Taken from Formation in Christian Love, Volume 3: Secondary Years of Innocence, p. 22 Dr. Patrick J. DiVietriThe appropriate value of work effects how someone feels about himself or herself, their motivations desire to learn, competency and productivity in a positive way. On the other hand, for Erickson, “the lack of industry or sense of self-worth leads to feelings of inferiority in comparison to others.“ Furthermore, industry plays a vital role in the acquisition of the other virtues thus making it one of the most critical moral virtues. An industriousness person is one “who diligently does those things especially essential to the achievement of supernatural and natural maturity and helps others to do the same, in everyday work and in the fulfillment of one’s other duties.” This definition points to the special relationship industriousness has with all other virtues. On one hand, the goal of this virtue is maturity, which is achieved through the acquisition of all virtues moral and theological. In other words, all virtues become a means to reach the goal of maturity. On the other hand, anyone who has tried to break a bad habit and establish a good one knows that it is difficult to do good things it takes hard work to acquire every virtue. An industrious person would be diligent in the work of acquiring a virtue. Thus industriousness becomes a means of reaching each virtue. In this light the virtue plays a vital role in all other virtues at this stage but also for the means of reaching all goals in this life and in the next. The cardinal virtues bring harmony within a person and are the means of natural maturity and their object is the means to happiness. The theological virtues are the means of supernatural maturity as their object is God.
The cardinal and theological virtues work to the natural and supernatural maturity of each person and hard work is involved. The cardinal virtues dispose one to the theological and are the soil, fertilizer for the yield that is to come. As Teresa of Avila said, unless you succeed in the moral virtues you will always be dwarfs.[1] All virtues must bear fruit and the fruit comes from good works and this takes effort. These works must take place or the gift from God becomes stagnant and does not grow. Peter Kreeft refers to the parable of the talents and the wicked and slothful servant who hid the treasure. The Jordan feeds the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea both. The Sea of Galilee stays fresh because it has an outlet for the water it receives. The Dead Sea is properly named because it does not. Without an outlet virtues are like the Dead Sea. They become stagnant.[2] The virtue comes from God and becomes part of the person and goes out to others. [1] Kavanaugh, Collected Works: Life, [2] Kreeft, Peter, Back to Virtue, (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1992), p. 67-69. |
|
Please be aware that another website is using the Family Life Institute and Dr. DiVietri's name without authorization. Considering the nature of the website and the contents it links to we are not naming the imposter website or giving a link to it. The Family Life Institute is currently seeking what recourse it can take to stop the activities of the website in question.
|
