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If You, Being Evil, Know How To Give Good Gifts...


"Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he?
"If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!
"In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you,
for this is the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 7:11:11-12)

     Whenever I think about goodness, TV shows about penitent vampires of the modern romance come to mind. A tormented member of the undead doggedly fights the evil with  himself and the evil of the more evil undead around him. The evil evil always seems poised to destroy the penitent or one of his friends, so he taps into the darkness within him and saves the day, sacrificing his penitence a little each time.
     Three more images come to mind, all from the Lord of the Rings. Frodo offered the One Ring to Gandalf and Gandalf acted as if it were poison. He offered the ring to Galadriel, who gave a picture of what would happen, then more politely chooses to remain herself. Lastly, Sam, faithful, silly Sam, refused to fall under the power of the ring, and helped destroy it.
     These last three are a breath of fresh air, because all-too-often, we are more like the penitent vampires, turning to power in the name of goodness rather than to goodness. I'm not writing about not defending ourselves when we are physically threatened - because our real battle isn't against flesh and blood. More often than not, our battle is with our evil selves. We tell ourselves that our goal is good, pure and noble than therefore, if we have to be a little less than good, pure, and noble to achieve it, then it's worth the sacrifice. More than that, we tell ourselves that it demands that sacrifice and transmutes what was base to gold. And grace may do that, but should we do choose to do evil that good may come?
        The reality is that goodness is beyond us. That's why it's a part of the fruit of the Spirit, because only the Spirit can bring it about. Oh, we can perform deeds other call good (e.g. random acts of kindness), but how often is our motivation purely good? How often are we good for goodness' sake and not for some benefit we hope to gain from us? Are we really all that different from the Pharisees, who being evil were able to do good things for their children?

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