A Note on Prudence:

            In paragraph 1806 of the Catechism one will find the following:

“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.’ (Prov. 14:15)  ‘Keep sane and sober for your prayers.’ (1 Pet. 4:7)  Prudence is ‘right reason in action,’ writes St. Thomas Aquinas, following Aristotle.  It is not to be confused with timidity or fear, nor with duplicity or dissimulation.  It is called auriga virtutum (the charioteer of the virtues); it 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.  With the help of this virtue we apply moral principles to particular cases without error and overcome doubts about the good to achieve and the evil to avoid.”

In a previous post I wrote about the use of prudence in making the decision to abandon wage-slavery so that one might have the freedom to care for the spiritual needs of his family as well as their material needs. 

The Catechism wonderfully points out that prudence is not to be confused with fear or timidity.  Cowardice is not prudence.  To let fear keep you in the bondage that keeps you from caring for your family as you ought is terribly imprudent, especially when considered in light of eternity.  Not only could your children and your spouse lose their souls because of your abnegation of your spousal and parental duties, you could lose your own soul for eternity for failing your duties.  Highly imprudent indeed.

However, rashness is also imprudent, and many families are not poised to make the jump out of wage-slavery right away.  Part of prudence is discerning the right means of achieving the good.  For a man whose family has $90,000 in school debt on top of a mortgage, a car loan, and credit card debt, it is highly imprudent to jump straight into yeomanry (i.e. the freedom of the small holder, craftsman, homesteader…).  He cannot expect to repay his debts from this kind of work and he is obligated to repay them.  Prudence, in choosing the right means for this man to get out of wage slavery must find a way to eliminate the debt justly.  This can mean any number of things, and it most certainly entails the virtues of patience and fortitude to achieve the good that he sees on the horizon and for which he is striving.

Likewise, a man who has no experience on the land and no skilled craft would be ridiculously imprudent to make the jump to yeomanry.  Prudence would mark out a path of apprenticeship in land or craft or both and would likewise demand patience and fortitude to achieve the good. 

I stand by my general assessment that our whole society is broken and is not functioning on a human scale.  It is not good for families or for individuals to be enslaved to debt, comfort, or a wage, or to be reduced to a “hand” in a factory or a cog in a machine.  But once that has happened, and it has, there is no quick fix.

In criticizing the “filthy, rotten system” I do not mean to encourage imprudent action that can quickly sink a family deeper in the mire.

I know a number of families who might be poised to make the imprudent decision of rashness.  They desperately want the freedom of the yeoman, but they either have a ton of debt or no skilled craft or experience on the land.  I pray for them, especially that they have the patience to continue the long road to freedom and to do what they can to get ready for the jump when the time comes. 

I also think that desperate times call for desperate measures and that the possibility of associations of debt-sharing and debt-alleviation might be true necessities if we are going to establish a just society where families can be what they are called by God to be.  While debt may have been incurred by the consent of a person, there are a lot of social pressures to take those debts on and many of us who went straight to college from high school had no real understanding of what debt meant when we signed away years of our lives to repaying tens of thousands of dollars so that we could have the “college experience.”  I think that Christian Charity calls for us to carry each other’s burdens if at all possible.  Our Lady of Ransom once called men to ransom Christian slaves and captives from the Muslims in the Holy Land.  Might she not be calling us now to ransom Christian slaves from a usurious system that has turned its back on the Gospel?

 However, I also know a number of families who are being sorely tempted to the imprudence of cowardice.  They have skills and experience.  They have land.  They have workspaces.  They have little or no debt.  And yet they are being told by so many “concerned” voices that they shouldn’t make this jump.  That they should continue working 50, 60, 70, or 80 hour workweeks so that they can fulfill their obligations to their families.  This is the voice of fear calling us to cling desperately to Mammon for our salvation.  This is the lie that says that working for a big corporation or being a member of union will provide our security.

Let me say this once and for all: THERE IS NO SECURITY OUTSIDE OF GOD’S HANDS.  I’ve known men with extremely “secure” jobs who lost them over night and were out of work for months.  I’ve known huge corporations who thought they could take over the world and who tanked overnight.  It is a materialist LIE FROM HELL that we will ever make our own security. 

Total abandonment to Divine Providence is the only security.  Seeking first the Kingdom is the only security.  Living so poorly that you haven’t far to fall when the economy collapses is the only security.  God alone is our provider.  God alone is our hope.  If He wills it, no obstacle can stop it. 

If you are without skills or experience or in heaps of debt or both and yet you feel a desperate longing for freedom, then pray to the Holy Spirit for prudence to show you the way to travel and for the fortitude to take that path.  And be patient on the way.  God does not need silver or gold.  He only needs souls to say, “Yes” without conditions.

If you have the skills and no debt and the only thing keeping you from the freedom that you need to truly fulfill your obligations to your family is fear for your own providence, then consider the lilies and the birds of the air and pray for the prudence you need to walk the right path which lies right at your feet.

Quid hoc ad aeternitatem? What is it worth in the light of eternity? – St. Bernard