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The After Christmas “No Money Blues”.
Luke 4:12 Jesus said to him in reply, “It also says, ‘You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.’”
Years ago, when I came to “know the Lord” as an adult or maybe it would be better to say; “When I had my ‘metanoia‘ experience”. I had some very immature ideas of my relationship with God. I needed to be “mature” in my Faith, as St. Paul refers to our Christianity [Eph. 4:13; Phi. 3:15; Heb. 5:14].
For example: I used to tell people that if I walked out in the middle of a busy street and expected God to protect me from danger He would. I would give that as an example of my Faith.This way of thinking is at least a very immature way of Faith… at worst it goes against Christianity [Lk. 4:12].
And so… we come back to the verse from The Gospel of St. Luke; ‘You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.’”
I recently shared with a friend that it would be wrong to expect God to ‘bail you out’ of an imprudent decision. I used the following scenario.
[What you are talking about is like someone going out in front of a speeding car and believing that God will protect them… THAT WOULD GO AGAINST THE VIRTUE OF PRUDENCE.
There would be no need to put yourself in danger.
Now, it would be different if you ran out into speeding traffic to save a child that is in the road and as you go, you ask God to help you… THAT WOULD BE BOTH LOVING, PRUDENT & COURAGEOUS.] (CCC 1808 FORTITUDE or COURAGE = It disposes one even to renounce and sacrifice his life in defense of a just cause.)
I can easily see, as I hope, you the reader will also see, that one way of maturing in the Christian Faith is to grow in the Cardinal Virtues: Prudence, Justice, Temperance, Fortitude.
The following is an excerpt from a prayer of St. Thomas; “give me prudence to avoid the snares of the enemy”.
Prudence: “Its function is to point out which course of action is to be taken in any round of concrete circumstances.” (New Advent)
I ‘chalk up’ my ‘earlier’ way of thinking to my immaturity in The Catholic Faith. However… from the Scripture verse quoted, one can readily see that to think the way that I did (that being; unreasonably expecting God to protect someone from an imprudent decision), might actually be a temptation from Satan!
Let me now go to another scenario.
I occasionally have a Christian say something to me like; “I just spend my money and God gives it back to me”. (Many at Christmas do this). Hopefully, the reader can see where I am leading on this point.
Spending/handling money imprudently, is a temptation from Satan, not an act of Faith. Luke 4:9 Then he led him to Jerusalem, made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10 for it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ 11 and: ‘With their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’” 12 Jesus said to him in reply, “It also says, ‘You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.’” Luke 12:42 And the Lord replied, “Who, then, is the faithful and prudent steward whom the master will put in charge of his servants to distribute (the) food allowance at the proper time?
For more info. on The Four Cardinal Virtues: New Advent
Catechism of The Catholic Church
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February 15th, 2008 at 7:35 p02
WOW! i know someone just like that - imprudently spending their money. in fact i know several people just like that. i am glad to see that at least one of them has “matured” on the matter and gone public with his ‘metanoia‘
trying to save the child in a road of speeding traffic would certainly be loving, courageous, heroic, christ llke etc, but prudent? hmmm …. doubtful
February 17th, 2008 at 7:35 p02
I think that we can disagree on whether it would be prudent to run into traffic to save a child. However, for my part, Prudence is a Virtue always geared towards Love and the greatest act of Love is to give up your own life for another… “Is it not?”
February 19th, 2008 at 7:35 p02
I think prudence and love are opposing forces. The mere thought of using love as you main guide in actions is in itself imprudent in my mind. Acting on love would seem more related to acting on impulse, rather than prudence.
try as i might, i could find no similarity relation between love and prudence..
read these pages and you’ll see prudence would absolutely forbid running into traffic to save ANYONE
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dict.asp?Word=Prudence
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=Prudence
or even here, which you might prefer since it purports to be a catholic agenda sight. here there is a lot of gobbly gook, but skipping down to the last paragraph, you’ll see words such as temperance and practical used to describe prudence, and love, REAL love is anything but those two words
http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/education/ed0282.html
February 20th, 2008 at 7:35 p02
In answering your question I tried to “sidestep” saying… “You are wrong”, but, you leave me no choice.
Perhaps you are confusing the Virtue of Prudence with “cautious”, “conservative” or “timid”?
Love is the Greatest of Virtues. St. Paul says, in his First Letter to the Corinthians.
1 Cor. 13:13 “So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
Contrary to what you believe we could not have the Virtue of Prudence without the Virtue of Love.
Let me quote an article that I found online:
{Love moves prudence and prudence moves all the other virtues. Prudence does not eliminate the need for courage, for example, it commands one to be courageous. We may identify the sum total of all the moral virtues a person possesses with his character. Character, then, presupposes virtue; the more virtues, the stronger the character.}
I think that one problem with defining the Virtue of Prudence, is that many people are “selfish”. And so… they define the “Virtue” (Virtues have nothing to do with being selfish), they try to define Virtues in light of their “self-centeredness”. A task that is impossible!
Let me share. I have a friend who is very self-centered. He seems to believe that he is a loving, caring person by being selfish. I know this sounds strange, but I have seen it in him.
He somehow has the idea that if he uses women as a dishrag to appease his own desires he is showing them “love”. I know it sounds insane, but he is like that and I am sure that you know people who are like that yourself.
I continue to share “the truth in love” with my friend in the hope that he will turn from self-centerdness to God-centeredness.
Let me share another paragraph from the same article that I quoted above:
{The whole moral enterprise of Socrates was to lead the benighted Sophist, whom he engaged in philosophical dialogue, from the narrow perspective of egocentrism to the fuller and more revealing perspective of ontocentrism, from self-centeredness to being-centeredness (which implies God-centeredness).}
I looked over your information. The definitions do not discount what I say. I found nothing to support your view in the “last paragraph” of the article that you mentioned. So, I will not comment on the article, except to point out this one line which struck my fancy…”one cannot have practical wisdom without being morally good”.
For more information on this subject:
“The Role of Prudence in Fighting the Culture of Death”
by Donald DeMarco, PhD
http://www.catholicculture.org/library/view.cfm?recnum=2630