Extreme Measures, Fr. John Dominic Corbett, O.P.

It is a curious fact that the earliest Christian moralists were hesitant to embrace growth in "virtue" as the goal or description of the Christian moral life. This is because the term "virtue" suggested to them an inner mastery which bordered on self-sufficiency. This attitude of the pagans was always on the lookout for balance and emotional distance, and any unseemly display of joy or grief would have been despised by them as evidence of moral failure. But the mind of the Church has always been that the proper measure of love of God is to love God without measure. We Christians do not or should not silently reprove ourselves for "indiscretions." We mourn, or ought to mourn, our sins as though they were attending our own funeral. Likewise we Christians do not, or should not, give measured and discrete approval to God. Instead, we dance like fools because, against all the odds, we have been invited to God's own wedding feast. A measured response to a social indiscretion or to a job promotion is virtuous because these things are of only relative importance. But if we would see the life and death implications of our yes or our no to God, we would see that nothing less than a dirge or a dance will do.