An Imperfectly Willed Good Can Still Lead To God

Last updated on: February 20, 2011 at 11:15 am by Henry Karlson

An Imperfectly Willed Good Can Still Lead To God 2011-02-20T11:15:38-05:00 Henry Karlson

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She [Amma Sarah] also said, ‘It is good to give alms for men’s sake. Even if it is only done to please men, through it one can begin to seek to please God.’[1]

Amma Sarah is telling us that we should give alms, because in doing so, we are helping people in need, and therefore, we end up doing good. She knows that we might do it because we want to hear praise from others, either from those we help, or from those who see us helping those in need. Nonetheless, she says it is good and tells us we should recognize that good.

While we can understand this point, one might wonder, doesn’t this message run contrary to what Jesus taught when he said, “Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them; for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 6:1)?

No. It does not.

Upon examination, what she wants us to do is to do good with the hope that by doing such good, we can get to the point where we can follow Jesus and give out alms with a purity of heart. Her message is one of hope for those who do good with mixed intentions. Accomplishing an objective good can and will have a positive effect – not only on those who are helped by such actions, but upon those who perform the good. It will transform the person, opening them up to become a better person, transcending themselves as they develop a good habit. They will slowly desire the good for the sake of the good itself, instead of the praises they get from others; and when they reach this point, they will then be able to see that the good itself is a good only because of its similarity and relationship to the Good, which is God himself:

Everything is therefore called good from the divine goodness, as from the first exemplary effective and final principle of all goodness. Nevertheless, everything is called good by reason of the similitude of the divine goodness belonging to it, which is formally its own goodness, whereby it is denominated good. And so of all things there is one goodness, and yet many goodnesses.[2]

In this way, the one who forms a good habit and begins to love the good for the sake of the good will therefore feel called to understand that good, to understand what it is good, and, if they continue to be open to that good, will be directed from that good to God. This, of course, is possible in respect to any good – and this is the reason why we should acknowledge the good which is done by anyone, even if the good is mired by the wrong intention, or, even worse, if that good is as if a diamond in the rough and mixed with all kinds of evil. Even then, the good, as far as it is there, is good because of its relationship with the Good and has come to the person as a gift from God: “Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17). This can help us to understand why morally impure people are nonetheless praised in Scripture. For example, Raab is praised because of the good she did, not because of the lie she used to do that good.[3] Or, if we see all the evil that King David has done, we nonetheless can see the good he has done, indeed, we can see in many of his works the goodness which was in his heart, the love he had for God, and see and praise him for that love. We can understand that it was this love which is what made him a friend of God (likewise, when we have any such love in our hearts, it is also capable of making us friends with God, even if we, like David, struggle to properly follow what that love dictates to us).

We often get in the habit of looking at what is wrong, we fail to see what is right. Amma Sarah reminds us that, even in imperfection, what is good and right has value. Those who do good will be changed because of that good. While we should encourage people to do good the right way with the right intention, until they get to that point, it does not mean we should fail to see the good that they do. What a better world it would be if we encouraged others by praising the good we see in them instead of our tendency to discourage others by only pointing out the failings we see in them.

[1] The Sayings of the Desert Fathers. Trans. Benedicta Ward (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1984), 230.

[2](St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province (New York: Benziger Brothers, 1948) I:6.4.

[3] See my On Lying: A Moral Guide Based Upon Lombard’s Sentences. Part III: The Initial Classification

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