Lent 2026 - Reading #28 - Temperance
Reading
Thomas Aquinas connects temperance to the deeper question of what it means to be truly human: "The good of man as man consists in reason being perfected by the knowledge of truth, and the lower appetites being regulated according to the rule of reason. For it is clear that the lower appetites need to be governed, and not annihilated, by reason. Temperance perfects us not by eliminating desire but by integrating it into the whole of what we are." Aquinas explains further: "Temperance includes under itself all those virtues that refrain or withdraw the soul from the desire of bodily things, but not only these. It also includes modesty, which moderates the external movements of the body; clemency, which moderates the punishment of offenders; and studiousness, which moderates the desire to know. In all these, the principle is the same: the ordering of human appetites according to reason and the ultimate end." Aquinas's vision of temperance is thus remarkably broad, encompassing not only food and drink but curiosity, ambition, anger, and even the desire for knowledge. It is the master virtue of integration, gathering every aspect of our nature under the gentle governance of reason illuminated by faith.
Reflection
Thirty days of Lent complete. We close the cardinal virtues today, and what a journey it has been. Prudence gave us eyes to see; justice turned those eyes outward to our neighbor; fortitude gave us the spine to endure the cost of righteousness; and now temperance has given us mastery over our own inner house. These four virtues form a complete foundation for the moral life, and Aquinas, our guide throughout, shows us that temperance is their crown, the virtue that integrates everything we are into a harmonious whole. Tomorrow we cross a threshold. The theological virtues, faith, hope, and love, are different in kind from the cardinal virtues. The cardinal virtues perfect our natural capacities; the theological virtues connect us to God himself. They cannot be achieved by human effort alone; they must be received as gifts. But they require the cardinal virtues as their soil. Faith without prudence becomes credulity. Hope without fortitude becomes wishful thinking. Love without justice becomes sentimentality. The four weeks behind us have prepared the ground; the three weeks ahead will plant the seeds. Take a moment today to look back and look forward. You have been building something real these past thirty days, not through dramatic gestures but through daily, quiet faithfulness. The cardinal virtues are yours, not perfectly, but genuinely. You see more clearly, act more justly, endure more bravely, and govern yourself more wisely than you did on Ash Wednesday. Now open your hands. What comes next cannot be earned. It can only be received.