Eight Sunday of Ordinary Time, 2/27

This Gospel passage gives us an opportunity to do something very important that most are too “busy”, or in reality too distracted to do—to stop and ask ourselves, how am I doing?

Blaise Pascal boldly stated that “all of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” I think the principal reason for this allergy to silent, undistracted/unentertained moments is a common, nagging intuition that we aren’t well. 

This nagging intuition is what I would like to question. 

An additional problem has crept into contemporary humanity—one which Pascal’s 17th century humanity didn’t deal with: a difficulty to understand or define the concept of “goodness”. Like with similar concepts, many would reject putting limitations on the definition of such an important and coveted word. But placing limitations is precisely what defining means (definire: to set bounds to). You see this ambiguity when you google the definition of “good”. It reads: “to be desired or approved of.” Goodness in this case is dependent upon what the subject desires. If I desire wealth, then wealth is good. If I desire power, then power is good. But what if too much power, or power for the wrong reasons is desired? Does it remain good simply because it is desired? 

Let us turn our attention to the mysterious Word of God who, in the beginning, spoke order into creation by the placing of boundaries and limitations. This Word once said to a well-to-do young man: “No one is good, but God alone.” God is the reference for what is good. And the essence of that goodness is tied to the very essence of God himself: a relational Trinity of self-giving persons. Thus goodness is intimately tied with right relationship—with love! Goodness is no longer in reference to my desires, but rather to my relationships. It is no longer about the “I” (ego), but the “you”. It is no longer trapped in, but is free to look beyond.

 Therefore, when we get that nagging feeling that we aren’t well, we might be right, but often it is precisely because our primary concern is on the self. It is possible that we have lost the freedom to look beyond.

~Michael Gokie