Conduits for Good

There's something within the human soul that has a natural dislike of wickedness and corruption. Even in the worst of us, and even if we don't actually act on it or say something, we have an aversion to acts of cowardice, unnecessary cruelty, greed, and lies/manipulation. The purer we are, the greater this revulsion seems to be.

Some of us see the ugliness of wickedness in others more clearly than in ourselves. It's only natural. Our sight is directed outward. Much in the same manner that we can't see the wart on our own face, unless we're looking for it in a mirror. But others' warts are always before our eyes.

Some of us see the evil and go a step further. We want to do something about it. Even the most savage tyrants in history, such as Stalin, Hitler, Mao, or Mugabe initially were trying to fight against a great evil they viewed as being inflicted on their people. Yet, in their cases, the end of their efforts turned out to be far worse than the problem they initially sought to remedy.

Others, like Joan of Arc, Mother Teresa, or St. Vincent de Paul, sought to correct great abuses and achieved a great deal. The end of their efforts left a bad situation dramatically improved. Why such a profound difference?

If we, like the figures listed above, see the corruption in the world, the lies, the deceptions, the greed, and actually want to do something about it, we have something intimately in common with Our Maker, God, in whose image we were created. He hates the same things we're seeing and hate. And He, also, is just dying to do something about it.

But if we review history, Divine Providence works, more often than not, through people. We can be that conduit for God to work through. But how can we ensure that our efforts don't meet with disastrous results that the first set of men's efforts met with?

The first thing we must recognize is that if we dislike the wickedness in the world, a corollary is that we must dislike the evil in ourselves also. Either the lies, greed, and corruption, and violence is good, or it's bad, it can't be both. And if it is bad, then we can't stop it in others while letting the fire burn in our own camp. Otherwise, there's no use fighting forest fires with flamethrowers. Our own fire will just spread after we've put others out.

What's unique about the second set of figures is that they first purified themselves before they set about remedying what they saw as evil. Each was deeply religious. All viewed righteousness, and its propagation, as more important than their own happiness, or even their own lives. Even God when he effected His greatest work of Salvation, the sending of Jesus Christ into our dark world, He didn't use an unclean vessel. He used the Pure, Blessed Virgin Mary. He used a humble, obedient, God-fearing woman.

When God looks to bring about His greatest good in this corrupted world, He uses clean conduits. Corrupted conduits produce corrupted results. Maybe we should view His Grace as power, Spiritual Power, which it rightly is. Now if He imbues this power into an evil man, it will only increase his capacity to do evil, even if the corruption is a slight defect, the infusion of such power can only magnify such corruptions. Which was probably the case with Stalin, Hitler, and Mao.

Now, I don't know whom or why God chooses to exalt some, and not others. What human mind can understand the ways of Providence? But I do know that He does imbibe all of us with a measure of this Spiritual Power at Baptism, and later on, when we're imbued with the Holy Spirit. The amount of Grace is really irrelevant. It will enhance our ability to effect a greater good or evil is sure. To avoid falling into the same trap as the first group did, bringing about the very things we hate into this world, it may help us, and the world, if we voluntarily put forth the effort into letting His Grace purify us now beforehand. Only then will we be adequately prepared to fight against the evils we detest.