Goodness, Good

The goodness of Jesus healing ten lepers, whose flesh-ravaged appearance by disease and smell are repulsive - James Tissot, Brooklyn Museum.

Throughout the work of Maria Valtorta, Jesus regularly and insistently asks each person to be good, especially those who have just been healed through one of his many miracles.

In "The Gospel as it was revealed to me"

• The saints recall God, the words heard in the Creative Thought, which Goodness resurrects in their hearts to raise them up like eagles.
• You speak with common sense and justice. But see, it is better to sin through goodness of soul and trust, than through mistrust and harshness.
• Just as one hates me for my austerity, one will hate me for my goodness, because both announce God.
• I am not good and I do not see what Goodness sees. I see the outside. The one who is good penetrates to the inside.
• Your goodness wiped away my childhood tears. Should not my goodness wipe away your tears?
• How many times one acts out of goodness, true goodness, but wholly human goodness! Yet, since this action is only human, one wishes for it to be known by men.
• It suffices to tell the truth and be good to draw the hatred of the crowd after the initial moment of enthusiasm.
• I have given a direction to their goodness, just as you do with the pruner’s sickle. But the goodness was in them. Now it blossoms because there is someone to nurture it.
• Evangelization of the pagans through acts of charity: They have the joy of saying “We know that the True God is Goodness and that He loves us therefore.”
• Have the spontaneity of the child who goes from instinct towards the one whose goodness it feels, seeking nothing else but goodness.
• Goodness of God.
• God is not only Legislator. He is Father. And a Father of immense goodness.
• Do you see that you still have goodness? You are not wicked... You only have a great open wound and no one heals it... Your goodness leaves through it, like blood through wounds.

In fundamental Christian texts

In the Bible

• “And God saw that it was good...” ()  Shout joyfully to יהוה, all the earth; serve יהוה with gladness; come before him with joyful shouts! Know that יהוה is God; he made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise; give thanks to him, bless his name! He is good, יהוה, eternal is his love, and from age to age, his faithfulness. ()

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church

Goodness: what drives to do good

• God, infinitely Perfect and Blessed in Himself, out of pure goodness has freely created man to share in his blessed life.
• It pleased God in his wisdom and his goodness to reveal himself personally
• In the condescension of his goodness, God, to reveal himself to men, speaks to them in human words
• In all his works God shows his benevolence, his goodness, his grace, his love  The glory of God is that this manifestation and communication of his goodness take place for which the world was created
• For the Almighty God (...), since he is supremely good, would never allow any evil to exist in his works
• Just as the single goodness of God really spreads under diverse forms in creatures, so the single mediation of the Redeemer does not exclude, but rather calls forth a varied cooperation on the part of creatures dependent on the single source
• Man shares in the wisdom and goodness of the Creator who grants him mastery of his acts and the capacity to govern himself in view of truth and good
• Through despair, man opposes the Goodness of God
• The hatred of God comes from pride. It opposes the love of God of which it denies the goodness and which it claims to curse as the one who forbids sins and inflicts penalties
• The Church urgently urges everyone to pray and act so that divine Goodness frees us from the ancient servitude of war
• Jesus teaches us this request “Give us”, because it glorifies our Father as it recognizes how Good He is beyond all goodness

Goodness: what is healthy and pleasant

• Originating from divine goodness, creation shares in this goodness ("And God saw that it was good (...) very good"
• God is infinitely good and all his works are good. However, no one escapes the experience of suffering
• Through Christ, the Church can offer the sacrifice of praise in thanks for all that God has made good, beautiful and just in creation and in humanity

Goodness: what is full of qualities and good dispositions

• Each creature has its own goodness and perfection.
• The first man was not only created good, but was established in a friendship with his Creator
• The devil and the other demons were certainly created by God naturally good, but they made themselves evil
• By mysteriously becoming the Body and the Blood of Christ, the signs of bread and wine continue also to signify the goodness of creation
• Desires are good in themselves; but often they do not keep the measure of reason

Good: what conforms to the moral norm

• The Church considers all that can be found good and true in other religions “as a preparation for the Gospel and as a gift”
• God having created man and woman, their mutual love becomes an image of the absolute and unfailing love with which God loves man. It is good, very good, in the eyes of the Creator
• The Church attaches great importance to the presence of Jesus at the wedding at Cana. She sees in it the confirmation of the goodness of marriage  Human acts are morally qualifiable. They are good or evil
• The fruits of the Spirit: "charity, joy, peace, patience, long-suffering, goodness, kindness, meekness, faithfulness, modesty, continence, chastity"