Meditation ~ What Does it Really Mean to Be Good?

Too often in American culture, passion is pitted against discipline. At best, the two forces are allowed to cautiously coexist. Perhaps this tension gave birth to rock n' roll and the '60s counter culture; when people feel like they have to choose one or the other, they are more likely to throw out the "establishment" and go "all in" on their desires.

To continue the flawed narrative, the heart is understood as desiring fun and pleasure only. Discipline, family values, and work are seen as weak concessions to our need for comfort and stability. The brave and honest souls--those who live fully from the heart--forgo society with all of its helps. They never sell out by settling down.

Since most of us choose to opt in to society, we alternatively run the risk of exclusively validating responsibility and structure. We may insist that mature adults are those who forgo their desires for fun, risk, and creative fulfillment. Desire has nothing to do with "the real world."  Our worth is only tied to a pay check, a mortgage, and how esteemed we are by our community.

Both interpretations reduce the human heart to less, not more.

What if being made in the image of God means that we rightly want all of it?

What if fun, adventure, creative fulfillment, structure, family, and social responsibility are all appealing when we are open to all of the goods God has created?

What if God Himself is fun, adventurous, creative, structured, familial, and socially responsible? (Of course He is.) If  so, then we would be lop-sided, underdeveloped human beings if we didn't at least try to cultivate the wide-range of qualities that He possesses.

As Pope Benedict VI explained in his encyclical "Deus caritas est," God is both eros and agape; both facets of love are holy. Apart from eros, life looses zest and flavor. Apart from agape, we are unable to care for those we love and life spirals out of control. We can't be fully holy when we are alienated from one or the other.

Admittedly, it can be hard to "visualize" how all the goods can coexist, especially since Godly living involves making choices and sacrifices. Perhaps this is when we need to set aside our heads, and let our hearts, guided by the Spirit, lead out. We are called to be holy, to image the love and life of God. That is something mysterious, but we are given a supreme gift: God Himself, dwelling in our Hearts. Surely this is the reason why God did away with the old Mosaic Law and replaced it with the Law of the Spirit, poured into us at baptism. A legal code fixed on a page in human language could never express the depth, breadth, and mystery of God's life, which we are called to share in (here and now!) God wants us to successfully integrate eros and agape just as He does; He will help us.

We must allow ourselves to be guided. We can and should be thoughtful and intentional along the way. Intelligence is a useful tool that allows us to make and execute plans. Intelligence allows us to converse with and follow the Holy Spirit when He speaks. The Holy Spirit works best when our intelligence is as fully formed as possible; He can and will prompt us to study, question, and get answers to many of our questions. However, we must know the limitations of what our intelligence can accomplish. There are some answers we can never have this side of Heaven. God--who perfectly unites all seeming contradictions in Himself--is a mystery to us. As Paul said, at present, we see Him only dimly reflected in the world around us. For this reason, we struggle to reconcile all kinds of opposites, including justice and mercy, structure and freedom. We think the puzzle pieces don't fit; in frustration, we try to square the circles. In those moments, we need to just stop and experience God in our hearts, past the point of understanding.

We keep "looking" for God in this world. To do so is the essence of idolatry. One form of idolatry is trying to "visualize" exactly what a Godly life looks like, in the sense of a cookie-cutter cultural expression. Stereotypes about who is holy and who is not, is a form of idolatry. We can even create idols out of ourselves when we rigidly adhere to a fixed idea of who we think we should be. These idols enslave us and prohibit our growth in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit might want us to turn right or left, but we won't be open to it.

Creation in all of its forms, (art, nature, relationships, activities) are all helps in forming our relationship with God. But past a certain point, we need to firmly locate "the good life" and the successfully integrated life, with an experience of God in our hearts. God is not to be found in one particular lifestyle, achievement, experience, relationship, or activity. These things can point us to God, but they can never be the be-all-end-all. In truth, we can not *see* our be-all-end-all, for God is pure Spirit. We can only experience our be-all-end-all.

The next time we catch ourselves day dreaming, we need to pause. Are we dreaming of something because God is inspiring us to move in a particular direction, or are we imagining a particular thing, as if it will give us infinite happiness? Is our idea of definitive happiness in any way a "fixed" temporal thing? If so, we are committing idolatry and missing out on the fullness of happiness that God offers us. God can not be imaged in His totality. He can only be experienced. Even in Heaven, we will never see God the Father with our physical eyeballs. He is pure Spirit. We must learn to thirst for, and abide in, His Spirit.

With God, all things are possible, including a successfully integrated life. God will help us know the proper time and place for all things. It is possible to have fun and to be responsible. There is a sense in which it is possible to "have it all," in so far as it is possible to possess God, who is All. If we seek first the Kingdom of Heaven, all the rest will fall into place.