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Finding Perfect Love in 2009 (Part Two of Six):
Perfect Counsel
Written by Thomas P. Schmierer
February 10, 2009 |
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 Are you committed to finding perfect love in 2009? If so, then you may be wondering how to find this love. To experience perfect love, we first need to learn to love perfectly. This can be accomplished by finding perfect counsel. This article explains how to find such counsel and why it is a vital first step in the quest for perfect love.
Wisdom as a Virtue
In order to love in perfect Christian charity, one must first properly form one's mind by seeking wisdom. If I want to do something loving, I must first understand what a loving act is and how to do it. If I am selfish and wish to change, then I must first understand what it means to be unselfish. Wisdom is understanding what a perfectly good action is and how to perform such an act.
Wisdom is almost synonymous with prudence, one of the four cardinal virtues. The Catechism of the Catholic Church provides us with a superb explanation of the primacy of prudence in the quest for perfect action:
Prudence is the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it; "the prudent man looks where he is going."65 [Prudence] guides the other virtues by setting rule and measure. It is prudence that immediately guides the judgment of conscience. The prudent man determines and directs his conduct in accordance with this judgment.(1)
Prudence prefers God's wisdom over creaturely cleverness. On this note, the Catechism states "When he listens to his conscience, the prudent man can hear God speaking."(2) In order to hear God's voice, one must often first practice prudence. An excellent way to begin practicing prudence is to seek wise counsel since the words of the wise will help you to grow in wisdom, which means that you will better understand how to love as God loves.
Where to Find Wisdom
As Catholic Christians, wise counsel is right under our noses. Every Sunday at Mass we have the great privilege of listening to the homily of a Catholic Christian priest who has had at least six years of priestly formation, preparing him to expound on the teachings of Christ so that you may learn to love perfectly.
During the consecration at Mass, the priest acts in the person of Christ, in persona Christi. He has received the ability to act in the person of Christ through the Sacrament of Holy Orders. At Pentecost, the promise of Jesus that He would send us the Holy Spirit was fulfilled. By receiving Holy Orders, our priests have received the same Spirit that was first given to the Apostles at Pentecost. We practice prudence when we listen to the wise counsel of Christ through those who act as "other Christs," alter Christus, i.e. our holy priests.
Yet, how often do we ever really go home and immediately begin doing what the priest had just instructed us to do in his homily? Are we now regular volunteers at the local food shelter? Have we begun to pray daily in the format taught to us by our pastor? Do we read a little bit of the Bible everyday, or is that just another part of a homily that we have chosen to ignore?
Most of us listen to the priest give a homily on Sundays, nod our heads in agreement, and then go home and do the exact same things that we did the previous week? If we want to love perfectly in 2009, we must do something different this year. We need to change and the time for it is now!
In order to change, we need to start doing exactly what our local priest calls us to do in his Sunday homilies. We must commit to listening closely to this Sunday's homily for something that we can do differently. We must commit to doing one little thing that is different, good, and holy, because it is precisely by following our priests' perfect counsel that we may find perfect love in 2009!
Footnotes
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 1806. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/p3s1c1a7.htm.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 1777. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/p3s1c1a6.htm.
Thomas Schmierer is a Catholic counselor, writer, and evangelizer for V2C. Visit www.vaticanvalues.com to learn more about Mr. Schmierer's work. For information about his audio presentation on "Christian Dating & Courtship," visit http://www.amazon.com/Christian-Dating-Courtship-Intimacy-Catholic/dp/B001F3H2GQ/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_i.
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