Pytania o moralne zachowania i postawy

Abstract

We are prepared now to take up the practical problem of identifying authenticity in the real world of human persons, opinions and movements. How do we know when one is being led by noting less exciting than the Spirit of the living God rather than by noting more dull than one's own hidden aspirations? Given the fact of unconscious motivation, how do I know myself that I am actually being enlightened by God indwelling rather than by my own wounded intellect and will? In a pluralistivc world, how does one sift the wheat from the chaff? Authenticity begets goodness: From their fruits you shall know them. Scripture plays on this theme in many ways as it distinguishes the genuine from the ungenuine. Foolishness and evel gush forth from the heart of the wicked. The holy man speaks little, and when he does converse, his words reflect his holiness; they are controlled, measured, sensible, without sin. Inner goodness shows inself in outer words. God is pure goodness because he is pure love. The man or woman led by his Spirit is likewise good and loving. We may say that a person may be confident of being led by the Holy Spirit only to the extent that he has matured in gospel goodness. Love is an inner, invisible reality. As such it cannot be a sign of the Spirit’s presence. But love sooner or later shows itself in action and thus becomes a visible signal of an invisible presence. This is what Jesus meant when he said that by our living ofhis new love all men would know that we are his disciples. Perhaps the supreme paradox of the incarnational economy is the paschal mystery, foolishness to men but the very wisdom of God. Pervading the entire New Testament (the old did not understand), this paradox is expressed in a rich variety. This trait of autenticity is so foreign to most people’s way of thinking that one feels a temptation not to discuss it. Yet, startlingly enough, frugality represents not only a clear New testament message but also a growing contemporary theme. As the earth’s nonrenewable resources (oil, natural gas, iron, zincand many others) slowly and irrevocably dwindle, a growing consensus in the academic community is callinf for a fundamental change in our consumerist premises and practice. Whether welike it or no, the day is coming (indeed, its dawn is upon us) when weshall be forced tolive more and more frugally. On the purely human plane, we see that their rightful share of the planet’s resources are selfish and inauthentic, at least to the extent that they realize what they are doing. God respects human freedom in more ways than one. He honors our native psychological liberty by allowing us to elect either the heights of the new creation or the depths of selffashioned degradation. He desires to exalt us with the very summit of goodness and beauty, but he forces not the least speck of it on anyone. God wills the salvation of all, but he imposes in on no one.