The Pyrite Rule

                                                                                                                  By Brother Thomas Aquinas

“Do not do to anyone what you would not have done to yourself.” It’s a sound enough principle in its own right (Cf. Tobit 4:15, RSVCE), but one could argue that our present society has more or less reduced this maxim to a callous “don’t be a jerk,” which is an almost woefully low bar to set as the pinnacle of one’s moral system. Indeed, this is not the way the “Golden Rule” is usually expressed when teaching it to children; rather, “do to others as you would have them do unto you.” Moreover, this latter version, not the former, is the one Christ proclaims in Matthew 7:12.

If “do unto others …” is the Golden Rule, then one might wonder whether, by analogy, “do not do to anyone …” is the Pyrite Rule, that is, fool’s gold. However, the deficiency lies not the teaching itself, but rather in a foolish misinterpretation thereof. The difference between negative and positive formulations is not merely one of style, and there can be a temptation to treat the former minimalistically, as if it would suffice to aloofly cut oneself off from the surrounding community, self-absorbed but not a bother to others. The latter formulation, on the other hand, requires action and sacrifice. More directly, it demands that we love our neighbors as ourselves, since each of us has by nature an innate desire to be loved.

This distinction between the two Rules—a subtle one, to be sure—serves also to illustrate the importance of identifying incomplete truths as such. More than a few tenets of our faith can appear paradoxical to the uncareful observer: God’s justice is perfect, but so is His mercy; Jesus is fully human, but also fully divine. Though it is, strictly speaking, true to state that Jesus is fully human, this claim is not the fullness of truth on the matter. Depending on the circumstances, to leave it at that may even constitute a lie by omission. When it comes to proclaiming and defending the faith, we owe our neighbor the full truth, and, similarly, we owe him the full, active charity upon which the Golden Rule insists.
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When each of us is judged after death, Christ will not ask “What did you not do for these least of mine?” Nor will he want an answer along the lines of “Well, I didn’t kill anyone, rob any banks, or cheat on my spouse.” We must, of course, refrain from mistreating others, but this alone is insufficient for a holy life. God calls us to practice charity that is active, rather than passive, to seek concrete opportunities to feed the hungry, instruct the ignorant, etc. We depend on God to achieve such virtue, but by cooperating with His grace, we need not worry that the vibrance of our works has for a source anything but the purest of gold.

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