Why is There Good in the World?
From time to time in our daily lives, we may well ask ourselves, why is there such evil in the world? There are many possible explanations. But I will spare you any further discussion.
No, I am not going to sit down just yet. Rather, I would like to focus your attention on a question that is asked far less, but it is just as important. Why is there good in the world?
The question is worth some discussion for at least two reasons. First, yesterday we commemorated the 232nd anniversary of the one of the most fundamentally good things ever done by people, the American Declaration of Independence. A second reason is the fact that Our Holy Father Pope Benedict has declared this year, the Year of St. Paul.
Now for the life of me, I have wondered why the Pope is honoring just St. Paul and not Minneapolis, but perhaps I may have misunderstood the meaning. (Just seeing if you are listening). Actually, the Pope’s declaration of the Year of St. Paul commemorates the 2,000 anniversary of the birth of the great evangelist St. Paul. The Holy Father has asked bishops, priests, and deacons around the world to focus the faithful on the enormous contributions of St. Paul to our understanding of the Catholic faith. And let me suggest that at least in terms of human understanding of why there is good in the world, there may be no Catholic thinker as important as St. Paul.
St. Paul had a quality of mind that comes around once every thousand years or so. And indeed, it took Catholic theologians, clergy, and lay faithful about a thousand years to understand deeply the mind and faith of St. Paul. While we cannot do justice to St. Paul’s work in one homily or for that matter a year of homilies, St. Paul’s basic answer to the question of why there is good in the world is because of God, most notably the working of the Holy Spirit.
In today’s reading from the letter to the Romans, Paul is engaged in his famous distinction between the flesh and the Spirit in Christian life. Through baptism, Christians are incorporated into the life of Jesus Christ through the working of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit working through us enables us to die to the demands of the flesh, which are the primary source of evil in the world. Weakened by sin and prone to its promptings, the Holy Spirit, which is also the Spirit of Christ because they are one, stands in opposition to evil. Flesh and spirit are as separated as evil and good. To be sure we remain flesh in the physical sense, but Jesus through His Birth, Death, and Resurrection, and the Holy Spirit through his coming as a result of Jesus’ promise at the Ascension, make us if we so desire, rooted first and foremost in the Spirit of God and not the flesh of humanity.
Life in the Spirit is the pledge of resurrection for all of us. Cooperation with the Spirit makes the resurrection of our own bodies possible. The model of Jesus’ life is the goal of our lives if we so choose. The channel to make that goal attainable and bring about eternal union with God is life in the Holy Spirit. To not choose the spirit is to choose the flesh alone, which ultimately leads to destruction and spiritual death. To live the Spirit life is to live its fruits, gifts, and charisms.
Throughout writings ascribed to Paul, including the letter to the Romans, the first letter to the Corinthians, the letter to the Ephesians, and the letter to the Galatians, Paul lays out in great detail, the gifts, fruits, and charisms of the Holy Spirit. They include such things as wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, fear of the Lord, charity, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity, faith, healing, discernment, and many, many others.
The Holy Spirit, present at the beginning time as part of the Trinity, but manifest in particular after Pentecost, provided an enormous source of grace and confidence to the great evangelizers of the Church in those early days. But what we can easily forget is that we receive those same gifts of the Holy Spirit. They open up the faithful to the power of the Holy Spirit in every age. They are received first at Baptism, then at Confirmation and if one cooperates with the gifts, grow in power throughout life.
Each of us receives the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit in different measures. We in turn are called to use the gifts, fruits, and charisms of the Holy Spirit to build up the whole body of Christ. They also include the power to work miracles of all kinds. The gifts, fruits, and charisms of the Holy Spirit help us to be on fire with God, that we may radiate Jesus Christ, and share communion with the Trinity for the benefit of all of us, the Church.
Without the gifts, fruits, and charisms of the Holy Spirit, the Christian faith would not have been able to touch the billions over the years that call or called Jesus their Redeemer. Without them the practical work of the Church, which means all of us and is so central to bringing others to God would not be possible. And despite all the evil in the world, since the presence of the Holy Spirit manifested itself at Pentecost, cannot we not say that we in fact live in greater abundance than we did nearly 2000 years ago?
But it is more than just physical abundance. We can all think of times when we allowed God to work in our lives through the Holy Spirit. I can assure you brothers and sisters that when we are not sure what we should do in a particular situation, when we want to help but we are fearful, when we don’t know when to speak up, and when to back off, a prayer to the Holy Spirit to activate the gifts, fruits, and charisms of the Holy Spirit is always answered in a way that makes us better people, that helps us do good. Many, many people give personal witness to this reality. When we cooperate with the Spirit, the burdens and evils of life in the flesh give way, as our Gospel from Matthew says this morning to the easy yoke and light burden of life in the Spirit.
When we challenge ourselves to do good, when we put ourselves in the hands of the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit’s gifts, fruits, and charism are manifest in us. Multiply that reality in each of us by the billions of Christians who have lived since Pentecost. We can then begin to see the power of the Holy Spirit. And for helping us understand that power, we must in a deep and fundamental sense thank St. Paul.
For indeed it is the Holy Spirit that explains why we do good, why we put aside the evil of a flesh that it is dead in the Spirit. St. Paul’s writings remind us of the truth of that most famous Catholic liturgical refrain: Your words are Spirit and life O Lord. Richer than gold, stronger than death; your words are Spirit and life O Lord, Life everlasting.