He has done all things well.
What is harder than doing the good that we know we should do? Doing that good consistently in every time, place, and condition. Despite our good resolutions, we sometimes fall short of the good that we intend to do.
The Apostle to the Gentiles knows very well the effectiveness of God’s grace in his life, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace towards me was not in vain.” (1 Cor 15:10) But he also experiences that vacillating between good and evil, “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil that do not want is what I do.” Then he points to Jesus Christ as the answer to his fluctuating between good and evil, “Who will save me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom 7:19, 24)
From St. Paul’s experience and words, we understand that we are not condemned to a life of inconsistency when it comes to doing the good and avoiding evil. In and through Jesus Christ we have access to all that we need to be more consistent in doing good.
After Jesus cured the deaf mute in Mk 7:31-37, the crowd said of Him, “He has done all things well.” Jesus did not only do good things well. He did so all the time. In short, He was consistent.
There are four things behind the consistency of Jesus that we can emulate in becoming more consistent in doing good.
Jesus had the Spirit of goodness in Him always and He was led by that Spirit. He described His mission in these words, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for He has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed…” (Lk 4:18) By the power of this Spirit, no amount of evil in the world could prevent our Lord Jesus from performing good and powerful things in the lives of others.
We also have this Spirit of goodness in us from the moment of our baptism. We can be more consistent in the good that we do when we too are led and sustained by the Spirit, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” (Rom 8:14) We are more inconsistent in doing good when we are controlled by our emotions or personal likes, or when we are overcome by our fears of rejection, or when we crave acceptance and notice from others. We also cannot be consistent when we depend on our strength or good resolves only to do good.
Jesus did everything out of loving dependence on the Father. When asked why He healed on the Sabbath, He replied, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of His own accord, but only what He sees the Father doing; for whatever He does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all that He Himself is doing.” (Jn 5:19-20) He did everything to please the Father and in complete dependence on Him. He was constant in all that He did for us because He did all primarily out of love for the Father. Our infidelity and lack of appreciation did not take anything away from His undying goodness.
We also can do good things out of love for the Father because we have been gratuitously introduced into this love relationship with the Father, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Rom 5:5) We can do good to please the Father and not primarily ourselves or others. We become more consistent in goodness when we deny ourselves and do good for the sake of the One who has gratuitously brought us into communion with His Son, and given us a share in His life by grace. Any motive other than love for God will only make us sporadic in goodness.
Jesus used all that He had to do good, never evil. Jesus employed all that He had in restoring the deaf mute’s speech and hearing. He used His time in attending to him, He used His hands to lead him away from the crowd, He used His finger to touch his ears, He used His spittle to touch his tongue, He used His eyes to look up to heaven, He used His lips and voice to pronounce the words that opened the man’s ears, “Ephphatha!”
We are inconsistent in doing good because it is very easy for us to abuse the gifts that God has given to us. We use them to bring harm to others and for our own selfish purpose that has nothing to do with the will of God. We ignore the fact that we have been given all these things by God for these reasons—to “edify others, give glory to our Father in heaven,” (Mt 5:16) and to “work out our salvation in fear and trembling.” (Phil 2:12) In Christ Jesus, we too can use all that we have in doing good for others and never evil.
Lastly, all Jesus’ actions were accompanied by prayer to the Father. Before He opened the ears of the deaf mute, we are told that “Jesus looked up to heaven and groaned.” He did good things well all the time because He was in constant communion with the Father. Even His agony on the cross could not prevent His prayer of forgiveness for His executioners, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” (Lk 23:34)
We too can do good with consistency when we strive to live in the loving presence of God and to raise our minds and hearts to Him in prayer. God is closer to us than our failures, struggles, and hardships in this world. We are never alone or abandoned to face the evils of this world alone. Like Jesus and with Jesus, we can pray always to the Father and do His will more consistently. Living in God’s presence, we can also accept our failures as a divine call to trust in God more and to acquire the disposition of Jesus. This alone prevents us from getting discouraged or giving up.
Very much like our own times, the early Christians had resigned themselves to a life of inconsistency in goodness. They showed hospitality to the rich and influential and welcomed them into their midst, “You pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say, ‘Sit here, please.’” But they treated the poor with contempt, “You say to the poor one, ‘Stand there.’” (See James 2:1-5) They were partial in their treatment of others because they were blind to their inconsistency in hospitality.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, God wants us to do good always and do it well because we are His children redeemed by the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ, and called to fellowship with Him. Because of the power of this communion, we just cannot settle for doing good today and then doing evil tomorrow. By His grace, we too can become more consistent in good as we share in the disposition of Jesus Christ who remains “the same yesterday, today and forever.” (Heb 13:8)
Every Eucharist is an encounter with that ever-consistent love of Jesus for us. His grace in us for doing good is always effective and never in vain. Let us also share deeply in His own disposition so that we can become more consistent in doing good and doing it well.
Glory to Jesus!!! Honor to Mary!!!
Photo by Eric Rothermel on Unsplash
