'So, in other words, it doesn't matter what a righteous person's private thoughts are, so long as he obeys the letter of God's commandments?' But the essence of the Jewish faith is that God does what He does, and we obey Him.'
He could seem like quite the hard-ass-striking people blind for trivial offenses, telling Abraham to kill his son. 'In biblical times, when God manifested Himself more directly. 'That would suggest,' Perry said, 'that goodness and God are essentially synonymous.' 'Adam may have a different answer,' the rabbi said, but in the Jewish faith there is really only one measure of righteousness: Do you celebrate God and obey His commandments?'
It gratified him to upset their expectations of a fifteen-year-old. Reverend Walsh and the rabbi exchanged glances in which Perry detected pleasant surprise. 'I suppose what I'm asking,' he said, 'is whether goodness can ever truly be its own reward, or whether, consciously or not, it always serves some personal instrumentality.' He'd come to the reception for selfless reasons, but he now saw that he might get not only a free buzz but free advise from, as it were, two professionals.
“.he broached the subject of goodness and its relation to intelligence. I think there’s eternity in every second we’re alive.” It could be a timeless state of grace or bottomless despair. It doesn’t have to mean rejoicing in heaven or burning in hell. Eternity is a mystery to us, just like God is a mystery. He says what to do in the present-as if the present is where you find eternity-and I think that’s right. The rich young man asks about eternity, and Jesus tells him to give away his money. But I’ve read those verses a hundred times. Father Fergus says I have to believe that Jesus is talking about a literal heaven and hell, because that’s what the Church teaches. He seems to say that heaven is loving God and obeying the commandments, and hell is being lost in sin-forsaking God. And doesn’t that seem strange? If the afterlife is so important? When the rich young man asks Jesus how he might have eternal life, Jesus doesn’t give him a straight answer. But there’s not much in the Gospel about the afterlife-John is the only one who talks about it. Sin is real and God’s forgiveness is real. “To me, there’s nothing realer in the world than God, and Satan is no less real.
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