It would seem obvious to us that we need to seek out good and not evil, but unfortunately, our society and the limitations of human nature prove to us otherwise. Today’s simple Gospel Acclamation verse reminds us that on the road to good is life and the Lord, the opposite of what is on the road to evil. A heart that seeks goodness and holiness is alive and in communion with the God. Those who turn from these things can often seem to us, and feel to themselves, lost, alone, and end dead inside.
I was reading a very interesting book, Food and God, by Joel R. Soza, and he reflected on being in the produce section of a grocery store and seeing the produce consistently receiving bursts of water. He thought to himself that those foods good for us were alive and needed water, while most of those items bad for us were in the center aisles of the store and they did not need water for they had no life inside of them. I found this observation quite eye-opening, not just for how it spoke to my own experience of food and diet, but also what it said about those things created by God that are good for us. That which is good, not only may have life within it, but it provides life for us.
A good steward has a responsibility to seek out what is good and turn from evil, not just simply because it is what God asks of us, but it is how we care for the life, body, and soul given to us by God. We must give an accounting one day of what we did with our lives, and to our bodies, and how we grew in holiness. It is not always easy to choose what is best for us. And often, we can choose what is best for us and still not know how to use the good gifts we have been given. Amos 5:14 points out to us the Good News: With these good gifts comes a God who will walk with us and assist us in cultivating and growing them. There is help along the way when seeking out good. It’s a shame so many of us in the world travel down a different path, where not only is there no life, but we can feel so very alone.
Tracy Earl Welliver 
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