It’s impossible to experience the full benefit of a virtuous action before the action is complete. I might understand in some small way what the supposed benefits are, but I won’t experience them. I intellectually understand that going to the gym is good for mental health, but I won’t really believe it until I’ve experienced the benefit firsthand.
It’s harder still when I don’t understand, even intellectually, what the benefit is. Whenever I act selfishly, it’s because I don’t understand why I should act otherwise. I believe I must say that unkind thing, or I may lose my reputation, or pride, or I may be made fun of.
But as we’ve previously discussed it’s impossible to know the full benefit of virtue before experiencing it. Therefore, I should act before I know why. I have to do a virtuous thing to experience the effects of virtue. Once the effects have been experienced, I can believe the thing is worth doing. Before that, I can only act without believing it’s worth doing.
This is true for all good action. You can’t wait to understand why something is good, you have to act to understand.
Why does wisdom come before understanding? Why do we know what is good before we know why? What a strange thing conscience is. The voice of God so near to us we hear Him almost as ourselves. A voice is telling us the right way before we believe we ought to take it.