The first and most foundational moral principal is generally stated in very simple terms: “do good, avoid evil.” The quality of our personal moral life depends on how well we learn to do this.

Part of our difficulty as human beings affected by original sin is the fact that as simple as this concept seems to be, our ability to know the difference between good and evil, and our will to act on the true knowledge of the difference, is drastically effected.

Because of this, we must be constantly grateful to God the Father for sending His Son to save us from the ultimate consequence of sometimes choosing evil or failing to choose the good.

Likewise, we owe a great deal of gratitude for the gift of the Holy Spirit to guide the Church in continuing to discern and clarify the difference for us in an authoritative way so that we are not left to the whims of our own limited perspectives or misguided desires.

Since God is the source of all goodness and truth, it only makes sense that we entrust ourselves to Him and the promises He has made to the Church in this endeavor (Mt 16:18-19, Jn 14:26; 16:7-15; 20:22-23). However, even with God’s gifts and guidance, we can easily miss a very important part of that first principle of morality.

Many of us tend to focus on our success or failure in avoiding evil when we think about the quality of our moral lives, or even when we examine our consciences. If I can avoid really big sins, then it is easy to think I am a rather moral person.

There is some truth to this, because living morally will always mean learning to avoid certain choices.

Just as it will always mean repentance and seeking forgiveness when we fall. However, this is really not the whole picture of a truly Christian moral life.

To be sure, sin weakens or breaks our relationship with God first and foremost, which can then keep us from our ultimate destiny and purpose in life: everlasting union with Him.

Every sinful inclination indulged has an effect on that union and therefore becomes an obstacle to our own happiness. This makes sense to us and it is for this reason that so much attention is paid to moral issues.

To miss this fact, to ignore it, or to be mistaken about it, is ultimately to impede or destroy our ability to receive the one and only gift which can satisfy our desire for happiness: God Himself. But with the necessary emphasis on learning to avoid sinful or evil actions and choices, we can easily miss the necessary attention we must likewise pay to the other side of the coin. Namely, learning to do good.

This will mean paying attention to our growth in virtue. At the end of the day this is not a separate pursuit, but rather the other necessary part of truly becoming a moral person.

Avoiding sin and growing in virtue are so intimately related that often any real progress in one becomes exceedingly difficult without progress in the other. It ends up being a very synergistic relationship.

Growing in certain virtues will help me to avoid sin, and learning to avoid sin helps to pave the way for further progress in virtue. In fact, sometimes breaking a pattern of repeated sin can best be achieved by focusing on growing in certain virtues.

The more that we make a concerted effort to focus on both parts of that simple moral principle, the more complete our Christian moral life becomes and the fewer obstacles we have in our ultimate union with God.

For this reason, I will be dedicating several future columns on some specific virtues Christians have always seen as essential to the moral life and how we might better foster their growth in our own lives.