Good Intentions

One

Mexican Bishop

Some years ago, one of the bishops of Mexico showed his integrity by forbidding any of his priests from accepting money donated from the drug cartels. Now a lot of people might not understand why the bishop would make such a policy. After all, that drug money was going to go somewhere. Why not let it go to the Church, where it might be used to serve the spiritual and material needs of the people? And, after all, even if the donors were wicked people in other ways, giving money to the Church is a good thing, right? So why turn down the cartel members when they’re actually trying to do something good for a change?

Well, the answer, of course, is that even if giving money to the Church is a good thing, there’s every reason to think that the motivations behind giving the money were bad. After all, these cartel members aren’t renouncing their life of violence and crime. They’re presumably giving money to the Church to try and justify their lifestyles. To lie to themselves, and convince themselves that they’re basically good people. Or, even worse, they’re trying to bribe Church officials not to speak out against the evil of the cartels. 

What this shows is that it’s not enough to look at “what” you’re doing. You also have to look at “why” you’re doing it. 

Two

End/Motivation

The Church says that the first thing you have to look at when you’re morally evaluating an action is the object. It’s “what” the person is trying to do. But after you look at the object, the “what,” you have to go on and ask another question, the “why?” Why am I doing this? What’s my motivation? What is the projected state of affairs that originally prompted me to pursue this course of action?

The Catechism (1750) calls this the “end in view or the intention” of an act. 

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said, “'The lamp of the body is the eye. It follows that if your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light. But if your eye is diseased, your whole body will be all darkness.”

Augustine, Jerome, and Thomas Aquinas all said the eye refers to your intention, that not only do our actions have to be good but also our intentions.  

Three

A Good Intention Can’t Justify an Evil Action

The first thing to get clear is that good intentions can’t justify an evil action. It doesn’t matter if I have the best of intentions, I can’t go around fornicating or blaspheming or killing people. 

Take the last case, even if my motivation is to spare people pain and suffering, I can’t kill old sick people or babies in the womb or people with severe head traumas who need basic care. Because no matter what the end, the means of abortion and euthanasia are always wrong.

So too, even if my motivation is to encourage and support somebody, or maybe even deter them from committing suicide, I can’t condone that person’s homosexual relationship. No matter what the intention, saying that a bad thing is really a good thing is always wrong.

So, a good intention can’t justify a bad action. But a bad intention can corrupt an act that would otherwise be good.

Four

The end can corrupt a good or neutral object

As we just saw in the case of cartel members giving money to the Church with nefarious motives, a bad end can turn an otherwise laudable act into something immoral. Our motivations matter. The intention matters.

So, for instance, there’s nothing wrong in itself with saying something true. But why are you saying it? Are you saying it out of arrogance, or bitterness, or jealousy? If so, then your motivations are compromised, and maybe you shouldn’t be speaking that particular truth right now.

And there’s nothing wrong, in itself, about bringing up a coworker, or a mutual acquaintance, in conversation. But why are you bringing up this third party? Is it so that you and your conversation partner can enjoy a good gossip session, verbally ripping this poor third party to shreds?

And maybe there’s nothing wrong, in itself, about having a meal, or a long conversation, with an attractive member of the opposite sex who isn’t your spouse. But why are you doing it? Is it because you find them attractive and you find their attention flattering? Probably. So go have lunch and a conversation with somebody else.

The Church tells us to be conscientious about whether what we’re doing is objectively right or not. That’s why the first thing to look at in our behavior is the object.But the Church also wants us to be aware of what’s going on subjectively within ourselves. She wants us to be honest with ourselves about our motives. 

That’s why we also have to look at the end.

Five

Why are we doing what we’re doing?

If we do good or evil things for wicked reasons, we are using the good for the sake of evil. Just as drug cartels try to use donations to the Church to justify their abominable crimes. And if we’re not careful, if we aren’t vigilant in examining our motives, we’ll fall into the same trap.

Our faith, our work, our families, everything good that we have and everything good that we do will become just a means of building up our own vanity and comfort and narrow-mindedness and sense of superiority over others.

So may God show us our motivations. And may He help us to purify them, that the good we do may serve the greater good, and not our own petty vices.