We are all good people!
We all want to do good things! We
would never consider worshipping some devil or evil thing; not us!!
There, those are things we can all agree upon: we want good things; we don’t want bad
things. We admit we may not be perfect,
however, we ARE good.
But, …
In the book The Screwtape Letters, a wise old devil is
counseling a young devil on how to tempt men.
He doesn’t say: “Whisper in their ear to do evil things.” No, he knows all men are like us; they want
to do good things, so instead he advises the young devil: “Tell them boldly: ‘Let’s
do this good thing, together --- in this way.’
Then invite them to aim for a good thing, in not such a good way.” What the old fox is saying is: Tell men that
a good thing justifies using any means necessary to achieve it.
So, celebrating with friends is a good thing --- even if you
have to miss mass on Sunday. Giving your
all to your job, even working lots of overtime, is a good thing: your boss is happy AND you get more money ---
even if you have to ignore your wife and children. And being careful with your money is a good
thing --- even if you have to pass by that beggar.
We often think of good and evil as white and black, but that
is not the way it is. Many people today
are confused on this point as they protest: You are evil if you disagree with
them on some fact or way of doing something.
But whether you are for or against slavery, global warming, gay
marriage, abortion, or even free cell phones doesn’t make you good or evil. People, and their beliefs and actions, are
not white or black in total (I thought we agreed upon that in the opening
paragraph.), but rather a PARTICULAR belief or action may be described as white,
off-white, cream, dirty white, greyish, grey, dark grey, or (yes) even black in
color.
A typical person can be defined by many PARTICULAR beliefs
or actions, but no person is all white and no person is all black --- so we
need to stop thinking that we are all good and someone who disagrees with is
all bad. It just ain’t so!!
Many things about this world disappoint me. Iceland is celebrating the elimination of
Down’s Syndrome, a wonderful thing, by requiring that all such babies be killed
by abortion. East Lansing, Michigan is
protecting all its loving citizens, a good thing, by telling a farmer trying to
support his family (also a good thing!) that he cannot sell his crops in that
city because he refused to allow one gay marriage to be performed at his farm
--- which is many miles from East Lansing, and its laws! And even I, when on my retreat a couple of
weeks ago, saw roadblocks set up to avoid hazards, good things, as evil things
because they blocked the way I wanted to go.
Neither the citizens of Ireland, East Lansing nor I am evil --- nor is
the farmer --- because we may do some things that irritate or are judged as bad
by some people. Those things and those
actions may in fact be bad, but we are not all bad.
How did the Jews come about to be
worshipping Baal at some point? They
were a good people who God had saved; how could they come to worship evil? I bet what happened was that some people who
worshipped Baal invited their Jewish friends to a party: “Let’s celebrate
together! And this good thing, my
friend, will be held at the house of Baal --- a minor point; it’s convenient.” So, what they were saying is let’s do a good
thing in not such a good way: the ends justify the means. This is called a temptation to do evil, or
perhaps something that could be described as colored “off-white.”
Even Jesus was tempted in the Bible. The devil said: “Hey, all these people of the
world should be Yours; I’ll step aside and give them to You --- if You fall
down and worship me.” The devil was
saying: Don’t You agree that the ends justify the means? And Jesus strongly said: “No, they don’t.”
The Bible also tell us that Jesus ate with sinners, but He
never celebrated what they did, nor participated in their sins. We need to learn from His example. In eating with sinners, He did not “tolerate”
their sinful actions --- when the actions were discussed He firmly said they
were wrong, and tried to explain why.
But neither did He avoid sinners, because they were not all “black” with
sin, but there was much “white” in them, because they, like us, thought themselves
“good.”
We can’t be like the Jews who went to celebrate at Baal’s
house and eventually get converted, rather we must be like Jesus who went to
gatherings of sinners to convert them!
We need to be firm in our faith --- or get there --- and then reach out
to everyone, as He did, and not separate ourselves from them by calling them
evil.
And while trying to convert them, let’s not be tempted to do
this “by any means.”
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One final point: The
idea of spiritual progress has much to do with growing in love --- accepting
fully those “Two Great Commandments.”
Most temptations we face are about us, and what we want for ourselves
(like avoiding those who disagree with us).
Love is a desire for good things for others. Spiritual progress is often a qualitative
change in us, changing why we do what we do, our intentions. If we do more out of love for our neighbors,
and less out of love for ourselves, we will be making spiritual progress. And that is something worth celebrating.
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