“Character” is often a frivolously used and poorly understood word in today’s time. We speak of character as something to admire in a person and we claim to value it. We speak of character at people’s funerals, but also in critique of the living. As a thought exercise, say someone held you at gunpoint and demanded that you tell him what “character” meant, clearly. Perhaps the first thing on your mind would be that whatever character is, it is certainly the opposite of a man holding you at gunpoint asking you to define the word. In that extreme exercise lies the problem, right? If you can’t clearly define a thing, how can you claim to truly pursue or attain it?

Originally published in Catholic Manhood. Read original article