Word to the Wise
Saturday, September 16, 2006 - STS. CORNELIUS AND CYPRIAN, MARTYRS
[1 Corinthians 10:14-22 and Luke 6:43-49]A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.
One of the subjects that I lecture on in the course on bio-ethics at St. Catharine College is that of virtue and character. In the field of ethics, it's a "hot" topic! Is it possible to conceive of "good people" who characteristically act in an ethical manner? Or must we assume that people will only be "good" if they are commanded by rules or laws? Or do they only do good if they act in the best interests of the largest number of people? In the field of ethics, "character" refers to a constellation of traits in a person that refer to "virtues" such as prudence, justice, temperance and fortitude. A person who habitually acts according to these traits may be said to be "good." The teaching of Jesus seems to refer to the same thing when he points out that external obligations do not make a person good but only what comes from within. It is the "good tree" that bears "good fruit." I do meet a lot of people who are "good" but do not act in accordance with the good that is in them. In fact, that could describe most of us! In some cases, pernicious patterns of lying or denial set in and blind "good" people to their own destructive and unethical behavior. They wind up rationalizing any course of conduct on convenient reasons. We can become blind to the contents of our own hearts! Jesus challenges us to know our hearts so that when we cry out, "Lord! Lord!" we are not being hypocrites. Even the best tree cannot bear good fruit when the conditions are not good, but that does not change the fact that it is a good tree. But, what is important is that the tree be a good tree so that good fruit will characteristically come from it. AMEN
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