"Keeping Your Head Down" is Not A Virtue

Recently this article "Seminarians asked to Stand for Holy Communion." was posted in a group which I am in on facebook. The discussion that followed was to say the least disappointing. The classical understanding of virtue seems to have been buried long ago. I will here, with shovel in hand attempt to unearth it. I admit that I do so at the risk of irritating fine Catholics. Some of you may love Fr. Z, I know I do. However, his response:"Your best response? Shut up. Smile. Stand for Communion. And the next day? Shut up. Smile. Stand for Communion … until you get ordained."To say the least it was disappointing. We are entering into a very strange time in the Church. The election of Pope Francis, the subsequent revival of liberation theology, the disastrous synod, and the emboldened actions of the homoheretics/modernists, have caused even the traditional folks to run for cover. My sense is that everyone is hoping that if we run for cover now, this will all blow over soon. My opinion is that the recent exit of Bishop Finn in the diocese of Kansas City, is evidence that simply "keeping your head down," may no longer be enough. In the the virtual world, several very holy and orthodox priests, priests who are friendly to tradition, suggested that to do otherwise was tantamount to acting like "Rambo." If I recall Rambo fought against evil, and won? While, it seemed like a bad analogy to me and was certainly not meant to inspire, I chose to think of heroic virtue. Nevertheless, it was used to paint a picture, better, a caricature of anyone who dare stand up to evil, call it was it is, and refuse to accept that "keeping  your head down," "smiling," and keeping your mouth shut, in the face of a tyrannical evil are in fact virtuous. It occurs to me that the classical understanding of virtue is not being conveyed by any of these priests. Perhaps, a closer look at the virtue it would seem they are all talking about, our good friend prudence.In classical theology, it is difficult,  near to impossible to list every moral virtue as there can be a virtue lurking wherever there is a good moral habit. Each of us has what is referred to as natural virtue. That is virtue that is a result of our nature, the ability to do and to choose good simply because we are rational. We can have a natural prudence that governs our actions. However, here we (hopefully) are talking about the supernatural gift of prudence. The great spiritual work, "Spiritual Theology," refers to it as:"a special virtue infused by God into the practical intellect for the right government of one's actions in view of the supernatural end. By reason of origin, infused prudence is given by God with sanctifying grace. By reason of extension or application, infused prudence governs the supernatural order. By reason of the formal motive, infused prudence operates under reason enlightened by faith and informed with charity." Jordan AumannPrudence is the virtue by which we make choose our human actions. Not randomly, not because we have made up a truth and want to order ourselves to this new idea we have created in our minds. No! That is for the Kantian idealists! Rather, we know that there is objective truth that governs the universe, and we know that that objective truth is outside of the universe and greater than the universe. It is what we would call our supernatural end, it is God. The gift of grace that God gives to increase in us the virtue of prudence, is always ordered toward Him. When we are choosing our actions, prudence helps like an archer directing his arrow to the bullseye, to direct our actions to our end, namely God. Prudence is governed then by reason, it is given greater strength and vision by supernatural faith, and it manifests itself most fully when it is informed by the supernatural charity. The virtues are not compartmentalized. We do not simply access prudence when we need to make a decision on whether to act or not to act. Rather, each virtue informs the other and works in harmony with one another. However, prudence is the virtue that governs all of the the others. As St. Thomas says "prudence is right reason applied to action." In other words, supernatural prudence elevates our ability to make good human choices rightly ordered to the will of God. Let us go back to are initial dilemma. Can refusing to "keep your head down" or refusing to simply "shut-up and smile" or be considered virtuous? Certainly! If we have divine faith, and we believe that our supernatural end resides in our union with Christ in the eucharist. In other words, we believe that He is God incarnate, as is the Eucharist, then the choice we make may be ordered to that good. Our response need not include a 12 inch blade with a serrated edge on one side. Rather, it can be a charitable resistance. Or course, those seminarians fear removal of from the seminary for failing to respond appropriately. The request of the superior's is both unjust and unfounded. If we recall that disagreeing is not disliking, we need not act in anger, rather, we can rest both in peace and in joy knowing, that when we kneel and receive on the tongue we are acting within the parameters of Redemtionis Sacramentum which says: “…it is not licit to deny Holy Communion to any of Christ’s faithful solely on the grounds, for example, that the person wishes to receive the Eucharist kneeling…”(91) and “each of the faithful always has the right to receive Holy Communion on the tongue…” (92)While then Cardinal Ratzinger in his book Spirit of the Liturgy states:“It may well be that kneeling is alien to modern culture — insofar as it is a culture, for this culture has turned away from the faith and no longer knows the one before whom kneeling is the right, indeed the intrinsically necessary gesture. The man who learns to believe learns also to kneel, and a faith or a liturgy no longer familiar with kneeling would be sick at the core. Where it has been lost, kneeling must be rediscovered…” (p. 194)The virtuous man has as his end at all times his salvation. Christianity is the religion of the Cross. Which signifies persecution. Persecution for an unwillingness to acquiesce to the weak will and infidelity of a culture and a Church which have turned away from God. The lack of faith in the Church will not be overcome by a lack of virtue in men. While men are free to "keep their head down" I cannot help but wonder, if they do it in regards to the worship of Christ, where will it end. Our freely chosen actions are formative. If we convince ourselves that we are virtuous by walking away from a conflict directly involving the Incarnation, suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ Himself, where does it end? The Church herself says that it is illicit to deny anyone holy communion who wishes to kneel. Is it not a sign of the infection that is destroying the Church from within? The argument is that these priests will be ordained and then they will change everything? Really? When? If they have convinced themselves that the virtue of prudence is waiting to act until all of the conditions are right, when will they act? I know far to many priests who think that the virtue of prudence is something like acting only when it will not cause the collection plate to shrivel up to much. Perhaps, prudence is acting in fidelity to Christ, when we know the truth, and doing so with charity, regardless, of how it may be perceived by the world. As near as I can tell the priests giving advice in the thread experienced even much worse conditions during their time in seminary. And they just "kept their head's down." By their logic, the Church should be flourishing today. Perhaps it is time for men of a more traditional mind to consider the FSSP. I am pretty sure you can receive while on your knees and you certainly do not have to "keep your head down." Pray the Rosary Daily!Be Holy, Not Worldly!Sacred Heart of Jesus, Have Mercy on Us!