Mosty, the most neglected virtue of our time! Its definition from the Servant of God John Hardon: The virtue that moderates all the internal and external movements and appearance of a person according to his or her endowments, possessions, and station in life. Four virtues are commonly included under modesty: humility, studiousness, and two kinds of external modesty, namely in dress and general behavior.
Humility is the ground of modesty in that it curbs the inordinate desire for personal excellence and inclines one to recognize his or her own worth in its true light. Studiousness moderates the desire and pursuit of truth in accordance with faith and right reason. Its contrary vices are curiosity, which is an excessive desire for knowledge, and negligence, which is remissness in acquiring the knowledge that should be had for one's age and position in life. Modesty in dress and bodily adornments inclines a person to avoid not only whatever is offensive to others but whatever is not necessary. Modesty in bodily behavior directs a person to observe proper decorum in bodily movements, according to the dictum of St. Augustine, "In all your movements let nothing be evident that would offend the eyes of another." (Etym. Latin modestia, moderation, modesty.)
Every now and then something will occur that will incite a debate about modesty in clothing in our culture and this is important because most of us can agree that modesty is a good thing and the reason we know it’s a good thing is because we hate it when people act immodestly around us based on whatever standard we uphold. We don’t like it when others act arrogantly in proximity to ourselves. Nobody likes it when someone else boasts or brags excessively or flagrantly attempts to capture any and all attention for themselves leaving nothing for the rest of us. Like for example, nobody likes the person with the one-up story. You know who I mean by this? Like when you’re in a group and you tell a story that you think people will find interesting and then they jump in right after yours with an, “Oh ya, well one time I did something even better.” So I hope we can all admit that modesty in its various forms is something we can all appreciate as a good that helps us all get along as a society. But what about modesty in how we present ourselves physically and especially in the way we dress?
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