Reflection This Week
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

   My suspicion is that when we take the time to stand in front of the mirror and take a good, hard and serious look at ourselves, being brutally honest, we will find much to like, some we wish were better and a little that we are loathe to admit exists, even to ourselves. There is the good. There is the bad. There is the ugly. It is all there in each and every one of us.

   This is true not only about past actions and present realities. It is just as valid about future possibilities. About our past: we can be thankful for the good we see there, be irritated by the not-so-good and appalled by the ugly things we said and did, the truly selfish and harmful, even hateful. But we cannot undo the ugly, improve the not-so-good or even make the good even better. The past is passed.

   So, too for the present: what is is what is. Standing in front of that all-seeing, totally-honest mirror, what lies before us ids the future with all its possibilities for good, not so good or truly ugly coming from our hearts and minds, lips and actions. As Professor Dumbledorf counseled Harry Potter, so he would counsel us: “There is good and bad in each one of us. What matters is which one we choose.”

   There were times in the past when we made wrong choices, knowing and willingly made them, knowingly and willing said and did some very ugly things. There will be times today when we the person standing in front of that mirror will be tempted to do that which is good and tempted to do that which is not so good and tempted to do that which is very, very ugly.

   No one of us is exempt from such diverse temptations. It comes with the territory called “being human”. What will matter whenever we move away from that mirror, away from our self-examination and into the world will be, as the Professor reminds, the choices we make. They will be free-will choices. No one can force us to do that which is good and loving and no one cane impel us to do that which is not.

   That truth is probably one of the reasons most of us avoid self-examination on a regular basis. We would rather not confront the ugliness that has been part of our life nor admit that the possibility of more of the same still exists and is a distinct possibility. Yet, the greater truth is that we must do that self-examination if only to remind ourselves that we do more good than bad and that the ugly is quite minimal. It is also to remind us that we always choose to say “no” to that to which we know we should say “no”.

   None of this is new nor is it, as they say, rocket science. It is Christianity 101, very basic but very essential if we are to be the person God created us to be, the person we know we can be, and the person we truly want to be. The choice is ours, every minute of every hour of every single day.

   As always, the saving grace in all of this is the grace of God. Jesus could not have resisted those same temptations to be less loving, even ugly, were it not for God’s grace. Neither can we. We never make those choices alone, without God’s grace, unless we freely choose to do so. Thus, whenever we visit that mirror again and note the ugliness we see there, we have no one else to blame but ourselves.   WJP