How We Build Our Character

By Engr. Carlos V. Cornejo

There used to be a belief among the Jews in the time of prophet Ezekiel that a son can be punished by God because of the sins of his father, and likewise the son can be protected from punishment because of the virtues of the father even if the son is wicked.  It can also be applied in reverse such that if a son is wicked the father is also punished by God even if the father is a morally good man.  God corrected this by telling the Israelites through the prophet Ezekiel that, “The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them.” (Ezekiel 18:20)

The lesson here is that we are all individually accountable for our sins. No amount of credibility or position or virtue of our parents or from others can help cover up for our sins in front of the judgement seat of God.  We are not likewise going to be judged by how much money we have earned while living on Earth or what honor or prestige we have acquired whether we were a president of a company or just an ordinary and simple janitor of that same company.  We will only be judged by our character or in particular how we have loved God and neighbor while we were on Earth.  “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne.  All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” (Matthew 25:31-36)

St. John Paul II said every moral act that we do is like a brick we put to build that personal wall we call our character.  That wall is constructed over our lifetime.  If that wall is ugly, it means we have been making wrong moral choices and if it’s a beauty, it is built by good moral choices.  Not all actions of man have a moral dimension.  St. Thomas Aquinas distinguishes our actions into two:  acts of man and human acts.  Acts of man are non-moral or neutral in terms of morality such as sleeping, sneezing or walking.  Human acts on the other hand involve the full use of intellect and will in seeking the good.  Not all human acts are moral acts; choosing whether to eat a hamburger or a tuna sandwich has no moral dimension.  Moral human acts are those actions that are to be judged morally good or evil such as whether to pay taxes or not, to help those in need or not, to attend Mass on Sundays or not, to forgive those who have wronged us or not, etc.

St. John Paul II likewise says every moral action that you do has a double effect, first it affects others and second it builds or defines your character as a person.  If you do something morally good, it uplifts others through your good example, fosters unity and makes you grow in character.  But if you do an immoral act or commit sin, it gives bad example to others, destroys the harmonious relationship you have with them, and gradually destroys you by way of misery.  Take a father for example who enters into an illicit relationship.  Once his wicked ways get known by his wife and children (since there will never be an evil action that remains hidden forever) it will destroy his relationship with his family and eventually destroys him psychologically and spiritually because the nature of sin is always to destroy.  “For the wages of sin is death” (death of joy, death of relationships, death of spiritual life, etc.) (Romans 6:23)