Constructive, destructive

WE need to know the character of our human acts, i.e., those acts that we do knowingly and willingly. In other words, human acts are those we do freely, for which we are therefore responsible.

They have to be distinguished from the acts of man which are those we do by instinct and by other factors, for which we may not even know nor will. They are automatic acts like breathing and our heartbeat, etc.

Since they spring from our intelligence and will, our human acts have a moral quality. They are moral if they are good acts, and immoral if they are bad. The good moral acts are those that follow God’s laws and are therefore objectively good for us despite some suffering involved. The bad immoral acts are those that violate God’s laws and are therefore objectively bad for us, even if they offer some apparent good.

Again, since these human acts spring from our intelligence and will, they have a certain life in themselves. They depend on where our intelligence and will are engaged, that is, whether they are with God or not.

If with God, they would know how to grow, how to be constructive, how to draw good from every situation in life, even drawing good from evil. As St. Paul once said: “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God…” (Rom 8,28) In other words, the good moral acts that are done with and for God will always attract more good things and can even convert evil into something good.

But if a human act is done without or even against God, it tends to grow from bad to worse, it tends to attract more evil, it tends to be corrupting and destructive. Thus, St. Paul had something very interesting to say about this point:

“Although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

“Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator…

“As they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice…” (Rom 1,21-25,28-31)

We have to see to it that at the slightest sign of evil in our mind and heart, as when a temptation comes, for example, we have to react immediately, cutting and rooting it out of our system. Otherwise it will spread, contaminating and polluting our whole system. There can even come a point when demonic possession can take place.

Nowadays, we cannot discount the reality of this demonic possession and even infestation. That many people are falling into all kinds of vices, addiction, depression, suicide, etc., can only indicate that this demonic dominion, if not possession and infestation are very much around.

On the contrary, we should try our best that we persevere in doing good, regardless of the challenges, difficulties and the occasional falls. We have to be quick to pick up the proper pace of doing good once it is somehow disturbed.

We have to remember that we cannot be neutral in our morality. We either do good moral acts and be constructive, or do bad immoral acts and be destructive.