Four Virtues of the Intellect

Truth

First, the cult of truth honors truth as an absolute. One recounts that a Russian under the Soviet regime was imprisoned but was promised freedom if he would simply tell one little lie. He refused and suffered the consequences. He did not believe in God, for he had heard so many stupidities about Him, but he nevertheless knew he did not have the right to lie. He realized that truth was somehow greater than himself.

Purity

Second, purity belongs to an intellect that gives itself only to truth in what one has called “virginity of mind.” We have to be resolved to look only for truth, to consider all things, including ourselves, with absolute sincerity, careful to avoid all compromises in our hearts with half-truths.

This purity concerns not only speculative but also practical truth, not only what is but also what we should do. We must seek truth in all domains—in public and private life, in our work, our prayer, and our relationships. We want to be true in the presence of others but also when alone behind closed doors. The first thing to do when faced with an event is to see clearly. We need to search for the whole truth of the context, enlighten the situation by the truth we know, by God’s light.

Humility

The third habit, intellectual humility, consists in a docile attention to the object. Pride does not want to listen to reality, to be a disciple of reality. To know truth, we must adapt to reality, not adapt reality to ourselves, as Adam and Eve desired to do, and as we do when we sin. We need to put ourselves at reality’s feet and let it teach us. Reality is indeed rich and deep, full of nuances, paradoxes, and aspects. As we have seen, wonder is the proper attitude in regards to the mystery in things. We respect the mystery and know that we cannot force it but must be open to its teaching. It is often because we do not realize the value of reality that we do not think deeply and thoroughly. We do not consider it worth the effort, and so we tend to take hasty, superficial glances.

Detachment

A fourth virtue is detachment. We have spoken of how we cannot follow everything that is going on, listen to all the hypotheses by political commentators, and at the same time pay attention to deep truths. We have to restrain our compulsive greed for information. To know great truths, we must be sober in this world of overwhelming possibilities of knowing trifles. As in all domains, we must know how to mortify the superficial and the temporal in view of the substantial and the lasting.

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This article is taken from a chapter in From Silence to Silence by Fr. Francis Bethel, OSB which is available from TAN Books.