Three Parts to a Good Decision
What does it mean to not judge?
In Luke 6:36, Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Do not judge, and you will not be judged yourselves; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned yourselves.” Jesus says do not judge and do not condemn. What does He really mean?
Prudence is the art of making good decisions. Recall there were three steps:
Deliberate – gather all the information and separate the relevant from the irrelevant
Make a Judgment – make a decision on what is the right thing to do
Take Action
God designed our intellect to make judgments or decisions.
We can and must judge propositions: this is accurate this is inaccurate. We can and must judge behaviors: this is right and this is wrong. However, we cannot judge persons: this is a good person, this is an evil person. We can judge their behaviors, but we cannot judge or condemn them as evil.
That being said, God designed our intellect to make judgments – this is true and good, I should do that; this is false and wrong, I should not do that. Judgement is a necessary part of decision making. Jesus is not prohibiting using our brain to make good decisions. What we cannot do is condemn people as evil.
What is right and wrong?
Prudence is the virtue, the art of making good decisions. Prudence is to choose the right action, for the right reason and in the right circumstances. But, before we can do what is right we need to know what is right and what is wrong. That is the purpose of our intellect – to know good and evil. How do we determine what is right and wrong / good and evil?
CCC 1750, The morality (goodness) of human acts depends upon three things:
The object chosen; what are you doing
The end in view or the intention; why did you do it - motive
The circumstances surrounding the action
A good act requires the goodness of object (what you are doing), intention (why you are doing it), and circumstances.
All three must be good for the action to be good.
First the object of an act. This is what the person chooses to do. Have you decided to buy your secretary flowers? Have you chosen to donate to a political campaign? Have you decided to lie under oath?
The first two are fine in themselves, but lying is always wrong. It is always wrong to perform an evil action no reason or circumstances justifies doing evil. One cannot do evil hoping for a good outcome
Some actions are always evil - intrinsically evil. They are wrong regardless of your motivation or intention, regardless of the circumstances. Examples of intrinsically evil actions are specified by the 10 Commandments: Theft, slavery, exploitation, prostitution, torture, murder, lying and sexual sins like fornication (sex outside of marriage), contracepted sex to sterilize a given act of intercourse of your own will through the Pill, Patch, Tubal ligation or Vasectomy, artificial insemination, and in vitro fertilization. Homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered (CCC 2357)
The Fundamental Moral Principle: Do good and avoid evil. One can never do evil with the hope of a good outcome
Extreme Situations
Whenever I speak of tough teachings, people often try to come up with extreme scenarios to justify using evil to bring about a good, like abortion in the case of rape. But the most basic principle remains. It is never permissible to do evil
There are times in life when we are left with only two choices: Heroism and sin.
God will always give us the grace to remain faithful to Him. There’s no such thing as a prudent abortion, one can never attack the life of a child to save the mother or to relieve the suffering of rape. Abortion always violates the good of innocent human life.
Difficult cases only prove that sometimes heroism is necessary to do what is right
St. Gianna Molla (+4/28/62) was an Italian pediatrician who was pregnant with her fourth child. She had a uterine fibroid tumor The surgeon recommended an abortion and hysterectomy. “If you must decide between me and the child, do not hesitate, choose the child. I insist on it. Save him.” She died from infection after the c-section delivery. She was canonized 2004.
The Intention
The second element that determines if an action is right or wrong is the Intention. This second criterion for a good action asks this question: Why?
Why are you doing this? Why did you do that? Is the purpose of the act good? Is your motivation good?
An evil intention can spoil a good action.
For example: Think of the man who is giving flowers to his secretary. Did he buy her flowers as an expression of gratitude, to lift her spirits or morale, or did he buy her flowers with the hope of seducing her?
The first two reasons are good. The last reason makes the action unacceptable.
A good intention cannot not justify an evil action - the means.
One cannot do evil hoping that good will come of it.
The Circumstances
The third criterion for a good action asks the question: “Are the circumstances good?”
The circumstances are all those factors surrounding the concrete, immediate situation.
If the circumstances are all wrong, even a good act or a good intention is spoiled.
Suppose the father of a starving family has been given a full course turkey dinner to bring home to his poor wife and children for Thanksgiving. As he is carrying this meal home, he sees several starving dogs at the roadside. Filled with pity, he gives them the turkey originally intended for his family.
In such a case, the object is good – what he was doing is good - there’s nothing wrong with feeding a hungry animal. The intention is good – why he is doing it is good… to ease the suffering of the dogs. But the circumstances are all wrong, because the man’s family situation is such that the meal should have gone to his family.
It is necessary to consider all relevant facts surrounding an action before deciding to pursue it.
Good Acts and Evil Acts (CCC 1755): A morally good act requires the goodness of the object, of the end, and of the circumstances together.
A morally good act requires the goodness of its object (what), the goodness of its intention (why), and of the circumstances surrounding the situation.