Among the oppositions that we use when thinking and acting, some are fundamental: true or false, just or unfair, useful or useless, beneficial or harmful, right or wrong, healthy or sick…

Some will say, according to some extreme relativism, that such oppositions have no "value" in a world where so many views coexist. To Say the above is to think with another opposition: the one that distinguishes between things with value and things without value…

In his time, Plato and Aristotle explained how to understand what is good implies understanding what is evil. Similarly, whoever comes to consider something as true implicitly or explicitly implies that the opposite would be false…

To think like that is something very human, because our mind and our will find before themselves thousands of oppositions, and there is not always enough light to recognize if this idea, this activity, this food, is more on the side of the positive or the negative.

That is why it is essential when listening, reading, judging, in making decisions, to have a vision as complete as possible of each issue and then be able to distinguish whether we are facing a truth or a falsehood, before a fair or unfair proposal.

Many times, after having considered something as beneficial, we will discover that it was harmful: the error is sadly part of our human path. 

But there are always possibilities to re-straighten the path, to abandon that which is among the negative things, and to ask again prudently what are the positive things that we can now accept and realize.

Among the prayers that help us throughout our lives, we find the one formulated by Solomon: "Grant to your servant, a heart that understands to judge your people, to discern between good and evil..." (1R 3.9). 

With that heart, we will be able to avoid deceit and detrimental decisions, and we will be able to welcome "all that is true, of noble, of righteous, of pure, of kind, of honorable, all that is virtue and thing worthy of praise" (FLP 4.8).