Cultivating virtue is a good thing and we should all be striving to do that. But how and why we cultivate virtue matters more than the progress we may or may not make in our attempts. Can we cultivate virtue without simultaneously cultivating love?
Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord: Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen. From the Book Of Common Prayer
…follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living,…
That stirs me. To follow the blessed saints, those who have somehow found a way that is so uncommon among men, to reject the trappings of the world we live in and align their actions with the will of the Father only. In doing so that can only lead to virtuous and godly living.
What does virtuous and godly living look like? It looks like loving my neighbor. It is, but doesn’t really look like denying myself. None of us can fully love another while refusing to deny self. Love involves shushing our thoughts of self promotion or self preservation to to better hear our thoughts of self denial. Self denial hidden in acts of love for neighbor.
I have been inspired before to live more virtuously and godly. It is difficult to become fully transformed in that way. I seem to find myself zealous only temporarily and then desires for other things creep in unnoticed and I am a slave to them once again. Focusing on a virtue and trying to grow into it is seductive but ineffective. Here’s why, because its about me and my virtuosity. But focusing on loving my neighbor forces me to be more patient and kind and generous. It forces me to focus on them not me. It forces me to develop virtue, but not for my sake, for theirs.
