Robert Barron - Becoming a Brick Wall of Integrity
Peace be with you. Friends, if you've been following these sermons of mine the past couple of months, you know I've been focusing very much on the first readings coming up out of the Old Testament, because I think we Catholics especially aren't that great at understanding the Old Testament. So today I'm going to look at this marvelous passage from the book of the prophet Ezekiel.
Now, Ezekiel, one of the four major prophets along with Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel. Also one of the most theologically profound, and one of the most mysterious, of the prophets. In fact, ancient Israel had an adage that one should not even approach Ezekiel till you're about fifty. They thought, prior to that, you just didn't have what it takes to read a text as complex as this one. So we'll be reading from Ezekiel today, and the passage is from the eighteenth chapter.
Now, I think the eighteenth chapter of Ezekiel represents a real breakthrough in the consciousness of the West. I'm a student of philosophy, and you look at people like Socrates and Plato and so on, who did indeed represent great breakthroughs or watershed figures. But mind you, they're operating around the year 400 BC. Ezekiel? We're talking about 590, 580 BC. Nearly two hundred years before Socrates and Plato, this figure is operating and writing. And I think this chapter eighteen, I recommend by the way, get your Bibles out and just read that eighteenth chapter, does represent a very important breakthrough.
Now, let me explain what I mean. Our passage today, or rather the chapter, commences with a rehearsal of a proverb that was evidently popular among the ancient Israelites. Here's the proverb: "The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge". See what that means? The parents eat the sour grapes, but the children suffer for it. The implication seems to be that the children and grandchildren and descendants of those who have done wicked things are punished for the wickedness of their forebearers. But see, here's Ezekiel's point: God is having none of that.
Listen: "As I live, says the Lord God, this proverb shall no more be used…in Israel". It's very interesting, now. It's very interesting. See, ancient Israel, like most ancient peoples, thought not so much in terms of the individual. And we're on the far side of that divide. We are so characterized by individualism that we probably need a little balancing. But see, these people tended to think that your family identity, your tribal identity, your national identity was more important than you.
And so they had no trouble thinking, "Yeah. Someone sinned way back then. Of course his descendants are implicated, because it's your tribe, it's your family, matters more than you". But Ezekiel's saying, and I think it's a breakthrough, God says, "No, no. That won't work". Listen now what he says as he channels the words of the Lord. "Know that all lives are mine; the life of the parent as well as the life of the child… but it is only the person who sins that shall die". And he spells this out now in some detail. Listen. If there is a person who's done all things well, has been righteous, I'm quoting now, but whose "son…is violent, a shedder of blood… defiles his neighbor's wife, oppresses the poor… lifts up his eyes to the idols… shall he then live? He shall not".
You see his point there is the son who's wicked can't wrap himself in the mantle of his father's virtue. If you're thinking purely in tribal terms, yeah, okay, maybe "Hey, I'm still benefiting from what my great-grandfather did". "No", says the Lord. "I know both the father and the son. And the wickedness of one belongs to him. The virtue of the other belongs to him". Here's how he spells out the other side: no virtuous son shall suffer for the wickedness of his father. Here's the Lord speaking now: "A child shall not suffer for the iniquity of a parent, nor a parent suffer for the iniquity of a child; the righteousness of the righteous shall be his own, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be his own".
Here, I think, is what the prophet Ezekiel, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, is helping us to see. Though family identity is real, no one's denying that. Tribal identity, our sense of belonging to something bigger than ourselves. Yes, that's all true. More to it: and though our moral acts always have implications; that's also true. They can have negative impact on people that come after us. That's certainly true. Nevertheless, in the moral act, the individual gathers himself, defines his character, stands in a very real and important sense alone in the presence of God. Let me say that again: In the moral act, I gather myself. I define my character. I stand on my own two feet in the presence of God.
Again, these acts take place in the real world. Yeah. Influenced by family, culture, society, yeah, yeah, yeah. All that's true. Nevertheless, I show God and the world who I am in the quality and integrity of my moral acts. Can I put my philosopher's hat on just for a second? Again, St. Thomas Aquinas always comes through in a pinch with the pithy distinction. Thomas distinguishes between what he calls an "actus hominis" and an "actus humanus". What's an actus hominis? That means an act of a man. So let's say I sneeze. That's an act of a man; but it's not a human act. What do I mean? Well, it's not an act by which I am gathering and consciously defining myself. It's an instinctual reaction. Or if someone comes up and they startle me, and I jump, well, that's an actus hominis, an act of a man, but not an actus humanus.
An actus humanus, a human act, involves the full engagement of the mind (I know what I'm seeking, I know the nature of this) and the full engagement of the will (I choose, I decide). Now, both those things, mind and will, influenced by forces outside? Sure they are. Of course they are. But nevertheless, at that decisive moment, when I gather myself, knowing what I'm doing, choosing it consciously, in that great actus humanus, in that great human act, I stand before God. I stand on my own two feet. And I define my character. You know what comes to mind here too, and I reference my favorite movie, "A Man for All Seasons," a lot.
The great St. Thomas More, when he's up against the pressure of King Henry VIII to give in, as everyone, all the leaders of that society had given in. And More is talking to his best friend, Norfolk. And Norfolk's trying to persuade him, like, "Thomas, come on, we've all given in". And More says, in regard to his own convictions, "But it's that I believe it". Then he says, "Well, but rather, no. Not that I believe it, but that I believe it". And see, in some ways that's the fulcrum on which that whole movie turns. "Not that I believe it, but that I believe it".
More, at that moment, was summing up his whole life, defining who he was, not wrapping himself in the mantle of his virtuous predecessors, not suffering from the wickedness of his friends around him. But at that moment, fully engaging mind and will, engaging in an actus humanus, that I believe it. Now we know who he is. Now we know where he stands. Here's something from the philosopher Dietrich von Hildebrand, who loved the three transcendentals: the good, the true, and the beautiful, right? Von Hildebrand said, look, truth, wonderful. Every philosopher seeks it.
What a wonderful thing, if you're educated, and you learn to read books, and to think deeply, and entertain high ideas. But we would say, if someone were incapable of that, let's say they weren't that intelligent, they weren't well-educated, they weren't given access to books, et cetera, we'd say, well, that's sad. That's unfortunate. Or let's say, the beautiful, someone with a great aesthetic sensibility. They appreciate fine art. They can even create fine art. How wonderful, a Michelangelo, and so on. And if someone were deprived of that, they never got an aesthetic education, they had a talent that was never cultivated, we'd certainly say that's a sadness. But in regard to the good, to the morally upright, if someone's incapable of that, they fail in that regard. We don't just say, "How sad". We say that that's a calamity, that that's a tragedy. We're not going to morally blame someone that doesn't become a great philosopher or a great artist, but we are going to morally blame someone who doesn't cultivate the moral dimension of his life.
What von Hildebrand shows there, is the primacy of the good, the primacy of the moral, and in light of Ezekiel, how it's the moral act that defines who I am. Just one more reference to another hero of mine, namely, St. John Paul II. So Karol Wojtyła was a great moral philosopher. That was his area of expertise. And he said this in his moral writings: Every time we perform a moral act, we make a moral decision, we do two things. One is we affect the world in a particular way. We do this, we move in that direction, we take this action. But then Wojtyla said, in a deeper way, we also are creating the person we are becoming. Think about that. There's a direct line, it seems to me, from Ezekiel to John Paul II. When I make a moral decision…
Now, mind you, I'm not talking about my decision to watch the baseball game or watch a movie. That's a decision, but not a morally important decision. I decide to have a ham sandwich or a turkey sandwich. That isn't a morally relevant decision. But, in the presence of a moral choice, knowing full well what's at stake, fully engaging my will, when I do that sort of act, I perform that kind of act, I am defining the character that I'm becoming. Think of every moral act, this is a Wojtyła idea, it's like a little brick in the wall. And with each one of those acts, I'm building up the edifice of my own character. And keep that in mind, everybody. That's a very important idea.
Again, I'm not talking movie versus baseball game. I mean, every time in the course of the day, when you take a moral decision, you're not wrapping yourself in the mantle of your grandparents, you're not suffering because of what your children might be doing, but at that moment, you are standing in a self-defining way in the presence of God. I think Ezekiel chapter 18 represents a great breakthrough in consciousness. Now come all the way up through Thomas More, all the way to St. John Paul II. And keep that in mind as you're moving through your day, and you're making moral choice after moral choice. You're affecting your world. You're also defining the person you are becoming. And God bless you.