New York Times columnist and Public Television pundit David Brooks opens his recent book, The Road to Character, with a contrast between what he calls “résumé virtues” and “eulogy virtues.” “Résumé virtues” are virtues we cultivate in order to be successful in life. “Eulogy virtues” are virtues we cultivate in order to build character. They are the virtues that make us fully human.
Brooks goes on to speak about the two sides of human nature that these virtues reveal. One side, what he calls “Adam I,” (we could just as easily say “Adam/Eve I,” I think!), “wants to build, create, produce, and discover things.” Another side of human nature—let’s call it “Adam/Eve II”—“wants to love intimately, to sacrifice self in the service of others, to live in obedience to some transcendent truth, to have a cohesive inner soul that honors creation and one’s own possibilities.” If the first aspect of our nature “wants to conquer the world,” the second “wants to obey a calling to serve the world.”
For Christians, I think, these two kinds of virtues or aspects of our human nature are about vocation in its most fundamental sense. As Catholics on Call we need to pay attention to them. They are not just about whether we are called to ministry or not, or to what kind, but whether we will heed the call of our baptism. Faithful discipleship is the bottom line.
We can see both of these “Adams and Eves” at work in our readings today. “Adam/Eve I” or the cultivation of résumé virtues don’t necessarily end up like the rich farmer in the gospel story, or the disenchanted philosopher in our first reading. But the danger is there. Looking only for success in our career runs the danger of trying to amass material possessions, and focusing only on oneself instead of others. Commentators point out how “I-centered” the rich farmer is: “What shall I do…I do not have space to store my harvest? This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns…I shall say to myself,” etc. etc. In the end, though, as God says, the man is a fool. As Qoheleth cries out in the first reading, “Vanity of vanities … all things are vanity.”
The Letter to the Colossians, however, illustrates well the concerns of “Adam/Eve II,” or one who cultivates the “eulogy virtues.” Because of our baptism we are different. We have been conformed to Christ. We have died with him. We have a “new self.” Paul can sound extreme when he says that we need to “think of what is above, not of what is on earth.” What he is trying to say, though, is that we can’t get bogged down with the material aspect of life. We need to let go of “immorality, impurity, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry.” Jesus says the same thing: we need to store up real treasure—cultivate being generous, open, patient, loving, and other “euology virtues,” and then we will be “rich in what matters to God.”
Years ago, the French philosopher Gabriel Marcel wrote a book called Being and Having. His ideas have been highlighted both by St. John Paul II and our present Pope Francis. More important than having, Marcel wrote, is being. What we have is only accidental to our lives; what is essential is they way we be. Be honorable, be loving, be compassionate, be faithful, be inclusive, be hospitable. I don’t want to say that this is an easy choice. I’ve been a religious for 50 years and a priest for 45 and I still struggle with the choice. I make it every day, and only by God’s grace I usually mnage to succeed.
If we don’t make the choice, though, Qoheleth is right. All is vanity. If we do, though, we will have a lot more than a large inheritance or a set of full barns, a lot more than healthy retirement funds and a BMW or a Tesla. We will have the real treasure: a fully human life. God give us the grace not to be fools!
Stephen Bevans, SVD
