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.