Where Good Meets Evil
The best stories are the ones where the purest character is forced to interact the most evil.
The most intriguing moments in any story is when the purest of pure characters interact with the most depraved characters. It’s like in Brother’s Karmazov when Alyosha speaks with his father or when Cal meets his mother in East of Eden. And, in each of these encounters, the goodness and purity of the innocent prevails over the worst evil.
These books are masterpieces because they speak to something so real in the world, that in normal life, the most depraved humans do interact with the most pure, yet it is the pure who ultimately prevail in the end.
In the Bible, apostle Paul says
15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world
Philippians 2:15
It’s easy to be of the opinion that evil often prevails over purity and innocence, but I simply disagree when you look at the big picture. Even the most insidious forms of evil in our society are recognized by most people. An act of courage and goodness in face of evil is always recognized by bystanders, even if no one seems to acknowledged it. I am convinced that we are wired to be able to detect good from evil, some people would call this a conscience, but I believe it is something that is written on hearts the day we enter the world. No one can get away with evil, even in the short if it seems that something has gone unpunished, justice will be rendered eventually.
Dostoyevsky illustrates this point well in Crime and Punishment. The protagonist Raskolnikov murders someone despised by everyone in society and it is like the perfect murder since no one even thinks twice that he is guilty of murder. But, it turns out that the crime was a punishment in and of itself. The guilt and burden on his conscience eats at Raskolnikov until he ends up turning himself in for the crime by the end of the book.
We live a messy world where the innocent interact with the most crooked members of society. In these moments we are called to be a light unto the world, to not get sucked into corruption and evil that plagues our society. These interactions also make life far more interesting. Like the best of stories, we get to witness first hand goodness and purity prevailing over evil and corruption. In fact, we are called to be good in the face of a broken world. To be light in the darkness, just as Jesus and all his disciples were for a suffering nation.
Now for a question. Have you experienced a moment when you had the choice to stand up to corruption or give into it? How did you act?
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