Reflections from the Heart – September 1, 2024

Twenty-secondSunday in Ordinary Time
by Fr. Ivan Olmo

“All good giving and every perfect gift is from above.” Our Lord is the source of all goodness; therefore, all that flows from the mind, the heart, and the mouth of God is good. In fact, it is all very good as scripture states for God is great and good all the time. All God initiates, all he creates, all he does is very good all of the time. There is no evil, no darkness in God; therefore, all God gives and does, all that he renders, all he permits will bring about good and in his goodness all things will become good again, created in his image and likeness, which again, is simply very good. God is always good and good always. In fact, the word G-o-o-d is just an extension of the name of God and in fact, an extension of God himself for good is from him. God extends his goodness onto us always. Not sometimes or most of the time, as we would like to think or believe, but always. God is always willing and doing good for the sake of the other. The challenge for us is to see how God sees by looking at the goodness in one’s own heart. We are encouraged to think only good thoughts, as God only wishes and wills the good for everyone. In God’s goodness, we are to love, as God loves goodness and all that is good, for this is very good for you and good for you to do unto others. The good in us however is constantly under attack by the plague of sin and the ugly one. His darkness seeks to twist and distort all that God loves and sees as good. For sin hates what is good, therefore sin hates you. Sin attempts to disfigure and distort all that is good in you. Blessed be God in his goodness for restoring what is hurting, disfigured and distorted in us. Willing the good makes all things new, transfiguring the distortion into something that can be good once again. Unfortunately, at times we see something that is evil as good or worse as a gift. We look at a person’s appearance, the outside facade, the outward show, the dazzling appearance as something that would be good for us to have or emulate. We believe being bad can be good sometimes or rendering bad to someone we make an enemy a good thing. Being bad is never good but being good always is God’s gracious gift to us.