Article written by F. Carlos del Valle, SVD, published in the UISG Bulletin 188/2025

1. “Jesus went about doing good and healing people” (Acts 10:38)

We all know good people, men and women of God. They are a blessing in our milieus; their lives reflect the life of God. One does not leave a good person without taking something of God with them. You look at these people and you want to be better. You learn the Gospel because their lives are a commentary on the Gospel, a letter from God to us.

There, Jesus appears in other words that reflect his own, in other lives that touch ours.
The important thing is not to be a good religious, but a good person. In consecrated life there are also very pious and very unpleasant people. Religious and selfish people, centered on themselves. There are people like boiling oil: a drop of water falls and there is an explosion.

Pope Francis says that the people of God evangelize themselves (EG 139). Good people are evangelizing us. We need to grow in sensitivity to welcome the Gospel that we discover in people, and not cover it up with our ideas, prejudices, fears, and insensitivity. Jacob says to Esau: “I have seen God in the benevolent and gracious face of my brother” (Gen 33:10). He sees the face of God in his forgiving brother. Your life is the Gospel that people around you read most.

The younger son in the parable finds alive what he could not squander: his father’s goodness. He is saved by having been loved with a love that never failed him. The parable of the Samaritan connects goodness with being sent on mission: “Go and do likewise.” Giving goodness and receiving goodness makes us live happily. In mission, a person who does not live contentedly cannot be a good pastor. To know if one is a good religious, one must look to see if one lives contentedly, because when one is content, one does good, is kind and welcoming.