Article by: Iyo Embong

I WONDER whether people nowadays still remember temperance. Worse, I wonder whether they know it at all, whether it is still part of man’s vocabulary today!

You know, it’s the virtue that’s supposed to put the body – and everything related to it, the feelings and the emotions, the instincts and the passions, etc. – its proper place in the life of man.  You see, man – I am really sorry for this reminder – is made of body and soul. There’s supposed to be harmony and consistency between the two, based on the objective truth about man, on his nature as a rational animal, and on his dignity as a child of God.

The human condition is such that both body and soul have their own impulses and tendencies that need to be guided, protected and integrated in accordance precisely to an objective criterion. They just cannot be left on their own, to float and drift to just wherever and by whatever.

But what do we have? There seems to be a breakdown of discipline and total neglect of the duty to direct and integrate these constitutive elements of man’s life. There is so much splurging in food, drinks and recreation. Gluttony now seems to be pastime. There’s so much mindless pursuit of entertainment, from the gory and bizarre, to the frivolous and ridiculous, down to the sensual and the erotic. Just reading the newspapers, watching the TV, surfing the internet, one gets the impression that no one seems to be in charge of maintaining sense and direction. Except the passions and the urges. It’s like choosing a monkey to rule a country. Horrible!

It’s true what once said: “Some people do not deny anything to their stomach, to their eyes, to their hands. They only refuse to listen to anyone who advises them to live a clean life.”

In fact, I have my suspicions that more and more people do not know anymore what a clean life is all about. The environment is so filled up with filth, sometimes glittering filth, that people now find it normal to live in it. It gives one an idea of the amount of work to be done to clean up the whole place. There is a lot of moral pollution and contamination, on the one hand, and a shocking deficiency in spiritual health, on the other hand. A real formula for a disaster!

There might be a lot of fun, and no one seems to be complaining, but there objectively is some kind of an eclipse of reason as the sensual impulses take over. Man’s humanity is made to decline while his animality rises. The thinking, the reflecting, the judging and assessing of things calmly and prudently is slowed down, while the exciting games of the flesh are given free rein.

Results? As inevitable as morning comes after dawn, we see a lot of disorder, laziness, complacency, neglect. There’s also vanity and selfishness. And if you want something concrete, you have a rise in unwed mothers and unwanted children and spoiled brats, among other horrible consequences!

Not that people now just have to control themselves, suppress their urges and sports. Not that people have to fear their hormones, their youth, their beauty, and their sense of adventure. One misses the point sorely if he thinks that way. Temperance has nothing to do with them. Temperance has nothing to do with being prude, with being stupid or blindly docile. It is never an infraction of human freedom.

Temperance is loving, but a loving that is freed from the grip of sentimentalism and other forms of human stupidities and weaknesses. It’s a loving that is purified, rectified, made to work hand in hand with reason, and with the finer points of human sensibility and culture. It’s not a loving that is actually self-serving.

It involves the real loving of total self-giving. It is the self-giving in the objective truth about man, so that man in the end converts into something higher, into a real child of God, and not just an animal, no matter how naturally endowed.

Given the human condition here in this life, everyone should see the importance and relevance of modesty and moderation, self-control and restraint, delicacy and refinement, chastity and continence.

These are qualities and habits that go a long way in enhancing man’s personality and character. We need to restore our sanity by propagating this virtue called temperance!

Article by: Iyo Embong