Fidelity to Error is not a Virtue

Dietrich von Hildebrand, begins his book, Transformation in Christ, quoting St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians, and states that all must pass through this gate if we wish to reach the goal set before us by God:

Put off the old man who is corrupted according to the desire of error, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind:  and put on the new man, who according to God is created in justice and holiness of truth.  (Eph. 4:22-24)

von Hildebrand says, that the man who has a supernatural readiness to change, seeing his life by a supernatural light and not merely by natural standards, is conscious of his wretchedness, and will not sink into resignation: "for he possesses a supernatural zeal for perfection, expecting the supreme fructification of the talents which God has in reality entrusted to him from his transformation in Christ, rather than from his own effort alone."  He continues:  "Whatever his nature be like, he will know that it is possible for him to become another man if he is rightly disposed for being created anew by Christ - mindful of the words which the king in the parable addresses to his guest:  'Friend, how camest thou in hither not having on a wedding garment?'  (Matt. 22:12).   The state of fluidity in relation to Christ, and the readiness to leave behind everything, particularly one's own self - such is the tissue of which the festive garment is woven."

von Hildebrand states that this state of fluidity can be obstructed when people adhere to errors, by attributing value to what is not genuine virtue.  He says:  "What claims our faithfulness is the presence of genuine values.  Fidelity is but a manifestation of that continuity by virtue of which we pay consideration to the immutability and the eternal significance of truth and of the world of values.

"To abide by a thing inflexibly, merely because we have once believed in it and have come to love it, is not in itself a praiseworthy attitude.  It is only in reference to truth and to genuine value that unswerving loyalty is an obligation, and a virtue.  In regard to all errors and negative values (that is, evils in the widest sense of the term, but particularly in a morally relevant sense) we have, on the contrary, the duty to break with what we formerly cherished and to withdraw our allegiance from them, once we know them to be false and negative in value.  Indeed, the obligation of fidelity in a formal and automatic sense must not hamper our readiness to separate ourselves from such ideals or convictions, once we have serious reasons to doubt their validity.  There is only one fidelity to which we are absolutely committed:  that is, fidelity towards God, the epitome of all values, and towards everything that represents God and is instrumental to us in approaching Him."