Robert Spaemann says that in order to act well, it is necessary to do justice to reality. This requires prudence, the most important of the moral virtues. In daily life staff , in ecclesial life (as we have seen in the Synod on the family) or in social life (for example in the perspective of an election) prudence is necessary, which is not mere caution or moderation, but "good sense or good judgment". It consists in discerning and distinguishing what is good or bad in a given status, in order to know how to act and decide to do so.

Let us look at the structure and dimensions of prudence, the forms of imprudence and what prudence is like in Christian core topic .


1. Structure and dimensions of prudence.

In the classical tradition prudence is placed before other important virtues: justice, fortitude and temperance. This indicates that only the one who is prudent can be good, that is to say, the one who is first of all just with reality. And that is why the ten commandments are forms of the exercise of prudence.

Prudence is the cause and the root, the mother, the measure and the example, the guide and the precise reason of all the other virtues. Prudence is the ethical measure of acting because it determines what is in conformity with reality (cf. J. Pieper, Virtudes fundamentales, Madrid 2010, p. 34). Prudence is the virtue that guide to the moral conscience.

This attention to reality, proper to prudence, has two dimensions: the report or awareness of the first principles (synderesis) - the most important is to do good and avoid evil - and the attention to the reality in which one acts.

Combining these elements, prudence acts through three successive steps: deliberation (cognitive moment); judgment, opinion or discernment about status (which leads to "awareness of status"); and the "empire" or decision to act (operative moment).

In summary, prudence is the "right rule of action" (St. Thomas, following Aristotle), "the virtue that passes from the knowledge of reality to the internship of the good" (Pieper) and the "auriga virtutum" (conductor of the virtues) that guide to the other virtues indicating them rule and measure (Catechism of the Catholic Church).

For this reason it has been compared to the intelligent prow of the human essence (Claudel), to the closing of the ring of the active life that leads to its own perfection, or to the radiance of the moral life (Pieper). In the Christian perspective, St. John speaks of "walking in the light", equivalent to practicing the truth by doing justice to reality, as a consequence of communion with God.


2. Forms of imprudence.

To be prudent, therefore, requires first of all the "report of being," or the "metaphysics of the moral person," that is to say, to take into account who one is and why one desires one thing or another.

For this reason alone the egoist, the one who looks after his own interests and not those of others, is already imprudent. Also the one who is not docile, because he does not allow himself to say something, is imprudent, because he opposes the knowledge of reality. One can also be imprudent because of unpremeditation (lack of sufficient reflection) or inconstancy. On the other hand, the one who has the virtue of solertia (capacity of circumspection or of weighing the reality in question) is the one who can overcome the temptations of injustice, cowardice or intemperance.

Secondly, one can be imprudent due to failure of the operative moment (the decision). So it can happen by insecurity, which can be guilty if it is result of a focus on oneself without looking at God and others. This look at God and those around us is what enriches hope and experience, and allows us to give us the minimum of certainty (there cannot be total certainty about the future) to decide to act.

It is also possible to fail in the decision by simple omission or negligence, and this in turn by laziness or cowardice; and in general by lack of maturity in the "empire". This failure to be able to make a decision, says St. Thomas, is often linked to lust.

One can also be imprudent because of the "prudence of the flesh" (cf. Rom 8:7). That is, the materialistic view of life. This can lead to cunning: to act or not to act by mere tactics or intrigue, an attitude opposed to truth, charity, uprightness of spirit and magnanimity, and prone to meanness (lack of nobility or stinginess) and faintheartedness (small-mindedness or lack of courage to undertake great things or to tolerate setbacks).

At the bottom of all this, says Thomas Aquinas, is usually greed, the clinging to the instinct of self-preservation (hence the popular meaning of "prudence" as a refraining from action for fear of risk).

The reason why all these attitudes are opposed to prudence is because prudence is concerned not only with the ends but also with the means in acting. "Prudence disposes reason internship to discern, in all circumstances, our true good and to choose the just means to realize it" (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 1835).



3. Prudence in core topic Christian.

In the Christian, prudence supposes in the first place the three theological virtues: Faith, Hope and Charity. In this way the "report of being" which is the basis of moral action (synderesis) is perfected by anamnesis (report of God and of his merciful action), and the Christian's correspondence is favored.

The three theological virtues are in the Christian the manifestation of his union with Christ in thought, affections and works. And his conscience leads him to perceive that his actions must be along the lines of living and working "for Christ, with him and in him," for the glory of God the Father in the love of the Holy Spirit.

In the second place, Christian prudence (partly infused and partly acquired) leads us to integrate all our actions in order to attain the ultimate end: union with the Being who created us out of love, and to whom our whole existence is a vocation that calls for a response of love. This search for the ultimate end does not consist in uniting ourselves to God in general or in the abstract, but in doing so through Christ and, therefore, through the Church and her evangelizing mission statement .

To put it briefly: the prudence of a Christian is resolved in his pursuit of holiness with all its consequences. That is to say, the search for the love of God and others in all the moments and actions of existence, here and now, by the ways and means of the concrete reality before us.

A consequence of this is that Christian theology has an essential internship or operative dimension. Contemplation of God leads to loving Him with works, also in all those whom He loves and in all the reality that surrounds us, since it has come from God and is directed to Him.



4. Discernment.

As we have seen, the way of living prudence always requires discernment or judgment on status, as the central and most representative moment of prudence. This presupposes a deliberation that looks at reality and is followed by the decision to act by certain means.

This discernment is not only necessary in the individual acts of the person or the one who advises him. It is also needed by those responsible for a social community or a Christian community. For example, the parliament of a nation, a family, a school, a parish, etc. And so we speak not only of discernment staff or spiritual discernment, but also of social or community discernment, and of ecclesial discernment.