Real Power
My most recent lesson from high school:
What is real power?
A couple weeks ago, one of our student leaders presented a lesson on virtue to our House community. The student did a fabulous job of walking her peers through a lesson from the Hallow App series called “Healthy Habits” with Sr. Josephine Garrett, CSFN. The focus was “Virtue is Power.”
Not many of us immediately associate power with virtue or conversely, associate virtue with power. Power often elicits thoughts of authority or control, while virtue brings positive connotations of doing the right thing or being kind. In our lesson, we learned that when we take a look at each of the four cardinal virtues of fortitude, temperance, prudence, and justice, we see how these virtues are the power, the impetus, and the drive behind making tough choices.
We know that fortitude is being spiritually strong even when it is hard to. It takes courage.
Temperance is the virtue of self-control to temper our desires with moderation.
Prudence exhibits the virtue of wisdom to help us choose the right course of action.
Justice helps us act fairly and reasonably.
I needed this lesson. I’ve been tested lately. I’ve had to remind myself that it takes more power to exhibit virtue than it does to say the first thing that comes to my mind. To not roll my eyes at a social media post. To stifle the ill thoughts. To take the high road. The power of virtue is that it takes power to have virtue.
It’s so true. It takes zero self-control for me to eat another piece of cake. It takes no guts or courage for me to sit back when someone needs a listening ear. It requires minimal justice to give a punishment without first taking the time to think about justice. And it’s super easy to just complain about things in general.
We all need real power. We are all tested daily, and virtue is the real power we should strive to attain. Virtue is an amazing grace and solution. In my recent high school lesson, I learned that courage (fortitude) is the form of every virtue at its testing point. In other words, courage is required to follow through with every virtue: it takes courage to have self-control when tested with temptation. It takes courage to exhibit prudence and make the wise choice when presented with a dilemma. It takes courage to act fairly and justly in the midst of conflict.
I’m grateful for my recent high school lesson. Lord, may we strive to be guided by virtue and seek your strength to refine and sharpen the virtue within us, even when it’s difficult. May we habitually desire to do good. Lord, may we see virtue as real power.
During this week of celebrating Catholic Schools, it’s noteworthy to celebrate the ability to share a lesson such as this within a school setting. Thank you, God for blessing our Catholic schools, who are an important evangelization arm of our Church.