Tuesday of the sixth week after Pentecost # 233. God's Infinite Goodness Is Diffusive (Quote) _From "[[233-gods-infinite-goodness-is-diffusive|233. God’s Infinite Goodness Is Diffusive]]"_ **II.** God’s goodness is so **gratuitous** that it gives itself to creatures without any merit on their part; it is so **liberal** that it always precedes them and never fails to impart its light to them even when, by abusing their liberty, they show themselves unworthy of it. God’s goodness is so **patient** that it does not stop at the ingratitude, the resistance, or even the crimes of His creatures, but His grace always pursues them. God could, in all justice, requite man’s sins by depriving him of life and all the other good things He has bestowed upon him, but His infinite goodness prefers to shower upon man new gifts and new proofs of His kindness. Has He not said : "I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way, and live" ([Ez. 33, 11](https://vulgata.online/bible/Ez.33?ed=DR2&vfn=DR2.Ez.33.11:vs))? _Consider now your goodness, and see how weak, narrow, calculating, and self-interested it is, when compared with the goodness of God._ How often you act like the publicans of whom the Gospel speaks, "who love only those who love them" (cf. Mt 5,46). You are good to those who are good to you, you help those who will help you in return; but many times you are hard and miserly with your gifts to those from whom you can expect no recompense. Does it not often happen that you are sweet and benevolent toward those who approve of you and share your opinions, but harsh and unkind toward those who oppose you? In the presence of coldness, ingratitude, insults, or even a trifling lack of consideration, your good nature is offended, closes up, and withdraws into itself and you are no longer capable of benevolence toward your neighbor. See what need you have to meditate on the words of Jesus, inviting you to imitate His heavenly Father’s goodness : "Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you, that you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven, who maketh His sun to rise upon the good and bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust" [[matthew-05|Mt. 5]] , 44-45 ← [[20250720-quote-unify-activities|Previous]] | [[20250723-quote-imitation|Next]] →