When a deed is done for goodness

Rev. Jeffrey Symynkywicz, March 5, 2006

We kid ourselves when we think it’s easy
to stand up to evil;
when we believe
the threats and marauding of the world’s powers
can be swept away by the merest charge
of our puny wills.

If resisting evil is not ever easy,
and sometimes requires the heart of a martyr,
or the soul of a saint,
resisting temptation—not giving in to the many little sins
that crowd our days—
would seem merely a rational engagement:

Why squander our lives on passing shadows,
hen we have within us
he opportunity here and now to build
ur own small part of the kingdom of goodness?

Perhaps there are those who prefer doing evil,
whose hearts leap as they slink about in the shadows;
but for most of us, I know it is goodness that feeds us,
and nothing compares to a deed done in Charity’s name.

It can be our smallest actions, then, that matter most
in the day to day living of our lives:
our small choices to serve the good;
our little turnings from temptation and evil;
each deed done for goodness
removes another nail from death’s coffin,
and brightens, just a hint, the smile of the divine.

jsb
3/5/2006

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