The Virtues
THE SPIRITUAL LIFE and healing of the soul comes through new habits and new practices. This includes new ways of behaving, thinking and feeling. The healing of the soul should include all three powers of the soul: mind, heart and will, and these are to be transformed by way of the virtues. So then, what are the virtues? In the modern world, the idea of virtue is rapidly evaporating in people’s lives. Virtue is no longer discussed, taught or encouraged. Sure, we still have this vague notion of “the golden rule,” but even this is subject to individual desires and interpretations.
A common understanding of the definition of virtue is that it is an action that is considered good, right or noble. This concept of virtue comes down to us from the ancient idea of the four cardinal virtues: wisdom, courage, self-control and justice. This was initially proposed by Plato, and later adopted by stoic philosophers such as Epictetus, and was also a part of the Hebrew mindset. This can be seen in the Old Testament Book The Wisdom of Solomon:
And if a man loves righteousness, her labors are virtues: for she teaches temperance and prudence, justice and fortitude: which are such things as men can have nothing more profitable in their life (Wisdom 8:7).
Overtime the primary list of virtues would include: faith, hope, knowledge, wisdom, honestly, humility, obedience, patience, courage, faithfulness, temperance, self-control, chastity, generosity, kindness, gratitude, and love. All of these are talked about at length in the Bible. These virtues are endowed from on high. As St. Mark the Ascetic says: “God is the source of every virtue, as the sun is of daylight.”
With the incarnation of Christ, virtue was manifest in a new way. Before Christ, virtue was a duty or a human action of the will, but after Christ virtue was not only a matter of will (cooperating with God), but in a mysterious way became an extension of the incarnate energy of God. Instead of being a good action, virtue became something that was transformative, and could lead one to spiritual knowledge. Virtue was that which connected one with God. The older philosophical notion of the endeavor of the human will was now combined with New Testament gifts of the Holy. This is how the Church Fathers viewed virtue. Here’s what St. Gregory of Sinai said about receiving such a gift:
Each virtue is endowed with its own specific gift of grace, its own particular energy… For just as the living soul activates the body’s members, so the grace of the Holy Spirit activates the virtues.
The key in this quote is the connection between God as Holy Spirit and the virtues. According to the scriptures and the Church Fathers, virtue is power or energy that is activated within us by God. There is an interesting episode in the New Testament that illustrates this. In the Gospel of Mark, when the sick woman touched the hem of Christ’s garment, He said, “virtue is gone out of me,” (Mark 5:30), and the woman was instantly healed of her illness. This virtue or power from Christ was what healed her.
For us, virtue comes from a disposition of the will. We must first choose the virtue, and then pursue it though self-control. St. Gregory of Sinai reveals this process in all its majesty:
The principle and source of virtue is a good disposition of the will, that is to say, an aspiration for goodness and beauty. God is the source and ground of all supernal goodness. Thus, the principle of goodness and beauty is faith or, rather, it is Christ, the rock of faith, who is the principle foundation on which we build every good thing.
The virtues are linked in a mysterious way. As we train ourselves in one virtue, the next virtue also appears and starts to flourish. According to St. Macarius the Great: