20190701
THE
ILLOGICAL LOGIC OF THE DOCTRINE OF LESSER EVIL
01 JULY, 2019,
Monday, 13th Week, Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
Green.
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First reading
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Genesis 18:16-33 ©
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Abraham negotiates with the Lord
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From Mamre the men set out and arrived
within sight of Sodom, with Abraham accompanying them to show them the way. Now
the Lord had wondered, ‘Shall I conceal from Abraham what I am going to do,
seeing that Abraham will become a great nation with all the nations of the
earth blessing themselves by him? For I have singled him out to command his
sons and his household after him to maintain the way of the Lord by just and
upright living. In this way the Lord will carry out for Abraham what he has
promised him.’ Then the Lord said, ‘How great an outcry there is against Sodom
and Gomorrah! How grievous is their sin! I propose to go down and see whether
or not they have done all that is alleged in the outcry against them that has
come up to me. I am determined to know.’
The
men left there and went to Sodom while Abraham remained standing before the
Lord. Approaching him he said, ‘Are you really going to destroy the just man
with the sinner? Perhaps there are fifty just men in the town. Will you really
overwhelm them, will you not spare the place for the fifty just men in it? Do
not think of doing such a thing: to kill the just man with the sinner, treating
just and sinner alike! Do not think of it! Will the judge of the whole earth
not administer justice?’ the Lord replied, ‘If at Sodom I find fifty just men
in the town, I will spare the whole place because of them.’
Abraham
replied, ‘I am bold indeed to speak like this to my Lord, I who am dust and
ashes. But perhaps the fifty just men lack five: will you destroy the whole
city for five?’ ‘No,’ he replied ‘I will not destroy it if I find forty-five
just men there.’ Again Abraham said to him, ‘Perhaps there will only be forty
there.’ ‘I will not do it’ he replied ‘for the sake of the forty.’
Abraham
said, ‘I trust my Lord will not be angry, but give me leave to speak: perhaps
there will only be thirty there.’ ‘I will not do it’ he replied ‘if I find
thirty there.’ He said, ‘I am bold indeed to speak like this, but perhaps there
will only be twenty there.’ ‘I will not destroy it’ he replied ‘for the sake of
the twenty.’ He said, ‘I trust my Lord will not be angry if I speak once more:
perhaps there will only be ten.’ ‘I will not destroy it’ he replied ‘for the
sake of the ten.’
When
he had finished talking to Abraham the Lord went away, and Abraham returned
home.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm
102(103):1-4,8-11 ©
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The Lord is compassion
and love.
My soul, give thanks to the Lord
all my being, bless his holy
name.
My soul, give thanks to the Lord
and never forget all his
blessings.
The Lord is compassion
and love.
It is he who forgives all your guilt,
who heals every one of your
ills,
who redeems your life from the grave,
who crowns you with love and
compassion.
The Lord is compassion
and love.
The Lord is compassion and love,
slow to anger and rich in
mercy.
His wrath will come to an end;
he will not be angry for ever.
The Lord is compassion
and love.
He does not treat us according to our sins
nor repay us according to our
faults.
For as the heavens are high above the
earth
so strong is his love for
those who fear him.
The Lord is compassion
and love.
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Gospel Acclamation
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Jn8:12
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Alleluia, alleluia!
I am the light of the world, says the
Lord;
anyone who follows me will have the light
of life.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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Ps94:8
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Harden not your hearts today,
but listen to the voice of the Lord.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Matthew 8:18-22 ©
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The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his
head
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When Jesus saw the great crowds all about
him he gave orders to leave for the other side. One of the scribes then came up
and said to him, ‘Master, I will follow you wherever you go.’ Jesus replied,
‘Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has
nowhere to lay his head.’
Another
man, one of his disciples, said to him, ‘Sir, let me go and bury my father
first.’ But Jesus replied, ‘Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their dead.’
THE ILLOGICAL
LOGIC OF THE DOCTRINE OF LESSER EVIL
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Gn 18:16-33; Ps 103:1-4, 8-11.R.v.8; Mt 8:18-22]
In the first reading, we
have Abraham struggling to fathom the mercy of God although it seems as if Abraham was
reasoning and bargaining with God who appeared to be heartless in dealing with
His people. To the contrary, it was but a way to illustrate the mercy of
God. There is a moral dilemma here.
On one hand, there is a
need to protect the greater good.
It was God’s intention to make Abraham and his household His chosen people who
would live out the covenanted life, and be a source of blessings for the entire
world. But with the growing number of evil people around them, this would
thwart the plan of God. So the Lord wondered, “Shall I conceal from
Abraham what I am going to do … For I have singled him out to command his sons
and his household after him to maintain the way of the Lord by just and upright
living.”
On the other hand, evil
was threatening those who sought to live a righteous and holy life. The Lord said, “How great an outcry there
is against Sodom and Gomorrah! How grievous is their sin!” If evil
remained unchecked, the rest of society would be misled into sin and
evil. This is also the way we normally deal with evil in society.
We isolate and distance ourselves from them. We sack them from our
organization. We remove them from our community. The State would
place them in prison. In other words, we seek protection from being
harmed by them.
But in this instance, by
destroying the evil people, the good are also hurt in the process. Most people in the world think that
it is right to destroy evil even if the good are hurt. This is based on
the doctrine of the lesser evil. It is the basis for the use of war,
especially against terrorism and so-called rogue governments. In the
attempt to fight terror, the good are killed because of undifferentiating use
of weapons. Such a principle is a false principle and certainly not
a Catholic position.
The truth is that
Catholics are not permitted to choose any evil. We can only choose
good. Of course, it is
a different matter when in choosing good, sometimes a bad outcome might
result. This would be considered under the principle of double
effect. But the stark truth is that such a doctrine of the lesser evil is
against charity and justice. This was what Abraham was saying to the
Lord. “Are you really going to destroy the just man with the
sinner? Do not think of doing such a thing: to kill the just man with the
sinner, treating just and sinner alike! Do not think of it! Will the
judge of the whole earth not administer justice?”
Hence, the Lord replied
in the affirmative. Not
only fifty, even as the conversation went on, the Lord said, whether it was 45,
40, 30, 20 or even ten just men, He would not destroy the city. Abraham
fell short in coming to understand the depth of God’s mercy because he stopped
at ten. The truth is that the Lord will not destroy the good because of
the evil people. Rather, at all times, His intention was to save, whether
the just or the sinners. The just are spared from destruction, and the
sinners punished, not as an act of vengeance but as a lesson and opportunity
for them to repent of their sins, either in this or in the next life. In
all God’s actions, He always seeks our good and never evil for us, even when He
punishes.
In the parable of the
Wheat and Weeds, the
Lord also said a similar thing. “No; for in gathering the weeds
you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow
together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers,
Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the
wheat into my barn.'” (cf Mt 13:28-30) The Lord is patient with us
in our sinfulness. He waits for us to repent even though judgement is
inevitable eventually. (cf 2 Pt 3:9f)
The mercy of God saves
us. If any good man were to die, it was the Lord Himself who was
sacrificed for our sakes. “But
God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for
us.” (cf Rom 5:6-8) So long
as there is hope, God will not give up on us. He waits patiently for us to
repent and come back to Him. That is why the Church is against the use of
the death penalty, indeed, all forms of killing of human beings, from birth to
death. Every soul must be redeemed and be saved. It is hoped that
imprisonment will help to rehabilitate prisoners and turn them over to a new
leaf. This is the kind mercy and forgiveness that the psalmist declares.
“The Lord is compassion and love, slow to anger and rich in mercy.
His wrath will come to an end; he will not be angry for ever. He does not
treat us according to our sins nor repay us according to our faults. For
as the heavens are high above the earth so strong is his love for those who
fear him.”
However, we all know that
Sodom was eventually destroyed, not so much by the Lord but by their sins. This will happen to the world as
well. Eventually, it will not be God who destroys the world but man
himself will destroy creation, as we can see happening in our treatment of
mother earth. Today, man has become more intelligent but has become
arrogant. He thinks he is god and he can transform the world without God.
With the deterioration of values because of relativism, the immorality
and amorality of the world will eventually destroy humanity because truth and
love no longer prevail.
But what if the good we
do brings about a resultant evil? Then the principle of double effect
kicks in. Such
an act can be performed on condition that the act itself must be good or at
least indifferent. Secondly, the evil effect is not the cause of the good
effect, that is, the end does not justify the means. Thirdly, the good
effect must be intended by the agent and not the evil effect. Finally,
the good effect must outweigh the evil effects. This principle is
applicable especially in the case of a just war, in medical ethics and even
when doing good.
This situation is again
reflected in the gospel. In
the face of a dilemma, we must choose what is right and good. In
the case of the Scribe who wanted to follow, Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes
and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his
head.” In other words, whilst it is good indeed for the scribe to be
faithful to the Laws and the Temple where he finds stability, it is important
that he be open to the freedom of the Spirit as Jesus was in order to find
life. For Christ, things are not so neatly placed into categories.
The Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath. What is more important is
that one follows the movement of the Spirit, the Spirit of truth and love in a
specific situation.
Similarly, when “one of
his disciples, said to him, ‘Sir, let me go and bury my father first.’
But Jesus replied, ‘Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their dead.'” This happens often when a man or a woman
feels called to be priest, religious or a missionary. Should he or she
stay back to look after his or her aged parents, or should he or she respond to
the call? Logically, we should take care of our loved ones first.
But for Jesus, it is not the case. We must put God and humanity before
us. St Paul felt the same way too. He said, “I have great sorrow
and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were
accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred
according to the flesh.” (Rom 8:2f)
If the call is discerned
as genuine and not a form of escapism, then one should certainly have no qualms
responding to a higher calling in life. This does not mean that his or her parents
should or would be neglected. If God calls such a person, the Lord will
provide the means for his or her parents to be looked after. This
certainly was the case of Jesus who left His widowed mother for the ministry.
Was Jesus un-filial? No, because His duty and His mother’s duty was to
serve God first. Upon His death, He entrusted her to His beloved
disciple to look after her. When we respond to God’s call, God will
ensure that our loved ones are well provided for. However, if one is
already married, then it is a different situation because commitment to one’s
family is one’s primary vocation. However, it does not mean that
one cannot still serve God and His people according to one’s availability at
different stages of family life.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
