Justice Begins at Home
Lesson 4
Justice Begins at Home
All justice is social, but it must
begin within our own souls.
Question 4
How can we be just within an unjust society?
Thomas answers that . . .
“Justice is a habit, which makes a man capable of doing what is just, and of being just in action and in intention.”
— Summa Theologica II-II, 58, 1
“Social Justice” — A Redundant Term?
Cries for “social justice” are heard everywhere today, both outside and inside the Church, and while St. Thomas devotes more than 60 questions and 260 pages in double-column print in the Summa Theologica (II-II, Qs. 57–120) to an examination of justice from every angle, you won’t find the term in there even once!28 Could it be that Thomas never heard of it, living almost eight hundred years ago and all? Well, there is another answer we can find clearly stated in Thomas’s writings, for example: “It is proper to justice, as compared with the other virtues, to direct man in his relations with others: because it denotes a kind of equality, as its very name implies” (II-II, 57,1), and “since justice by its name implies equality, it denotes essentially relation to another, for a thing is equal, not to itself, but to another” (II-II, 58, 2).
In other words, all justice is social in that it pertains to people’s actions relating to other people. Now, the reason I may seem to split hairs on this point is because I believe misunderstandings of justice and “social justice” produce all kinds of hairy problems in our world today. Check out the news any day, and you will find around the world all sorts of conflicting interest groups, led by what are sometimes referred to as “social justice warriors” fervently demanding that members of various groups do what their group deems to be just. This is not to say that there are not very important broader, societal, political, and economic aspects to justice that are indeed worth fighting for, but it is to say that we rarely hear of the need for all members of all groups, for all human beings, to be fair and just in all our one-on-one interactions with each other, regardless of what is going on in our society’s institutions.
Even if redundant in a sense, the Church does indeed give us important social teachings under the name of social justice, the gist of which is provided in the Catechism:
Society ensures social justice when it provides the conditions that allow associations or individuals to obtain what is their due, according to their nature and their vocation. Social justice is linked to the common good and the exercise of authority. (1928)
Rest assured that St. Thomas, too, has masterfully addressed issues such as these, for while the exact phrase that would be translated “social justice” does not appear in his writings, he does explain and differentiate between commutative, distributive, political, legal, general, particular, metaphorical, and domestic justice, not to mention multiple special virtues related to justice.29
St. Thomas can help disentangle the problems that arise from our modern-day murky understandings of justice, and he can cast the solutions in the form of life lessons that we can apply every day in our lives as we relate to the living, breathing people around us.
Rendering Justice Its Rightful Due
So what exactly, is justice? Borrowing and honing the definition from Aristotle, Thomas declares as follows:
And if anyone might reduce it to the form of a definition, he might say that justice is a habit whereby a man renders to each one his due by a constant and perpetual will; and this is about the same definition as given by the Philosopher (Ethics, 5.5) who says that justice is a habit whereby a man is said to be capable of doing just actions in accordance with his choice. (II-II, 58, 1)
In another elaboration used in our opening quotation, “justice is a habit which makes a man capable of doing what is just, and of being just in action and in intention.” Citing Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics 5.2, Thomas notes that this statement emphasizes both that justice is expressed in acts and that it is exercised by the powers of the human will, informed by the intellect regarding what is right or just.30 You may also note that the idea of giving people their “due” appears in summary descriptions of justice in Aristotle, Aquinas, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Bearing in mind that the very word “justice” is built upon the Latin word meaning right, a pithy definition of the gist of justice is “to render to each person his or her rightful due.” Rendering such due is something we are all called to do every day of our lives, regardless of how just or unjust we consider our government or other institutions to be.
To give St. Thomas his rightful due in summarizing his life lessons on justice, it is essential that we look at what he called the virtue of justice. Recall that Thomas, like Aristotle, notes that virtues are essentially good habits — tendencies or dispositions to act in the right way that we gradually develop within ourselves over time through repeated practice. That is why they repeatedly define justice as a “habit.” So what kind of habits can we build within ourselves so that we might grow in the virtue of justice? Well, I think the best approach to analyzing the virtue of justice is to break it down into “parts,” because that is the very meaning of the word analysis, and because this is precisely the approach that St. Thomas took.
Now, since this chapter’s life lesson is centered on the virtue of justice, to penetrate this lesson’s principle, we’ll change the order of our lesson plans a bit and get to know better just what kinds of virtues we are to practice, before we consider the sins we must pulverize. So, without further ado, let’s allow St. Thomas to pull the virtue of justice apart and then put it back together in a way that will inspire and equip every one of us to practice it fully in all of its aspects every day of our lives.
On Keeping All the Parts of Justice in Stock
When Thomas addresses the four cardinal moral virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance, he stresses that each virtue is made complete by three kinds of parts:
Let’s look now at the various parts of the virtue of justice.
The integral parts, the foundations of the halls of justice, so to speak, are built upon the fundamental moral principles regarding our interactions with others: “Do the good,” and “Do not do evil.” The justice of the law courts has traditionally focused primarily on the second, negative principle. We are not to do evil unto others. We are not to deprive others of their rights, or we must pay the penalties prescribed by our community. But the positive aspect of justice is actually the “principal part” per St. Thomas (II-II, 79, 1). This kind of justice was pronounced most fully and succinctly by Jesus Christ, when He gave us the summary of all the commandments — to love God with all our hearts and our neighbors as ourselves — and the Golden Rule — to “do unto others” as we would have them do unto us. For the follower of Christ, then, justice and the love that is charity become closely intertwined, as we seek not only not to hurt our brother, but actively to help him.
The subjective parts of justice are the two primary “species,” or subject matters, of justice we’ve already touched upon earlier in this chapter. Distributive justice deals with matters of doing good and avoiding evil that impact entire communities or states. It is most closely related to the realm of “social justice.” The Catechism notes that distributive justice “regulates what the community owes its citizens in proportion to their contributions and needs” (2411). Commutative justice “corresponds to the order of one private individual to another” (II-II, 61, 1). This is the “species” of justice at the heart of this chapter’s life lesson. Although it is very important to work for a just society, we must always remember that justice must always begin and continue at home. In the words of our Catechism: “Without commutative justice, no other form of justice is possible” (2411).
As for the potential, annexed, or related virtues pertaining to justice, they provide an incredibly rich understanding of just how we can practice the virtue of justice in our homes and in our societies. So let us begin our inventory of every one of these parts.32
Religion
Although it might seem surprising that Thomas includes the virtue of religion among the annexed virtues that fall short of the full virtue of justice, this is because justice entails giving another his rightful due in equal measure. Because of the absolute greatness and generosity of God, as the very source and sustainer of our existence, we can never give back to Him in equal measure what He has given us. Religion is, nonetheless, “the chief of the moral virtues” (II-II, 81, 6), and we’ll give “the chief” its rightful due, within our powers, when we reach the life lesson in chapter 9.
Piety
The virtues of piety and religion are easily conflated. Mention a pious person and we’re likely to think of someone who’s religious. Now this is usually pretty accurate. Indeed, God would certainly have us be pious, but there is also a more specific sense of the word. In its most elevated sense as a virtue perfected by a gift of the Holy Spirit of the same name, piety honors God, not only as the Creator, but specifically as Our Father. Further, per His Ten Commandments (number four to be precise) piety extends to our parents and also to our country (often referred to as a fatherland or motherland in countries throughout the world). In the words of St. Thomas, “man is debtor chiefly to his parents and his country after God. Wherefore just as it belongs to religion to give worship to God, so does it belong to piety, in the second place, to give worship to one’s parents and country” (II-II, 101, 1). A proper patriotism or nationalism that does not inherently denigrate other countries is indeed a just virtue.
Observance
St. Thomas tells us that according to Cicero, “it is by observance that we pay worship and honor to those who excel in some way in honor” (II-II, 102, 2). We know that our parents excel us in honor, and all the more so does God. As we’ve just seen, that’s where the virtues of piety and religion come in. But there are many others who excel us in honor, in terms of their excellence or some position of authority they have been granted by their efforts and God’s graces. Examples that St. Thomas provides include governing officials, but also commanding officers in the military, and teachers or professors. We could also include our bosses at work or clergy at church. Indeed, Thomas argues that, in some ways, we all owe observance to each other.
Let’s spell this out. There are two main parts to the virtue of observance: dulia and obedience. Dulia means honor or respect to a person’s excellence. To build the virtue of justice, we need to show honor where honor is due. Aristotle tells us that honor is the proper reward of virtue, and Thomas tells us that dulia is shown through word and deeds, by gestures such as bowing or saluting. Thomas states explicitly that in every other person we can find some quality or talent in which that person’s excellence exceeds ours. Hence, we all owe some measure of the respect and honor of dulia to one another. St. Paul has told us as much: “in humility count others better than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but to the interests of others” (Phil. 2:3–4).
Bending our will to the interests of others leads us to the second part of observance, that of obedience. Many today balk at the notion that we should obey others; consider the bumper sticker that says, “Question all authority!” Well, we do need to show obedience to God, and one way we do this is in our obedience to the authority figures placed over us (except, of course, in the (we hope) rare cases in which they would command sinful courses of action). In the words of St. Gregory the Great, by obeying those in authority over us, we “slay our own will” in the spirit of charity. Charity cannot exist without obedience. “He who says ‘I know him’ but disobeys his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps his word, in him truly love for God is perfected” (1 John 2:4–5). So, to display both justice and charity, sometimes we must subdue our own wills and question our own authority, when obedience is rightly due to an individual placed above us with a higher excellence or position than ours.
Gratitude
While religion, piety, and observance render God, our parents, and our nation, those excelling us in some way, their rightful due, the virtue of gratitude seeks to repay our debts to all who provide us any kind of benefit. St. Thomas tells us that Cicero rightly placed gratitude as one of the virtues annexed to justice. It was another ancient Roman philosopher, Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 B.C.–A.D. 65), who literally wrote the book on gratitude (De Beneficiis, “On Benefits”). St. Thomas shares liberally from Seneca’s silver-tongued words of counsel when analyzing this virtue. I can barely do it justice here, but I’ll try to show a little gratitude for what these great men have shared on this subject by introducing just a few highlights and praying that you will seek out more, both in the Summa and in the writings of Seneca. “Give thanks in all circumstances,” counsels St. Paul (1 Thess. 5:18).
Let us consider the ways to give these thanks. First of all, note that we are to give thanks “in all circumstances.” Are you ever tempted to disregard a favor from someone? “Well, she was just nice because she wanted something.” “He just gave them to me because he didn’t want them himself. Why, everybody knows he can’t stand black jelly beans!” Seneca states: “It is the height of malevolence to refuse to recognize a kindness, unless the giver has been the loser thereby.” St. Thomas chimes in with his trademark profundity of wisdom and kindness: “It is the mark of a happy disposition to see good rather than evil. Wherefore, if someone has conferred a favor not as he ought have conferred it, the recipient should not for that reason withhold his thanks” (II-II, 106, 3). How, then, do we show our gratitude to our benefactors in all circumstances? Seneca says, “Do you wish to repay a favor? Receive it graciously.” Even if we are benefited by someone so rich or powerful that we can never repay him in kind, we can still repay by our attitude, our facial expression, our words, and our deeds, or, as Seneca notes, with “good advice, frequent fellowship, affable and pleasant conversation without flattery.” Further, the grateful “outpourings of one’ heart” should be heard, not only within the benefactor’s earshot, but within the hearing of others, repaying the benefactor with well-earned honor. Aristotle has noted after all, that honor is virtue’s reward. The benefactor who receives some well-earned esteem may then be all the more inspired to seek new ways to continue to benefit others.
When benefits are to be repaid, we should do so promptly and gladly, but we should not be in such a hurry to repay that we inconvenience the giver or make him feel as if we have been made uncomfortable by the very favor he conferred. And what then is the height of ingratitude? It is not to fail to repay the favor, because we may not always be able to repay, though we would dearly like to. The height of ingratitude is to forget the favor or ignore the debt through negligence. Surely we’ve all sinned through ingratitude at one time or another. But how should the person who displays the virtue of gratitude treat the person who does not? We learn from the Gospel of Luke, “the beloved physician,” that Jesus told us “lend, expect nothing in return” (Luke 6:35). Quite fittingly, St. Thomas advises us that “he that bestows a favor must not at once act the part of a punisher of ingratitude, but rather that of a kindly physician, by healing the ingratitude with repeated favors” (II-II, 107, 4).
Vengeance
It may be surprising to see vengeance listed as a virtue. Well, some sins are worse than ingratitude and do require a punishment. This is where the virtue of vindicta, or vengeance, comes in. Cicero tells us that “by vengeance we resist force, or wrong, and in general, whatever is obscure (i.e., derogatory), either by self-defense or by avenging it.” Vengeance as a virtue entails developing the habit of punishing wrongdoing within the realm of one’s rightful authority, and in the spirit of helping the wrongdoer, or at least protecting innocent victims. Per Thomas, “vengeance is lawful and virtuous so far as it tends to the prevention of evil” (II-II, 108, 3). Note, however, that those with the virtue of vengeance will be slow to take vengeance for wrongdoings they themselves receive, “but they do not bear with them so as to endure the wrongs they inflict on God and their neighbor” (II-II, 108, 1). Vengeance must be exercised with great care, and punishment should be delayed while one is angry so it won’t be excessive and harm the wrongdoer.
Truth
We owe each other the truth. No one wants to be lied to, and God has instructed us in the eighth commandment not to bear false witness against our neighbor. What we believe or know should correspond to what we say. To tell the truth is a good act. To develop within ourselves the habit of telling the truth, then, is a moral virtue essential to justice.
Friendliness
Thomas explains that the friendliness (amicitia) that is called affability (affabilitas) is a part of the virtue of justice and something we owe to every person we meet. Not everyone can become a close friend, but because of our social nature, we derive joy from one another’s company, and we owe it to one another not to rob others of their joy by our rudeness, neglect, or disrespect. Indeed, “a certain natural equity obliges a man to live agreeably with his fellow-men; unless some reason should oblige him to sadden them for their good” (II-II, 114, 2).33 A brief hello or a simple acknowledging nod and a smile are among the simplest ways to display this simple, yet important virtue connected to justice.
Liberality
Liberality means freely giving, deriving from the Latin adjective liber, “free.” Thomas notes that the virtue of liberality is related to justice, since it involves our dealings with others involving external goods, but “justice gives another what is his, whereas liberality gives another what is one’s own” (II-II, 117, 5). Further, justice considers “the legal due,” while liberality “considers a certain moral due” (ibid.). Liberality, then, is related to justice, but is, in a sense, a generosity beyond the call of legal duty and of nature. As Thomas puts it so well, “To spend money on oneself is an inclination of nature; hence to spend money on others belongs properly to virtue” (ibid.). We must note as well, that liberality does not imply recklessness in our giving. Thomas uses an apt military metaphor here, noting that a virtuous soldier’s fortitude consists not only in wielding his sword in battle, but in sharpening it between battles and storing it in its sheath. So, too, liberality means not only giving away money, but always using reasonable means to earn money and save it, so that it can be employed when it is truly needed.
Pulverizing Injustice in All Its Forms
To grow in the virtue of justice, and its many companion virtues that bring it to perfection, there’s a vast and motley batch of vices and sins we must strive to conquer. Since justice relates to all manner of human dealings, unfortunately, there are many forms of injustice, of failing to give another his rightful due — or of outright taking it from him! Among the most serious and blatant injustices Thomas brings up are theft, in which we secretly steal money or goods from another; robbery, in which we do so openly with force; adultery, in which we deprive another of the rightful exclusive intimacy of his or her spouse; and most blatant of all, murder, in which we deprive an innocent person of the ultimate right of life. Thankfully, even in our day, most people clearly see the injustices involved in such acts, with the woeful exceptions of the taking of the lives of the unborn through abortion and of the frail, elderly, or disabled through “euthanasia” and “assisted suicide.”
We will focus most in this section on the kinds of subtle injustices that we may all commit in the course of our daily lives, the kinds of unjust behaviors that keep us from practicing justice in our homes. One simple way to examine one’s own conscience for unjust behaviors is to reflect upon our previous list of the virtues connected to justice to see whether we have, by intention or through neglect, failed to exercise them with those around us. We might ask ourselves if we have been neglectful in contacting or helping out our parents; if we have disrespectfully and unjustly disparaged our nation and the offices of our public officials; if we have been ingrates, unthankful for what God and others have done for us; if we have let serious injustices within our homes go unpunished, or doled out harsh punishments in a cruel manner; if we have been unwelcoming to friends or strangers, untruthful, or stingy with our wealth?
If so, we must formulate concrete plans of specific behaviors we will perform to begin giving others their rightful due. All virtues, by definition (Thomas’s and Aristotle’s anyway), work to achieve good results and help to make the doer good. Virtues also lead to the virtuous person’s happiness. So, by growing in the social virtue of justice, we also, metaphorically speaking, do ourselves justice, as well.
To dig a little deeper into the many malicious foes of commutative justice between individuals, let’s look at some of the more common sins we may commit that fail to give our neighbor his rightful due. In January 2019, during the national March for Life in Washington, D.C., many news organizations, celebrities, private individuals, and even some Catholic bishops, based on a brief snippet of video footage, disparaged and pronounced judgment on a group of teenage boys for their seemingly unjust behaviors. Many of these jump-the-gun-judges would soon after retract their statements and apologize when further video evidence provided the full story and showed that the boys were not egregious aggressors. Well, nearly eight hundred years ago, in his examination of the virtue of justice, Thomas wrote an ever timely article on “Whether It is Unlawful to Form a Judgment from Suspicion?” (II-II, 60, 3), which warrants extensive quotation:
Now there are three degrees of suspicion. The first degree is when a man begins to doubt another’s goodness from slight indications. This is a venial and a light sin; for it belongs to human temptation without which no man can go through this life, according to a gloss on 1 Cor. 4:5, Judge not before the time. The second degree is when a man, from slight indications, esteems another man’s wickedness as certain. This is a mortal sin if it be about grave matter, since the same gloss goes on to say: If then we cannot avoid suspicions, because we are human, we must nevertheless restrain our judgment, and refrain from forming a definite and fixed opinion. The third degree is when a judge goes so far as to condemn a man on suspicion; this pertains directly to injustice, and consequently is a mortal sin. (II-II, 60, 3)
If we are to grow in justice, we must look within ourselves for thoughts, words, and actions of falsely prejudging others, some of which could be mortal to our souls. Do we tend to pronounce people guilty before they’ve been proven so? Indeed, we might train ourselves to err, if we must, by giving others the benefit of the doubt. Hear Thomas again on this one:
He who interprets doubtful behaviors for the best, may happen to be deceived more often than not; yet it is better to err frequently through thinking well of the wicked man, than to err less frequently through having an evil opinion of a good man, because in the latter an injury is inflicted, but not in the former. (II-II, 60, 4)
Praying for Justice
We are all called to do our part to practice the kinds of just acts that will help the virtue of justice grow as a habit in our souls. Aristotle said that we become builders by building and harpists by playing the harp. So, too, do we become just people by carrying out just acts, again and again and again. Of course, Thomas, as a Christian, knew something that Aristotle did not. After God became Man, He gave us an amazing instruction: “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Matt. 7:7). We do not stand alone in our quest for virtues like justice. God openly invites us to ask Him for them, to seek them through Him, and to knock on His door, inside of which they lie waiting for us. We have seen that He spelled it out clearly for the virtue and gift of wisdom: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all men generously and without reproaching, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5).
In prayers of petition we ask God to give us what we need to live our lives in accordance with His will. As we strive to live out this chapter’s lesson to let justice begin in our homes, we can ask God sincerely and in good faith to help us grow in justice, to become more aware of the simple situations that provide us opportunities to act justly and to share with those around us the shining splendors of justice.34 We can also let Thomas’s analysis of the parts of the virtue of justice guide us in the precision of our petitions for justice. We can ask God to grant us the virtue of justice so that we may always do good and avoid evil, so that we may act justly in our face-to-face dealings with others and in striving to create a society that will deal with all citizens justly, and so that we will be just in our dealings with God, the Church, our parents, our nation, and with everyone we meet through the virtues of religion, piety, observance, gratitude, vengeance, truth, friendliness, and liberality. And speaking of piety, let us also pray that we will be receptive to the Holy Spirit’s gift of piety, whereby the virtue of piety is perfected and we treat God as our Father and others as our brothers and sisters in Christ, guided not merely by our reason, but by the stirrings of the Holy Spirit. Finally, speaking of gratitude, let our prayers not only ask God for justice, but thank Him for his boundless liberality in giving us all so far beyond our due, and pray for all who have shared the fruits of their virtue of justice with us.
More Than Just Sacraments
Every sacrament is more than merely just, exceeding the glory of even justice itself, we might say, as the sun exceeds the glory of the evening or morning star! God gives us so much more than we can ever repay in due measure. He is the source and sustainer of our very being, of every good we possess on earth, and of the ultimate reward of bliss with Him in heaven. Indeed, every sacrament exceeds the equal measures of justice and is a gift of unfathomable liberality designed to help us attain that heavenly goal. Ancient tradition has paired each of the seven sacraments with one of the three theological or four cardinal virtues, and the sacrament paired most specifically with justice is the sacrament of Reconciliation.35 When we go to Confession, we can make amends for any injustices we have committed against God or neighbor. Indeed, when we review our consciences for violations of the Ten Commandments, we search our memories for thoughts, words, and deeds of injustice toward God in the first three commandments and against our neighbor in commandments four through ten. God stands ready, thankfully, through the instrument of the priest, to forgive all such sins and to supply us with the grace to better resist temptations to all manners of injustice, so that when we go home, we will bring His justice with us.
Life Lesson 4 Summa
All justice is social in that it relates to our dealings with others, giving to all their rightful due. We can usefully distinguish between distributive justice, involving fair dealings within communities and institutions, and commutative justice, involving our personal, one-on-one dealings with others. Although we often cannot directly change large institutions, it is up to us whether we deal justly with those in our own lives, and the Catechism has made clear that there can be no distributive justice without commutative justice. In simple terms, justice must begin at home. St. Thomas has given us invaluable aid in detailing many specific virtues, such as piety, observance, friendliness, gratitude, and more, that we can employ in our daily lives to treat those around us justly. We can pray that God helps us to grow in the beautiful virtue of justice, and we can show Him gratitude for exceeding the bounds of justice in giving us so much more than we could ever earn. This gratitude can also be shown by embracing the sacrament of Reconciliation — the very sacrament of justice (and indeed, of God’s mercy).
28 Thomas does write about “social (politicas) virtues” in the sense that all human virtues reflect our natures as not only rational, but social or political animals (I-II, 61, 5). As for current Catholic teaching on the matter, I just did an Internet search on Catholicism and social justice and among the first articles retrieved was one on the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops website titled “Vatican Documents on Social Justice” (http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/vatican-statements-on-social-justice.cfm). Most interestingly, a word search revealed only two uses of the phrase “social justice,” one in the title and another in a section heading in the bishops’ article, with no uses of the phrase in the Vatican excerpts themselves! The term “social justice” is used and explained, however, in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, part 3, chapter 2, article 3, as we’ll see in the course of this chapter.
29 See the appendix for tables summarizing all of these forms of justice and its related special virtues.
30 Thomas starts his long treatment of justice with a question of four articles “Of Right,” Q. 57, noting that the object of justice is what is right — the very word “justice” in Latin, iustitia, deriving from the Latin jus or ius, meaning “right.” Our American Declaration of Independence speaks of fundamental, natural, “inalienable rights endowed by Our Creator,” of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
31 St. Thomas uses slightly different wording conveying the same meaning when defining the three kinds of parts in II-II, 48, “Of the Parts of Prudence,” and in II-II, 143, “Of the Parts of Temperance, in General.”
32 I should note that when addressing such “parts” or related virtues, Thomas typically forms his whole out of these parts by synthesizing (putting together) previously proffered lists by profound philosophers and theologians, such as Aristotle, Cicero, Seneca, St. Augustine, St. Isidore of Seville, and others, sometimes altering or expanding their lists, and always citing them for their contributions.
33 For a look at important cases in which we are obliged to disagree with another for his own good, see the life lesson in chapter 7.
34 In II-II, 58, 12, Thomas cites Cicero: “Justice is the most resplendent of the virtues, and gives its name to a good man”; and he cites Aristotle: “The most excellent of the virtues would seem to be justice, and more glorious than either the evening or the morning star.”
35 The pairings were Baptism and faith, Anointing of the Sick and hope, the Eucharist and charity, Holy Orders and prudence, Penance and justice, Confirmation and fortitude, and Matrimony and temperance. Do you see the sense of these wonderful, supernatural correlations?