You’re a moral creature when you live by moral principles, many of them turned into habitual behaviors or at least admired behaviors. To be a moral creature, you have to look outside of yourself to God’s Creation in light of your best take on objective moral truths which are embedded in that Creation. In terms of modern knowledge about human beings:
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We have certain racial attributes which can be nurtured into virtues or vices and these attributes, such as recklessness or sexual hunger or an inclination to save energy, are distributed differently amongst members of the human race. These attributes can develop into courage or mindless seeking of thrills, love of spouse or lust, prudence in use of personal resources or a slothful withdrawal from active responses to your environments.
These attributes were those which allowed our ancestors to survive and to reproduce successfully over the eons and we can imagine that sometimes the development of these attributes into vices provided at least a short-term advantage over more virtuous human beings. It still happens, but human beings selected for life in complex societies will have at least some greater propensity to develop human virtues as commonly understood.
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As individuals, we are born with particular sets of those racial attributes, some of us being more reckless and some having greater sexual hungers and some being inclined to lower levels of activity when possible. We can develop these attributes in the direction of virtue or vice.
Let me discuss the fundamental virtue of courage with a particular concern for moral courage which will have elements of a courage in the face of physical suffering but also elements of a courage in the face of social ostracism. Those two forms of courage aren’t always found in the same human being.
It’s simple, though not often easy, to develop moral courage. You set out to follow the moral principles you believe in and don’t give yourself any room to weasel out of your commitments. But Thomistic principles tell us that human beings are organisms and that human moral nature develops in an organic manner. We can’t simply will to be morally courageous and — presto — a magical transformation has taken place.
Step by step. Daydream tough situations if you will. They say some athletes improve their response times in certain situations by having already imagined them in preparation for a competitive event.
In addition to imagining yourself in tough situations, you can also imagine yourself as being what you aim to be, a God-centered man or woman who behaves first according to Christian moral principles and then accepts the consequences good or bad.
Most of all, simply decide that you’ll do what you deem right and worry about the consequences afterward. Brainwash yourself into being a morally courageous human being, one who just does what is right because you don’t consider doing what is wrong or being passive in the face of evil. Some of the biographers of George Washington claim he did exactly this when it came to the “public honor” components of his moral character — he trained himself from his late teens to act according to the model of an idealized portrayal of Cato, the man who fought against Caesar to defend the republican form of Roman government. Like Cincinnatus, another ancient Roman, Washington proved capable of holding the reins of great, almost absolute, power and then ceding that power when it was appropriate. Having developed his moral character without the direct guidance of a more mature man from his teen years, George Washington — though far from morally perfect — gives us a good example of an individual developing a particular subset of virtues the Thomistic way, moving step-by-step with the ultimate goal kept in mind but attention devoted mostly to the next step, the next round of public duties in the case of George Washington.