In a time of economic recession, it's time to get back to the basics, the practice of Christian, Catholic virtues. It's a time not only for personal virtue, but for solidarity. A moral theologian explains.
5 Virtues for Hard Economic Times
By: Richard M. Gula, S.S.
Day by day, our life takes root as we respond to the action of God in the world. Can we see God during economic hard times? I want to suggest five virtues whose practice will enable us to face economic uncertainty and hardship with integrity and responsibility. We can respond to God by rising to the occasion of the current economic crisis.
Turning to virtue as a way to reflect on these trying times enables us to bring together who we are with who we hope to become by means of how we respond to the challenges that face us. More than any other approach to moral living, virtue ethics connects our responses to the moral challenges of our day with the kind of persons we are. Or, as we said in traditional Catholic moral theology, who we are affects what we do, and what we do affects who we become. The virtues link us to right action by leaning us towards what human well–being demands.
1. Gratitude
More than any other virtue, gratitude opens the imagination to an economy not based on Wall Street—the economy of grace. It is our window into the deepest reality shaping our lives: God’s love for us. “Thanks” is a simple word, but it is a precious fountain of faith in God, and it fills our hearts with a readiness to cherish everything we have. When grace has the first word and “thanks” the second, then our whole life becomes an exchange of gifts, a living dynamic of receiving and giving with grateful hearts. The failure to recognize grace, but to take the bounty around us for granted or to feel entitled to it as a right is the root of our sin. Through a life of thanksgiving we can become responsible stewards of what we have received, seeing in everything the gifted nature of what we presume to possess.
2. Generosity
How odd to advocate generosity in times of tight money, you say? But generosity flows from gratitude. It is the virtue of giving over as well as giving up. Not to be generous is to be petty, stingy, greedy or egotistical. The widow and her two coins is an argument for generosity by example (Luke 21:1–4). In the spirit of the Psalmist, generosity asks, “How can I repay the Lord for all the good done to me?” (Ps. 116:12)
As giving over, generosity makes a world of sense in our faith lives, in which we are called to be images of God’s self–giving love and to imitate Christ’s special tenderness toward those in need.
Generosity in a time of financial crisis is countercultural in a world where self–interest trumps service. We cannot properly express ourselves as images of God or imitate Christ without being in relationship with others and sharing our gifts for the sake of each person and the good of the whole community.
3. Solidarity
This social dimension of our Christian identity seeks an ongoing life in the virtue of solidarity.
In today’s world we are unavoidably in relationship with one another. Interdependence is a necessary quality of human existence. Solidarity requires that our situation of interdependence be structured in ways that respect the human dignity of all. As such, solidarity stands in stark contrast to liberal forces that promote independence and separation as the norm.
Practiced as a virtue, solidarity constantly draws our attention to others. It is ordered to the common good by reminding us that we are not the center of the universe, that there are other centers of life, and that we are to give proper weight to their claims upon us. In solidarity we know that human life is a shared life and that give–and–take is better than grab–and–go. Solidarity also asks us to remember that while we want what we want, we might delay or forgo having it in the interest of the good of the whole.
4. Courage
It’s strength of character in the face of adversity. Through courage, we participate in the mystery of the cross. Courage is the apex of character. But it must not be confused with heroic foolhardiness that acts without fear. Courage is the ability to take fear along for the ride as we act in hope against whatever threatens us.
Courage is the ability to hang in there, to face danger, to withstand hardships with dignity, to risk rejection and to persevere with patient endurance. In a time of crisis, we need courage to make our interests known, to call those in authority to account, to change in our own lives what needs changing and to preserve our own integrity.
5. Hope
Hope is the virtue of the not–yet. It helps us deal with time. If we get caught in the tyranny of the present and feel that the sky is falling, then hope can release our imprisoned souls to fresh possibilities. Hope is an Easter virtue. Because we believe the cross did not have the last word, we are free to hope in the face of a social reality seemingly impossible to transform. Hope keeps the present in perspective and the future in sight.
If God’s promise of presence is real, then we ought not to regard what is happening to us now as simply disastrous. If, with St. Paul, “We know that all things work for good for those who love God” (Rom 8:28), then hope is more fundamental to a faith–filled vision of life than anxiety. Even things that go wrong are in the process of being made right. Because of hope, we may be bowed but not broken. Hope enables us to lean into these troubled times with an expectation that, no matter what happens, God is with us and for us.
Knowing that “this too will pass” is the wisdom of hope. It allows us to avoid despair when we come face–to–face with the personal and social sinfulness which has created our financial crisis, because hope knows that a part is not the whole.
Hope enables us to find meaning in whatever happens because hope rests in the faith–conviction that all is sustained by the graciousness of God and that whatever good comes is God’s gift.
These, then, are virtues affirming that character matters in the face of trying times. While we direct necessary energy towards solving the practical problems of our financial world, may we also remember: to be grateful, to be generous, to live in solidarity, to be brave and to hope—to rise to the occasion with the strength of virtues informed by Easter faith.
Richard M. Gula, a Sulpician priest, is a professor of moral theology at the Franciscan School of Theology/Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California. His books include The Good Life and The Call to Holiness (Paulist Press).
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