The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 241: The Cardinal Virtues (2025)

Episode Date: August 29, 2025

A virtuous person is someone who consistently chooses the good. Fr. Mike unpacks the four human or cardinal virtues that are essential in helping us become more like Jesus: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. We learn that these four virtues make possible “ease, self-mastery, and joy in leading a morally good life.” Today’s Catechism readings are paragraphs 1803-1811. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name's Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in scripture, and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 241. We are reading paragraphs 1803 to 1811. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes a foundations of faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic

Church. You can also download your own catechism in a year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y, and you can click follow or subscribe to your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications today. As you know, is day 241, reading paragraphs 1803 to 1811. What that is is the virtues. In fact, Article 7, remember we're walking through all of these articles. that kind of set the stage for what it is to live a life in Christ, what it is to live a moral

life and not just to be good, but to be like Jesus. This is the whole goal. Again, I think a lot of times as Christians we think, oh yeah, I'm supposed to be good. Well, at the heart of it, we're called to be his, to belong to him, and we're called to be like him. We're called to have the heart of Jesus and to look at the world through the lens that Jesus looks at the world through, and also to live and to love in this world the way Jesus lived and loved in the world. And so we're going to talk about the virtues. And we were talking about the human virtues. So cardinal virtues are prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude. Those are the cardinal virtues. And cardinal does not mean the bird, although it does mean a bird, but not in this case. In this case, it means like the hinge

virtues. And so we're looking at the hinge virtues of justice, prudence, temperance, and fortitude. We're also going to look at the last two paragraphs, our paragraph 1810 and 1811, talk about virtues and grace. And so, you know, tomorrow we'll continue talking about the theological virtues, faith, hope, and love. But today we recognize not only are we called to, like the Greeks, the ancient Greeks, people, human beings around the world have acknowledged that, yeah, these four cardinal virtues, these four just essentially human virtues of justice and prudence, temperance, and fortitude are healthy and essential for a healthy and free life. Remember, the moral life is a life of freedom to embrace responsibility and to choose to live according to the commandments,

to choose to live according to God's call upon our lives is to ultimately live a life of freedom and of joy. And so the virtues, like we said the other day, are not straight jackets. They're meant to be the habitual disposition to do the good, a firm attitude, a stable disposition, habitual perfections of intellect and will that govern our actions, order our passions, and guide our conduct according to reason and faith. They make possible ease, self-mastery, and joy in the a good moral life. That's what we're going to talk about today. So let's buckle in.

Let's call upon our Lord for his help because we definitely need virtue and need grace in order to have virtue. We need grace in order to live a kind of life that God is calling us to. So we pray now. Father in heaven, we give you praise, we give you glory, we ask for an outpouring

of our Holy Spirit upon our lives into our hearts in this moment. We ask you to give us the grace to live a life of virtue. We ask you to give us the grace to live a life of freedom and of joy to do the right, even when it's difficult, to choose the good thing, even when it's hard to choose, and in that, to be conformed in such a way to your will and to your grace, that we choose it with ease.

So we pray all this in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father, you know, the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. It is day 241. We were reading paragraphs 1803 to 1811. Article 7. the virtues. Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. A virtue is an habitual and firm disposition to do the good.

It allows the person not only to perform good acts, but to give the best of himself. The virtuous person tends toward the good with all his sensory and sensory and and spiritual powers, he pursues the good and chooses it in concrete actions. St. Gregory of Nissa said, the goal of a virtuous life is to become like God. The human virtues. Human virtues are firm attitudes, stable dispositions, habitual perfections of intellect and will that govern our actions, order our passions, and guide our conduct according to reason

and faith. They make possible ease, self-mastery, and joy. joy in leading a morally good life. The virtuous man is he who freely practices the good. The moral virtues are acquired by human effort. They are the fruit and seed of morally good acts. They dispose all the powers of the human being for communion with divine love. The cardinal virtues. Four virtues play a pivotal role and accordingly are called cardinal. All the others are grouped around them. They are prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. The book of wisdom states, if anyone loves righteousness, wisdom's labors are

virtues, for she teaches temperance and prudence, justice, and courage. These virtues are praised under other names in many passages of scripture. Prudence is the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it. The prudent man looks where he is going. Keep sane and sober for your prayers. prudence is right reason in action, writes St. Thomas Aquinas, following Aristotle. It is not to be confused with timidity or fear, nor with duplicity or dissimulation. It is called Aurega Virtutum, the charioteer of the virtues. It guides the other virtues by setting rule and measure.

It is prudence that immediately guides the judgment of conscience. The prudent man determines and directs his conduct in accordance with this judgment. With the help of this virtue, we apply moral principles to particular cases without error and overcome doubts about the good to achieve and the evil to avoid. Justice is the moral virtue that consists in the constant and firm will to give their due to God and neighbor. Justice toward God is called the virtue of religion. Justice toward men disposes one to respect the rights of each and to establish in human relationships the harmony that promotes equity with regard to persons and to the common good.

The just man, often mentioned in the sacred scriptures, is distinguished by habitual right thinking and the uprightness of his conduct toward his neighbor. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a master in heaven. Fortitude is the moral virtue that ensures firmness and difficult. and constancy in the pursuit of the good. It strengthens the resolve to resist temptations

and to overcome obstacles in the moral life. The virtue of fortitude enables one to conquer fear, even fear of death, and to face trials and persecutions. It disposes one even to renounce and sacrifice his life in defense of a just cause. The Lord is my strength and my song. In the world, you have tribulation. But be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. 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. The temperate person directs the sensitive appetites toward what is good and maintains a healthy discretion. As the Book of Syrac states,

Do not follow your inclination and strength walking according to the desires of your heart. Temperance is often praised in the Old Testament. Syrac further states, Do not follow your base desires, but restrain your appetites. In the New Testament, it is called moderation or sobriety. St. Paul wrote to Titus, We ought to live sober, upright, and godly lives in this world. Further, St. Augustine wrote,

To live well is nothing other than to love God with all one's heart, with all one's soul, and with all one's efforts. From this, it comes about that love is kept whole and uncorrupted through temperance. No misfortune can disturb it, and this is fortitude. It obeys only God, and this is justice, and is careful in discerning things so as not to be surprised by deceit or trickery, and this is prudence. The virtues and grace. Human virtues acquired by education, by deliberate acts, and by a perseverance ever renewed and repeated efforts, are purified and elevated by divine grace. With God's help, they forge character and give facility in the practice of the good.

The virtuous man is happy to practice them. It is not easy for man, wounded by sin, to maintain moral balance. Christ's gift of salvation offers us the grace necessary to persevere in the pursuit of the virtues. Everyone should always ask for this grace of light and strength, frequent the sacraments, cooperate with the Holy Spirit, and follow his call to love what is good and should. shun evil. All right. So there we are, Dave, 341, paragraphs 1803 to 1811, this beginning of introduction into the virtues.

And I think this is very important for us to understand. Again, the virtues, not a straight jacket. Remember, we talked about what is freedom. Freedom is not the ability to do whatever I want. Freedom is the power to do what I ought to do. Now, the virtues are remarkable because what are they? We have the definition right off the bat in paragraph 1803. It says, a virtue is an habitual and firm.

disposition to do the good. So let's keep this in mind right away. A virtue is not occasionally doing the good. And I remember reading the example, maybe it was Peter Craft or someone who used this example. And I'll take it to myself. If I were to play tennis with anybody who was decent at tennis or just anyone who's not a decent at tennis, and I might have occasionally, I might have a shot that goes above the net and lands in the square. Like I might even be like, oh, I hit that hard and it went above the net and went within bounds. Now I had a good shot. The ability to once in a while make a good shot does not make a person a good tennis player. Does that make sense? So the ability to hit once in a while a three point shot does not make one a good basketball player. The ability to

consistently make the shot from anywhere on the court. That's part of what makes a person a good basketball player. The ability to consistently return someone's serve or one's volley inside the court and above the net, the whole thing. That's what makes one a good tennis player. So what makes a virtuous person is not to occasionally tell the truth, not to occasionally be prudent, not to occasionally be temperate, it's the habitual and firm disposition. So it's to consistently choose the good. It's to consistently be virtuous. So virtue can keep this in mind right away.

It is the habitual and firm disposition to do the good. So it goes on further to say that not only allows the person to perform good acts, but to give the best of himself. Again, this is so key. This is not just about doing good deeds, but about giving the best of ourself. I love how it keeps on defining this. A virtuous person tends toward the good with all his sensory and spiritual powers. He pursues the good and chooses it in concrete actions.

So let's look at this. Tends toward the good with all his sensory and spiritual powers. So the sensory powers, again, the intellect, the will, this whole notion of ourselves, and our spiritual powers. Like the heart that God has placed in us to love, our soul and our spirit given over to the Lord. We pursue the good and choose it in concrete actions. It's not just kind of this vague hope for the good or like, I wish I had chose the good. It actually is expressed by choosing in concrete actions.

I love how paragraph 1804 highlights this. And we read this at the very beginning intro today. Human virtues. What are they? The four cardinal virtues we at least call them are prudence, temperance, justice, fortitude. Human virtues are firm attitudes, stable dispositions, habitual perfections. This is not inconsistent. That's not once in a while.

To actually be virtuous means I consistently do this. I'm stable when it comes to this. It's a firm attitude. It's not when it strikes me as being convenient. It's not when I'm in a good mood and my belly's full and I have been well rested and kind of gotten what I want. But a firm attitude, stable disposition, habitual perfections of intellect and will that govern our actions. So that sense of, okay, my choices are being made by this stable. disposition, by this firm attitude, by this habitual perfection of my intellect and will,

that governs my actions. And it was not to say orders our passions. Now, keep that in mind. We talked about passions, those emotions we experience. You might even say the passions are the instincts. And we recognize, CS Lewis wrote about this, how instincts are neither good nor bad. So you have something like the instinct to fight. That's neither good nor bad. the instinct to fight or the passion to fight and sometimes it will always have to be governed by reason and will to order our passions because sometimes it's time to fight sometimes the human person needs to say okay I'm going to marshal my passions I'm going to use this passion to order to fight and I'm going to fight I'm going to defend my family I'm going to

defend my country whatever that kind of thing is I need to order my passions those instincts we have those passions we have are neither good nor bad there are times when they need to be ordered different way. For example, again, Lewis would give this example, the example of mother love, right? The love a mother has for her child. There are times when mother love is meant to be fed. Yeah, act on this. Like when a mom picks up a car off of her child or when a mom gets up in the middle of the night and takes care of her child. That is when mother love needs to be acted on, needs to be fed. But when a mother's love tempts her towards cheating on behalf of her child, when a mother's love tempts her towards making excuses on behalf of her child when a mother's love

moves her to lie on behalf of her child again in those cases that instinct that passion would have to be ordered in a different way and true justice would have to be over that mother's love again loyalty to one's family i think loyalty to one's family is a great thing it's a good thing that instinct of loyalty or even that priority of having a loyalty that or that that virtue of having a loyalty to one's family is good, and yet it's not the ultimate good. We're talking about this later on when we get to the commandment number four, that what one owes to one's family, again, is it good, but it's not an ultimate good. For example, loyalty to one's family has led someone to lie in court, right? Loyalty to one's family has led someone to testify falsely in court. I have to say that, you know, what our call is

to is if a member of my family has committed a crime and I've been subpoenaed to testify what I know to be the truth, I would have to choose the truth over family because that's what it is to order our passions in some ways, right, in order the other virtues, to order those things. So justice would be over the loyalty to one's family. Hopefully it makes sense and guide our conduct according to reason and faith. Okay, last thing before we look at the actual virtues. It says they make possible virtues. They make possible ease self-mastery and joy in leading a morally good life. The virtuous man is he who freely practices the good, which is so important. They make it possible to have self-mastery with ease. But the moral virtues are acquired by human effort. We actually have to work

at this. It's something that we have to discipline ourselves. They're the fruit of trial. So we can have a little bit of these virtues or more of these virtues, depending on how much we practice them. We incrementally grow in these virtues as we practice them more and more. It's not like we either have these moral virtues or we don't, we cultivate them over time. Okay, so now let's look at the cardinal virtues. The first one here is prudence. And so what does it say? Prudence is the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern our true good in every circumstance and choose the right means of achieving it. So I love this quick quote here by Proverbs 14 verse 15. The prudent man looks where he is going. That's just really clear. So prudent doesn't mean being a prude. That's not

at that at all. But it means I've used my reason to discern the true good in this circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it. So it's doing the right thing at the right time in the right way. Prudence is doing the right thing at the right time in the right way. And what a freedom. What a freedom it is to not just know the right thing at the right time and the right way, but to do the right thing at the right time in the right way. Just what a great grace. What a great virtue prudence is. Now secondly, justice. Definition here. Justice is the moral virtue that consists in the constant and firm will to give their due to God and neighbor. Basically, to give to another what you owe them. And the highest virtue of justice is what we owe God. And we owe

everything. The next order of justice, you can have the virtue of family. Again, we talked about the next order of justice is patriotism, what we owe our country. And there's all these elements of justice is, okay, what do I owe to God? What do I owe to the people around me? So justice, very simply, is giving another what is due to them. So very simple prudence, doing the right thing at the right time and the right way, justice is giving someone what they're due. Fortitude, paragraph 1808 is the moral virtue that ensures firmness and difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good. Now, I like usually, usually I like choosing fortitude last because fortitude, as C.S. Lewis has said, fortitude is all of the other virtues at the sticking point. It's all

the other virtues at the moment they're needed the most. It's all the other virtues in the moment of testing. And I always say it like this. I talk to our students and say, okay, it's easy to be good when being good as easy, which is pretty fun to say. It is easy to be honest when being honest is easy. It's easy to be just when being just is easy. It's easy to tell the truth when telling the truth is easy. But when telling the truth is difficult, then I need fortitude. When being just is difficult and cost me something, then I need fortitude.

So if I don't have fortitude, I don't have any of the other virtues. Really, truly, when it comes down to it, I'll say it like this. If I don't have fortitude, I don't actually have any of the other virtues, because because I don't actually have them when I need them. I just have them when they're convenient. But fortitude is the virtue that disposes one even to renounce and sacrifice his life in defense of a just cause. So fortitude, I love fortitude.

It's all the other virtues at the moment they're needed the most. And last virtue, temperance. It says here in 1809, temperance is the moral virtue that moderates the attraction of the pleasures and provides balance in the use of created goods. Okay, what is that? if prudence is doing the right thing at the right time and the right way, I would say temperance is using the right thing at the right time in the right way. That might be a simplification. It might be just be, that's Father Mike's definition. But we'll look at it like this. It is the moderates the

attraction of pleasures and provides balance in the use of created goods. So I recognize I have attraction to pleasures. I have attraction to food. And so temperance would moderate that attraction to food. Temperance would moderate and provide balance in the use of created goods. So when it comes to here is something like, I don't know, a coffee. So temperance would moderate my use of coffee. If it came to wine or to beer, temperance would moderate and be able to have a balance in the use of created goods. He says this, it ensures the will's mastery over instincts and keeps desires within the

limits of what is honorable. I think I love that next sentence. It ensures the will's mastery over instincts. Remember those passions, those things that just like, I just, yep, that's what I want. I see it. I want it. Here's one for me. I see someone eating Chinese food, like on a TV show or in a movie, and I want Chinese food automatically. Every single time I see those little white boxes, you know, tip someone with chopsticks. I like, oh my gosh, I need Chinese food. That's my instinct.

Temperance would ensure the will's mastery of that instinct and keep desires within the limits of what is honorable. So yeah, sure I can get some Chinese food at that time if this is the proper use of Chinese food in the moment. And also, temperance would moderate how much of that Chinese food that I ate. It could be that it turns out maybe that it's not necessarily healthy for me, or the kind of Chinese food that I would prefer to eat is not necessarily healthy. And so temperance would, again, ensure my wills mastery over those instincts and keep desires within the limits of what's honorable. And I just think that's so, so good for us. Because what it does is it teaches us to use the good things that we've been given in this world, but to use them in the right way

at the right time. To use good things at the right way and the right time. So that's what we have today for these four cardinal virtues, prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. You guys, I cannot wait to continue talking with you about the virtues. Tomorrow we have the theological virtues, faith, hope, and love. Just what a great grace it is to begin talking about those theological virtues. Today, here we are called to not just occasionally do the right thing, but to consistently, to consistently do the right thing, not to become occasional tennis players, occasional good basketball players, but to become actually those constant and firm good people, morally good people

who have the virtue, the power to do what we ought on a regular basis. We need God's grace for this and we need prayers. So I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name's Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.