We can hate truth and fear goodness

Evil works in us. Love declines.  And then we hesitate about changing. St. Thomas says we can hate truth and fear goodness.  We can hate truth because it means a change.  For that reason we often resent the truth that is told about ourselves.  We rationalize what we have done.  We will stay away from a doctor, lest he find cancer.  We do not want to know the truth.  We like to hear about social action and political-moral problems, but we’re not too keen on hearing the truth about ourselves.  Truth hurts.  We fear goodness because we like to keep our own standards. We have moved away from the standard of Christ to the standard of the world.  We do not ask ourselves, “Does this please Christ?” but “Does this please the world?” So I will dress and act in such a way that I will not be separate from the world; I want to be with it. We marry this age, and we become a widow in the next one.  We take on its verbiage, its fashions. This is one reason for so much instability in the church today: the sand on which we are walking is shifting.  We’ve given up the rock which is Christ.