When is someone good or bad?

Answer 1

The question of good is metaphysical, but we will treat here primarily concerning morality as this is probably what the answer calls for. Morality for a Catholic is based upon the will's uniformity with the dictates of human nature and harmony with the Divine Law. What this means is basically whether a person responds correctly to reality.

In order to be moral one must be capable of committing a human act. A human act is any act or engaged thought that is derived from the human faculties of the intellect and will. If the intellect and will are suspended, either by insanity, intoxication, damage or duress one cannot make a human act and thus one cannot commit a moral act. Culpability or merit is difficult to determine depending on how much of one's faculties have been suspended. For the sake of the question, we will assume one is in possession of their faculties.

When one acts according to one's own nature, the act is good. For instance, it is human nature to preserve one's own life, to not murder or steal, to help establish, maintain and protect a social body, to assist other humans, etc. To violate human nature by some unnatural act is to act poorly or do bad. Because human beings are sometimes imperfect in their reasoning abilities, able to affected by poor judgment, emotions and passions, Catholics believe that God revealed a Divine Law that not only reinforces the natural law written on the fleshy tablets of men's hearts, but clearly dictates higher realities to which man's spiritual and corporeal nature must respond. Man is obliged to conform his will to the Divine Law as justice demands he respect the directives of his Creator. To this end, if a human acts in accordance and harmony with God's Law, he or she acts well or does good. If they act against or violate God's Law they act wrongly or do evil.

Human beings are rarely purely good or bad, however, each one of their human acts has a morality. For those humans throughout history to the present who were or are in ignorance of the Divine Law, who have no access or means to access the Divine revelation, they must live according to the natural law and they will commit good or evil acts depending on their ability to conform to the natural law through the discernment of their conscience. However, in this day and age, when the Gospel is spread over all the Earth, the chances of such invincible, inculpable ignorance are practically zero. Catholics believe that one's ability to commit and merit from a good act requires unity with God through grace. This unity is broken by a violation of the natural or divine law, which Catholics call a sin. They also believe that sin can be venial or mortal depending on the offense, how serious the offense is, and whether one has chosen to reject their natural and supernatural obligations out of weakness or out of maliciousness. If one commits a mortal sin, this would separate the person from the grace and unity of God, whereas venial sins still maintain this grace but must nevertheless be atoned for in the natural and supernatural order as justice demands. Mortal sin is a terrible disunity; even if one continues to make acts that are in accordance with the natural and divine law, these are not good acts since the will has not been reconciled to God and hence the orientation of all human acts is distorted. Humans that fall into sin may seek to reestablish themselves as agents of good by satisfying natural justice and/or divine justice (for Catholics, this is done through the humble act and sacrament of Confession and performance of penance). Reestablishing harmony with nature and the Divine is a good act and will once again align one's will with God and what is moral allowing one to make good and thus meritorious acts.

Human beings are not "good" or "bad" - they are complex; it is their actions are either good and bad. What matters is their harmony with nature and God, if they cause disharmony they act as an agent of evil, if they act rightly they act as an agent of good. In the end, those souls that die in harmony with nature and God's Will will be granted the Beatific Vision, the manifestation of the union with God they already lived while on Earth by being agents of good. Those that die in disharmony with nature and God will be granted hell, the manifestation of their disunity already begun on earth by being agents of evil. As a note of interest pertaining to metaphysical good, even in hell, complexity remains, as to exist is "good", thus even damned souls have a sliver of good remaining in so much as they exist. This is why the damned would rather destroy themselves - it is not so much to escape the sufferings of their conscience, body and soul as to spite their Creator Who maintains them in existence through His positive Will.