Let both grow together until the harvest.
–Matthew 13:30–
In his famous experiments of the 1960s, Yale University’s social psychologist discovered that his subjects were, in obedience to authority, surprisingly willing to administer what they thought were high voltage electric shocks to poor learners. As a teacher who is sometimes faced with a classroom of unruly students, I am not at all startled by Milgram’s findings. Yet what self-respecting teacher would even think of giving his or her students electric shocks? Authentic learning cannot take place in an environment of fear and coercion. What is true of learning is all the more true of love!
Suppose you could give the person you love most in the world a magic ring that caused that person excruciating pain every time he or she displeased you. Would you do it? Each year when I ask my students this question, a few of the boys usually respond in the affirmative—much to the horror of the feminine element in the class. I then explain that giving your beloved such a ring would be nothing short of tyrannical and barbaric. To be sure, your sweetheart would be doing all sorts of nice favors to gratify you, but would he or she be doing them out of love? Probably not. More likely out of fear.
I then change the scenario. What if you could give your beloved a magic ring that would bring him or her ecstatic joy every time he or she did something that pleased you? Would you do it? This time more of my students usually answer in the affirmative—both boys and girls. When I ask one of the naysayers the reason behind his or her negative response, the student usually replies: “If you gave the person you love a joy ring, that person would be doing things to make you happy, but you would never know whether the real reason would be love or the desire to get high.” Exactly right! If I gave you fifty dollars every time you came to see me, you would be making, I dare say, quite a lot of visits to yours truly—even if this meant going out of your way. Yet your real motive would most likely be, not love, but avarice.
All of us, at one time or another, long for a world wherein virtue receives its immediate reward and vice its immediate punishment. Imagine how simple and neat life would be if that were the case. All of us would be on our best behavior. None of us would make evil a priority. Would we, however, be motivated by the love of God and goodness, or by simple self-interest?
If none of us would bestow on those whom we love magic rings of reward or punishment, why would we expect God to act in a similar fashion? God does not compel compliance by zapping us with a lightning bolt every time we commit a sin. Nor does He pour out vast blessings upon us every time we act virtuously. In this fallen world of ours, vice gets its just desserts only sometimes. Virtue receives its rightful recompense only occasionally. As a matter of fact, all too often it seems all too true that evil thrives while “no good deed goes unpunished.”
As a result, wheat and weeds grow together in the same field (Matthew 13:24-30). Good and evil human beings rub elbows in the marketplace. Virtue and vice vie for ascendancy in every human heart. The Final Judgment, the ultimate separation of good and evil, is not for this world but for the next. Were it otherwise, true love of goodness–true love of God–would be rendered utterly impossible.
Fr. Bernard J. Ezaki
Let both grow together until the harvest.
–Matthew 13:30–
In his famous experiments of the 1960s, Yale University’s social psychologist Stanley Milgram discovered that his subjects were, in obedience to authority, surprisingly willing to administer what they thought were high voltage electric shocks to poor learners. As a teacher who is sometimes faced with a classroom of unruly students, I am not at all startled by Milgram’s findings. Yet what self-respecting teacher would even think of giving his or her students electric shocks? Authentic learning cannot take place in an environment of fear and coercion. What is true of learning is all the more true of love!
Suppose you could give the person you love most in the world a magic ring that caused that person excruciating pain every time he or she displeased you. Would you do it? Each year when I ask my students this question, a few of the boys usually respond in the affirmative—much to the horror of the feminine element in the class. I then explain that giving your beloved such a ring would be nothing short of tyrannical and barbaric. To be sure, your sweetheart would be doing all sorts of nice favors to gratify you, but would he or she be doing them out of love? Probably not. More likely out of fear.
I then change the scenario. What if you could give your beloved a magic ring that would bring him or her ecstatic joy every time he or she did something that pleased you? Would you do it? This time more of my students usually answer in the affirmative—both boys and girls. When I ask one of the naysayers the reason behind his or her negative response, the student usually replies: “If you gave the person you love a joy ring, that person would be doing things to make you happy, but you would never know whether the real reason would be love or the desire to get high.” Exactly right! If I gave you fifty dollars every time you came to see me, you would be making, I dare say, quite a lot of visits to yours truly—even if this meant going out of your way. Yet your real motive would most likely be, not love, but avarice.
All of us, at one time or another, long for a world wherein virtue receives its immediate reward and vice its immediate punishment. Imagine how simple and neat life would be if that were the case. All of us would be on our best behavior. None of us would make evil a priority. Would we, however, be motivated by the love of God and goodness, or by simple self-interest?
If none of us would bestow on those whom we love magic rings of reward or punishment, why would we expect God to act in a similar fashion? God does not compel compliance by zapping us with a lightning bolt every time we commit a sin. Nor does He pour out vast blessings upon us every time we act virtuously. In this fallen world of ours, vice gets its just desserts only sometimes. Virtue receives its rightful recompense only occasionally. As a matter of fact, all too often it seems all too true that evil thrives while “no good deed goes unpunished.”
As a result, wheat and weeds grow together in the same field (Matthew 13:24-30). Good and evil human beings rub elbows in the marketplace. Virtue and vice vie for ascendancy in every human heart. The Final Judgment, the ultimate separation of good and evil, is not for this world but for the next. Were it otherwise, true love of goodness–true love of God–would be rendered utterly impossible.