Getting better at doing good

Good afternoon. I’m going to do something today my formation instructions told us never to do—start off with a question. So here it is: Is it wrong to feel good about doing good? Hold that thought—we’ll come back to it.

Today is the feast day, the Optional Memorial, of St. Martin of Porres. A mixed race man at the turn of the 16th century, Martin was abandoned by his nobleman father and grew up in poverty. He learned the medical arts as an apprenticeship, and became a lay Dominican, feeling unworthy to be a religious brother. Before long though, his brothers convinced him to take his vows because of his prayer, penance, and humble acts of charity and service to others. It was said that he spent all night in prayer and all day caring for those in need, especially the poor and enslaved in the city. Most of all, Martin was known for humility and selfless giving to those least able to give anything in return.

That’s what Jesus is talking about in our short Gospel today. This passage comes at the end of the much longer Sunday reading we’re familiar with; about taking the lowest seat at a banquet rather than the place of honor at the table—to act with humility in order not to be embarrassed; and to give the “host” the opportunity to raise you up to a higher station. Long and short—humility is GOOD.

But here Jesus raises the bar. Not only should we be humble, but we should reach out to those who have absolutely no chance of paying us back. Rather than inviting our friends, our neighbors, our peers to our table, we need to invite the poor and lame, the blind and beggars, precisely because you know they CAN’T return the favor. It’s a call to selfless giving, knowing you’ll get nothing in return.

So does that mean it’s wrong to dine with our friends, to lend a neighbor money, to help out a colleague going through hard times, simply because they might be able to pay us back? Is it bad to do good things for someone simply because it might come back around, because you might get something out of it?

What about someone who establishes a university endowment or funds a hospital wing that gets named for them? Truly they get something out of it—bragging rights, public recognition, a nice enduring legacy. Even closer to home—when I give the homeless guy on the corner $20, I too get something out it. It makes me feel good. Does that make their gift, or my donation, and the good it will provide to others, a badthing? And the answer is, “of course not.” How can it be BAD to do GOOD for others?

And that brings us back to the question we started with: Is it wrong to feel good about doing good? And the answer again is “Of course not.” That sense of right, that hint of goodness we feel when we act with charity and mercy—that’s a gift from God to show us we’re on the right path. Think of it as a training aid, a waypoint. Because doing good is always good, but it’s not enough. We’re called to strive to be BETTER, to give without measure or counting the cost; so that we too might one day stand before Jesus with St. Martin and all saints in heaven, and hear him say, “Well done, my good and faithful servants.”