Monday, February 4, 2013

BE GOOD


                                          

                    Memorial of St. Agatha, virgin and martyr
                                           Tuesday of the 4th Week
                                            “Agatha means good”
1. Heb 12: 18 – 19. 21-24
Psalm 47: 2-4.9-11
3. Mk 6: 7-13

Today we are celebrating the memorial of St. Agatha. “Good is the force and meaning of her name, Agatha in Greek, for she has been granted us, given as a gift, by God himself, the very fount of goodness...Agatha, her goodness fits both her name and her reality. Agatha who has won her good name by her noble deeds, and in that very name proves that her deeds were noble. Agatha, who even by her name so draws men, too, by her example, so strive with her without delay towards the true Good, who is God alone.” Agatha was a good woman. She shared in the goodness of God. She is good to us. The word good means: morally excellent; exemplary; upright; obedient; humane; admirable; commendable; virtuous, righteous, pious; well-behaved; hounourable; compentent and skillful. We can rightly say: a good name; a good manager, a good man; a good woman, a good girl; a good boy.

In being good remember these principles. The first principle is the golden mean: virtue is in the middle. Virtue is a mean between the defect and the excess. This view is partly captured by the Haitian proverb: “The man who is too good is a fool.” The golden mean is again enshrined in the following proverb: “The man who is all honey flies will eat him.” To cite an example generosity is a mean between extravagance and selfishness.

The second principle is the principle of the “Other.” Your goodness is not for yourself but for the other. “To the good I would be good; to the not-good I would also be good, in order to make them good,” said Lao-tzu.  If there is the “I” there is the “Other.”

The third principle is the principle of visibility. “In a place where good is done, bad deeds are seen at once” (Swahili proverb). Be good.


Prayer:  
God help me to hate the bad that I may not be bad. Help me to do the good that the good may follow me.  In short, help me to be good. Amen!

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