Temperance as Distraction From the Goal
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Prudence and Temperance must work together
- With prudence we begin with the end in mind and then we make every decision based on the goal
- We have to ask, “Will this decision help me to reach my goal or take me away from the goal?”
- So the most important first step of prudence is to choose your long term goal
- Ours is Heaven
- Heaven is to become like God
- Temperance is in essence, resisting distractions that pull your attention away from the real goal of Heaven.
- Think about what it’s like to drive. Wherever you look, your hands subconsciously follow and you begin to drift out of your lane. As long as you keep your eyes on the road, your hands will follow suit.
- Temperance is about avoiding those distractions
- Temperance keeps you from getting off-track, from drifting out of your lane
- Temperance says: “This does not help me reach my long-term goal, therefore I will not pursue it.”
- Fortitude, on the other hand, says, “This will help me reach my long term goal, so I will pursue it.”
- We should start each day by reminding ourselves of our long term goal and what matters most by beginning each day in friendship with God in daily meditation.
- We should end our meditation with a resolution. A simple small concrete thing to remember or do that day flowing from our meditation.
- If we keep our resolution in mind all day – it will keep us on track.
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Our Goal is Heaven, Which Means Divinization
- The Bible in 1 John 3:2 and the Catechism in paragraph 1023 says that in Heaven we will be like God. See, we do not go to heaven as mere humans, we go as something more, infinitely more. Yes, we will go with a human nature but a human nature that has been divinized – made like God.
- Heaven is supernatural, that means beyond or above natural. That is why we are not ready for Heaven – yet. But Jesus and Mary want to get us ready for Heaven. In the event of the Transfiguration, Jesus shows us what He wants to do in us.
- Jesus took with him Peter and John and James and went up the mountain to pray. As he prayed, the aspect of his face was changed, and his clothing became brilliant as lightning…And a voice came from Heaven saying, 'This is my Son, the Chosen One.
- Jesus was fully human and fully divine. Here he lets his divine nature shine forth. The deepest truth of Christianity is this – God wants to put His divine life in you and transform you to be like God – Divinized.
- Is this your long term goal?
- Where do you direct most of your attention?
- What does that say about your long term goal?
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Lust of the Eyes
- There are many vices against the virtue of Temperance: there is pride and the seven deadly sins and the three-fold lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of possessions – these are our disordered desires. We will cover the rest in further meditations but let’s take up the lust of the eyes.
- Our long-term goal is Heaven which is to become like God, seeking and fulfilling God’s will in everything. But we are so easily distracted from seeking God and doing His will by what we see. Being distracted, that is derailed from union with God by what we see is the lust of the eyes. That is because what we see, we want. Vision is the strongest prompt to the passions, and the passions prompt action. So the best way to cultivate temperance is to refuse to even look at distractions. Don’t allow your attention to be taken from your goal by distraction. Don’t even look.
- If we safeguard our attention, what we see, what we look at, we will be less likely to be distracted by doing things that take us away from our goal. Think about this, the economy built on consumerism and the entertainment industry are fighting for your attention. They don’t want your good, they just want your attention and money.
Our attention is meant to guide us towards a target, a goal, a purpose. But entertainment only has the objective of moving your attention, not moving it towards a greater goal or target. It’s not there to help you. Remember – wherever we place our attention – that is where we are headed.
- Ask yourself, what is constantly distracting you from seeking union with God?
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So where should our attention be?
- Here is where we come back to our zones of responsibility.
- Our first zone of responsibility is our relationship with God. Focus our attention on seeking to find and fulfill God’s will in everything. It’s what the CCC calls purity of intention.
- This means our attention should be on God and on our own behavior – seeking the good things in life we need to be happy – that which is true and good and beautiful.
- Our second zone of responsibility is our domestic church, our marriage and family.
- The third Zone is our work, whether that’s inside the home or out.
- The fourth is our country – but here our responsibility is very specific –mainly it pertains to voting. That is how we participate.
- We must be temperate and resist the urge to give our attention to zones that are not our responsibility. These are a temptation to distraction. What are not our zones of responsibility but are sources of distraction?
- Other people are not our responsibility.
- The Institutional Church is not our responsibility. That is the responsibility of the Pope, Bishops and Priests. If you are concerned about the Church then focus on your zone of responsibility – your domestic church of the family and evangelizing the world. The best thing you can do for the Church is build your teams of people with whom share life and integrate your faith. This is the place to invite those who have not encountered the love of God yet.
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- Governing the world, the country, and the state are not your responsibility. The news gives the illusion we have some control because we think knowledge is power. Well, you don’t have any control over the world and by the time it hits the news it's already happened and too late.
- But people say, “I need to know what’s going on in order to be responsible!”
- We think the best way to know reality is by the news. Are you kidding me? If you need to know something, then ask an expert in the field or someone on the ground or do a specific search but stop thinking you can get the truth by the news.
- People say they need to be well informed, but being well informed usually describes a person addicted to the news.
- Simply put, Temperance is resisting the urge to be distracted from our long term goal. Is the news distracting you? Is it social media, sports, pornography, youtube? You might resist it, you might defend the attachment ruthlessly, but that should also make you realize how deeply attached you are in the first place.