Good works

 

We are told to put the love of God, who is in us, 

into action;  by acts of charity, to help and come to the aid of others, 

that by loving others we love God; in manifest ways, by our words and actions.

But as we know that the devil, who is also in us, has developed many clever

tricks in his efforts to keep us from knowing God, we have to be careful with this 

just  as with everything else.

The love of God is not self serving, nor is it seeking worldly recognition, neither

is it following slavishly the world's interpretation of what good works are.

Anyone who knows God will recognize and see what they are, at any given

moment. The world is in desperate need of charitable actions; love in motion, 

we don't need to go looking for opportunities or waiting for the television (of all things!), 

or our  secular governments to tell us what we should do for others.

It is not about "ticking boxes", and certainly not about being seen and admired for 

our goodness.

To do things out of such a desire, is the way the pharisees acted, there are

still  many pharisees in the Church today, they tick all the right boxes, but everything 

is according to the standards of the world. 

Two good current examples would be the obedience to injecting oneself with the 

covid experimental injection which has injured and killed very many, and now

of course; to focus our good actions only on Ukraine.

 

When I was little, my mother, who was Christian but a protestant, signed me up for 

the girl guides, the girl section of the scouts. 

I can only say that I hated every moment of it, but I had to go.

My clearest memory from it is a paper sheet that was given to us; it had a list of

"good works", specific actions, to be carried out, and we literally had to tick boxes,

there had to be a minimum of those actions carried out, and I think there was rewards

given out too. I have seen something similar in catechism classes for children.

Once children, whose minds are still in the process of being formed and whose basic frames 

of references are being built for the rest of their lives, gets this idea installed and fixed

inside them,  it is very difficult to change it later on. Because with time, our initial 

installments goes underground, they become unconscious, but nevertheless they operate 

exactly out of the initial understanding. 

 

Obviously, it goes without saying, it is good to do good things for others, 

that is not the problem. 

The problem is that the focus can imperceptibly stay on the exterior, with the world, 

ticking boxes, instead of interior where true understanding flows from the prayer life 

and the Sacraments of the Catholic Church. 

 

The Catholic Church is not first and foremost a place where "we do things", she is the 

world's only bearer of the entire truth about God, and that has to always come first.

Sadly, today, in charge of the transmission of the Faith, we sometimes find people who, 

for example, believes that abortion is ok, and people who does not believe in the 

Real Presence of the Eucharist. 

They are heretical and hypocritical, they claim to represent the teaching, but they do not.

They think the most important thing is to be "nice", not to upset people, not to "judge",

but the truth must always come first. 

There is no true love without truth.

In regard to the work of ecumenism, this is not "good works", it is not about unity, 

it is heresy, and the result is unfortunately very visible in many Catholic parishes.

We can't bring about true unity by denying the truth, or changing it a bit here and a 

bit there, it becomes distorted.  

Furthermore, by playing the world's game by submerging the Church into politics and 

current affairs; if it wasn't for all the true and holy priests that we still have in the Church,  

she would  eventually become totally united with the world, and not with God. 

That is not good works.