(Part 1) "Morality Tells Us What to Do"

1. From Faith to Virtues

Levels of the reading of Scripture: First the letter, which teaches you what has occurred; second, what you must believe, the allegory. / Morality, what to do; what to tend toward, the anagogy ("Littera gesta docet, quid credas allegoria. / Moralis, quid agas; quo tendas anagogia"). We have arrived the third level of the reading of Scripture: the moral, which seeks to draw from practical teachings for life and customs.

It is important to note the order with which these different meanings of the Bible follow one another: Morality does not come first and then the mystery, first works and then faith, but on the contrary. The principle articulated by St. Gregory the Great is respected: One does not come from virtues to faith, but from faith to virtues." (St. Gregory the Great, "Homilies on Ezekiel," II, 7 (PL 76, 1018).)

Unfortunately, at a certain moment this order is disturbed. To some Fathers it seemed more suitable pedagogically to address moral things first and then the mystical which are the highest. Ambrose proposes therefore a new order: first, history, second morality, third mystery. (St. Ambrose, "Commentary on the Gospel of Luke," III, 35 (PL 15, 1603).)

This tendency was reinforced by the fact that the active life was related to morality and contemplative life to mystery, and it is well known how in the Middle Ages contemplation symbolized by Mary, was considered higher than the active life symbolized by Martha.

Later, when the custom was affirmed of dividing the spiritual life in the three famous stages of the purgative life, the illuminative life, and the mystical life, morality which precedes the purgative life could not but precede, in commenting on Scripture, attention to the mystery. 

In this way, in practice if not in theory, works were placed before faith, morality before the kerygma. (Cf. H. de Lubac, "Exégèse médiévale," cit., I,2, p.413). This would also contribute to create that situation which furnished Luther with the pretext for his radical debate. Christ is not for him a model to imitate in one's own life, but a gift to be received through faith, full stop. It was the birth of the controversy on faith and works, destined to go on for a long time and to create so many false oppositions.

Today, with the joint document of the Catholic Church and the Federation of Lutheran Churches, agreement has been reached at least on this point; not faith or works, but faith and works, each one, however, in the proper order. In the end, it was what St. Gregory the Great had enunciated in his maxim: "One does not come from virtues to faith, but from faith to virtues."