Moral System
Section 1 - II.
Morality begins in that part of our knowledge-faculty which remains free
103. The exercise of human choice begins, therefore, in the faculty by means of which we acknowledge things. Prior to this faculty there exist in us only first, non-deliberate, spontaneous movements which are proper to the faculty of basic knowledge.
104. But the principle of morality must necessarily be sought where we find the principle of choice; it can manifest itself neither before nor after the free activity of human beings, but only along with this activity to which it has an intrinsic, necessary relationship. The principle of morality is simply the supreme norm that must guide human choice and freedom in its various undertakings.
105. Choice and freedom are not manifested, therefore, until the faculty by which we acknowledge things has been activated. In its turn, morality makes its first appearance in the human spirit when the first free act of acknowledgement is posited. Consequently the first voluntary acknowledgement of objects we have apprehended is the first moral act, an act which is completed within the spirit and expressed in the form of right judgment. All other acts relative to morality depend upon this first act, as we shall show. It is true to say, therefore, that every sin we commit, without exception, has as its root a evil thought,(80) and we can conclude that the first form of both morality and immorality is always a judgment, that is, an acknowledgement or disavowal of our preceding cognitions.
We also have to say that we feel ourselves obliged by an eternal and insuperable law to acknowledge faithfully what we know; we have to judge in accord with the faculty of first knowledge. This law is so founded in the nature of things that we cannot even conceive that the opposite is possible. This law simply tells us that we have to affirm to ourselves that we see what we see, that we perceive what we perceive and nothing else. With our knowledge-faculty we perceive or apprehend an object; with the faculty by which we acknowledge things, we are required, by the nature of this faculty, to say simply: `Yes, we perceive it. Our faculty of acknowledgement requires us to testify to ourselves that we cannot do otherwise, although we can freely try to hide from the eye of the soul what we know. Our first, supreme duty, therefore, is to adhere to the TRUTH, and to witness interiorly to what is true by acknowledging it to ourselves and saying: `I know this; it is so. (81)
106. The voice of this law of truth impressed by God in our hearts will continually be better heard if we consider the effects it produces in us, effects which can also be considered as its natural sanction. The simple, just acknowledgement of what we know is pleasant because human nature does not have to strain to achieve it. The opposite is true when we disavow what we know and alter it for ourselves; here a violent, absurd and rash effort is needed, the effect of which is war and agitation within our spirit. If the things we acknowledge are good, they produce joy in us; if they are bad, sorrow. But the act itself of acknowledgement is never distasteful; its veracity always provides a source of pleasure.
Pleasure is found again in the good order that the act itself places and produces in what the intellect knows, and in the harmony and union that the act brings about among the affections of the spirit. It is indeed true, as far as the intellect is concerned, that the right judgment we make about the things we know does not strip these things of their prerogatives, nor bestow upon them prerogatives which are not theirs. All the objects, depicted as it were in the faculty with which we apprehend things, are placed in their natural order by our act of acknowledgement, which lodges them in their proper place according to the degrees of entity they share. In other words, they take their place according to their dignity and according to the value they merit. The order in our understanding is thus maintained, confirmed and completed.
107. The same can be said about the unity of our affections. If the two faculties of knowledge and acknowledgement are in harmony, the human being possesses a single love, esteem, contempt and hate. But if these faculties are at odds with one another and this is the case when the second faculty refuses to accept as good what the first has perceived as good, and tries with all its might to see evil in that good the absurd contradiction and struggle present in the mind is re-enacted in the human spirit. Two contrary loves and hates battle with one another; the love and hatred found in the depths of our being where, although almost suffocated, it is a necessary effect of the faculty of direct knowledge, and another, opposite love and hatred which although frenetic, superficial and almost on the periphery of the spirit, stifles and impedes the cries of the first as it tries in vain to awaken us to the truth. Plunged into misery, we then love what we should hate, and hate what we should love. Our intellective feeling dictates one thing; the seduced will and the seducing judgment dictate another. We thus become an enigma to ourselves.
These different feelings of peace and joy, of war and strife, are like reverberant voices with which the law of justice naturally makes itself heard by human beings in all its authority, lovableness and power.
Notes
(80) Jesus Christ, in describing how sins spring from the inner life of human beings, puts EVIL THOUGHTS as the first of all blameworthy acts (Matt 15: 19).
(81) Holy Scripture offers its greatest praise of the divine law when it defines and expounds its essence with these few words: YOUR LAW IS THE TRUTH (justitia tua, justitia in aeternum, et lex tua veritas, Ps 118: 142 [Douai]). In harmony with these words, Scripture says: `IT IS JUSTIFIED IN ITSELF' (Judicia Domini vera, justificata in semetipsa. Ibid.).