On the Giving and Receiving of Honor, by Stephen P. White

By Stephen P. White, The Catholic Thing, November 14, 2024

Stephen P. White is executive director of The Catholic Project at The Catholic University of America and a fellow in Catholic Studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

No one esteems a man for having lived an easy life. No one thinks more of a man for never having faced hardship, trials, or want. We pray that we might be spared such trials ourselves. We are grateful when those we love are spared such sufferings. But we do not admire them for it.

There are certain kinds of ease – the ease that comes with inheriting great wealth, for example – that we generally hold in suspicion, if not outright contempt. We may occasionally envy those who live such lives of unmerited luxury, but no one ever mentions a silver spoon by way of a compliment. Still, we know what it is to desire for ourselves what we do not admire in others.

By contrast, we often admire those who have suffered much. We admire those who have overcome great adversity, seeing in their perseverance proof of some virtue or other. The suffering of others can move us to compassion, which is natural and good. There are even some forms of suffering that inspire not just compassion but a certain awe or reverence for the sufferer. …

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