Category: Explore – Featured Articles

Hope [is] a combination of the desire for something and expectation of receiving it, the virtue is hoping for Divine union and so eternal happiness… hope is an act of the will.

Wikipedia

Hope is future-focused, looking forward to a positive outcome. Maybe we hope to do well in an interview or on a test, to meet with friends at our favorite hangout spot this weekend, to have time for a nap, or simply that it won’t snow today.

Wikipedia appears to attribute confidence in the desired result, so I dug into “expectation.” The check on my understanding of the term was warranted because the belief “may or may not be realistic.” Perfect; I was muddled in the middle but knew enough to check myself. (Reminds me of calculus.)

To hope is to recognize possibility.

Commander William Riker, Star Trek: The Next Generation

Quit the Snow Talk! (*Peeks Out Window.* Not Yet!)

Okay then. What are you hoping for?

Are you a sports fan longing for your team to take home a trophy? Are you excited about a potential new gig or an annual bonus? Have you discovered something recently and you’re eager to delve into it with the expectation that it will be precisely what you’ve been searching for?

Hoping for Earthly Things Helps in the Long Run

The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of every man; it takes up the hopes that inspire men’s activities and purifies them so as to order them to the Kingdom of heaven; it keeps man from discouragement; it sustains him during times of abandonment; it opens up his heart in expectation of eternal beatitude.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1818

We’re called to be hopeful for the Kingdom (with a capital K). Given that it’s been about 2,000 years since Jesus announced how we can hope to enter it, we may be feeling a little worn and weary. There are probably days when we wonder if it’s ever going to happen. (Recently, I’ve started having this prayer discussion which includes a line like, “Not yet, please; I’d like to help somehow before the swords are drawn.”) I’ve also found that I am repeatedly running into a quote I posted yesterday (on the radio, on the lips of friends, randomly popping up into my head): He never said it’d be easy, just that it’d be worth it.

But that doesn’t make it easier on the daily, does it? Here’s a trick that I didn’t realize until it was pointed out – at which point I quickly recognized how true it is: practice makes it easier. We can practice hope in the Kingdom, hope in Jesus, and hope in God’s promises by hoping in things here. It’s like smiling: if you’re stuck in a negative mental space, force a smile until it feels real, then keep smiling until you believe it is real.

It’s a feed-forward loop: the act of smiling “magically” releases dopamine, endorphins, and serotonin thereby elevating the smiler’s mood and toting with it various health benefits. Feeling happy is easier when we smile – even if we didn’t want to smile in the first place.

Similarly, when we are hopeful about things immediately before us, it’s easier for us to be hopeful overall. This, in turn, increases our “hope” ability, making the more daunting hoping seem more doable.

But What If It Fails?

What if we hope in something that doesn’t come true? It hurts. That’s part of life. Without the pain, we wouldn’t be able to grasp the pleasure because duality is part of our human nature. Part of understanding the “positive” is understanding the “negative.” (And I place these in quotation marks because they may be one or the other in the short run then switch roles when we’re not watching.)

Here’s the flip side: with hope, we dare to strive. In striving, we might succeed. Without hope, we daren’t strive, so we daren’t succeed; there is only a chance of success if we hope.

It is because of hope that you suffer.
It is through hope that you’ll change things.

Maxime Lagacé

The feed-forward loop isn’t just for us, though. When we strive, even if we fail, others will be watching and they will be encouraged to give it a go. By daring to try, we can be the inspiration for someone else, lighting a candle for them to see, to follow, and to ignite their spark.

Short Story of the Day

I played football in high school; since then, it’s simply felt like a feather in my cap: I was the only girl who played on the team, the only one in the entire state at the time. (I earned my varsity letter, too, thank you very much!) While I was in high school, it went both ways: some random people would walk up to shake my hand and tell me how inspirational I was, and other random people would get up in my face about how I was a disgrace to womanhood. Meh. I took the good with the bad, all of it with a grain of salt. If my playing a game helped someone, great! If it makes someone hate me, their loss. Well before my varsity letter, I earned steely skin.

I played for four years. In the beginning (especially while “looking forward to” triple-double practices), it was difficult; I clung to hope that I could do it despite the tough talk of the people around me. I didn’t know what to expect, but I gave it my all – and I did a pretty darn good job. It was a great experience, and I’m glad I did it, but it was mentally grueling to face people who had an opinion – any opinion, positive or negative – on my playing football and being female. Just let me play!

Since graduating, I only think of it during icebreakers (“Tell us one interesting fact about you,”) or if the topic of high school football specifically comes up. It’s a part of me as much as math team, jazz ensemble, and class competition (Penny Drive, anyone?) orchestrating, but no more than anything else that was unique to my high school experience.

For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Jeremiah 29:11

Recently, my family visited with family friends who moved across the continent. One of our friends was a year behind me in school and now teaches martial arts and orchestrates the best tournaments in the region. She’s awesome. (Sidenote: don’t try to mug her; you’ll lose.) While I’m marveling at the cool stuff she’s doing, she looks up at me to tell me that my playing high school football continues to inspire her. Sometimes, when she’s having a rough day, she thinks about what I went through in high school football to help her regain her footing in hope.

Talk about humbling! This (literally and figuratively) kick-butt woman telling me that I inspire her! With something I hardly ever think about!

How about you? Which sparks are you sending off? There are probably a bunch that you don’t even know about! What are you presenting to the world? How are you offering hope to others, sustaining them or even jumping their batteries?

Hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Romans 5:5

Song of the Day: Anchor by Skillet

Wonder what I listen to while researching and writing? Well, today started with online radio. Then I was in and out of the room doing chores when this song came on; I stopped the radio, immediately looked it up, and have been listening to it on repeat since. Check it out – especially if you’re having a rough day. You’re welcome. 😉

Further Reading:

• Great news! I found another online Catechism of the Catholic Church – one without a background that hinders readership. Enjoy!
• CatholiCity offers a simplified (reader-friendly) Catechism. Here’s the section on the theological virtues.
• I discovered an awesome blog covering various issues of interest with a faith perspective. The articles are solid, the writing is excellent, and the author is real. Men, this one’s for you – but ladies can get a lot out of it, too: Catholic Gentleman’s Guide.

Summary

Hope: we’re called to hope in the Kingdom. God gives us plenty of opportunity to practice with things more tangible to our human senses. What have you been hoping on lately? What are you hopeful for in the future? Please let us know in the comments!

Humanitas – kindness, courtesy; humanity, human nature
Kindness – charitable behavior
Courtesy – polite behavior; willingness or generosity in providing something needed

Wiktionary: Humanitas, Kindness, and Courtesy

What is Humanitas?

Humanitas means courtesy, or kindness. Cicero invented the term “to describe a good human.” The attributes of humanitas fall in line with the mos maiorum, the unwritten social code of Rome, by incorporating Greek philanthrôpía (love of humanity) and paideia (holistic education) with benevolentia (benevolence). (<Insert “It’s-all-Greek-to-me” joke here.>) Paideia fits with the other Greek terms because it specifically emphasizes socialization of the educated in addition to the reading-writing-arithmetic curriculum.

Basically, while humanitas was used as a catch-all for desired social behavior, it connotes acting benevolently toward others out of the dignity of personhood. In other words, we as human beings have intrinsic dignity, and we ought to treat each other with the dignity we deserve.

Digression: Kindness Inherent to Human Nature – Language and Science Geek-Out

The jury’s still hotly debating this, but humanitas indicates a oneness between kindness and human nature. By human standards, courtesy seems intricately connected with our humanity. The English language contributes to this unconscious recognition: when something is “cruel, sadistic, or barbaric,” it is inhuman (or inhumane). Some very intelligent people believe people are not fundamentally good because the second law of thermodynamics insists on progression toward chaos. Ancient linguists either pre-emptively attacked this theory or built a mechanism to slow the decline of humanity by building a contrapositive proof into our speech.

Aside: I love language, and I love science, and I love when these two topics come together.

My opinion: entropy is real, but our existence proves it isn’t the strongest force in the universe. If it were, our species would have died out long ago from entropic decline – and that’s assuming organisms would have developed into multi-cellular structures in the first place. The fact that we, complicated organisms with complicated organs performing complicated functions, exist insists chaos does not overwhelm our nature. Thus, humans can be innately good: we are innately good creatures who learn to be lesser as life progresses typically by chasing some goal that diminishes us as we approach it.

Analogy: we come out of the factory as brand new, flawless cars. We drive our perfect little vehicles around, maybe leveling up with new rims and other upgrades. Eventually, regardless of our model, we need to pause for an oil change and other maintenance. This isn’t because the factory messed up; rather, it’s because we’re wearing the vehicle down with proper use. And what’s the point of having a car but letting it rot in a garage to stave off maintenance?

Kindness and Courtesy

Kindness – the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate; a kind act
Courtesy – the showing of politeness in one’s attitude and behaviour towards others; considerate remark or action

Oxford dictionary, Kindness and Courtesy

Regardless of how natural or unnatural kindness and courtesy may be, these are traits virtue calls on us to lean on, particularly when we’re feeling a little downtrodden.

Being kind helps the kind person – often more than it helps the one we are being kind to. Have you ever been in a bad place mentally, be it an awful mood or stuck thinking about the current obstacles in your path, and opted to do something kind for someone else? It does wonders for your mental placement.

Kindness Impacts Life: A Relevant Story

I had a day recently where I felt paralyzed from mounting pressures, expectations, and fears. It’s rare for me to wake up in such a state, but it happened – and on a day I was pre-determined to attend daily Mass. I woke up hours early, tossing and turning in bed well before my alarm, trying to go back to sleep, to ignore the day; I didn’t want anything to do with anyone, and I certainly didn’t feel worthy to attend Mass. (Who am I, anyway, to witness Jesus in His crucifixion and triumph?) But it was nagging at me: I promised to go today, worthy or not. Finally, I crankily (and defeatedly) rolled out of bed, got ready, and went to the chapel with a set plan to keep my eyes on the floor.

There’s a gentleman who holds the door for everyone entering the chapel for Mass. I say thank you and keep on my way, but I always make eye contact as it seems rude to not make eye contact when saying thank you. It was such a simple courtesy that it doesn’t even seem like a kindness, but he took it as a kindness; that felt as though he pulled me up a few rungs on the ladder so I could see out of my hole. I wasn’t out of it, but I could see the path forward.

Jesus never said it would be easy, but He said it would be worth it!
(“The gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life.“)

Scripture Truth via Twitter referencing
Jesus in Matthew 7:14

This interaction – not his holding the door, but my courteous response to his kindness (and realizing that he noticed I scrounged the energy to look up) – dragged me over the lip of the pit when originally I couldn’t find the wall to even start climbing. It was still a difficult day, but witnessing that I managed decency – as battered, broken, and defeated as I was – gave me a glimpse of hope because it certainly wasn’t me who pulled that off.

If anybody’s wondering how I can know God exists, it’s instances like this: I didn’t have it in me to be decent, but decency came out of me anyway. Jesus acted decently through me when I didn’t have the wherewithal to do it myself. The simple fact that He used me as an instrument, even in a small way… I found it shocking because He used such a degenerate tool to good ends: why didn’t He use a shiny, well-polished one instead?

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

2 Corinthians 12:9

I am again reminded of Judges 7: Gideon had gathered an army to march against the Midianites (the oppressors of Israel) and God repeatedly sent soldiers home because the army was too strong. (First, 32,000 was too many; then, 10,000 was too many; finally, 300 was just perfect… to defeat 135,000 Midianite soldiers!) God wasn’t interested in smashing the enemy with the greatest numbers because then the people Israel would not have had reason to recognize God’s handiwork.

Likewise, when I’m having a string of great, 32,000-power days, I think it’s all me being awesome, conquering all 135,000 problems on my own. On my good days, why would I think I need help from any external power? When the bad, 300-power days hit, though… Seriously, if I’m even remotely kind, I know in my heart that it’s God working through me because 300-power isn’t enough to bother opening my eyes by myself.

Summary: Humanitas, Kindness, and Courtesy

Humanitas, kindness, and courtesy boil down to treating each other with dignity simply because people inherently have dignity. We should treat others well not because we want to be treated well; rather, we should treat people well because it is right to treat them well.

What do you think of when asked about kindness and courtesy? Did the Romans get it right? What are your thoughts about the dignity of people and how we should treat others? Let us know in the comments!

Invidia – envy; from invidere, “to look against, to look in a hostile manner;” pain experienced at the sight of [another’s] wealth, prestige, or authority
Envy – an emotion which “occurs when a person lacks another’s superior quality, achievement, or possession and either desires it or wishes that the other lacked it;” pain at the sight of another’s good fortune.

Wikipedia, Invidia and Envy

What is Invidia? What Constitutes Envy?

Invidia – envy/jealousy/spite/ill will; hate/hatred/dislike; use of words/acts to arouse
Envy – (noun) a feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else’s possessions, qualities, or luck; (verb) desire to have a quality, possession, or other desirable thing belonging to (someone else)

Latdict (Invidia) and Oxford (Envy) dictionaries

Invidia is Latin for envy. Most of us have been envious of someone at some point; whether it be traits or possessions of another person, most of us have wanted that which was not ours and felt resentment over it. Wanting more seems to be a common and natural human trait, and using what someone else has or can do to spark inspiration is a great thing. However, we should take precautions against letting that inspiration and want fester into a wound of resentment.

Wanting more is fine, and being inspired by others is great, but we need to use proper framing – a healthy dose of gratitude for where we are, what we have, and the opportunities before us – to prevent us from falling into bad mental habits such as resentment of others. Without recognizing how well we have it, it’s easy to fall into the trap of trying to keep up with the Joneses rather than striving toward the greatness we are called to.

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.

Judy Garland

Reeling us back in, invidia (envy) is resentment resulting from someone else’s good fortune or the desire to have (or strip them of) their particular good fortune. It’s one of the deadly sins.

But God is Jealous!

Something that strikes me as incredibly frustrating: we are repeatedly warned against envy in the Bible, but God refers to Himself as jealous when issuing the ten commandments of the covenant. I can’t even hide behind semantics: one of the Latin words used shows that His is a different kind of jealousy, but another term used is precisely the word we are warned against in Proverbs. Here:

Noli adorare deum alienum Dominus Zelotes nomen eius Deus est aemulator:
Adore not any strange god. The Lord His name is Jealous, he is a jealous God.

Exodus 34:14 (Vulgate)

From this, we can translate the terms until we figure out which one is associated with “jealousy.” Given that “His name” is a proper noun, it sticks out as the only term capitalized that isn’t Lord or God.

Zelotes – one who is jealous; who loves with jealously (God); who loves with zeal (Ecc)

Latdict dictionary

However, in addition, we also have “aemulator.” This translates to emulator or imitator, but paring it down to its base, we find it means jealous. This is the exact same term used in the warning against envy in Proverbs:

Non aemuletur cor tuum peccatores sed in timore Domini esto tota die:
Let not thy heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.

Proverbs 23:17 (Vulgate)

This is difficult for me to wrap my head around because I don’t associate God with any sins – particularly not the deadly sins – so why is the same exact term used in warning to us to not do precisely how God describes Himself? Doesn’t this disturb the senses? I got the feeling there’s already a term paper on this, so I looked around. I’m convinced but not enthralled with the answers I’ve been able to find so far: context.

Justified Jealousy

When God refers to Himself as jealous, He is guarding that which rightly belongs to Him: worship. In contrast, when we refer to the sin of envy, we resent something that (rightly) belongs to another person: fame, fortune, looks, abilities, treatment, stuff, stuff, and other stuff. This world owes us nothing, so wanting for anything is unjust and thus sinful. A couple of Reddit users explain it in their own words:

If I was holy, and worthy of all praise and adoration then it would be permissible for me to be jealous when worship that should be reserved for me was misplaced. However, I am a sinful man, worthy of worship from no one. Therefore, jealousy is sin for me because its an unjustified resentment. With God this is not so. His jealousy is justified as He is actually due our adoration.

JoelKizz

JoelKizz‘s statement is very accurate, but it is also so pointed as to require extrapolation: I don’t expect (or want) anyone to worship me; maybe some want to be worshiped, so they will find it applicable, but I’m not interested in it. Still, this example provides a base to extrapolate from, regardless of what we expect or want. Again, pick your poison: fame, fortune, looks, abilities, treatment, or stuff; it all shakes out the same: if it isn’t rightly ours, we have no right to be jealous of it.

Jealousy is not envy. Jealousy is being protective of what you already possess, which is a good trait. Envy is the resentment caused by desiring what someone else possesses.

Zyracksis

Zyracksis takes the shotgun approach: broader and with less precision – including more friendly fire. I proffer being protective of what you have is not always a good trait, and that there are other nuances the first sentence fails to take into consideration. However, I found this helpful with developing an understanding of the topic and in the context of the full conversation.

Summary: Invidia and Envy

The sin of envy is unjustly wanting something that belongs to another resulting in discontent and resentment. That something could be material (such as a car) or immaterial (such as a position) or anything in between (such as a clothing size – I’m not sure where that fits… Did I mention I enjoy puns?). God is jealous of our time, attention, and worship – but He deserves all of these things, so His jealousy is justified; in contrast, God has given us everything and owes us nothing, so anything we are envious of is unjust.

Putredo ossuum invidia:
Envy is the rottenness of the bones.

Proverbs 14:30 (Vulgate)

Armed with knowledge about what envy is, we’re equiped to look at the virtues that fight against it. (Are you excited? I’m excited.)

What are your thoughts on envy? Do you have insight to add about God’s jealousy? I’m curious to hear it. Please let me know in the comments!

Shifted Perspective: Sin and Virtue

Rabbit Hole

There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.

Hamlet (Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet)

Generally, we know some actions are generally righteous whereas others are pretty clearly bad. However, nothing in vacuum is good or evil: circumstances make it so.

This is a rabbit hole because we’re great at rationalizing actions – so we can rationalize our way to oblivion. But the crux of the issue isn’t the act itself but rather how that action impacts us – which is a direct result of why we did it. For example, killing is bad, yet the Bible covers several circumstances where God put his stamp of approval on killing: Exodus, the drowning of Pharaoh’s army in the Red Sea; Judges, Gideon felling the Midianites; Samuel, David slaying Goliath; and the death which opened our route to salvation, Jesus dying on the cross to show us He defeated death in his resurrection. These deaths were sanctioned by God.

Sin is anything that draws us away from God.

This is so weird to me: I always think of sin as “something wrong” or acting against God’s will. But why is it against God’s will? Some of the “rules” seem arbitrary, even unreasonable. As my obnoxious inner child would whine, whyyyyyyyyyyy?

It doesn’t always make sense because we don’t have all of the information. What happens when we do this, that, or the other thing? What happens to us not only in a physical sense, but in a mental sense? How about psychological? Spiritual?

The reality is that some things look super enticing, but they’ll actually drag us down and disorient us. Of course there are ways to right our course after taking a detour, but the more detours we take, the more difficult it is for us to get back on track. So, a question we need to ask ourselves: do we want to be on track?

When we sin, we are intentionally detouring from God. It’s not necessarily that something is inherently wrong, but instead that it will shift our focus away from God. The more we choose something else over God, the less we know God, and the less likely we are to turn to Him – even if we never turned away, per se, just altered the course here and there. It goes back to storge love – affection for what we know: we have a “warm comfortableness” with the way we’ve always done things, meaning the more we do things our own way, the more likely we are to continue doing so and inso choose ourselves – and the more we do things God’s way, the more likely we are to choose God.

Virtue draws us nearer to God.

Virtues help us to see clearly the long game, the end goal, and enable us to more easily go directly toward it. They guide us by letting us know what’s at stake – the end goal – if we venture off the road. They won’t necessarily let us know what will happen if we go off-roading, just let us know that there is something we’re fighting for and that going off road stacks a card against us.

Just like with sin, the more we choose virtue, the easier it is to choose virtue.

Avaritia and Caritas

Avaritia – avarice, greed
Caritas – altruistic love, charity

Avaritia and caritas aren’t two heroes battling it out to determine the outcome of the universe. These options are on either end of each choice we make, often with a spectrum in the middle. Instead of “deciding” to be greedy or charitable, we often debate with ourselves about which choice is best given a number of factors. If the decision is between paying rent or dropping it in a church collection basket, any decent pastor would want you to pay rent; if you get a bonus, maybe sending some to your favorite charity is in order.

Also noteworthy: cash isn’t the only way to be charitable. Maybe last year you were able to donate money toward cancer research but that isn’t viable now; maybe last year writing a check was the only thing you could do, but now you’ve got the time to volunteer to run at that event, or work the telethon, or research an idea they haven’t had the time to look into. Maybe you can run point on an event to brighten the day of everyone in the ward – patients and attendants alike.

What are your talents? How are you using them?

Affectionate love is typically the winner of the contest between avaritia and caritas. I don’t mean that in a “love conquers all” kind of way, but rather a “habits conquer all” way. Specifically, we are given choices every day; the choices we make today will impact our choices tomorrow. The more we choose one path, the more familiar with it we will be, and the more likely we are to choose a similar path tomorrow. Decide your destiny – with “warm comfortableness.”

Love is itself the fulfillment of all our works. There is the goal; that is why we run: we run toward it, and once we reach it, in it we shall find rest.

Saint Augustine

Happy Friday. :-}

Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit [to] the deepest interpersonal affection and … the simplest pleasure.

Wikipedia

What a broad swath. We’re all familiar with love, whether we help our neighbors in our daily lives, hear kind words pass between people we don’t know, or even just get the interpretation of the media, we have some kind of exposure to love. But what is it, really?

What Is a Theological Virtue?

Let’s take the noun first. What is virtue?

Virtue is moral excellence.

Wikipedia

Thanks, Wikipedia! With that baseline, we can now look at its descriptor. What does the adjective “theological” mean in this context?

Theological – known only through Divine Revelation, Divinely infused, and God is the immediate and proper object.

New Advent

Putting these together, a theological virtue is moral excellence from, with, and for God:

• God makes the moral excellence available to us: it is from God.
• God Himself is in the moral excellence: to know it is to be with God.
• God is the proper target for the moral excellence: it is rightly for God.

When all three of these are true, we have a theological virtue.

Theological virtues are supernatural powers which enable mankind to attain our final destiny.

New Advent

Spoiler alert:
Our final destiny is with God.

Why is Love the Greatest of the Virtues?

Love is the only virtue that exists regardless of everything else: if the world were perfect, we would know love; our world is far from perfect, yet we still know love. Every other virtue requires an obstacle to be overcome whereas love exists independently.

Here’s an example which we’ll go further into later: for hope and faith to exist, there needs to be uncertainty. Hope and faith are meaningless if we know and can see the outcome; that’d be like showing up at the end of a ballgame, seeing the final score, and “hoping” for one of the teams to win. The game’s already over; we already know the score – so we can’t hope for a particular outcome because the outcome is already set in stone.

Contrast this with love. Whether you show up for the pre-game, make it just in time for the first pitch, or can only catch the teams as they walk off the field, you still love your team. Nothing changes from start to finish: if you love your team, you love your team.

Regardless of everything else, whether times are great or the world is literally ending or all of life on Earth is extinguished and all of God’s children are praising Him in Heaven, love endures.

Secular Love

Look up love in the dictionary: there are many definitions – none of which really fit what we mean when we’re thinking of telling a significant other I-L-Y for the first time. I, for one, would not be terrified of telling someone, “I have an intense feeling of deep affection for you,” or even, “I have a deep romantic attachment to you” – but dropping I-L-Y feels like I’m hitting the nuclear launch codes with myself at the targeted coordinates.

(As a side note, I really want to use one of those lines in real conversation. They make me smile, and I wouldn’t mind feeling like Data for a moment.)

Love is a difficult concept to take into the secular world because it is inherently and intimately divine. We humans try to control everything and form it to our will, to “perfect” it just the way we like it. There’s a problem with that: love is perfect the way God originally gave (and continues to give) it to us. When we alter perfection, it’s no longer perfect.

If you ever had the thought that love is fickle, you’re right: the version of “love” mankind peddles is imperfect and weak. When we look at the harm people who “love” each other do to each other, it can be difficult to believe in love at all. This “love” is not real love – the strong webbing God catches us in to cradle and nurture us when we allow ourselves to turn to Him.

Natural Love, Human Love

C. S. Lewis (best known for The Chronicles of Narnia) wrote about the four distinct types of love in The Four Loves. He differentiates genres of love in and understandable, relatable way; let’s check them out.

Storge: Affection

Affection is the most basic and most natural form of love; it is the result of fondness through familiarity, such as between mother and child. Such familiarity needn’t be from a familial tie; it can be by chance, such as a shared experience with a stranger you meet on the top of a mountain. C.S. Lewis describes it as a “warm comfortableness” with simple satisfaction in simply being together.

Philia: Friendship

Ah, friendship. The rarest and most insightful of all loves, philia is a strong bond between people sharing commonalities. Think about your closest friends: what do you have in common? Do you play the same sports? Do you believe the same things? Are you excited about the same topics? These commonalities are the basis of friendship.

Describing it as “the least biological, organic, instinctive, … necessary, [and] natural” of the loves, C.S. Lewis expresses a connection to the way some ancient cultures considered it “the happiest and most fully human of all loves; the crown of life and the school of virtue.” Because it is a love selected, by decision rather than by obligation or mere chance, it is on a higher plane than the other loves.

Eros: Romantic

You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.

Dr. Seuss

Gag me with a spoon.

This love is actually interesting once we get past the rah-rah we face in secular society. (That stuff should really only distract teenyboppers, but it seems people are so fascinated with youth that even that which is as lame as this is romanticized … literally and figuratively.)

Far from being erotic (and fickle) love, eros is the pre-occupation with a person as a whole. This is wanting to know everything about someone, being enraptured by a personality, being enthralled beyond the who to the why and the how.

The fact that she is a woman is far less important than the fact that she is herself.

C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

Eros is romantic and passionate, but not in the way we tend to think about it. It vigorously proclaims an interest in knowing everything about its interest, to know that person as a whole person as thoroughly as one can know another. It’s sitting down to have a conversation with someone because you want to hear what they have to say, because you want to know how they think, why they think that way, and what makes them who they are.

The natural loves are not self-sufficient. … The human loves can be glorious images of Divine love. No less than that: but also no more.

C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

Divine Love: Charity – Agape

Agape – unconditional “God” love … exists regardless of changing circumstances.

Wikipedia

Agape love is the love of God. It is also known as charity. This kind of love is totally selfless and undoubtedly the greatest of the four loves. It is perfect love: timeless and unconditional. It is the love we are called to have for each other yet can not hope to offer without God’s help.

No true virtue is possible without charity.

Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae

Charity enables the other virtues. Through God’s grace, we have access to agape if we will accept His guidance. Agape love glorifies God by reflecting His nature, and He infused it into our souls so that we may be happy. Accepting the gift of God’s love, we are called to love God back but also to love ourselves and our neighbors just as God loves us.

Further Reading

• New Advent: Love (Theological Virtue)
• New Advent: Saint Thomas Aquinas
• C.S. Lewis: The Four Loves

Thoughts?

What’s your experience with love? Which types are you familiar with? Let me know in the comments!

And, of course, we’re finishing out today’s post with everybody’s favorite scripture passage about love.

Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Caritas – the friendship of man for God which unites us to God
Liberalitas – the virtue of giving freely, hence, generosity
Generosity – largess; involves offering time, assets, or talents to aid someone in need
Charity – the voluntary giving of help to those in need as a humanitarian act

Wikipedia: Caritas, Liberalitas, Generosity, and Charity

Edit (08 Nov): originally, liberalitas was identified as the Latin for the relevant virtue; in my research, caritas has surfaced as the proper term, so I will be correcting this by adding a segment within this post specific to caritas. The information on charity was in the original post; liberalitas and generosity will stay in the series but will be demoted to their proper place. Stay tuned!

What is Liberalitas?

Liberalitas is a Latin term which most closely translates to generosity. Biblically, it’s typically referenced specifically to speak about generosity of spirit, a subcategory more reflecting the charitable side of the term. (Generosity can be used to promote a donor whereas charity is done in quasi-secret – in a way which neither advertises the donor nor allows the inquisitor to know who the donor is.)

Generosity – the quality of being kind and generous

Oxford Dictionary

Okay, But What Is Generosity?

Generosity of spirit is the openness and willingness to share our own gifts freely with others, joyously and willingly and without expectation of receiving anything in return.

Gayle Hardie, Global Leadership Foundation

We all have gifts readily available. It may be obvious that the wealthy person sitting next to you has something to share with the world, but you have gifts, too! Maybe you have an afternoon available each week you can spend at the soup kitchen, or maybe you have a skill with tutoring young children who are hostile to authority figures, or maybe you’re an artist involved in a local group who has a bazaar every year selling donations to patrons and you can provide a painting, sculture, or recorded single. Maybe you’re a sommelier with a friend at a local vineyard and you can combine to offer a service for free as a prize for a raffle that benefits a cause.

Generosity is doing something for someone else. Some may part with money, others may part with time, still others may easily and quickly part with a smile: they can all be acts of generosity if done with a loving heart. With an attitude of gratitude, we can more clearly see both the impact of what others do for us and the impact of what we do for others, enabling us to multiply our own generosity simply and humbly.

Nothing… is more costly than greed; nothing is more rewarding than generosity.

Donald DeMarco, Author and Professor

Relevant Story of the Day

I had the honor of attending a friend’s wedding in Albuquerque. I’d never been to New Mexico, so I made a run of it to make opportunity to visit the sights and get to know the area. I flew out but didn’t rent a car, depending on public transportation and my own two feet. (Thankfully, I enjoy walking… I have a story about walking in heels for a few hours because a bus opted to not stop for me. …What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.)

The one place the buses don’t go? The biggest tourist destination in the area: the Sandia Peak Tramway. I was staying downtown, so it took a fair amount of time and effort to get out there, but I was told it would make the entire trip worth it. I set aside a full day to trek out to the Tramway: a fifteen minute walk to Alvarado Transit Center, twenty minutes figuring out which bus to get on, and one-and-a-half hours for the bus trip to the coffee shop where I’d wait about twenty-five minutes for a car for a twelve-minute ride to the launch point. I expected approximately the same for the return trip.

The tram ride was kinda cool – the views of hiking without worrying about breaking your ankles on the climb – but the top panorama was gorgeous. Even better than the view? The people I met.

In particular, I remember one person struggling to take a picture of herself with the sunset; though traveling alone, she hadn’t mastered the art of the selfie, and she was trying to do it old school: aim the main camera at herself and hope she was in the frame. I offered to take her picture so she knew she’d be in the frame and with the proper lighting. She was delighted. She was even more delighted when I offered her a lesson in selfie-taking after and showed her how to use the secondary camera to see on her main screen that she was in the photo.

It was a super exciting night for both of us beyond the pink skies: we each learned things (her: how to take a selfie; me: that I have something to teach the world, and the world appreciates it; both: it’s easy to make friends on the tops of mountains).

The view was wonderful – and renowned. There is only one tramway, and hiking is not a viable option after sunset. Sunset on the peak is a major attraction, and I didn’t mind waiting for a later car while she was in a hurry to get down and eat something as she’d been traveling all day and hadn’t had a decent meal, so we parted ways, she taking the first tram after the sunset and me taking the final trip down of the night.

As we reached the bottom of the tramway, I pulled out my phone to double-check the bus schedule only to realize the bus had stopped running: I was either going to have to walk 22 miles to my AirBnB (probably arriving just in time to catch my scheduled ride to the airport) or go significantly over-budget to catch a car back. (I misread the bus schedule.) Disembarking, I opted against getting dinner, instead walking around the complex – a little hungry but knowing I would probably be using that money to get back to my luggage. I was simultaneously hopeful and frustrated, checking fares to see whether waiting (and walking) a mile or three would be better. I dithered as I meandered about the complex, being my best tourist (taking pictures) while I mentally beat myself up for not checking my work. I could walk the 22 miles – it’d take me about seven hours, and I could do it – and be just in time to toss my stuff into my suitcase for my scheduled trip to the airport, expecting a day of exhaustion. But was it worth the $35 for the ride?

With a sigh, I brought up my phone to work out a plan. Given my unemployment, yes – it’s economically worth it to hike. Bringing up the map, I set my chin resolutely, nodding at myself and at my stubbornness.

“Hey!”

The friend I made at the peak found me. Having had dinner (thus no longer starved and more enthusiastic), she was eager to hang out. We started chatting, and she mentioned that she was driving cross-country to teach dance. Epic! We got to talking about how we each ended up in Albuquerque, and she noticed I had a (walk) map up on my phone. (I, embarrassed, attempted to hide it, thinking the screen should have dimmed by then.) She was eager to return the favor of helping her with pictures, and, seeing the hesitation in my eyes, also noted that she was staying in the downtown area. I both reluctantly and delightedly accepted.

Something about me: I’m bad at both requesting and accepting help. I was doing-backflips-overjoyed, but I was still resistant to accepting help. She thought of it as nothing: everything was in that direction – including her hotel – so it wasn’t even out of the way for her; I thought of it as so much more: a trusting act of kindness enabling me to get a full night’s sleep and not have to endure an entire night’s walk and fight crankiness the entire next day. (Sidenote: the ride was awesome. We enjoyed each other’s company thoroughly, exchanged contact information, and hugged so hard that I didn’t want to leave at the end.)

We still text (albeit haphazardly). She’s forever the person who reminds me to love people generally – because of her generosity.

You will be enriched in every way for great generosity, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.

2 Corinthians 9:11

Closing Statement

What do you think? What has been your experience in generosity? Let me know in the comments! I hope to hear from you soon!

Further Reading

• Interesting article on liberalitas and its philosophical journey starting with the Roman republic:
  The Decline and Rehabilitation of a Virtue.
• Paper from the Institute for Faith and Learning at Baylor University:
  Generosity of Spirit by Douglas V. Henry

Greed, or avarice, is an inordinate or insatiable longing for material gain, be it food, money, status, or power… an inordinate desire to acquire or possess more than one needs… typically used to criticize those who seek excessive material wealth, although it may apply to the need to feel more excessively moral, social, or otherwise better than someone else.

Wikipedia

What is Avaritia? What Constitutes Avarice and Greed?

Avaritia is Latin for avarice, greed. It’s more than that, though, because it’s also the personification of avarice and greed. This means it’s something more than a descriptor; it’s not a synonym for greedy. Rather, avaritia is greed itself. Do you remember ever having a really strict teacher, and people said if you looked up “strict” in the dictionary that you’d see that teacher’s picture? That’s what avaritia literally is to greed: if a person could be greed through and through, that person would be avaritia.

That’s Cool and All, But What Is Greed?

Avarice – extreme greed for wealth or material gain
Greed – intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food

Oxford Dictionary, Avarice and Greed

Avarice and greed are used interchangeably; both words indicate an overzealousness for some sort of personal gain. The desire may be for money, for power, for status, or for something material. Let’s parse this a little, shall we?

The Elements of Greed

For avarice to be a sin, it needs to check all of these boxes:

• Overzealous
• Aspiration
• For Personal Gain

Unless all the boxes are checked, it’s not (necessarily) sinful. Think about it: hoping to make rent and put food on the table is not inherently sinful; working hard to make something of yourself is not inherently sinful; being overly driven to achieve something for your community is not inherently sinful. When all these boxes are checked, though, it’s time to be careful.

Overzealousness

Overzealous – too zealous in attitude or behavior; extreme, fanatical, extremist, violent, uncompromising

Oxford Dictionary

Being zealous isn’t inherently a bad thing; being “too” anything is. There’s an optimal level for all things, with a grey zone around the summit’s plaque. We can want things too much; this may lead to excessive zeal to obtain the goal

We can generally tell when we’re nowhere near the right amount because the extremes are fairly noticeable: I haven’t gotten out of bed in a month because why would I – versus – I haven’t left my office in a month and only take cat naps when my body shuts itself off.

These examples are obvious; life isn’t typically so obvious. Our goal is to work, but not excessively. We’re not aiming for perfect (or maybe we are, dun-dun-dun!). We’re doing the best we can with the tools we have available; one of those tools is time – including the balance of our other obligations making demands on our time. Our goal is to find the summit plaque and do our best to stay on top of it.

Aspiration

Aspiration – hope or ambition of achieving something; desire, longing, yearning

Oxford Dictionary

This aspect of avarice is both simple and complex. It boils down to wanting something, to angling for a goal. There are a variety of things – material or immaterial – that we want, that can drive us to act. Maybe it’s money, or the latest gadget, or a nice house on a lake with access to all the amenities. Maybe it’s less about stuff and more about ego: prestige, respect, or simply having others associate a name with a certain trait, even placing a certain person on a pedestal.

“You will agree, Data, that Starfleet’s orders are difficult?”
“Difficult? Simply solve the mystery of Farpoint Station.”
“As simple as that.”

Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Data, Star Trek: The Next Generation, S1:E1

Goals are good things! It’s good to know where we’re going. Without having a destination, how are we ever going to reach it? The key here is that we need to select our goals carefully and with the knowledge that getting to that goal will influence others, and that even the noblest of goals may go sideways with overzealousness.

For Personal Gain

A reminder: these elements must be taken together to be bad for us. Doing things for yourself is essential to life, and we are tasked with taking care of ourselves. More than that, we have to take care of ourselves before we can help others. If we never eat, we won’t have the strength to carry a friend.

What are some hints we’re doing it for ourselves? We can go back to the gut check method, but that’s unreliable because we are extremely capable of making excuses for our own behaviors. If we didn’t think we had reasons for them, we wouldn’t do them. Thus, we need to look outside ourselves to objective indicia to determine whether we’re doing something for personal gain.

I volunteer with a local Catholic radio station. It’s awesome. After I started, I know for a certainty that I didn’t keep going for personal gain – I was terrified of going on live radio. Insecurities surfaced and fought back; I wanted to recant my commitment. However, I had promised a friend that I would co-host with her, and I knew that it would put her under tremendous stress to have to find someone else to cover for me. I got through my pre-air panic because I was focusing on everything external: my friend, the event we were covering, and anything I could do to prepare for the discussion.

Let me be clear: it was an amazing opportunity and I would have been foolish to walk away from it. When she asked me to co-host, I was thrilled – until I realized that meant dealing with my insecurities. If we look at the moment of the ask and acceptance, I may have done it for personal gain: how cool would it be to co-host a show? If we look at the moment of setting up the table at the back of the venue, heart racing as I dug out my prep work and travel-sized Winnie the Pooh bear for emotional support, I wasn’t there because I wanted it for myself. My desire to co-host a live radio program was much less than my desire to hide, but a dear friend was counting on me.

• 

• 

Objective indications that it wasn’t for personal gain: first and foremost, I saw nothing to gain from the experience other than working through the fear of it. Again, it’s not a bad thing to personally benefit from something; for example, education is highly praised, but it is at least in part for personal benefit. (Can you imagine paying tuition to graduate with nothing to show for it? That’s fiscally irresponsible.) I wasn’t planning any sort of launch into the media industry or to put a feather in my cap. It was a marvelous experience, but I wouldn’t say it got me anywhere.

If I did it for personal gain, how would that have changed the scenario? It certainly would depend on what the specific gain I was seeking was, but there are commonalities I would expect to find. Confidence in reaching for the goal, excitement at progression towards the goal, plans for what the event was supposed to achieve, and a tactical assessment of whether the achievements were made and how to progress from there. I likely would have acted differently during and after the interviews, depending on which goal I was aiming for: focusing on myself and how I am awesome, for example, as opposed to honing in on details about the event and its significance.

Summary: Avarice and Greed

Greed is overzealousness in aspiration of personal benefit. These elements are not problems in and of themselves: it’s good to have goals and to take care of yourself. Overzealousness in the pursuit of any goal can lead to a problem, but zeal in moderation is a good thing: we want to be enthusiastic about our pursuits! Where we may go astray isn’t in having passion and conviction, but in allowing it to overtake our good judgment.

Covetousness… is a sin against God, just as all mortal sins, inasmuch as man contemns things eternal for the sake of temporal things.

Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae

Now that we have a good grasp of what greed is, we can jump into what we can do to counter it: liberalitas and love. Stay tuned!

What do you think about greed and avarice? Leave a comment to let me know!