Ordinary Time 15
July 12, 2026
The Cardinal and Theological Fruits
Jesus
gives this beautiful parable about the sower who is sowing grains of wheat. But
obviously in such a parable, everything is a symbol of something else, as Jesus
Himself explains it: the sower are the Apostles, the seed is the Word of God,
the four locations of sowing seed are the four different types of souls who
receive the Word of God…but there is one element of the parable that Jesus does
not explain – what is the fruit that a good person bears thirty or sixty
or a hundredfold?
The
fruit is virtue. Virtues are the good moral habits that make us like Christ
(or, as the Catechism puts it, “The habitual disposition to do good”). It’s not
just an individual action – anybody can be generous once. Rather, a virtue is
so ingrained in us that it becomes part of our character, and it becomes even easy
to do good, even when it takes sacrifice. This takes both prayer and practice.
God can infuse virtue in is when we pray for it, but usually He gives us
opportunities to practice virtue when we are challenged in patience, courage,
purity, etc.
But what
kind of virtues ought we strive for? Tradition gives us seven main virtues –
three that deal with God (the theological virtues of faith, hope, and
charity) and four that deal with our relationships in this world (the cardinal
virtues of prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude). Let’s look
briefly at each one.
First,
at our Baptism, each one of us has received faith, hope, and charity. Faith
allows us to believe that God exists, to trust Him, and to believe everything
He has revealed in Scripture and Tradition. Hope gives us firm assurance that
He will be faithful to His promises, especially the promise of everlasting
life. Charity means that we love God above all things and that we love others
for the sake of God.
But the
cardinal virtues are a little more confusing, so let’s break these down. First,
temperance. This virtue teaches us to love God’s gifts rightly – to
enjoy them in their proper place. I am reminded of the story of St. Charles
Borromeo, the sixteenth-century Italian bishop, who had a great fondness for
shooting pool. One day he was playing, when a friend asked him, “What would you
do if you knew you were going to die in an hour? Would you run to the chapel,
or find a priest for Confession?” He replied, “I would continue playing pool. I
began this game with the intention of glorifying God, so why should I stop,
even if I enjoy it?”
There
was a heresy in the early middle ages called Albigensianism which believed that
all pleasure was evil – that to be a saint, we have to deny ourselves every
kind of pleasure. Nope – not at all. Jesus’ first miracle was to make wine at a
feast – clearly, God created good things, and we ought to enjoy them! But there
is also a mirror-image error called Hedonism which believes that pleasure is
the highest good. Also an error. The midpoint is the virtue of
temperance – we enjoy God’s gifts rightly, in the way He intended, in balance.
So we ought to feast on Thanksgiving and fast during Lent. We ought to enjoy
alcohol in moderation – after all, St. Thomas Aquinas once said, “Drink to the
point of hilarity, but no further” – in other words, enjoy a drink which can
loosen us up and make us laugh, but not so much that we lose our reason. We
ought to enjoy rest and recreation, but must not shirk our duties out of
laziness. We ought to enjoy sexual pleasure, but only within marriage and open
to life. We can all acknowledge that when we misuse God’s gifts, we are harmed
– overeating leads to a stomachache, overindulgence in alcohol leads to a
hangover, or sexual relations outside of marriage leads to unplanned pregnancy,
broken hearts, and addictions. Hence, temperance is necessary for us to
experience freedom!
The next
virtue is justice, which means that we give everyone what we owe them.
We owe our parents respect and care (and if you’re under 18, you owe them
obedience), we owe our country our loyalty, we owe God worship, we owe our
neighbor the basic necessities of life. A lot of things we think we’re doing
because we’re kind, but it’s actually just plain justice.
For
example, in years past I’ve spoken about the need to dress well for Mass, as we
recognize we’re not going to the beach but the very presence of Almighty God.
Inevitably someone says, “Oh but Father, we’re just lucky that they’re coming
to Mass,” as if we’re doing a favor to God. My friend, our attendance at Mass
is actually an act of justice – it is what we owe our Creator as His creatures.
God is not “lucky” that we’re here – rather, we owe Him worship, and in His
benevolence He is kind to give us so many graces and blessings in the Eucharist
and in the Scripture readings. Or we can be that way to our fellow people, too.
How many of us have held the door open for others and then had a kind of smug,
“Yeah, I’m a good person” feeling? Eh, we’re only doing what we ought to
do, since we owe it to our neighbors to treat them with respect. Jesus
has a pithy quote in one of the Gospels for this attitude, when He says, “These
servants ought to say, ‘We are unprofitable servants, we have only done what
was required of us.’”
Of
course, we also ought to exceed justice by practicing mercy. Mercy is giving
people what they are not due. Back in 2021, a Rhode Island woman named
Lisa Hull awoke to phone ringing to give her the news that no mother wanted to
hear: her son had been killed in a tragic automobile accident. Devastated, she
was tempted to anger at the other driver, but as a woman of deep faith, brought
it to prayer. The Lord opened her heart to realize that the other driver
must’ve been suffering from extreme guilt and shame – and she alone had the
power to release him from that by publicly forgiving him. But could she do
that? She went back and forth, but finally decided to call him and tell him
that she forgave him – it was truly an accident, he wasn’t drunk or anything –
and this call brought so much mercy into his life. He attended the funeral and
burial, and he found peace because of the mercy shown from the mother.
So, while justice is critical, we are called to go above it through practicing
mercy.
The
third cardinal virtue is fortitude – the courage to do what’s right
despite difficulty. Aquinas distinguishes between two types of good things we
desire: what he calls concupiscible goods and irascible goods.
Big words, I know – but simple concepts. Concupiscible goods are things which
are good and easy. So, at the end of a long day, we desire sleep – that is good
for us, and it’s easy to do – just lay down on a comfortable bed. But some good
things take effort – working out, for example, or having a prayer life, or
standing up for a kid who’s bullied in school. These “irascible goods” are
those which take fortitude – the strength to pursue the good despite
difficulty. These are good things, but they are difficult.
One of
the most devout Catholic athletes is Hall of Fame catcher Mike Piazza. But his
road to stardom was one that required great fortitude. He was drafted in the 62nd
round, and only because his father was friends with the Dodgers’ coach. No one
expected him to make the majors. But he knew that God had given him the talent
– so he needed the fortitude to persevere, work hard – and not just for his own
ego, but to glorify God and to give him a platform to speak about Christ to the
public. In fact, when he was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2016, he said in
his speech, “My Catholic faith [is] the greatest gift, which has had a profound
impact on my career and has given me patience, compassion and hope. Pope
Benedict the XVI said, ‘One who has hope, lives differently.’” It wasn’t so he
could be rich and famous, but so that Christ’s Name could be praised in this
professional athlete, that Piazza had to tap into that virtue of fortitude in
order to overcome the odds and make the majors. And look at his witness to
Christ now!
Finally,
the last of the cardinal virtues is prudence, which Aquinas calls the
“charioteer of the virtues” because it drives the rest of them. Prudence is
knowing what virtue to exercise in each given situation. For example, let’s say
you want to make a small sacrifice for God by giving up dessert for a week. But
a friend invites you to his birthday and offers you some cake. Is it more
virtuous to take the cake, or keep the fast? Prudence helps you decide. I need
to rely on prudence all the time – for example, I often have kids at my school
tell me, “Father, can you talk to Johnny, he’s picked up vaping and we’re
concerned about him.” I have to discern whether or not to talk to him, when to
do it, and what words to say. That’s the virtue of prudence – discovering when
and how to live out the other virtues.
This
beautiful parable of the sower and the seed is incomplete without considering
what this fruit is that a healthy Christian can expect – the fruit is a life
overflowing with virtues. Aristotle said that “virtue is excellence in being
human.” One might say that it is the excellence of the Christian life, as well
– replete with the human virtues of prudence, justice, temperance, and
fortitude, as well as the divine virtues of faith, hope, and charity.
