XVIII — PRUDENT JUDGMENT

Presence of God. — Help me, O Lord, to judge things rightly, so that I may then act rightly.

Meditation

1 — The first office of prudence is to help us choose the means best suited to attaining our ultimate end. Often this choice is easy and presents itself spontaneously to the mind already accustomed to judging and acting in the light of eternity. At other times, however, the choice is difficult and laborious, as when, for example, one must choose a state of life or profession, give a new direction to one’s life, or resolve complicated cases in which one must also take account of elements independent of one’s own will. In these cases one must take time to examine everything with deliberation; one needs the counsel of prudent and experienced persons. To act precipitately would already be to fail in prudence. Jesus Himself in the Gospel speaks to us of the prudent man who, wishing to build a tower, “first sits down to calculate the cost to see whether he has enough to finish it” (Lk. 14:28). The time spent on these examinations, on these calculations dictated by supernatural prudence, is not wasted time, quite the contrary. Indeed, not infrequently, before grave decisions, God Himself wants us to wait patiently so that circumstances may manifest his will clearly. In these waitings we must give a great place to prayer, to invoke from the Lord that light which our prudence cannot give us. In fact, prudence, although an infused and supernatural virtue, is always a virtue exercised through our human faculties and therefore feels the effect of our limitations. To aid it, however, God has given us a particular gift of the Holy Spirit: the gift of counsel, whose operation does not depend on us, but which we can invoke through prayer.

When then, using all the means suggested by supernatural prudence, the decision is made, yes, that same prudence commands us to pass to execution with courage and diligence, without interposing delays on our part and without being discouraged by the difficulties we may encounter.

2 — For our judgments and choices to be prudent, we must know how to free them from overly subjective elements, such as tastes, interests, natural antipathies or sympathies. At times we can deceive ourselves into thinking we judge a situation, or determine ourselves to a work, solely for God’s glory and neighbor’s good, while if we examined ourselves deeply, we might perhaps realize that the motives prevailing in our judgment or deliberation were selfish motives of self-love, vanity, search for others’ esteem, or personal interest. Prudence too, therefore, requires us to purify the heart from all these human motives; it requires effort and renunciation. Precisely at the end of speaking about the prudence necessary for a man who wants to build a tower and for a king who wants to enter war, Jesus said: “So, whoever of you does not renounce all that he possesses cannot be my disciple” (Lk. 14:33). In other words, the prudence necessary for one who wants to be a true follower of Christ consists in renouncing all that can hinder attainment of eternal life; it consists in denying oneself in order to have the heart free from selfish, personal motives. Only this renunciation will permit us to triumph over the spontaneous reactions of our self-love or the impulses of our egoism, and so will put us in condition to formulate right judgments, to make choices, to take dispassionate deliberations.

Above all, before judgments or deliberations of a certain importance, which may have consequences for neighbor or may correspond to our personal bent, prudence demands a conscientious examination to see whether we are truly moved by supernatural motives independently of any human consideration. Then, when some circumstance has somewhat shaken us or touched us to the quick, prudence teaches us to suspend every judgment and deliberation until calm has returned; otherwise we would expose ourselves to acting more from passion than from a sincere love of the good.

“Love is prudent, cautious, upright,” says the Imitation of Christ; and from this we learn that prudence is an indispensable characteristic of genuine virtue.

Colloquy

“O God, one work done with prudence is more pleasing to You than many done with imprudence and lightness, since this virtue considers and weighs every action very well so that it may result in your honor and glory.

“True and supernatural prudence is yours and in You, O Lord, and is found by few because so many seek it with a cunning that seems prudence, wishing to investigate with their own wisdom your designs. Thus they lose time and will never find it. Whoever truly wants to possess prudence must come to You, Incarnate Word, and in You they will find it together with all the other virtues. But they will find it very different from human prudence, which tends to what exalts and not to what humbles. In You they will find prudence that leads to humbling and lowering oneself, as You willed to humble and lower Yourself to teach us the way that leads to salvation. You, O Lord, said: ‘Whoever wants to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.’ Oh, this indeed is supreme prudence! And yet to human prudence it appears supreme folly. To the wise men of this world it seems supreme folly to take up the cross and come after You, crucified Christ! But You teach me that the folly of the cross is supreme wisdom, and denying oneself is supreme prudence. What wiser folly can there be than to take up the cross with You and follow You, treading your footprints? And what greater prudence can there be than to die to oneself in order to find life in You, from whom every thing receives life?” (St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi).