In a speech given in Milwaukee on January 27, 1964, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. observed, “It may be true that you cannot legislate morality, but behavior can be regulated.” In simpler terms, you might say, “You can’t change the way someone thinks, but you can change the way he acts.” It’s something to think about when you hear that someone has shocked others by inadvertently saying something terrible that seems incongruous with everything else for which he or she is known.
I’m very interested in a corollary to this profound observation. It goes: Do rightly, especially when you think wrongly. I think it’s a good one if you wish to grow in the spiritual life, hope to become a saint. Can it be a useful step to the conversion of your soul?
I do remember something my son told me when he was about 10-years old. He was a picky eater, though he wished he could get himself to try new things.
He told me he had read about scientists who had discovered that there is an adaptation involving the taste buds and one’s perception of flavors when a person repeatedly tries a detested food. It seems that after ten separate tastings, most people find themselves enjoying the flavor they had previously despised. They provided all sorts of scientifically gathered evidence for this. My son’s own attempt to prove the idea, or not, has never reached a conclusion, even after almost twenty years.
I’m sure that there are many Catholics, knowing they are afflicted with thoughts and attitudes based on un-Christian prejudice, who successfully exorcize their demons with God’s grace and by good deeds and service for and among the very people who were the object of their bigotry. They act like good people to become good people. They will the purification of their hearts.
Sometimes, “it’s the thought that counts” is really not as true as we’d like to think. Actions may well speak louder than words, and certainly more loudly than the deservedly silent thoughts behind them. Sometimes, by our will and God’s grace, our actions can inform our thoughts more than our thoughts inform our actions.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
