Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God.
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Thursday, November 11, 2010
I have a question for y'all
What is the difference between being a "good person" and being a sinner?
Is there any such thing as a generically "good person"?
What do we mean by the expression? Does it have any theological reality?
There is some theological mileage in these questions, but how you answer them depends very much on how you use the idea of "goodness".
One starts, of course, with the teachings that “none is good but God alone” but that we are exhorted to “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect.” And one might throw in the observation that one identified by the Church as a saint is, by definition, at the moment of his death sufficiently pure to enter into the beatific vision.
Taking a broadly Thomistic line one should observe that we use the word “good” in analogy with how goodness is applied to God. Since goodness in the divine sense reflects God’s pure actuality, one might be justified in identifying creaturely goodness with the degree to which such a creature is actual. So one might say that a creature is good insofar as it has being; insofar as it is loved by God; insofar as it actualizes its potentiality; insofar as it is what it is meant to be.
Fr. Roche explained that in that Canadian context it means a)you didn't vote for Stephen Harper b)you recycle and there was some third thing I can't remember but you get the idea.
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There is some theological mileage in these questions, but how you answer them depends very much on how you use the idea of "goodness".
ReplyDeleteOne starts, of course, with the teachings that “none is good but God alone” but that we are exhorted to “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect.” And one might throw in the observation that one identified by the Church as a saint is, by definition, at the moment of his death sufficiently pure to enter into the beatific vision.
Taking a broadly Thomistic line one should observe that we use the word “good” in analogy with how goodness is applied to God. Since goodness in the divine sense reflects God’s pure actuality, one might be justified in identifying creaturely goodness with the degree to which such a creature is actual. So one might say that a creature is good insofar as it has being; insofar as it is loved by God; insofar as it actualizes its potentiality; insofar as it is what it is meant to be.
Fr. Roche explained that in that Canadian context it means a)you didn't vote for Stephen Harper b)you recycle and there was some third thing I can't remember but you get the idea.
ReplyDeleteprobably something to do with not smoking.
ReplyDelete