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The Virtue of Law (Lex) a Part of Justice - VirTrue Episode 53

VirTrue - Helping Man Grow in Truth and Virtue

We live in a world that talks constantly about justice, equality, freedom, and love. But what happens when our understanding of justice becomes little more than granting everyone permission to do whatever they desire? We call it compassion when we affirm someone’s choices, even when those choices are harmful. We call it freedom when we remove restraints on our passions. We begin to believe that loving someone means never telling them they’re wrong. And then comes the reaction. Seeing the disorder that results, others defend moral standards with such severity that they forget the people those standards are intended to help. They condemn sinners, drive struggling people away, and mistake ruthless enforcement for righteousness. One side offers love without law. The other offers law without love. Yet genuine love wills the good, and genuine law directs us toward that good. The Christian is called to uphold what is right while loving those who struggle to attain it. And that’s why Law matters. 🎙️ Intro Welcome to VirTrue where we work together to turn away from vice and to adopt the virtuous life we’re all called to. I’m your host Jethro Higgins, and today on VirTrue we’re going to be talking about the virtue of Law. The Social Catholic is a listener-supported podcast. To receive new posts and support our work, become a paid subscriber today! If you are a free subscriber, please consider upgrading to support this work. ⚖️ Virtue Description — Law (Lex) Law is the habit of willingly conforming our actions to rightful order for the common good. * Law is the first virtue in our season of Justice. * Justice renders to each person what is due. Law establishes and preserves the rightful order through which justice can be practiced. * We’re examining Law as a virtue within the person, rather than merely a body of rules. * A person can obey every rule without possessing the virtue of Law. St. Thomas Aquinas defines law as an ordinance of reason for the common good, established by one responsible for the community and promulgated (ST I-II, q.90, a.4). This establishes several important principles: * Law must be governed by reason. * Law must serve a genuine good. * Law must be ordered toward the common good. * Mere commands issued according to someone’s desires do not necessarily constitute rightful law. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1950, teaches: “The moral law is the work of divine Wisdom.” God’s law directs man toward his proper end. Law is therefore connected to our happiness, our perfection, and our ultimate union with God. Aristotle, in Nicomachean Ethics II.1, explains that legislators attempt to form virtuous citizens through habituation. Aquinas expands this in ST I-II, q.92, a.1: * The proper effect of law is to lead people toward virtue. * Repeated good actions can help form good habits. * Someone may initially obey because he fears punishment. * Obedience can eventually become voluntary and even delightful as virtue develops. Aquinas explicitly distinguishes obedience motivated by fear of punishment from obedience proceeding from reason and virtue. This gives us a historical foundation for discussing external compliance. New Advent External compliance is particularly interesting in the VirTrue model. * The person who rejects law openly acts against rightful order. * The person who reluctantly complies performs the right external action without necessarily possessing the corresponding virtue. * The virtuous person recognizes the good toward which law directs him and willingly chooses it. External compliance can resemble the mean between opposing vices without actually attaining the virtue. St. Augustine’s treatment of the Old and New Law, taken up by Aquinas, helps explain why the interior disposition matters. The Christian life requires the grace that enables us to fulfill God’s commands in charity. The Catechism teaches in CCC 1965–1966 that the New Law fulfills the divine law and is principally the grace of the Holy Spirit working through charity. CCC 1972 explains that the New Law moves us to act from love rather than fear. Vatican Jeremiah 31:33 (NABRE) expresses God’s promise: “I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts.” Psalm 119:97 (NABRE) expresses the disposition of someone who loves God’s law: “How I love your law, Lord! I study it all day long.” Aquinas explains in ST I-II, q.26, a.4, that love involves willing the good of another. This gives us the relationship between law and love: * Reason recognizes the good. * Law directs our actions according to rightful order. * The will chooses the good. * Our passions must be governed by reason. * Charity perfects our actions by directing them toward love of God and neighbor. St. Paul expresses this beautifully in Romans 13:10 (NABRE): “Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law.” Law teaches us what love requires, and love teaches us what law is for. 🔻 Vice of Deficiency — License License is allowing desire, freedom, or misplaced compassion to escape the rule of reason and rightful order. “Love” without law. License rejects the authority of rightful order whenever that order conflicts with our passions. This can manifest in two ways. * Personal desire: I want something, therefore I should be free to pursue it. * Misplaced compassion: I want another person to feel loved; therefore, I refuse to judge whether what he desires is actually good. Both are failures to subordinate the passions to reason. The first makes personal freedom the highest good. The second makes feelings of compassion the measure of morality. In Judges 21:25 (NABRE), Scripture describes a society without a governing moral order: “everyone did what was right in their own eyes.” License confuses the ability to choose with the rightness of a choice. St. Paul warns in Galatians 5:13 (NABRE): “But do not use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh; rather, serve one another through love.” * Freedom must be directed toward the good. * The passions are good aspects of human nature, but they require the governance of reason. * Compassion is a good passion, but compassion without right judgment can lead us to encourage what harms another. * Affirming someone’s desires does not necessarily mean willing his good. Christ’s encounter with the woman caught in adultery illustrates this distinction. In John 8:11 (NABRE), Jesus tells her: “Neither do I condemn you. Go, [and] from now on do not sin any more.” Christ offers mercy while directing the woman away from sin. Genuine charity requires both. License is particularly dangerous because it can disguise itself as love, compassion, freedom, and justice. 🔺 Vice of Excess — Rigorism Rigorism is ruthlessly applying standards without willing the good of the person whom the law is meant to serve. Law without love. Rigorism frequently begins with a legitimate concern for moral truth. * The law may be entirely correct. * The sin may be objectively serious. * The person may genuinely require correction. * Justice may demand consequences. The error arises when defending or enforcing the standard becomes detached from love. A rigorist can accurately identify wrongdoing while failing to will the conversion and salvation of the wrongdoer. * Demanding perfection from people still struggling toward virtue. * Treating weakness as though it necessarily indicates defiance. * Correcting others to condemn rather than restore them. * Placing burdens upon people without helping them carry those burdens. * Driving struggling sinners away from the Church rather than helping them overcome their sins. Christ condemns this behavior in Matthew 23:4 (NABRE): “They tie up heavy burdens [hard to carry] and lay them on people’s shoulders” The verse continues by condemning their unwillingness to help bear those burdens. And in Matthew 23:23 (NABRE), Christ identifies what has been neglected: “the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity.” Rigorism mistakes the defense of the law for the fulfillment of the law. Aquinas explains in ST II-II, q.120, that the general wording of a law may sometimes fail to account for circumstances affecting its just application. This provides a connection to Equity, which we’ll examine later in the season. But Rigorism concerns something broader than exceptional legal circumstances. Even when a law unquestionably applies, the person enforcing it must still will the good of the person subject to it. * Pastoral care does not require compromising moral truth. * Charity sometimes demands firm correction. * Mercy does not eliminate justice. * The purpose of correction is to restore the person to the good. Rigorism fails because its application of law is no longer properly directed by charity. 🏡 My Story * In my own life, I have struggled with rigorism. * Most of my adult life I have been trying to soften my approach. * I have maybe given myself license at times, but more so my concern has been with others. * This connects a bit with my story for Fortitude. * Growing up in a city that was constantly hostile to my faith caused me to feel like rigor would protect my faith. 🌎 The World The modern world frequently presents a false understanding of equality and justice. False justice gives everyone License. True Justice gives everyone his due. * Freedom is increasingly understood as freedom from moral restraint. * Equality becomes an obligation to affirm individual preferences. * Compassion is confused with permitting people to pursue harmful desires. * Moral objections are sometimes treated as violations of personal freedom. * The passions become the practical measure of right and wrong. Yet justice requires an objective understanding of what is actually good for the human person. Without that objective standard, we cannot adequately determine what one person owes another. This false justice produces a reaction. People who recognize the resulting disorder may become increasingly severe in their defense of moral standards. This is especially relevant within the Church. * We see the world celebrating sin. * We rightly recognize the danger. * We defend the Church’s moral teachings. * We become impatient with people who are still struggling against habitual sins. * We begin treating sinners as enemies rather than souls in need of conversion. A culture of License can provoke Rigorism, and Rigorism can reinforce the perception that moral law is opposed to love. Both distortions fail to recognize the proper relationship between law and charity. We see the same problem in families, parishes, politics, and public discussions of morality. * Parents who permit everything because they want their children to feel loved. * Parents who demand obedience without concern for their children’s formation. * Communities that refuse to recognize destructive behavior. * Communities that exclude struggling people rather than helping them grow. Neither extreme forms people in virtue. The answer to License is not law without love. It is Law perfected by love. ⛪ Example Saint — St. Alphonsus Liguori St. Alphonsus Liguori (1696–1787) * Born near Naples, Italy. * Trained as a lawyer and practiced law before becoming a priest. * Founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, the Redemptorists. * Became a bishop and one of the Church’s great moral theologians. * Declared a Doctor of the Church and named patron of confessors and moral theologians. Why he fits St. Alphonsus lived during a period of significant debate over moral theology, particularly between laxist and rigorist approaches. * Lax approaches could minimize moral obligations. * Rigorist approaches could impose excessively severe judgments and burdens upon consciences. * Alphonsus sought a sound application of moral principles rooted in truth, conscience, and pastoral charity. His experience ministering to ordinary people, especially the poor and spiritually neglected, deeply influenced his theology. He recognized that many penitents were genuinely struggling to overcome sin. * Abandoning moral standards would leave them without proper guidance. * Excessive severity could discourage repentance and drive them toward despair. * Faithful pastoral care required helping them understand and pursue the good. Alphonsus taught confessors to uphold Catholic moral doctrine while treating sinners with patience, charity, and understanding. His moral theology is particularly associated with an approach that avoided both laxism and excessive rigor. He also personally struggled with scrupulosity, giving him an intimate understanding of the burdens an excessively fearful conscience can impose. Pope Benedict XVI emphasized Alphonsus’s ability to hold together God’s moral law, human conscience, freedom, and pastoral charity. St. Alphonsus illustrates the virtue of Law because he understood that moral law exists to direct people toward their true good and ultimately toward God. He refused to excuse sin through License or discourage conversion through Rigorism. The Social Catholic is a listener-supported podcast. To receive new posts and support our work, become a paid subscriber today! If you are a free subscriber, please consider upgrading to support this work. 🙏 Act of Virtue — Law O my God, I will examine the places in my life where I allow my desires or feelings to escape the rule of reason, and where I impose standards on others without sufficient charity. Help me to recognize the good toward which your law directs me, to subordinate my passions to right reason, and to embrace your commandments willingly. Give me the courage to uphold the truth, the patience to accompany those who struggle, and the charity to will their good in everything I think, say, and do. Teach me to love your law and to fulfill it through love of you and my neighbor. Amen. 🕊️ Closing Prayer Lord, bless us with faith, hope, love, prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice that we may live as you intended man to live, in all virtue and righteousness. Help us to flee from sin, and avoid all temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Protect us with a spiritual hedge in front of us, behind us, above us, below us, to our right, and to our left, within us, and all around us, and seal it with the precious blood of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Help us to keep you in everything that we think, say, and do. Amen. Go out and fill the world with virtue. Deus Vult! Follow Us on Social Media and Other Podcast Networks: Get full access to The Social Catholic at socialcatholic.substack.com/subscribe