Episode Transcript  

One

The Nature of Temperance

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. Temperance moderates our desires and enables us to keep from doing what’s wrong, even when we have strong feelings for it. In other words, temperance is what keeps us from sinning, even when we want to. 

Two

Temperance as Last of the Virtues

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. More important, more fundamental, are prudence (which is how we know the good) and justice and fortitude (which is how we do the good). After these comes 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 fornicate, or murder, or get drunk, or do drugs, or tell dirty jokes, or steal.” 

That’s a tragically deficient account of virtue. After all, people in comas don’t do any of these things, neither do some terribly evil people, nor do the demons, but when we think of ideal Christians, hopefully we don’t think of comatose persons, or evil men, or fallen angels. 

Three

Focus on Pursuit of the 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 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. All the same, if you don’t have temperance, if you don’t have self-control, you’ll never have the other virtues. 

Unless your desires are under control, you won’t be able to clearly and fairly judge what’s right in a given situation. In which case, you won’t be prudent. Unless your desires are under control, you’ll only care about what you want instead of what other people have a right to. In which case, you won’t be just. And unless your desires are under control, you won’t be able to give up or risk certain things in pursuit of the greater good. In which case, you won’t be courageous. 

In a way, we can say that the job of temperance is to make sure the other virtues can do their job. In which case, temperance, even though it’s the last of the virtues, is just as indispensable as any of the others. 

Four

An Analogy for the Four Cardinal Virtues

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 to attain 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.

Five

Temperance and the Hierarchy of Goods

Temperance and fortitude are alike in that they both recognize an objective hierarchy of goods. And so both of them recognize which lower goods you have to be able to let go of to preserve and attain the higher good. Temperance knows not to pursue some good things because it knows that some things are better. Temperance recognizes that a beer is a good thing, but it knows that sobriety is better than the drink that brings you to the point of drunkenness. 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 boost to your ego 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 it profits a man nothing if he gains the world and loses his soul. Temperance knows that God is the greatest of all goods, and this knowledge, the most fundamental knowledge of all virtue, prevents the temperate man from running after any good that will take Him away from the Divine Source of Goodness who is the Satisfaction of All Desire.

So stop now and think of the area where you struggle most with self-restraint. And ask God for the help to detach from that created, limited good. Ask God for the grace to detach from the good which, if you pursue it intemperately, could cost you your happiness.

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