Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Stubborn Test
If I am stubborn, I wish to be so in the right way, that is, to have the virtue of constancy. I want to be constant in the Lord, in my faith and in my values. I don't want to be a pushover when it comes to truth. Martyrs were constant, so were saints. I wish to be like them, that is, faithful to the end.
However, I don't want to be unmovable in the things that don't matter, or in inordinate things that take away from my health, holiness and happiness. If I relentlessly persevere in things that don't encourage in me the twofold love of God and neighbor, than I am stubborn, which is vicious. One effect of stubbornness is a weakening of relationships for the sake of pride. If I do this, then I definitely want to purge myself.
As with all vices, stubbornness stems from pride and the only cure is humility.
While I have already touched upon the virtue of humility, it is a subject for me that never gets old. I view humility as a journey. Since humility is seeing myself through the eyes of God and rightly ascertaining what and who I actually am (without over or underestimating), it will take me my whole life to become perfectly humble. Layer by layer of disordered attachments or attitudes need to be taken away as virtue replaces it.
Stubborn Test
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" Constancy is the virtue by which a person endures the toil involved in persistently accomplishing a good work. It belongs to perseverance to persist in good for a long time until the end. Perseverance moderates the emotion of fear as it regards weariness or failure on account of the delay. It differs from constancy in that constancy makes a man persist firmly in good against difficulties arising from external hindrances.
The defect of perseverance is effeminacy. The effeminate are ready to forsake a good on account of difficulties which they cannot endure. Delicacy, according to Aquinas, is a kind of effeminacy and is thus a vice contrary to perseverance. The delicate, after considering the toil involved in a difficult work, will naturally recoil, whereas the effeminate are principally focused on the lack of pleasure involved in a particular work.
The excess of perseverance is pertinacity, which exceeds the mean of perseverance appointed by reason. The pertinacious man persists inordinately in something against many difficulties. He desires the proximate end too much. The pertinacious and the effeminate have something in common, for the pertinacious shun the pain involved in not realizing the pleasure of the end that he loves and pursues inordinately." from http://catholiceducation.org/articles/education/ed0283.html
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~“Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.“No one should be ashamed to admit they are wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that they are wiser today than they were yesterday. ”
“Any man worth his salt will stick up for what he believes right, but it takes a slightly better man to acknowledge instantly and without reservation that he is in error.” “An error doesn't become a mistake until you refuse to correct it.”
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