Avant-propos - Studia Moralia

74 DENNIS J. BILLY
Application One: The Meaning of ‘Goodness’
It may be surprising to learn that, for Aelred, friendship
“…can begin among the good, progress among the better, and be
consummated among the perfect.” 32 If this is so, one may wonder
if anyone can be good in a world where the effects of original
sin influence human activity so strongly. Aelred, however,
draws a strong distinction between goodness as it exists in God
and in one who is journeying to God. God, in Aelred’s mind, is
“…supremely powerful and supremely good, is sufficient good
unto himself, since his good, his joy, his glory, his happiness, is
himself.” 33 In God, there is no distinction between good, better,
and best. His goodness is his perfection – and vice versa. Man,
by way of contrast, is on a journey that hopefully involves a
movement along a distinct series of grades of spiritual and
moral perfection.
When Aelred says that spiritual friendship begins with the
good, he does not mean that two people must be good in the
same way that God is good. Nor does he mean that they are good
in the same sense as those who have already passed through
death and experience God in an immediate way in the beatific
vision. Nor does he mean that they have no experience of concupiscence
in their lives as a result of the effects of original sin.
He merely intends to say that spiritual friendships in this life are
forged by those who struggle to move further along (as opposed
to away from) the journey of eventual intimacy with God. In answer
to a question by Gratian about friendship among those
who are not good, Aelred says:
I am not cutting “good” so finely as do some who call no one
“good” unless he is lacking no whit in perfection. We call a man
“good” who, according to the limits of our mortality, “living soberly
and justly and godly in this world,” is resolved neither to ask others
to do wrong nor to do wrong himself at another’s request.
32 DSA 2:38 [CCCM 1:309(252-53); SF 78-79].
33 DSA 1:51 [CCCM 1:297(290-91); SF 62].