No Ambition Except To Do Good

Reflection for the 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year A

A Charitable Gift (1850) by Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller

I watched the cartoon Shrek 2 about twenty years ago.

And somehow, this scene always stuck with me.

“Gingie” the gingerbread man, and his mentor Mongo were helping Shrek storm the castle of the evil fairy godmother to rescue Princess Fiona.

Mongo suffered a fatal blow and was now drowning under a deluge of hot milk launched by the castle defenders.

His last words to Gingie, said smiling, and in a low yet contented voice was “beeeee goooooood”.

Gingie reacted in despair.

Partly because he saw a good man going down.

And probably because he was struggling to understand what those words really meant.

Does being good entail simply being nice and respectable to stay out of harm’s way?

Or does being good entail something radical and dangerous?

Gingie would have been helped by this Sunday’s readings.

The portrait of the good man in the prophet Isaiah focuses on two abilities that can all be considered good in analogous ways.

His moral clarity is presupposed.

But what is perhaps often neglected is the highlighting of the good man’s ability and shrewdness.

He “shares bread with the hungry, shelters the homeless poor, clothes the man he sees to be naked”  (Isaiah 58:7)

Doing these things requires financial means.

And financial means often presuppose skill.

The good man is not only morally upright, but he is also someone who has talent.

The first reading goes on to say that a good man is someone who does away “with the yoke, the clenched fist, the wicked word.”  (Isaiah 58:9)

The ability to impose unjust laws and to engage in physical and verbal violence are often the all too familiar tools of the unjust.

The good man is not a naïve man.

He is more than familiar with these all too familiar instruments of tyranny.

He knows the game. He not only refuses to play it but also disables those who attempt to do so.

And in that way, brings “relief to the oppressed.” (Isiah 58:10)

It is because he does this that he becomes, in the responsorial Psalm, “a light in the darkness for the upright.”

In Psalm 112, it presupposes the good man as standing out from the crowd.

There is the upright man, and there is the good man.

The upright man wants to do good. But there is darkness all around; standing out is likely dangerous.

The good man does it anyway.

“He is generous, merciful, and just. Takes pity and lends, conducts his affairs with honor, has no fear of evil news, and with a firm heart, trusts in the Lord.”

And because he does it, he inspires the upright man.

They see his “good works” and “praise the Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)

Jesus in the Gospel gives the ultimate reason for “being good.”

It is a participation in God’s character.

The vision of the good man is simultaneously inspiring and frightening.

Questions immediately arise.

Is the Lord asking too much of his followers? Isn't the burden overwhelming and beyond human effort?

Saint Paul, in the second reading, confirms that sheer human effort alone is not possible.

He admits his “fear and trembling.” (1 Cor 2:3)

And hence quickly admits that this vision of the good man was not thought up by sheer philosophical reasoning.

But because the only knowledge he claimed to have was about

“Jesus and him as the crucified Christ.” (1 Cor 2:2)

Is the good man called to succeed?

If Jesus, the good man par excellence, could not do so, at least in the conventional understanding of success, then what chance do his disciples have?

But because Paul recognises that this vision can only be implemented through “the power of the Spirit” (1 Cor 2:4) working in the Christian, that paradoxically lifts the burden from the human person.

His disciples are not called to succeed.

They are called with his grace to strive.

And they can leave success in the hands of the God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead. 

Be good.

And trust God to know what to do with goodness.