Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.
Do not withhold good. I love this. There’s something objective about this sentence. There is an implication that goodness can be due to anyone. It’s due because it’s due, not because I deem them worthy. It’s not because I agree with their politics, their gender identity, skin color, religion, wealth, occupation. I don’t get to decide about anyone’s worthiness. My job is to do good if it’s due.
There are plenty of times when I think I’ve done something to deserve good things, and at the same time, plenty around me who’d disagree. I don’t want them to decide I’m not due the goodness they could share. Likewise, I should not be the one to decide if someone else is due goodness. As Thomas Merton eloquently wrote, “Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody's business. What we are asked to do is to love, and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbors worthy.”
Wisdom is what helps us love, and share goodness, that heart-awareness of what is of God. Knowledge, our brain’s compilation of the facts we know and see, can lead us astray. That person is not due the goodness I can share because they (fill in the blank). If Wisdom is what’s added to our mortal knowledge to help us see, understand, and abide in God’s way, then of course we should spread goodness. It is only God who can accurately judge, not us.
I’ve heard some argue that they can love others with whom they vehemently disagree, and they are also allowed to pass judgement, because we have things like the Ten Commandments. Pro-life and pro-choice disagreements come to mind. Or Black Lives Matter. People of faith on both sides of the political spectrum are willing to love the other side and withhold goodness. Wisdom tells us otherwise. Wisdom, that sense of doing what is of God, tells us not only to love but to act and to share the goodness. After all, Jesus summed up the Ten Commandments in just two. Love God. Love your neighbor.
This morning, I’m thinking about how to see people through God’s all-loving eyes. In God’s economy, I believe everyone is due. Or, if there are some who aren’t, that’s solely up to God to decide. Melding Merton’s words and Wisdom’s, my job is to love others, without inquiring whether they’re due. That’s God’s job.
You write so clearly & eloquently.
ReplyDeleteYour exposition of this piece of scripture, as it percolates in your heart & mind, is a beautiful homily.
I am so grateful for all of the ways you enrich my life.
I love you my dear friend & Sister Deacon.
Nancy, thank you so much for the feedback. It is humbling, and invigorating at the same time! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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