The Charioteer of the Virtues

Yesterday, we stated that the Romans were prudent; however, they were also courageous, temperate, and just. They must have been temperate, because all good soldiers and statesmen always are. They must have been just since they fought for the ius (a natural moral right based on the fact of having existence from the Creator) of infants to live and grow to maturity. Thus they had all the moral virtues. That’s how it works. If a person has prudence, then he has the rest of the virtues as well. Prudence is primarily in the practical intellect where it helps one to choose the right means to an end, for instance, the right means to the end of practicing the other moral virtues. Ultimately, it helps one to choose the means to the final end for which he has been created: union with God in eternal life. Prudence guides and directs the other virtues “by setting rule and measure.”(1) Rightly does the Catechism of the Catholic Church call prudence “auriga virtutem (the charioteer of the virtues).”(2)
Each individual man can also be prudent. There is no such thing as a born saint. Holiness requires human effort in addition to the grace of God. Developing the natural moral virtues is work! As with Cicero and the other men of the Roman Republic, the natural moral virtues are the fruit of a man’s upbringing, education, and repeated good acts. It does take learning and effort to attain the natural moral virtues; however, once a man has acquired them, then he does good acts with ease, with hardly any deliberation or effort. These virtues are truly “natural.”
Footnotes:
1. Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1806.
2. Ibid.