Human beings are capable of so much!
This week we all learned what is possible to accomplish in gymnastics, as the news reported that Simone Biles had executed a historic “Triple-Double.”
It is significant not just because she is the first woman ever to do so, but in that we cannot help but wonder…what else is possible?
The extent human capacity for good has not yet been fully explored. Yes, we have examples in the individual saints, but they also lead us to wonder: What if each one of US could be the best version of ourselves?
Wouldn’t that be world-changing?
But how can that even happen? It seems there are always so many obstacles in our way: lack of resources, lack of time, but mostly, and if we are honest: our own weakness and failures.
At one point in his letter to the Romans, St. Paul sort of starts complaining about his failure at being his truest and best self. He says something more or less like this:
I don’t even understand it. I try to be good, but I then I end up messing it up! Even the good stuff I set out to do and want to do—I can’t even do those things and instead I do what I hate. It’s like something inside me is doing those bad things, despite myself. (see Romans 7:15 for the original and un-paraphrased version)
Isn’t that something we can all relate to? In some ways, isn’t it easier to be good at sports, or our job, or at our hobbies than to truly be good inside and out, all day long?
The spiritual battle within ourselves is strong. On the one hand we want to do good, and on the other, we are too weak to do it. But don’t worry, through Christ there’s always an antidote to every problem.
The Catechism has this to say about human potential:
“The more one does what is good, the freer one becomes.” -CCC 1733
Doing good leads to more freedom…which then will lead to doing more and more good. That’s the way the cycle is supposed to work! Humans were ordered to do good from the start until sin introduced dis-order to that system. But God wants to put it right.
By doing good we will progressively be free of all the things that are keeping us back in life.
Simone Biles practiced and practiced, and became stronger and stronger, and that’s how she succeeded. The spiritual life follows similar principles: start doing good and you will become freer and more authentically yourself.
Be you. The real you, not some cheap version that appears to be one thing but in fact is only a cover for a sloppy and hidden mess. Believe that you were created in order to be good and don’t give up on yourself.
“By free will one shapes one’s own life,” says the Catechism (CCC 1731). We were made to be free and sin is trying to keep us back, but Jesus has conquered sin for us in order that we may live productive, happy and free lives.
Amen to that!