Direction

There’s a cutesy axiom that says, “When you don’t know which way to turn, follow God’s directions: turn right!” It’s not enough, though, just to turn right; we must also “keep to the right.” That’s the bottom-line description of character. Aristotle’s definition of good character in his Nicomachean Ethics is living a life of right conduct in relation to oneself and to others. (As a pagan, he didn’t spell out God’s role in this schema.) Christian moralists like St. Thomas Aquinas later demonstrated how this proper relationship to oneself and to others actually embraces God as its substrate, as Jesus shows in his do-it-to-these-and-you-do-it-to-me norm (see Mt 25:40).

Aristotle’s list of directions for character formation includes: 1) Moral knowing (judging what is right); 2) Moral feeling (desiring to do only right); and 3) Moral doing (acting on what is right). He expatiates each of these directions, and of course they have been further expounded upon in Christian writings through the centuries. Nevertheless, God’s holy Word spells out each of these norms in even more ways and contexts.

An often-quoted quip says, “When all else fails, follow directions.” When looking for directions, we Christians can’t say we don’t have a road map; we have the very best directions, handed down to us through philosophy, theology, and divine revelation. In trusting the reliability of road maps we implicitly trust the cartographers who have designed them. When we really come to rely on the Divine Cartographer, however, we won’t need to wait until all else fails before following his directions. They lead right to the heart of God.

This excerpt is from the book Pathways of Trust, by John H. Hampsch,C.M.F., originally published by Servant Publications. It and other of Fr. Hampsch's books and audio/visual materials can be purchased from Claretian Teaching Ministry, 20610 Manhattan Pl, #120, Torrance, CA 90501-1863. Phone 1-310-782-6408.