“I give them eternal life”
What is good? Good is “whatever is suitable or befitting someone or something…it is that which all things tend toward or desire. The good is the desirable, and therefore the object of the natural (or supernatural) needs or tendencies of a being.”[i]
Is goodness relative? Does each individual determine what is suitable or befitting to themselves? In the Mark’s Gospel, “a man ran up, knelt down before him [Jesus], and asked him, ‘Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone….’”[ii] In the story of the Rich Young Ruler, we see that “good” is not subjective (determined by the subject or person) but objective (based on facts, not determined by personal, individual opinion or feelings). We cannot say “food” is not good, because our body needs and desires food and therefore as the tendency to eat. Food is good and to say food is not good is to deny reality. We can have a preference for “types” of food, preferring one type over another, but we can’t say food in general is not good because that is not true.
Saint Augustine says that our hearts are restless until they rest in God. We are familiar with the science of an atom, which contains a nucleus with neutrons and protons and outer rings or shells which consists of electrons. What is the nature of the electron? Electrons have a negative charge and are attracted, drawn toward protons in the nucleus. Electrons will then naturally fill the electron shells from the center and then move outward. In other words, for an electron, the tendency, need, desire is the nucleus. Each individual is like an electron and God is our nucleus, and whether a person knows it or not, the tendency, desire, and need of his soul is God. God is the good and the only good. Anything in life is only good in that it is created by God and shares in the goodness of God.
VIDEO – Protons, neutrons, electrons, and isotopes
This video shows the elements of what was said above in regards to protons, neutrons, and electrons.
What if a person’s tendency is not toward God? What if a person does not desire God? What if a person feels they do not need God? We do not determine our tendencies, desires, and/or needs. The tendency, desire, and need can only be satisfied in God; We can only find rest in God, our creator. We are ordered, directed toward God. When our tendency is to go away from God, we are disordered because God is all good, knowing, and brings about true order. This tendency to go away from God, rather than toward Him, to choose evil rather than good is called concupiscence. When our desire is evil rather than good, our desires are disordered. If we feel that we do not need God we are mistaken, we existence and stay in existence because God created us and if it were not for God we would cease to exist.
Saint Gregory the Great says in the Spiritual Reading, “Again he says: My sheep hear my voice, and I know them; they follow me, and I give them eternal life. Shortly before this he had declared: If anyone enters the sheepfold through me he shall be saved; he shall go freely in and out and shall find good pasture. He will enter into a life of faith; from faith he will go out to vision, from belief to contemplation, and will graze in the good pastures of everlasting life.”[iii]
Our goal, destiny, direction, need, desire, tendency is God. Our desire, whether we cooperate with it or not is to know, love, and serve God. When we do not cooperate or fulfill this true desire of our soul, we get frustrated and although we might feel a temporal happiness, we do not experience joy and peace which is eternal. When we strive to know, love, and serve God in this life and ultimately in eternal life we find joy, peace, and fulfillment. We then “will graze in the good pastures of everlasting life.”[iv]
Why is it good to not only have a goal, destiny, direction, and desire, but to clearly know what the goal, destiny, direction, and desire is? When we remember our end, our goal, our destiny we are able to stay the course and not get side tracked. Saint Gregory says in the Spiritual Reading, “Anyone who is determined to reach his destination is not deterred by the roughness of the road that leads to it. Nor must we allow the charm of success to seduce us, or we shall be like a foolish traveler who is so distracted by the pleasant meadows through which he is passing that he forgets where he is going.”[v]
Saint Gregory’s analogy of the road connects with the four cardinal virtues. Prudence is the virtue, which helps us to know the good and avoid evil; it helps us to always keep in mind the goal, our destination – the good. Prudence helps us to know what is at the end of the road. Justice is the act of walking on the road. Justice is to give a person what they are rightly due. When we walk on the right road, we give God, self, and others what is right and just. We are reminded at every Mass that it is right and just to give thanks to the Lord our God. We are thankful to know the good and then to pursue the good.
POEM – “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost
This poem, almost 100 years old, is still read in grade schools everywhere. It speaks of being met with two roads, and the person can only choose one. The person ends up choosing the one less traveled. Jesus tells us, “How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few.” (Matthew 7:14) We use the virtues to stay on the road less traveled.
What then could pull us off course? Saint Gregory mentions two things. First, is the roughness of the road. We can be pulled off the road by fear. Fear can creep in and we can begin to think that due to the roughness of the road we “can’t” reach the goal. The cardinal virtue of courage enables us to stay the course when persecution, hardships, and obstacles discourage us. Second, is the charm of success to seduce us to feast in the pleasant meadows through which we pass by. We can be pulled off the road by our senses. While walking on the road we see something on the side of the road that distracts or entices us and we give up the greater good of heaven for the senses of the world or a lesser good of earth. The cardinal virtue of temperance helps us to keep all of our senses in moderation and also helps us to order all our sense toward the good and pleasing will of God.
“We must hate sin above all other evils, so as to be resolved never to commit a willful sin, for the love or fear of anything whatsoever.”[vi] We are pulled of the road of goodness when we fear something or someone more than we fear God or when we love something or someone more than we love God.
In the collect of today’s Mass we pray, “Almighty ever-living God, lead us to a share in the joys of heaven, so that the humble flock may reach where the brave Shepherd has gone before.” As the humble flock of the Good Shepherd we now on this earth share in the joys of heaven. However, only as a foretaste, an appetizer, of the main course which we will feast upon in heaven. At the Mass the priest holds up the Lamb of God, the Eucharist and says, “Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.”[vii] We are called to feast at the supper of the Lamb, which is heaven, and we already share in the feast here on earth each time we assist at Mass. The next time we look at Our Lord in the Eucharist, let us remember that our Shepherd became a Lamb. For He had to become like a lamb to led the lamb. It was necessary that the Shepherd of the lambs, would reveal Himself as the Lamb of God, “a lamb led to the slaughter or a sheep before the shearers, he was silent and opened not his mouth.”[viii] Saint Gregory says, “So our Lord’s sheep will finally reach their grazing ground where all who follow him in simplicity of heart will feed on the green pastures of eternity. These pastures are the spiritual joys of heaven. There the elect look upon the face of God with unclouded vision and feast at the banquet of life for ever more.”
[i] Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.; Modern Catholic Dictionary
[ii] Mark 10:17-18
[iii] 2nd Reading, Office of Readings, 4th Sunday of Easter
[iv] ibid.
[v] ibid.
[vi] Penny Catechism
[vii] The Order of the Mass
[viii] Isaiah 53:7