Prudence: Decisive Reality: Day 32
Author: Andrew Comiskey
November 14, 2020
‘To be open to the
truth of real things and to live by the truth that one has grasped is the
essence of the moral being. Only when we recognize this state of things can
we likewise understand the depths to which the unchaste heart permits
destruction to invade its very being...
Prudence implies a
transformation of the knowledge of truth into decision corresponding to
reality.’ (The Four Cardinal Virtues,
Josef Pieper, p. 162)
‘Prudence, then, is the mold
and mother of all virtues, the circumspect and
resolute shaping power of our
minds which transforms knowledge of reality into realization of the good.
It holds within itself the humility…of unbiased perception; the
trueness-to-being of memory; the art of receiving counsel; alert, composed
readiness for the unexpected. Prudence means the studied seriousness and, as it
were, the filter of deliberation, and at the same time the brave boldness to make
final decisions.’ (The Four Cardinal Virtues, Josef Pieper, p. 22)
As the first and foremost
virtue, prudence demands that we grasp her thoroughly. She is wisdom, true, but
much more. The prudent person is well-formed in grasping Reality--the truth of
things. Life in all its diversity is objective, and not merely a whim of my
unique lens, you know, the popular credo: “Well, that may be true for you…”
Prudence insists on the
truth of things. One can run from Reality but it won’t hide. You must hide from
it and suffer the consequence of decisions made in unreality. In other words, an objective truth prevails over the
earth that I can dodge but not alter. Secondly,
the prudent person will make
unbiased decisions based on Reality. The prudent person comes to possess a
well-honed lens through which (s)he perceives and interacts deftly with Reality.
That may well mean prompt, nearly intuitive actions taken in a pinch, at
unexpected, even perilous junctures. One tends to want to follow the prudent, as he or she is not inclined to
lead others astray.
How imprudent our porn-wracked,
contracepting, gender-bending culture is! We live in a fog of unreality
concerning what it means to be human. Consider first porn--how most children
lose their virginity to hardcore porn around 10-years-old, and many keep
feeding the new monster anything that sparks its insatiable curiosity. After
porn poisoning, we can never look at our own or another’s sexuality the same.
Shame, lust, self-hatred, vanity, and disdain skew our lens;
we imprudent
ones see Reality through a glass darkly.
Perhaps we leap the screen
to people, props in our porn play. Not whole people, mind you, mere fragments
of people who attract us. Reality made us for communion; we the imprudent
reduce people to sensual sensations.
Our sexual-decision-making is a
nightmare; pretending to ‘make love,’ we mutually masturbate with persons who
charm us less and less. Contraception keeps Reality at bay--we close off
the prospect of kids from our fantasy world. Divorcing sex from life deepens
our delusion.
Why not ‘gay’ rights? If
Joe and Jane can use the other to generate heat, not kids, why can’t Joe and
Jim? For many today, same-gender options are just a new part of their sensual
palate. They not only leapt the screen; they leapt genders as to spark strange
new fire.
The road to unreality goes down and down. We shrug when George
seeks to reinvent himself altogether as ‘her’ or ‘them.’
We’ve now no authority to
insist on the Reality of one’s human nature, made in God’s image.
We are now
so deluded we can barely behold the outline of Reality. We weakly assent to
another’s unreality, even if it means abetting his descent into the slow
suicide of butchering his body and stitching on false parts.
‘Please Jesus, in Your
mercy, inspire good shame for our imprudence. We have blurred the boundaries
til they broke, shattering our perceptions and capacity for clear
decision-making. Only repentance and the Blood will do now. Help us to behold
what is Real again and to establish ourselves on the truth of our corporate
human nature. In the gap between Reality and our fractured sight, we welcome
Your unfailing love into the mess we’ve made.’
‘Jesus, thank You that we
are first and foremost citizens of Your Kingdom. Your saving purposes, the
plans of Your heart, endure forever (Ps. 33:11). Patriotism and its partisan
interests must bow before “Your will be done.” “The eyes of the Lord are on
those who fear Him, who hope in His unfailing love” (Ps. 33:18).’
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