CHOOSE GOOD; CHOOSE GOD!

Shunning evil and welcoming good

25th Sunday in Ordinary time: September 19, 2021

Wisdom 2: 12, 17-20; James 3:16 - 4:3; Mark 9: 30-37

Choosing God is choosing good; choosing good is being good; being good is being absolutely good! The good versus evil conflict is as old as the creation itself and we know it very well. Our origins are undoubtedly good, because it is only good that can create, not the evil; evil only destroys or evil creates only destruction! We are created by God, the ultimate goodness and we are created for goodness. Holiness is at the root of our existence - it becomes so difficult to understand, believe, accept and live by it, because of the unfortunate and miserable interplay of the evil, basically the negation of God, that is the negation of all that is essentially good. 

Choosing good, is not an easy option considering the situation we live in today and all sorts of tenedencies and forces that lie in wait to ambush our good will and our natural godliness that we find within us as humans. The socio-politico-economic troubles that are experienced everywhere, the rat race logic of individual progress, the corporate dominant globalisation of consumerism, the manipulation of science and technology by the mighty and the moneyed are not just global phenomena, but they affect even the individual human persons. The personal and interpersonal values in the society are subject to all these evil forces that destroy true happiness and joy. It is in this circumstance that we are called, by the Word this Sunday, to choose God, by choosing good. 

To choose God by choosing good, involves three dispositions in our daily life: to shun evil, to welcome good and to be good! 

Shun evil, with all your might! This is the first disposition that we need today to be people of God, because the leeway  between the good and evil has been drastically reducing through the ages and today it has reached a level that permits such a large proportion of compromise! We cannot give into this sad situation. The word today draws our attention to three types of people who get themselves associated to evil in varied degrees. The first, are those who say, "let us see what happens". They may not be the ones causing the evil, but they are still the causes as they permit evil and assent to it in their passivity, which is a classic example of compromise. There are the second type of people who lie in wait, they do not want to be identified as the causes of evil, but they rejoice in it and wait to reap all the fruits of it. And the third are those who plot, who kill, who terrorise, who destroy, who thrive on evil. All these three groups we see in the Word of God today - whatever be the degree, an association with evil is always ungodly, that is why the book of Wisdom calls them, 'the godless.' If we are to be God's people, we have to shun evil with all our might and choose to have nothing with it!

Welcome good, with all your heart! A positive and proactive way of shunning evil is, welcoming good, that is identifying the traces of goodness anywhere, not missing any scope of goodness, not being prejudiced of anyone or any situation, but being open to good from anyone and everyone. It is being attentive to the goodness in the other, recognising it, promoting it and enhancing it. Welcoming good is welcoming God. When Jesus spoke of welcoming the children, or welcoming the little ones, he was refering to everyone who had still alive, that original goodness, that innate goodness, that God-particle within each of us. Jealousy is refusing to see the goodness in the other and to rejoice in it. Ambitiousness is refusing to see the goodness within oneself, which is already present though to be perfected. It is refusing to accept who I am and striving to be someone else for the sake of proving a point, which is truly not there! Welcoming good is tending towards good, even though it is clear that it can cause inconveniences of all volumes! We are God's people when we identify good, wherever it may be, and welcome it with all our heart.

Be good, come what may! Doing good is good, but not good enough. The call is to be good, from which goodness, comes all the good that we do. At times people may look to be doing good - be it in the world at large, or in our societies, or in our families or communities - but beneath all the good that they do, there could be a tint of selfishness, jealousy, competetiveness, ambition and other hidden agenda... doing good here, does not necessarily come from a spirit that is good! Hence the admonition to stay clear of all hypocrisy and manipulation. That will lead to harmony within a person, harmony among persons, harmony in a community, harmony in a society and harmony in the world over. Peace in the world cannot come from broken persons or split persons; it is a gift that only a person of integrity can offer to the world. And that integrity is goodness in the core of one's being. Being good is the seed from where all peace and joy can sprout and spring into being. As people of God we are called to be good, come what may... being delivered into the hands of evil, being tormented with pressures, being threatened to death...nothing can stop us from being good. Being good is being godly, because God is good all the time. 

Choosing good is choosing God, and it involves shunning evil with all our might, welcoming good with all our heart and being good at the core of our being, come what may! May the Spirit of the Lord, the eternal wisdom, grant us the grace to choose God and choose God above all.