At the end of “The Road to Character” (New York: Random House, 2015, pp. 300, $28), David Brooks offers a summary of each of the 10 chapters in his book. The summaries are helpful as a review of all the topics Brooks has dealt with, and all of the insights he has offered. I was especially struck by his summary of the first chapter. He writes:
“1. We don’t live for happiness, we live for holiness. Day to day we seek our pleasure, but deep down, human beings are endowed with moral imagination. All human beings seek to lead lives not just of pleasure, but of purpose, righteousness, and virtue. …
“The best life is oriented around the increasing excellence of the soul and is nourished by moral joy, the quiet sense of gratitude and tranquility that comes as a byproduct of successful moral struggle. The meaningful life is the same eternal thing, the combination of some set of ideals and some man or woman’s struggle for those ideals. Life is essentially a moral drama, not a hedonistic one.” (p. 26)
I have had the opportunity to teach at several non-Catholic institutions, including Brooklyn College, Queens College, New York University and Princeton Theological Seminary, and never did I experience any attitude resembling anti-Catholicism or anti-clericalism. I found my experience at all of those institutions fulfilling and exciting. In three of the schools, I taught philosophy, and in one, religion. I hope my presence at those institutions influenced some students positively.
Reflecting on that hope, I began to think of the good that Brooks does by writing his columns in The New York Times and by writing books like “The Road to Character.” I believe that he influences thousands of people. Brooks’ claim that, “We don’t live for happiness, we live for holiness,” should make readers pause to reflect. Readers might ask themselves “Is that true? Do I live for holiness?”
I believe that the Holy Spirit is everywhere and present to every person. I don’t know how many of us respond to the Spirit’s presence, but it is possible that people are responding without consciously referring to the Spirit. I have no idea whether Brooks thinks of the Holy Spirit while he’s writing, and I have no idea if his readers think of the Holy Spirit when they’re reading his writing. This does not mean that the Spirit is not operative, or that people are not being influenced by the Holy Spirit.
I agree completely with Brooks’ claim that life is a moral drama. This is true of every person’s life whether individuals think of their lives this way or not. All persons are writing their stories by their free choices. Their choices even create the meaning of their deaths. For example, I do not decide when or how I will die, but I do decide who I will be. The meaning of the person, Robert Lauder, is the product of God’s choices and my choices. Each person decides the meaning of his or her death by co-creating himself or herself with God. Every person is the product of God’s freedom and the person’s freedom.
I don’t care for the expressions “spiritual life“ and “spiritual reading.” What those terms suggest to me is that there is some special realm or activity that is graced and other activities are not capable of leading us to God. I believe that, except for sin, any human activity can draw us closer to God, and God can be encountered in any place, at any time and by anyone. I believe that Brooks’ writing provides opportunities for people to reflect on serious questions, to examine their lives and to choose to live in a new and better way.
Brooks is correct in stating that all human beings want to lead lives not merely of pleasure, but of purpose and virtue. This is a deep desire is every human being. That desire was planted in us by God. Though our culture may try to convince us that a self-centered and selfish life will lead to fulfilment, this just is not true. The desire for something more is deeply planted.
We are called to be lovers and gift-givers. Brooks’ writing suggests that he knows this and I suspect that he has been nourished by the moral joy about which he writes.
