Jan 22., 2008   /   Homilies

Goodness

Homily of Fr. Jett Villarin SJ during the Perpetual Vows of Sr. Susay Valdez
27 Dec 2008
Our Lady of Pentecost Parish

Good has many senses which can reflect the many moods and movements of our life. You can say that the moods of Susay or of anyone here can swing about these many senses of good.

One sense of goodness is that of “goodness gracious.” I’m sure Mother Superior Meny here and the sister have gone through this mood many times. “My goodness” has nothing to do really with goodness; it is an exclamation or sigh of exasperation, of surprise or wonder over nothing good or gracious at all.

You can also understand goodness in terms of being “good at something,” that is, being competent, clever, or skillful. I’m sure that Sister Susay is professing the vows not because she is an expert in poverty, chastity and obedience. On our own, we’re never really good at these things. They are an invitation to shape a life patterned after the Christ we profess to love.

Good has another sense when you’re playing blackjack. “Forced to good” we say when we are compelled to stay with the hand we’ve been dealt with. The mood mirrors someone being forced to a corner, someone who is unfree. Another sense is when something is “good to go” which is to say it is okay enough. “As good as it gets” indicates a mood of making do, of being resigned to whatever is there.

So again, you can say that Susay is here not out of exasperation or competence. She is not here by default or because of closed doors and options. She could have been a wonderful mother and wife and perhaps a nightclub singer. She is not here because life in the Cenacle is as good as it gets.

She is here by willful choice and intentional freedom. She is here because by her life (more than her words) she is like John the evangelist proclaiming what she has heard and seen with her very eyes and touched with her hands and heart: the Word of life, who predicated good of every single thing created from nothing. She is here out of the goodness of God from whom the goodness of everything is drawn
(Thérèse Couderc).

When I asked Susay why she has stayed in the Cenacle all these years, she replied that this is where she has found God’s Goodness. She has discovered God’s Goodness in the goodness of the people she has helped in the ministry of the Spiritual Exercises. She has known God’s Goodness to be real in the goodness of her very self revealed in the intimacy of prayer and in the goodness of her sisters lived in
community. Later in the liturgy, we will see the incarnation of that goodness when her sisters profess their commitment to take care of her. She is going to wear an old ring used to be worn by another
Cenacle sister who has since passed away, to signify to us and to God the goodness of the “yes” that threads through the life of every Cenacle sister from day to day and from generation to generation.

The other sense of goodness has something to do with rightness and desirability, We say something is good when it is right and desirable. But because of our blind spots and fallen histories, the many possible appearances and directions of rightness and desire can and do collide. Hence, goodness too can be broken and crucified, by fear and doubt, and by forces as big as betrayal or as petty as envy.

How this can happen so easily to goodness is found in the very mystery of goodness itself. The power of goodness is its power to surrender. Surrender, not in the sense of giving up or resignation. The power of goodness is its power to give in and let go, which is the power to trust and be the one who is given.

If goodness surrenders itself to be bound and broken and crucified, it is surrender as well that ultimately transforms and resurrects goodness to life. For Thérèse Couderc, surrender is more than offering oneself; it is to keep oneself continually turned to God in a process of metanoia or conversion that may very well mean dying to everything and to one’s very self. If I may add, it could mean dying as well to goodness to make room for what is better or greater; to surrender is to let go of the rightness and desires that may on the surface give quick meaning to our lives, but in truth are fleeting movements that leave us empty and lost and tired.

Susay, remember your own experience of the <em>Contemplatio ad Amorem</em> when you were doing the Fourth Week of the Spiritual Exercises. There you found the quiet joy of constantly turning to God, which turning is a lifelong labor of love. Of course, there and then you knew in the heart that the <em>ad amorem</em> too is God’s constant turning to us, whichturning is God’s eternal joy and labor of love.

Before we close, I draw you to another sense or mood of goodness which happens when we begin to fit and gather and belong together. The life you Susay have chosen is good because this is where Susay will be most Susay. If the vows and the Cenacle were a dress, when Susay wears this dress, this dress becomes her. You yourself said, “<em>dito ako makikiugnay sa Kanya.” Dito rin Siya makikibagay at makikisabay sa iyo, sa buo mong pagka-ikaw</em>.

And so in the midst of all this goodness, we wish you Susay one more good. We say to you: good bye. Good bye not in the sense of tearful weddings when parents part with their beautiful daughter. We wish you good bye in the ancient sense of the word: God be with you. You have found joy and life and goodness here, where you are most you, when you are most with God. Help us to turn to what you have found, to what was from the beginning, what you have heard and seen with your very eyes, what you have looked upon and who your hands have touched. By what you are about to proclaim and do, help us believe the very goodness in everything and the very goodness of God.