My priest recently said, “The world tells you to do whatever makes you feel good. This is wrong. Instead, we are to be good.”
For those of us that have tried to follow the world’s advice of “feel good at all costs” know that this causes a certain heaviness.
The things that are always encouraged in the “feel good” doctrine are vices. It’s always vices. Sure, it is often cloaked as self-love and self-care and liberation, but that’s just how vices have to be packaged in order to make them seem acceptable.
We should absolutely love ourselves and care for ourselves, but the best way to do that is by being good.
Now, if you’ve followed me for any length of time, you know I can’t stand it when people simply say, “Hey, I’m a good person.”
What does that even mean? You haven’t killed anyone? You don’t steal? You are nice to babies and puppies? It’s too easy to passively call ourselves a good person and not really reflect on what that means.
To really be a good person, we must do what Christ says, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” Matthew 11:29-30
When we live a life of goodness as modeled by Christ, we are not weighed down by the burden of sin and selfishness, Catholic Pilgrims.
Striving to be good—striving to be a saint—will ultimately feel good because we will be living as God intended for us. Striving to simply feel good will not lead us to being good. It has to be the other way around.
Have a blessed Thursday.
*Fatima
