Spirit of Goodness

Goodness does not come naturally to many of us, it has to be learnt, and once learnt it must then be practiced or else it becomes wasted words in a world full of meaningless prattle. But how exactly do we acquire this goodness, for we know that God is Good, but we are not God.

One of the first steps is to become acquainted with God Himself through study of Scripture in line with the Church's Teachings where we learn what is pleasing to God and what is not! Another step is to learn from our Saints, who suffered some even unto martyrdom, yet they loved till the end, for their hearts were full of good will towards all men. As St Camillus de Lellis said, "think well. Speak well. Do well. These three things, through the mercy of God, will make a man go to Heaven."

The third step is discipline; we cannot become good if our hearts are still held captive by the tyranny of memory of wrongs done against us, which then embitters the heart which will poison all efforts of trying to be good. This is where disciplining ones mind against recalling past hurts is integral to future growth as we learn and embrace goodness.

But it is also not enough to learn it, we must then live it, and we can only do this when we come to the realisation of our own iniquities and our own failings towards God. Once we learn these hard truths about ourselves comes the longing to be better and to do good, not in order to gain things for ourselves but to give from the goodness that has been granted us from a Loving God.

With these steps taken we must then choose to do good, for like kindness, goodness is also a choice. We must not wait to feel good in order to do good, we instead must do good irrespective of our feelings. For at the heart of goodness is Godliness, in that we are not the source of goodness, as Scripture says, "Just so, every good tree bears good fruit, and a rotten tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. So by their fruits you will know them."

But goodness takes practice, for at times our patience will be tested and our failings will rise up as obstacles, but this should not deter the soul who seeks to do good for love of God and of their fellow man. So in order to fulfil God's Will which is to bear good will towards all men, in full humility of what we ourselves have received from the Triune Spirit we need to learn and become obedient to what The Word instructs, as St. Benedict said, "the first step of humility is unhesitating obedience, which comes naturally to those who cherish Christ above all."

The biggest obstacle we face when embracing a spirit of goodness is to think we are its source and therefore we expect thanks for any good we do and become aggrieved when the that thankyou is not forthcoming. When our Lord healed the ten lepers how many came back to thank Him? Did that stop our Lord from doing further good? No! Because Jesus did not do good to gain accolades for Himself, He did good because He IS Good. That is not to say that Jesus did not feel hurt or disappointed of course He did, but He did not allow that to affect Him.

So too we must follow the example which Jesus Himself gives us in the Gospels as Scripture teaches us, "A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks. "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' but not do what I command?" And St Augustine instructs us, "tell us straight that you do not believe in the Gospel of Christ; for you believe what you want in the Gospel and disbelieve what you want. You believe in yourself rather than in the Gospel."

For if we put conditions on who we choose to be good too, then what does that say about the person and their sincerity or lack thereof?

We expect Jesus to be good to us, yet we fail to follow His example when our goodness is conditioned, for what would become of all of us if Jesus also placed conditions on our level of 'goodness'.

To finish in the words of Mother Theresa, "The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway. Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway. In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway."

Peace of Christ to ALL

Copyright © 2006 Marie Smith. All rights reserved.