Temperance During Covid-19 Pandemic

Temperance

Temperance During Covid-19 Pandemic

Temperance is self-containment, self-discipline, self-control, self-command, self-restrain etc. It is not everything we experience in our bodies and souls that should be given free rein. Nor should we do everything we ought to do. It is easier to let ourselves be carried away by so-called natural whims which ends up in sadness and seclusion in our own desolation.

 

It is problematic for some individuals to repudiate anything to their stomach, eyes, or hands. Such individuals are vehemently adamant to advice which encourages them to lead clean lives. As for the faculty of generating new life — a great and noble faculty, a participation in God's creative power — they misuse it and make it a tool for their own selfish ends.

 

Let’s avoid the negative part but rather, dwell on the rich rewards that temperance brings. This pandemic period has left so may people in pains, some losing their jobs, so many not finding what to do and so on but this is the time to see men who are really men, and not slaves to cheap shimmer, as valueless as the ornaments that chatterers pleat. A manly person knows how to do without those things that may harm his soul irrespective of trials and tribulations  with the help of God, and he also comes to realise that his sacrifice is more ostensible than real; for living this way, with a spirit of sacrifice, means freeing oneself from many kinds of slavery and savouring instead, in the depths of one's heart, the fullness of God's love.

 

As Life has then taken on another shades and tones, we must in temperance be disposed to shape. And we will find ourselves able to care for the needs of others, to share what is ours with everyone, to devote our energies to great causes.

 Temperance makes the soul abstemious, modest, empathetic. It nurtures a natural sense of fall-back which everyone finds attractive because it denotes intelligent self-control.

Temperance does not infer thinness, but immensity of soul. There is considerably more deficiency in the intemperate heart which renounces from self-dominion only to become enslaved to the insatiable quest of the world.

Hunger and deprivation are not an excuse for wrongdoing or malevolent. Be guided, discipline yourself, control your evil desire and be thankful that you are alive which is the most important goal in this pandemic period. Let the virtue of temperance which is one of the four cardinal virtues be your watch word and do not forget to educate your children as well.

May God help us all, amen.

Maryprecious Dike

(Writing from Opus Dei)