Something for Sunday Morning

The Christian will try to acquire each of the virtues that are ideally situated to battle the seven cardinal sins. He will cultivate temperance to squelch gluttony. He will solicit an attitude of chastity to fight lust; generosity to fight avarice; meekness to fight anger; charity to fight envy; diligence to fight sloth; and the highest virtue, humility, to fight the mother of sin, pride.

But the road to selflessness is arduous. It requires the Christian to fight an inborn enemy–his fallen nature. The fight takes place on, at best, neutral ground, and, at worst, on enemy soil–a society and a fallen earth stained by original sin and the imperfections of paradise lost. The effort entails a gradual purge of all that is earthly, including appetites and passions, the desire for a good reputation, the esteem placed on opinion. The purge creates a pure self, a self freed from the fetters imposed by the earthly self and its earthly desires, a self that desires nothing but the spiritual and a reunion with God–He who created a pure self for man who despoiled it.