Temperance

One

Temperance – What it is

Throughout our lives, we will all have struggles against temptations for what we know to be detrimental to ourselves and others. Temperance is the virtue which counteracts these temptations. 

The Catechism (1809) tells us “Temperance is the moral virtue that moderates the attraction of pleasures and provides balance in the use of created goods. It ensures the will's mastery over instincts and keeps desires within the limits of what is honorable.” 

Temperance is the virtue that keeps us from doing what is wrong even when we really want to.   

Temperance controls our disordered desires for pride with humility, envy with goodwill, anger with meekness, greed with detachment and generosity, gluttony with moderation, and lust with charity and chastity.

Two

Protecting the Good 

Notice that temperance is the last of the cardinal virtues. That’s because temperance is about protecting the good, but you can only protect the good if you already have some idea of what the good is and how to acquire it. That’s why we needed to discuss prudence (which is how we know the good) and justice and fortitude (which is how we do the good), before we discuss temperance, which is how we avoid doing evil or losing the good.

The problem is that plenty of people see the major goal of the Christian life as the avoidance of sin. If you were to ask the question “What’s a good Christian?” you’d get a lot of people who’d answer in purely negative terms: “A good Christian is someone who doesn’t sleep around, or murder, or get drunk, or do drugs, or tell dirty jokes, or steal.”  

This is hardly an accurate answer. People in comas don’t do any of these things, neither does my spade dog (named Nyx), neither do some terribly evil people, neither do the demons – but when we think of ideal Christians, hopefully, we don’t think of comatose persons, or Nyx, or evil men, or fallen angels.

Someone isn’t a good Christian, or even a good person, because he doesn’t do certain things, but because he does certain things, because he pursues the goods of life because he strives to promote beauty, health, holiness, friendship, truth, etc…  We have to make sure our focus is more on doing good than on avoiding evil. In the moral life, the best defense is a good offense, which is why more emphasis should be put on the first three cardinal virtues than on temperance, even though it’s also indispensable. 

Three

Drivers Ed. 

At this point, it may be helpful to sum up the four cardinal virtues using the analogy of learning to drive a car. If you want to learn to drive, the first thing you need to learn is how to steer the car; this corresponds to the virtue of prudence. Next, you’ll have to learn to be aware of surrounding traffic, to be able to relate to other cars on the road; this skill corresponds to the virtue of justice. Thirdly, you’ll have to learn how to use the accelerator, how to depress the pedal with sufficient (but not excessive) force for propelling you to your destination; that’s fortitude. Lastly, you have to learn how to avoid crashes and mechanical failures; this ability corresponds to the virtue of temperance.

Obviously, nobody buys a car to “avoid crashes” – you buy a car to help you get places. So too, the main purpose of life isn’t just avoiding sin, but rather attaining perfect happiness. Nonetheless, if the car crashes or breaks down, it’s not going to get you very far, and if we don’t avoid sin, we’re not going to become very happy. So even though temperance shouldn’t be confused with the Christian’s ultimate goal, it’s still an essential prerequisite for happiness.

Four

Overcoming Concupiscence

Concupiscence is a fancy theological word that describes the human desire for things we know aren’t good for us. Folks with diabetes sometimes have sugar cravings, alcoholics sometimes want whiskey, and we all sometimes just have the urge for something sinful. We want something good in a disordered way. All evil comes from an inappropriate mode of pursuing a good. It’s a constant human temptation to go after one good by doing damage to another good. When we do that, we hurt ourselves and others.  

Temperance prevents us from acting on these dangerous urges. It allows us to govern our desires, instead of allowing our desires to govern us. For an intemperate person – that is, someone who permits their impulses to run rampant – it’s much harder to see the truth, and much harder to do what’s right. One’s life is run by emotional drives, instead of by prudence, justice, and fortitude. But temperance takes the reigns from the urges and gives it back to the first three virtues. In a way, one could say that temperance allows the other virtues to get their job done.

Also, temperance safeguards whatever good we’re pursuing. If a person pursues a good in a disordered way, he’s sure to end up hating that good. For example, alcohol is a good thing, but nobody hates alcohol more than an alcoholic; he hates it because it’s separated him from everything else: his family, his job, his self-respect, etc…  The point is that addiction ruins appreciation; an uncontrolled over-focus on just one good at the expense of all others will not only cause a person to lose all the other goods, it’ll also make him cry out in remorse, “I gave my life for that?!”  Temperance, therefore, by directing our desires and overcoming concupiscence, protects the human goods and happiness as a whole.

Five

Temperance lies between Extremes

As with fortitude, certain excesses must be avoided to achieve genuine temperance.  The first of these extremes is a lack of self-control and intemperance. We’ve already talked a bit about this vice; this is when you can’t control your impulses. Sinful indulgence inevitably leads to disaster; to continue the above analogy, intemperance results in a car wreck.

But the second extreme is also to be discouraged, namely insensibility. This is the undesirable condition in which the person is not even attracted to the goods of life. A healthy person ought to be attracted to sex, to food, to achievement, to social life, etc… Temperance is only admirable if it’s accompanied by a healthy appreciation for the goods of life.