This Is Making You Weak

Men must strengthen their minds and souls.

The weakness I’m talking about in this article is not merely physical weakness (although that plays a part), but the more general “faint-heartedness” or pusillanimitas recognized in Catholic tradition, a vice that causes men to become despondent and develop moral weakness.

St. Thomas Aquinas defines pusillanimity as a defect or vice that is opposite of the virtue of magnanimity, as a trait that hinders spiritual progress by fostering a sort of "smallness of soul" that seeks to avoid demanding works of charity or justice.

This is the vice of the mediocre man that chooses mediocrity not because he can’t choose greatness, but because he’d rather not be bothered to engage in the heavy work that greatness requires. And bear in mind, we’re not talking about worldly “greatness”, but about greatness of the soul, about the genuine and much needed striving for holiness.

The faint-hearted or pusillanimous man refuses to accept the universal call to excellence for God’s glory that all believers are called to, out of either ignorance of his own God-given talents or out of fear of failure, criticism, or other discomforts.

In this sense, the guiding light of the man who’s controlled by this vice is not love of God or even duty, but whatever promises the most comfortable, less risky path forward.

What Causes Pusillanimitas?

Fr. Basil Cole explains Aquinas’s analysis from the Summa Theologiae (II-II, q. 133, a. 2), identifying pusillanimity’s origins as follows:

Secondly, pusillanimity can be considered in relation to its cause, which is both the intellect’s ignorance of a man’s quality and the will’s fear of failure to attain what it wrongly reckons to be beyond his ability.¹

More simply put, the two broad causes of pusillanimity are:

Intellectual ignorance, manifested as a failure to recognize one’s true God-given qualities, capacities, and potential for great works ordered to virtue and divine glory. This basically means being unaware of just how much could be achieved through grace.

Fear, manifested as a cowardly refusal to dare, persevere, and succeed, altogether withdrawing oneself from the pursuit of honorable and magnanimous goals. The pusillanimous person deems challenges insurmountable, even when they are within reach.

In this article, the goal is to expose how modern men have become pusillanimous by developing disordered attachments to certain commonly accepted “harmless” behaviors (which are anything BUT harmless).

We know that pusillanimity comes from being unable or unwilling to dare for greatness and undertake, guided and strengthened by grace, the big projects and goals that a man is capable of.

There are a lot of obvious factors for this widespread weakness amongst modern men, ranging from cultural pressures and addictions (to junk food, video games, social media, entertainment, pornography), to fear of criticism (out of a disordered attachment to social approval) and a brutal lack of spiritual strength caused by the soft world we inhabit.

But beyond these obvious reasons, there are other forces at play that aren’t so commonly spoken of and yet are very strong behaviors that need to be removed from your life. For the modern man, from what I’ve seen, aside from the things already mentioned, there are 3 unspoken and specific behaviors that make him pusillanimous.

I anticipate that some readers might dislike what I’m about to explain, because these are behaviors that have become incredibly normalized and internalized, even to the point of becoming fundamental aspects of many men’s identities. However, I encourage you to read the whole article with an open mind, and ask yourself honestly if the behaviors I’m about to describe could be things that are making you spiritually and mentally weak, and if getting rid of them could be a step forward in your journey towards sanctity.

I will explain what they are, and then provide both general and more specific strategies to combat them and remove pusillanimity from your life.

So what exactly are these things that are making you pusillanimous?