Theological Virtues: Facilitate Perfection
Through the spirit of faith, hope and love, the purpose of all our thoughts, words and actions remains fixed on God, from whom comes all good and to whom everything returns. (OOCC, II, p. 63)
St. Vincent Pallotti believed that a person’s union with God came about not only through the grace of healing which God bestowed on him in a conversion experience, but also through the help of infused theological virtues of faith, hope and love. Through these virtues, God communicated his life to a person and in the process made him ready for his life with God. With the help of these virtues, God created in a person a capacity for and the actual participation in God’s life. As the result of God’s reaching out to him through these virtues, he gained an ability to fix the totality of his being on God and be united to him in a real way. For St. Vincent, faith, hope and love helped a person to surrender his life and all that happened in his life to God, believing in him as the one from whom all good things came and to whom everything returned. Thus, the theological virtues assisted a person to accept God as the ultimate source of meaning and purpose in his life. According to St. Vincent, these virtues were principles of action that opened a person to the grace of God, which helped him to direct his life towards God. In this manner, the theological virtues facilitated a person’s genuine growth in perfection.
Am I aware of the fact that the virtues of faith, hope and love open me to my life with God? Do I make an honest effort to cultivate and grow in these virtues? Do I believe, hope and love in God as the ultimate source of everything in my life? Do I make use of the graces these virtues provide in order to grow in my life of perfection?
And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. (I Cor. 13:13)