True Virtue

St. Augustine says true virtue is rightly–ordered affections.  It is supremely loving only what is worthy of one’s supreme love.  It is being mildly inclined toward what is worthy of only mild inclinations.  And it is despising what is truly despicable.  Another way of saying it is true virtue is valuing deep in your soul everything according to its actual worth.  Everything in its proper order. 

I remember watching an interview of a rodeo bull–rider after he had won.  The interviewer commented about the rider’s fearlessness out there.  With a straight face the bull–rider retorted:  “I’m not afraid to die.  I’ll do whatever it takes.”  I suppose growing up in the city my perception of the virtues of bull-riding is short-sided.  But when did it become standard jargon to express paying the ultimate price for riding a bull as something noble? 

It is common to hear reflections at funerals related to the life of the deceased.  “His greatest passion was bass-fishing every morning.” “She really lived for cycling more than anything.”  “His one passion in life was the Dodgers.”

The question Augustine would ask is:  Does this bull-rider love bull-riding according to its actual worth?  Another way of asking it is:  Are our greatest passions supposed to be our greatest passions?  Do we love supremely something we should only be mildly inclined toward?  Are those things that we are mildly inclined toward instead supposed to be actually our greatest passions?  Is everything in its proper order according to its actual worth?  Do you see the question he’s shaping for us? 

It will not be surprising to you that I find Augustine’s account of virtue very compelling.  The center of true virtue is the affections, the heart.  Probably something Augustine picked up from his adored Savior.  Second, virtuous living is lining yourself up with a reality outside of yourself.  You don’t create value, it is already out there.  You don’t invent it, you discover it.  Of course this is uprooting for the gate-keepers of our culture.  Those journalists and senators and celebrities and kindergarten teachers that have programmed us to find whatever we love and pursue it.  Conditioned us to see virtue as the passionate pursuit of our dreams, and then they leave the most important question intentionally unanswered.  What are those dreams?  What is the object of our pursuit?  Bull-riding?  God?  The Dodgers?  Bass-fishing?  It doesn’t matter, or so we’re told.  All that matters is that in the land of opportunity we pursue it with all our heart.  The American Dream.  Augustine would shutter.  Maybe we should too.