The problem with mandates.

This post first appeared on Instagram on October 7, 2020.

Parents are bestowed with God-given authority over their children in order to train them to be righteous, or virtuous. The most important virtues to teach young children are generally thought to be obedience and honesty (sincerity). (James Stenson’s “Compass” and David Isaac’s “Character Building” are wonderful, BTW.)

Children learn to be honest and obedient by way of natural or enforced consequences.

However, as children grow into the age of reason, parents wish for them to go beyond obedience/sincerity. Charity, fortitude, prudence, temperance, integrity, etc. These virtues must spring *naturally,* authentically, from the child.

Let me restate that: in order to be virtuous, one must CHOOSE the behave a certain way. It must come FROM the individual, not from the parental (or governmental) dictate.

If I command my child to give his candy to the baby and he complies, he has shown obedience, not necessarily charity nor generosity.

Children learn to be generous and charitable etc through the example of their parents and teachers.

Now, I believe obedience is an important virtue, so I don’t mean to denigrate it. But what many Catholics are calling the virtue of charity in regards to mandates ... well, it just isn’t.

It’s my theory that one of the major problems with governmental mandates (such as masks etc) is that they REMOVE the opportunity for any virtue (aside from obedience) while simultaneously “virtue signaling” that those out of compliance are evil.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE COMMANDMENTS?

Yes, the Church does give us commandments and precepts, and yes, we must obey them. However, I want to note a few ways in which the commandments differ from mandates:
1. They come directly from God through Scripture and Tradition.
2. They hold the *spiritual* good of the Christian at the core. Physical health may come as a pleasant side effect, but it’s not the point.
3. They forbid very grave things and require very important things. Thou shall not kill, thou shall honor the Lord thy God alone. The commandments do not mandate minor practices. The Church leaves that to the individual.

4. We Christians must obey for our own good, BUT the goal is to get past mere obedience and to do or not do as the commandments demand out of LOVE for the Holy Trinity. Again, this only happens because the commandments bring about deep spiritual benefits.

P.S. There was a whole lot I couldn’t squeeze into this post so I may have a “part 2” at some point. I’d love to know what your thoughts are. ♥️