Posted by Ladyjd721 on September 17, 2008 at 4:05pm
WHATIS A GOOD MAN?Too many people just assume that they know what a “good man” is. Because a man or an organization builds hospitals, schools, an orphanage, an old-folks home, gives to medical research, to needy relatives, to charities, or because he is pleasant, honest, kind, loyal, refined, cheerful, honorable, or possesses those qualities which endears him to his neighbor, he is called “good,” a “good man.” I repeat, people assume that a “good man” is defined in this manner, but rarely do people critically examine the assumption to discover whether a “good man” may actually be what he is generally accepted to be.The thinking on the “good man” has simply ignored Christianity and naturallyOrthodoxy which is true Christianity. Christian experience, dogma, doctrine,canon law, are casually excluded as something personal and having little to dowith the essential character of a “good man.” The Church is “what you make it” and very few people would include in their definition of a “good man” his religion. Surely, he is expected to have one and must live up to it, but as such, it is secondary in the analysis. Of course, he must believe in God , but “each in his own way and each in his own words.”Now, can these ideas about the “good man” be reconciled with the ChristianTruth? Is a “good man” to be identified with the common conception of him? Is a “good man,” as is ordinarily believed, a man who does “good,” “good” as we usually think of it? Is the belief, any belief in God, sufficient to make a man “good?” What is the source of our opinions concerning the “good man?” Are they from God or men? Are the ideas that most of us hold on this matter given by our environment or are they the revelation of God? In any case, let us see what the Church has to say about the “good man.”The Church teaches that three things are required for a man to be “good”: 1)conversion 2) grace 3) faith. Conversion means repentance. Conversion necessarily requires faith, the right faith, the faith given, revealed, disclosed in Christ Jesus. A man must be converted to be “good.” He must be changed from a son of Adam to a son of God by grace. He must be “born again”, renewed, made a “new creature” in Christ. The result is a new mentality, a “change of mind,” a new attitude and approach to all things. This is accomplished primarily by the Sacraments, especially, the Holy Eucharist, which give grace.“But God, Who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which Heloved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, and raised us up with Him, and made us sit with Him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus”. It is grace, an energy of God, a gift, an undeserved favor, divine and activating, which converts us, which makes us
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