The Four Cardinal Virtues of Masculinity

+JMJ+

"The world's greatest need is great men ... [and] what we need are saints, for saints are truly the great men." Ven. Fulton Sheen spoke these words 85 years ago. Have our needs really changed all that much? Do others no longer need our sanctity more than we need it? Are the Evils we face too great to be vanquished by the Cross?  Absolutely not! The world still and always will need saints, and it's up to us to walk the crooked and narrow path tred before us by the Treasury of the Church. We need, and ought TO BE saints! We need to be virtuous. We need to graft ourselves what is known as the Four Cardinal Virtues of Masculinity: Patience, Fortitude, Perseverance, and Silence. And we should start with no other model of masculinity but with the Terror of Demons and Protector of the Holy Church: St. Joseph.

The first virtue, Patience, is the ability "to endure present evils without sadness or resentment in conformity with the will of God." As a carpenter, if he wanted to provide for his family, he could not have rushed his work. But Joseph's patience is most clearly utilized in the Flight to Egypt. When Herod made the decree for the slaughtering of the Holy Innocents, Joseph immediately got up and left for Egypt and "stayed there until the death of Herod" (Mt. 2:14). After traveling many miles on hoof and by foot, Joseph endured the dangers of the desert all for the glory of Jesus and Mary. It was because of Joseph's patience that the Infant Jesus was saved from slaughter.

But Joseph's patience would not have been effective if he did not join it with Fortitude and Perseverance. Joseph was very patient when the Angel of the Lord kept ordering him around, but it was his virtues of fortitude and perseverance that told him what needed to be done. Joseph cast aside his fears of what could happen to him, in order pursue the preservation of Our Lord and Our Lady from all defilement and desecration. Joseph's patience had to go hand in hand with extraordinary fortitude and perseverance if anything was to get done. As the Confraternity of the Precious Blood's My Meditation on the Gospel puts it, "It wasn't hard to work for Mary and Jesus; it was a labor of love" (Sullivan, 22).

However, the most remarkable out of all of Joseph's virtues was his extraordinary Silence. St. Josemaria Escriva observes of the Passion that it was a "suffering borne without complaint" (The Forge, 799). So too with St. Joseph. When Joseph had to trek all over the desert, he didn't complain. When Joseph was given the revelation of the Incarnation, he didn't wail in drudgery and disappointment about losing a wife. In fact, the Gospel of Matthew tells us that Joseph divorced Mary quietly, so as not to expose her to public shame. In doing Our Lord's will, Joseph didn't object, he just did. Being a man of action is probably the reason why we have no recorded quotations of St. Joseph; he was too busy working for the betterment of others to talk about it.

But why are Patience, Fortitude, Perseverance, and Silence the 4 Cardinal Virtues of Masculinity? Because these are the virtues in which men are naturally made for. In the Natural Order, men are built for arduous work and tasks. As St. Paul puts it, "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish" (Eph. 6:25-28). Men are called and built to live arduously, so that others around them may become holier than they, provided they become as holy as they ought. 

So pick up your Cross this Lent and let's do something arduous. (If you think about it, almost any wholesome hobby or habit, despite being socially masculine or feminine, fits these Four Cardinal Virtues of Masculinity: prayer, reading, fishing, baking, gardening, writing, etc.) If you observe the life of St. Joseph, reflect on how he practiced these virtues and implement them in your day, your life will be changed. Be patient with others just as God is patient with you, stand your ground on truth in the face of falsehood, and find the whispers of God in the language of silence.

"..."

- St. Joseph