True fulfillment comes through truth, beauty and goodness; all of which illuminate and transcend worldly success and human initiative.

In a word, they restore us and help us to be “human” again.

When we get away from truth, beauty and goodness, we act more like animals and become inhumane.

G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) summed this up brilliantly by writing: “Just as [we] became unnatural by worshipping nature, so [we] actually became unmanly by worshipping man” (The Everlasting Man, emphasis added).

Recognition and rest

So how do we recognize truth, beauty and goodness in this world?

Well, we recognize them by whatever gives us true inner “rest.”

St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD) famously wrote in his book, Confessions, for this reason. “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”

Though he was summing up our universal insatiable hunger for God (who is the Source of all truth, beauty and goodness) we can be sure that whenever we experience inner rest, joy and peace, we have discovered or appreciated something beautiful, good or true.

We still suffer unjustly from the “crossfire” of sin and death, yet we can experience delight and a greater fulfillment, even in our broken and unjust world.

Yet total fulfillment can only be found in eternal life with God.

So how do we cultivate more of this inner “delight”?

We need to be prepared to receive peace and joy by initiating four human habits of living, known as virtues. These are ways of living that “reorder” our disordered daily habits, which are often the sources of our unsettled and restless minds.

The four pillars

These four “pillars” of living are: prudence, temperance, justice and fortitude (CCC 1804-1809).

According to Catholic German philosopher, Josef Pieper (1904-1997), “Virtue is the utmost of what a man can be; it is the realization of the human capacity for being” (A Brief Reader on the Virtues of the Human Heart).

The fact that we are capable of pursuing virtue also helps us to remember our humanity, and separates us from the animals.

Prudence is doing the right thing at the right time in the right way. Justice is giving someone his due in the appropriate measure. Fortitude is moral strength to face trials with courage. Temperance is refusing to allow desires and appetites to rule over us, whether that’s indulging in five cheeseburgers or entertaining thoughts of revenge.

Our ability to ponder and take delight in higher truths proves we have the capability of being fulfilled by these more noble achievements.

Supernatural infusion

The supernatural virtues, on the other hand, are infused into us by God Himself. They are a “breath of the power of God” that regenerates us so that our natural abilities will have God’s supernatural effects.

They allow mankind to share in God’s very nature, and are evidence that God’s life is living in him.

The Christian must be disposed to receive these supernatural virtues through practicing the “four pillars”.

We cannot earn them or “trick” God into giving them to us.

God knows when we are ready to receive them, and will give them (or take them away) throughout our lives based on our souls’ capability use them for others’ benefit.

If the human virtues are the four pillars, the supernatural virtues are the embellishments that help us to achieve their ends. And the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity are the “cement” that holds them all together.

“Love virtue, you who are judges on earth….” (Wis 1:1, JB).

True virtue leads to humility

The irony in all of this is that our efforts to live a balanced life have limitations, and true “rest” comes from accepting those limits and having the humility to turn our efforts over to God.

We can only rest when we choose to “rest in God” every day.

We can “rest” in that fact that it is He who keeps the world going, even maintaining the courses of the sun and the moon (Ps 19: 5-6) while we are dead to the world in our slumber.

Cultivating habits of the virtues helps us to see our utter dependence on God.

That is why King David proclaimed in the Psalm, “The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts.”

He knew this “trust” came from accepting God’s loving care.

And then, finally, there is peace.

“[Our] light will break forth like the dawn and your healing shall spring up speedily;
your righteousness shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard” (Isa 58:8).

All powers: “Engage!”

So say we want to be “better humans” and begin practicing the four pillars of virtue in our daily lives and we want God to become part of our efforts.

How?

Well, through learning about God through the lens of our faith.

Catholicism engages all our human powers of intellect, imagination, will and reasoning.

Yet in our human weaknesses, frailties and limitations, we cannot begin to encompass its vastness.

This forces us to recognize our own limitations–bringing humility–whereas weak human philosophies force us to cling to our own ideas, marrying us to our own pride.

Philosophy or religion?

Philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) refused to acknowledge anything outside his little “sunbeam” of understanding of the world.

Former atheist and theologian, C.S. Lewis, said Christianity illuminates all things—like the sun illuminates the things in the world—the good and the bad.

Christianity itself shows that rather than being “Platonism for the masses” as Nietzsche claimed, his philosophy of “the death of God” was actually the poison for the masses.

Instead of producing what he called, “liberation from morality”, his ideas have produced despair, suffering and death to entire cultures.

Once remarking, “the truth is ugly”, who can say if Nietzsche was a credible testament to his own ideas, as he went mad long before his death (his sister gladly carried on his legacy and basked in his fame).

But his ideas sadly lived on, enthusiastically harnessed by Adolf Hitler in the 1930’s, and later embraced by the Nazi Socialist Party.

To attack or to defend…

But should we be surprised?

All false philosophies attack truth, goodness and beauty.

So what “goods” are under attack today?

The goods of marriage between a man and a woman as ordained by God (Gen 2:24);

the goodness of children and raising a family;

the goodness of motherhood and the femininity of women;

the goodness of fatherhood, courageous sacrifice and masculine leadership;

and finally, the goodness of personhood and what it means to be human (a beloved child of God).

True religion requires defense of all that is good, which means the defense of God, Who is the greatest good.

This is our task

This is our task, and a noble one at that.

For most Christians (of course, there are exceptions), God has called us to:

Get married.

Raise a family.

Pray as a family. Go to Mass and receive the Sacraments as a family.

For men: guard and protect your women and children from attacks on their dignity through your example and your service.

For women: nurture your children with goodness and stay faithful to your vocation as a wife and mother.

For men and women: reject things that do not fulfill us and dehumanize us, and make time for daily prayer.

This is the key to true fulfillment, which restores us and helps us to remember what it means to be “human” again.

“They come against us in great pride and lawlessness; as for you, do not be afraid of them: it is not on the size of the army that victory in battle depends, since strength comes from heaven.” (Macc 3:19-22).

Sources: Catholic Education Resource Center, “The Legacy of Friedrich Nietzsche,” Roger Kimball, accessed November 14, 2023, Catholiceducation.org, https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/religion-and-philosophy/philosophy/the-legacy-of-friedrich-nietzsche.html.

G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man, Ibis Press, 2023, p. 107.