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There’s no Such Thing as a Bad Person

             Let’s take the example of someone who says, “John[1] is not a bad person. He’s a Catholic who doesn’t go to Mass on Sunday, but he’s a good guy.”

            Problem. What are we to do? What are we to think?

            Many Catholics are perfectly disposed to assert such things even about themselves. “I don’t go to Mass, but I’m a good guy. I look at impure images in magazines, movies and the internet, but I’m a good guy. I waste time at work, time I’m being paid for, but I’m a good guy. I use contraception, but I’m a good guy. I slander and destroy other people’s good name by gossip, but I’m a good guy.”

            OK, a question: is there anything where this guy would say, “I’m a bad guy, I have done evil”? Probably not. To put on a face of humility, they admit that maybe, once in a while (translate: 20 times a day) they use foul language or take God’s name in vain.

            Then people add a level of complication to it: “He does all sorts of good things.”

            What this all is, in a word, is relativism. We’re dealing with two types here, raw relativism, where good and evil is up to the whimsical judgment of each one; and proportionalism, which puts good and evil on a scale, and sees which one outweighs the other… and, of course, weighing things based on one’s whimsical judgment of the moral value of each act.

            Yet it is no secret that all the following are mortal sins: skipping Mass, impure acts or images, marital infidelity, stealing, contraception, slander, etc. And it is also no secret that, unrepentant mortal sins makes man truly evil, independent of other good things he may do, even great enterprises that leave the world in awe. For God and sin are mutually exclusive.

            This is why repentance is crucial for eternal life.

            “Someone asked Jesus, ‘Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?’ He said to them, ‘Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to’.” (Luke 13:23-24)

            Again, “God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water” (1 Pet 3:20).

            You, Gentle reader, beloved soul strive to be one of those few. OK?