Three Virtues the Devil Loves

Truth without goodness becomes cruelty. Goodness without truth becomes tyranny. Beauty without truth and goodness becomes seduction.

Fr. Joseph Gleason | September 21, 2026

 

 

Truth. Goodness. Beauty.

Just as the three Persons of the Trinity belong together, these three magnificent virtues belong together. Any attempt to tear them apart ends in disaster.

Any one of them, separated from the others, can become a servant of Hell itself.

Take truth.

Suppose I know something terrible about you. Something you really did. It isn’t slander. I checked the facts. Then I go around telling everybody.

You object, and I say, “What’s the problem? It’s true.”

Yes. It may be true. And I may still be sinning.

Because truth is not supposed to walk around by itself. Truth needs goodness. It needs mercy. It needs love. Otherwise I can take something completely true and use it like a knife.

Now take beauty.

There are some women so beautiful that when they walk into a room, for a few seconds the sun itself almost seems dim by comparison.

Then one of them starts talking and... Lord have mercy!

The face may be beautiful while the heart is cruel, the mind is empty, and the smile is being used to manipulate somebody.

Beauty alone proves nothing. Even poisonous mushrooms can be beautiful.

And then there is goodness.

A man says, “People should love each other. We should help the poor. We should fight injustice. We should build a better world.”

Very good. There is something admirable there.

But then he adds one little sentence:

“There is no God.”

And all of that “love” is eventually twisted into death camps.

We saw this experiment on an enormous scale in the twentieth century.

Many communists really were idealists. They sacrificed themselves. They dreamed about justice, brotherhood, equality, a better life for ordinary people.

And then they removed God, who is Truth.

Soon the dream of universal brotherhood had prisons, firing squads, informers, starvation, and concentration camps.

Once goodness is separated from truth, somebody still has to decide what “good” means. And if there is no truth above the state, the state will be delighted to make that decision for you.

So these three cannot safely be pulled apart.

Truth without goodness becomes cruelty.
Goodness without truth becomes tyranny.
Beauty without truth and goodness becomes seduction.

And Christianity does not finally lead us to three abstract ideas.

It leads us to Christ.

He says, “I am the Truth.” And in Him truth is good. Truth is beautiful. Truth loves.

So when someone offers you beauty, ask whether it’s good. When someone offers you goodness, ask whether it is true. And when someone comes carrying “the truth” like a club, ask whether there is any love in his hands.

Truth. Goodness. Beauty.

Keep them together.

Because once you tear them apart, even a virtue can become a servant of hell.

 

Transcribed by the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrtOvsYdBa8