A Modern Credo in a Letter to the Editor

ORIGINALLY POSTED Thursday, March 8, 2007

It's interesting how different meanings can be taken from what seems to be a perfectly straightforward comment.

I have said, I need no-one to tell me what my ethics should be. I make no bones about that.



Since before I was five years old, the first lesson of every day was about ethics. I learned the Ten Commandments and The Articles of my Faith.

I learned the Sacraments, Parables, Psalms, the Sermon on the Mount, Cardinal Virtues, Vices, The Beatitudes, Gospels and that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

I learned about Original Sin, Mortal Sin, Venial Sin, Limbo and Purgatory, hell and heaven. I learned who has been sitting at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty, for the last two thousand and seven years and that the seat is not likely to be vacant any time soon.

I learned His Ministry on earth lasted only three years but in that short time he taught everything we need to know about how we should live.

I learned it is wrong to malign my neighbour's character, and that if you steal a person's purse, that's not nearly as bad as damaging her reputation.

I do not pretend to be as virtuous as He would like me to be.and since it is Lent and the time for penance, I confess I am not as virtuous as I should be.

I do not care for overtly virtuous individuals -but I'll tell you what - Briggitta Gamm, I don't believe any secular code of ethics or Character Community jargon can improve on the one I learned every day in the formative years of my life.

I doubt there's a workshop leader anywhere who could come anywhere close to The Master Himself.