Prudent, Not Prudish

The Lord comes to Solomon in a dream and asks him what he desires.

Solomon responds:

Give your servant a heart to understand how to discern between good and evil, for who could govern this people of yours that is so great? (1 Kings 3).

Solomon is prudent, not prudish.

The former comes from the Latin providens, meaning ‘seeing ahead.’ The latter from the French, meaning ‘shocked by someone’s behaviour.’

We need prudent men and women in every age, but especially now with the collapse of reason and faith.

Prudence is one of four cardinal virtues – a ‘hinge’ virtue, enabling ‘doors’ to be opened to virtue and ‘doors’ to be closed to vice.

What is prudence?

It is our ability to:

Discover and know basic moral principles.

Take these principles and discern the right (good) outcome, and the right means to achieve it in the concrete circumstances of life (cf. Catechism Catholic Church 1806).

The best leaders down throughout history lived and acted in this way:

They knew where they wanted to go and they knew how to get there.

We would be wise to emulate Solomon.

Don’t forget – it all started with a ‘divine dream.’

Amen.