Purifying Your Intentions

One

Murder in the Cathedral

T. S. Eliot once wrote a play about St. Thomas Becket, the Archbishop who stood up for the Church against the King of England and was martyred in the very Cathedral where he was saying Mass.

T.S. Eliot imagines the temptations St. Thomas Becket must have suffered as he was waiting for the king’s men to come kill him. First, of course, was the temptation to run away. Second was the temptation to compromise with the king instead of opposing him. There might also have been the temptation to lead a kind of political revolution, instead of being a spiritual witness. But then comes a fourth temptation. And this temptation is very strange, because it tells St. Thomas to do what he is already resolved to do, remain and face martyrdom. But this temptation encourages him to be martyred for the glory of it, because he will be lionized, he’ll become a popular hero because his fame will live forever. When St. Thomas Becket hears this final temptation, he declares, “The last temptation is the greatest treason: to do the right thing, for the wrong reason.”

So, what do you do when that temptation comes to you? The temptation to do the right thing for the wrong reason? 

Two

Compromised motives for what we must do

If we look honestly at our motives, we know that they tend to be badly compromised. Even when what we’re doing is a good thing. 

How often are we ever really acting from motives of love for God and neighbor? How often do we just do the right thing because it’s the path of least resistance, or because we’re afraid of the consequences if we don’t, or just in order to look good or feel good about ourselves?

Now sometimes our motives are so disordered that we should refrain from performing an action, like if I volunteer for an unnecessary business trip just because it’s an ego boost, or because it means I won’t have to help my spouse put the kids to bed, or even so I can let loose morally for a while, party a little with no one around. If those are your motives, don’t volunteer for the business trip that someone else can do just as well.

But what about when there’s something we really do need to do? What if there’s something our state in life demands of us, whether professionally or privately, and it’s a good thing but we really get the sense that we’re doing it for selfish motives? What do we do then? What do we do with that temptation, which is the greatest treason, “to do the right deed, for the wrong reason”?

Three

Always Do What Needs to be Done

The first thing to point out is that if there’s something you need to do, don’t let your compromised motivations stop you from doing it.

If you’re a teacher, or a public speaker, or a priest and you worry that you’ve put together a good presentation more out of vanity than out of concern for your audience, well, try to give a good presentation anyway. Because your state in life demands it.

If you’re a parent, and you worry that you’re trying to raise your kids to be faithful and virtuous and well-educated because it will be a lot less trouble for you in the long run, or because you’d be embarrassed if your kids were heathen barbarians instead of out of obedience to God and a love of truth, well, try to raise them that way anyway. Because that’s your job.

If you go to Church and you worry it’s just out of habit or because you don’t have the energy or even the courage to really rebel against your faith or your family, well, keep going to Church anyway. Because you have to go to Church. It’s the right, just, and necessary thing to do.

If you have a bad motive for doing a good and necessary thing, then the solution isn’t to stop doing the good and necessary thing. The solution is to purify your motive.

So how do you do that?

Four

Mortifying the Selfish Intention

Bad motivations do compromise doing the right thing but again, the trick isn’t to stop doing the right thing. It’s to counteract the bad motivation.

So let’s make some concrete examples.

If we do good things out of vanity, then do something to counteract the vanity. If for instance you try to stay healthy and fit out of physical vanity, then don’t stop exercising, but start wearing clothes that hide your physique more than showing it off. If you do good things just out of habit and sloth, then do something to counteract the sloth. If you just go to mass out of habit, then start getting to Church twenty minutes earlier and spend the time praying for God to increase your devotion and desire for Him. If you do good things just because you enjoy it, then do something good that’s not pleasing to you. If you spend time with friends or family because you enjoy their company, then spend some time with people who don’t please you. 

Then you won’t stop doing what’s right, but you’ll make it so that your unworthy motivations are no longer what’s controlling you.

Five

Asking God’s Grace for the Supreme Motive

The main motive which should be behind all our actions, and often isn’t behind any of them, is the love of God for His own sake. We should be giving everything to please the God who has given us everything, even His own Son, because He wants us to be happy.

And yet often days or weeks or even months will pass during which we never once say to God, “I’m doing this for you. I’m doing this out of love for you.”

That’s the most important motive there is. And that’s the one we most often don’t have.

So ask God for the grace to love Him. Ask God for the grace of having that motive that drives us often. Always. 

If love of God is our motive, we will never do the right thing for the wrong reason. If love of God is our motive, all the good that we do will be for the greater good that we seek, the greatest good that there is. And then our lives will be rightly ordered.