Temperance

Temperance has faded from modern consciousness as a virtue, relegated, when it is mentioned at all, to moderation in food and drink or abstention from alcohol. The Belgian philosopher Marcel De Corte here reveals its whole content, basing his analysis on Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas. Temperance intervenes in all the ends of human life, and nearly every virtue has need of it in order to be practiced. Without it, we become unbalanced, lose our self-possession, and are deprived of our truly human character, descending to the level of beasts. Bereft of temperance, individuals become not only debauched in body, but given over to inordinate desires of the mind, such as anger, envy, or even a disordered curiosity. Pride takes over, obliterating humility. De Corte issues a prophetic call for the reform of persons, and thus of society, through embracing the virtue of temperance, including its inclusion in catechetics and homilies. Otherwise, our "dis-society" will continue on its downward trajectory.