Good Works

24th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B (16 September 2018)

Isaiah 50:4-9

James 2:14-18

Mark 8:27-35

"If good works do not go with faith, it is quite dead."

In today's gospel reading, Jesus asks his disciples, "Who do you say I am?" It is not about the answer we give, but the answer we live that is important to give meaning to our Christian lives. Deep within, we need to experience the love of Jesus Christ and make a decisive choice to allow our inner person to be molded by the life and goodness of Jesus of Nazareth. We would then desire our personal and public lives to reflect his options, which would affect our family and civic responsibilities, our professional and business life, and our political options. This leads to a choice in which the ethos of contemporary culture would be critiqued, and the values propagated by the media would be discerned carefully.

The fact is, no one with real faith would fail to live a life of good works. St James, in today's second reading, says, "If one of the brothers or one of the sisters is in need of clothes and has not enough food to live on, and one of you says to them, 'I wish you well; keep your self warm, and eat plenty,' without giving them these bare necessities of life, then what good is that? Faith is like that: if good works do not go with it, it is quite dead." The faith that does nothing in practice is thoroughly lifeless.

Religion is good only for good people. Too often in life, as in history, religion shows its heartlessness. It can breed a fanaticism whose cruelty has few equals, like the Spanish Inquisition or other excesses that we have seen in many great religions. Regrettably, we do know many people who are religious but are not good. We know so many people who are faithful to all the laws and externals of a religion, but are selfish, cruel, revengeful, proud, greedy, etc. We may even know so many people who are ready to do evil and even kill in the name of religion. Goodness can and does thrive outside religion. But religion can never thrive without it. Our faith should overflow in goodness and good works. Otherwise our faith is no good; it is of no use. True religion and true faith never exclude kindness, compassion, love, and forgiveness.

Sometimes, all too rarely, religion finds its match in goodness and the world momentarily rediscovers the grandeur of the gospel. Take, for instance, the life of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Her faith and her social goodness were synonymous. We can say that these two dimensions went hand in hand. Love of God was fully expressed in love of others. No separations. There is only one movement of love, but two expressions of it. They are simultaneous like body and spirit. The body without a spirit is dead, and faith without good works is dead. If we believe truly in Christ Jesus as our Messiah and Saviour, then our faith will be expressed in relevant social action and practice. It is not possible to have only one of the two. Both or nothing!