{"id":38679,"date":"2013-04-08T08:00:16","date_gmt":"2013-04-08T13:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.austincnm.com\/?p=38679"},"modified":"2013-04-08T09:03:25","modified_gmt":"2013-04-08T14:03:25","slug":"the-forgotten-virtue-of-nobility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2013\/04\/the-forgotten-virtue-of-nobility\/","title":{"rendered":"The Forgotten Virtue of Nobility"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are a handful of dust, kept together by seventy-five per cent of liquid, with souls that were stained at birth and which are weighted all through our lives with a heavy downward lurch towards sin.<\/p>\n

– Caryll\u00a0Houselander<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"The<\/a>

Picture courtesy of bugsbunnypics.blogspot.com.<\/p><\/div>\n

“Greatness” has a negative\u00a0connotation in this day and age.\u00a0 Nobility is equated with riches and power.\u00a0 Born of the recent election cycle is the notion of the high-handed 1% class that seeks to rob the “other” 47% into irrelevancy.\u00a0 Authority is a wrongful establishment that must be reordered to guarantee the inalienable rights of all to the goods of the rich.\u00a0 True greatness is synonymous with forced material equality.<\/p>\n

How confused we have become!\u00a0 In reality our equality is of the sort described by Caryll\u00a0Houselander above.\u00a0 Some time of reflection in a graveyard will quickly teach us the conclusion of the ambitions of this world.\u00a0 “Remember that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.”\u00a0 We are nothing.\u00a0 In this we are all truly equal.<\/p>\n

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”\u00a0 Does it make a difference to our nature that we were created by an Intelligent Being with an intent, and did not simply materialize from the fabric of the universe?\u00a0 It certainly does!\u00a0 Not only were we created with an intent, we were created in the very image of our Creator.\u00a0 And just as our Creator is free in His will to assent or dissent, so we as spiritual beings are created with this very same power.\u00a0 In this we are also equal.<\/p>\n

Created with intent, we have a calling.\u00a0 God’s noble intention for us in no less than for us to become sons and daughters of God.\u00a0 The calling comes from God, but the choice is ours.\u00a0 With this calling comes a great responsibility.\u00a0 We must live our lives as sons and daughters of God.\u00a0 Every one of us is free to reject this calling, but no one is free from the consequences of this rejection.<\/p>\n

Rights are a favorite topic of social and political conversation.\u00a0 Our rights come from our dignity.\u00a0 But we forget that our dignity comes from our calling.\u00a0 Those who attribute our dignity to anything else do violence to their perception of reality.\u00a0 No right can be separated from its corresponding responsibility.\u00a0 The responsibility associated from each right comes directly from the responsibility to live in a way becoming of sons and daughters of God.\u00a0 Our rights are simply those resources which enable us to grow in virtue.\u00a0 When we invoke a right, we subject ourselves to judgment by accounting ourselves to the use of that right.\u00a0 While we may differ in our accountability, we are all equal before the judgment we must face.<\/p>\n

We become sons and daughters of God through the acquisition and the practice of virtue.\u00a0 Virtue is our true fulfillment in this life because it can lead us to holiness.\u00a0 Unlike physical strength or comeliness, power, wealth, honor, or aptitude, virtue is within the reach of all.\u00a0 This is fitting, considering all are called to virtue.<\/p>\n

We are unequal in all other qualities we possess because our vocations are different.\u00a0 Our vocations differ because God calls us to\u00a0holiness in different ways.\u00a0 In this world we hold some qualities in high value, while others hold little appeal.\u00a0 In fact, we often practice all or some virtues for the purpose of attaining these qualities.\u00a0 We make them our ends.<\/p>\n

But in God’s sight the values are different.\u00a0 Whether or not we choose to act as such, we are stewards of our rights and the qualities we possess.\u00a0 True nobility comes from the ordering of all our possessions and faculties toward growth in virtue, and the valuing of virtue for its own sake.\u00a0 Those who are noble are so by their own choice, because they choose to attribute nothingness to themselves and devote their lives to the attainment of holiness.\u00a0 At the final judgment they can say “Master, you gave me five talents.\u00a0 See, I have made five more” and be elated upon hearing “Come, share your master’s joy.” (Matthew 25:20-21)<\/p>\n

God seems to enjoy working through paradoxes.\u00a0 One of the greatest is that a human who is dust is transformed simply by being called to be united with the almighty Creator.\u00a0 And the Creator Himself chose to condescend to the level of dust, live the life of the poor, die the death of a criminal, and become bread and wine so that each one of us may partake of His glory.<\/p>\n

We stand before a confused and depraved world that seeks to distort our message for the sake of a\u00a0self-glorification that turns to dust in God’s light.\u00a0 We witness to this world by words and example, by demonstrating faithful stewardship of our faculties and possessions and calling all people to holiness.\u00a0 Let us gratefully, humbly and joyfully accept the nobility offered to us by living out and practicing our Catholic faith.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are a handful of dust, kept together by seventy-five per cent of liquid, with souls that were stained at birth and which are weighted all through our lives with a heavy downward lurch towards sin. – Caryll\u00a0Houselander “Greatness” has a negative\u00a0connotation in this day and age.\u00a0 Nobility is equated with riches and power.\u00a0 Born… [Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[90],"tags":[1530,50,1532,1531],"class_list":{"0":"post-38679","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-faith-blog","7":"tag-dignity","8":"tag-faith","9":"tag-responsibilities","10":"tag-rights","11":"entry","12":"has-post-thumbnail"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1591332,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/the-crowning-of-st-joseph\/","url_meta":{"origin":38679,"position":0},"title":"The Crowning of St. Joseph!","author":"Deacon Guadalupe Rodriguez","date":"March 12, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cThus should he be honored whom the King desires to honor!\u201d The Solemnity of Saint Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary is on Tuesday, March 19, 2019.\u00a0 This year is also the 61st anniversary of the church approved apparitions of St. Joseph in America in which Sr. Mary Ephrem\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Column"","block_context":{"text":"Column","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/column\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/atxcatholic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/image4-550x392.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/atxcatholic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/image4-550x392.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/atxcatholic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/image4-550x392.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15310,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2012\/04\/animals-with-catholic-captions\/","url_meta":{"origin":38679,"position":1},"title":"Animals with Catholic Captions","author":"Crist\u00f3bal Almanza Herrera","date":"April 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the best things about being Catholic is the hope and joy we have in our faith. 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