elements of temperance--detachment and proper use of human goods—allow the virtue to develop and this saved Zacchaeus. St. Zacchaeus, intercede for me that may I live temperately and detached from worldly goods as you did and find my heart’s desire in Jesus.
Four
Temperance regulates our sensual desires, granting us the ability to enjoy good things, primarily food, drink and sex, in the proper way and proportion. We should always eat healthy meals, not too much or eaten too fast. Christ goes further in revealing the perfected view of temperance: He fasts. Fasting is not solely for the betterment of our body, but for our soul and the souls of others. Fasting done well is a powerful weapon against the devil (cf. Matthew 17:21)
Christ elevates temperance in the sphere of human sexuality by the calling souls to celibacy (cf. Mt 19). What a beautiful sign to confirm the distinction between pleasure and happiness. The countless happy and holy Priests and religious brothers and sisters I know are a reminder to me and the world that God is the ultimate source of happiness, not pleasure seeking.
Today, let us pray for celibates and consecrated persons and for young people to discern this way of life, so to challenge and purify the world’s understanding of happiness.
Five
The virtuous life may seem intimidating because we assume that God looks only at a finished product. Since we are so far away from that and have such flaws, we get discouraged. This is the wrong mindset, however. God sees things differently, and the advice from the Scriptures and the saints is helpful: its in the striving that we’re arriving! God wants to see our efforts. He brings the virtue, but only when he sees we’re ready. That readiness can come at any time as He doesn’t reveal what He’s looking for, only that He wants us to begin again after falling. So, today, be encouraged with your own growth in Temperance. The goal is effort fueled by love. Temperance reminds us that the adventure in life is not found in pleasure, but in pursuit of God. As GK Chesterton said: “Let Your Religion Be Less of a Theory and More of a Love Affair!”