“Have you ever done something simply on principle, because it was the right thing to do, knowing that you couldn’t explain it to anyone, without there even being a good feeling attached to your act?”
Reflections by Ron Rolheiser, OMI
DOING THE RIGHT THING BECAUSE IT IS THE RIGHT THING
Karl Rahner wrote that and then added: “If you have done this, you have experienced God, perhaps without knowing it.”
Jesus would agree, so much so that he makes this both the central tenet of religion and the overriding criterion for salvation.
We see this explicitly in the famous text in the gospels where Jesus tells us that whatsoever you do to the poor here on earth you do to him. For Jesus, to give something to a poor person is to give something is to give something to God, and to neglect a poor person is to neglect God.
However, a mature disciple doesn’t calculate or make distinctions as to whether God is inside of a certain situation or not, whether a person seems worth it or not, whether a person is a Christian or not, or whether a person appears to be a good person or not, before reaching out in service.
A mature disciple serves whoever is in need, independent of those considerations.
T.S. Eliot said that the last temptation that is the greatest treason is to do the right thing for the wrong reason.
Jesus would add that doing the right thing is reason enough.
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