A Virtuous Life

Homily for Friday of the First Week in Lent

Virtue seems to be the subject of the Scriptures today. As we continue in our Lenten journey, it might be a good idea to ask whether we are living a virtuous life.

Benjamin Franklin was one of the participants in the Continental Congress that drew up the Declaration of Independence, a document upon which our country was founded. As a young statesman in a new world, Benjamin Franklin thought the best way to cultivate his character was to strive to live a virtuous life. He enumerated a list of thirteen virtues that he thought important in a virtuous life. To track his success, he devised a daily report card to grade his progress in his quest for what he called “moral perfection.” The list reads as follows: temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, humility. He created a scorecard that he used to examine his life to see if he was living by the virtues he found important. He also wrote a description of what each of them meant. That description is too long for me to tell you about today. However, for the last of these virtues, namely – humility, he wrote: “Imitate Jesus and Socrates.”

The Church asks us to strive to keep the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity, and it also adds what are called the cardinal virtues of prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice. Taken altogether, it gives us a rather complete vision of what the Scriptures consider a virtuous person.

The Gospel reading for today is taken from St. Matthew’s account of the Sermon on the Mount. One of the major themes of St. Matthew’s Gospel is righteousness. Jesus teaches that our worship means nothing unless we practice the virtue of charity. Within the Christian Scriptures, the virtue of righteousness is measured by our relationships. Are we in a right relationship with God and our neighbor? If not, then we need to add yet another virtue to our list, the virtue of forgiveness.

How dearly our world needs reconciliation! I think that if we were to use Benjamin Franklin’s “daily report card,” it would be necessary to put that virtue at the very top considering the world that we live in.

There are, of course, many other virtues that could be mentioned. However, both Benjamin Franklin’s list as well as the virtues espoused by the Church would provide us with a very good examination of conscience as we continue to walk on this Lenten journey.