Temperance
One
Avoidance of Sin is not the Goal of Life
Too many people see the 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 murder, or get drunk, or do drugs, or tell dirty jokes, or steal.”
That’s not a good definition of a Christian. After all, people in comas don’t do any of these things, 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 evil people, or fallen angels.
A good Christian shouldn’t focus on avoiding sin, a good Christian should focus doing good.
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 union with God and the goods things 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.
Two
As we just said, the goal of life is to do good, not to avoid 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. Prudence, justice, and fortitude empower us to do good, while temperance, the last virtue, enables us to avoid evil.
Prudence enables us to know what is good and choose it. Justice is giving God and others the good we owe them. Fortitude enables us to do what is good even when we have strong feelings pulling us away from it (like fear, pain, or boredom).
Prudence, justice, and fortitude help us do something good. Temperance is different from the first three cardinal virtues. Temperance helps us avoid evil. Temperance helps us not do something evil, even when we really want to.
Three
What are some examples of temperance that overcome strong sinful desires?
When we are tempted to pride, that is, all the ways we want to make up our own moral rules and live in self-reliance, we need temperance in the form of humility to follow God’s law and trust in Him.
When we are tempted to vanity, to seek praise or be controlled by the opinions of others, we need temperance in the form of magnanimity which prompts us to do what is honorable rather than seek honor.
When we are tempted to tear others down to raise ourselves up out of envy, we need temperance in the form of goodwill to want good for others, think well of them, and speak well of others.
When we desire to attack someone in anger, by words or actions, we need temperance in the form of meekness, the calm strength to harness anger and direct it towards good.
When we are tempted to greed, to find our happiness and security in money and the things money can buy, we need temperance in the form of detachment, simplicity, and generosity to seek the love of God and neighbor over ourselves.
When we are tempted to gluttony or drunkenness in the desire to alter our mood or escape through food and drink, we need temperance in the form of abstinence and sobriety to enable us to delight in the good of food and drink without abusing it.
When we desire to use another person sexually to get what we want, we need temperance in the form of chastity and charity to give a genuine gift of self in love.
Four
Concupiscence
God created us to be passionate people, people full of good feelings, emotions, and desires that would propel us to good actions of love by doing good for God, for others, and for ourselves.
As a consequence of Original Sin and personal sin, we have made a mess out of our desires. Because of sin our desires too often push us with such a strong force to want things that are not good for us and to do things that are not good for us or good for others.
There is a fancy theological word for this. It’s called concupiscence, which basically 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, but we want it in a disordered way. That is the problem. Too often we are controlled by disordered desires, desires for things that are destructive to ourselves and others.
Temperance is the virtue or power that gets control of these disordered desires and directs them to the real and lasting happiness of union with God and the good things of life.
CCC 1809, “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.
Five
Temperance and the Hierarchy of Goods
Guided by prudence, we know that union with God is the greatest of all goods and this knowledge, the most fundamental knowledge of all virtue, prevents the temperate man from running after things that will take Him away from God.
Temperance knows not to pursue some good things because it knows that other things are better. Temperance recognizes that a beer is a good thing but it knows that that staying sober is better than getting drunk.
Temperance recognizes that the love of a young, beautiful woman is a good thing, but it knows that fidelity to your wife, to the mother of your children, is better than the temporary pleasure you might get from an affair with a younger woman.
Temperance recognizes that reputation, accomplishment, financial security, and the world itself, are good things, but it knows that God is infinitely better and it profits a man nothing if he gain the world and lose his soul.