Have you ever asked yourself that question? Why struggle to perfect the virtues, to develop character, to habitually “do the right thing?”
Answer: “The goal of a virtuous life is the become like God.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1803)
To become like God…… our Eastern Catholic brother and sisters call this “divinization of man.” On face value, that sounds like a very attractive thing, something any of us would desire. In fact, we all do desire it on some level, for we all are naturally drawn to that which is good, beautiful and true. We seek to possess and/or become one with that which we desire. This is the rudiments of loving. Why would we not want to become like God…. for God is good, true and indescribably beautiful.
Why then do we find ourselves reluctant to develop virtue, to “be good”?
I think it is because we have been inundated by cultural pressure to question the daily demands of a virtuous life.
Take a look at our sexual mores.
Culturally, we are told over and over again that sexual intercourse is a normal, healthy and expected part of intimate relationships outside of marriage. Sexual release, we are told, is necessary for psychological health. Non-marital sex is purported to be normative and virtuous. I cannot tell you how many times I have spoken with men and women who consider themselves devout Christians and who at the same time engage in non-marital sex.
The true, good and beautiful thing about sexual intercourse is that it is the physical renewal of the marital covenant established by a man and woman at their wedding in which they pledge life-long, exclusive, faithful and fruitful love. It is a foretaste of the heavenly union of God with his people, the Church. We enter into the very life of God by uniting ourselves physically with each other. To engage in sexual intercourse outside of marriage is ultimately a lie, a failure to give oneself unconditionally and completely to one’s spouse, and a holding back, even perhaps using the person, rather than giving to him or her.
Now, to live a chaste (virtuous) life is challenging in the face of a barrage of cultural biases against it.
Being good is not following a series of prohibitions. Not at all. Being good means embracing and loving a person, Jesus Christ, becoming like God. Because we love him, we want to be like him. Being good is easier when we look at it from that point to view: I want to be good so as to love God, to love Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit, and to enter into the life of the Trinity and to be drawn up into that mystery and to live it as best we can in the here and now. I can freely avoid anything that detracts from that.
Would God love us only under certain conditions? Would he communicate himself or become one with us without first committing himself to us in total fidelity? Would he only temporarily give himself to us so as to test us or to get some selfish pleasure in doing so?
Of course not.
Why, then, would we embrace non-marital sex as normative, healthy, true, good or beautiful without first establishing an irrevocable covenant with our spouse in the sacrament of marriage?
This is just one example of the struggle we have to live a virtuous life. Due to social norms that have so confused us and led us astray it can be difficult to “be good”.
I wish to be good, not to avoid punishment, but so I might be free to love: ultimately love God for all eternity in heaven but until then, to love those whom God has put into my life.
I wish to be good so I may be free to love more fully, like God loves.
