The Lord tells us, if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? But love your enemies (Luke 6: 33-35).
Here is the heart of our calling. Our doing good to others is independent of their behaviour: our kindness reflects the state of our heart. It is not a response to what takes place around us.

Christ is our role model. During his public ministry, he made full use of his freedom. He divided his time between four occupations: healing the sick, giving moral support to those rejected by society, preaching to crowds about God’s Kingdom, and instructing his disciples.
Not everyone is called to preach to others. Fewer still are meant to train disciples. But everybody has opportunities to surround with human warmth acquaintances who are ill or socially marginalised, whether we find them attractive or not.

In order to do good to everyone, there has to be peace in our own heart, a peace resulting from our relationship with the Holy Spirit, freely chosen as the environment in which we live. That depends entirely on our choosing inner freedom from earthly events, making our communions and our time with God the truly important events week by week.

God is One, and yet also a relationship between three divine Persons. We are united to Christ by our baptism, therefore our whole being shares Christ’s prayer to his Father in the power of the Holy Spirit.

We can develop a deep personal link with the Mother of God, angels and one or two Saints. Like all important relationships, those make substantial demands on our time and energy.

Icons are important to establish the Mother of God’s presence in our heart. I recently discovered the icon of the Protection of the Mother of God over the victims of the tragedy of the twin towers on 9/11. It has become important in my life. Other more widely known icons are also very important. Texts concerning the Mother of God have to be carefully chosen for their deep content.
Most of us have a Saint who is a close friend. Some Saints, like John of Kronstadt, have left valuable teaching which can give a framework to our life.

With those things in place, we have the resources to radiate goodness around us. We can also share insights with one another.
There is one sentence in Scripture which can become the outline for our way of life, Galatians 5: 22, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

May God give us those qualities. Amen.

Prepared by Fr. Yves