“Good people draw what is good from the store of goodness in their hearts; bad people draw what is bad from the store of badness.” (Luke 6.45).
In the words of Jesus, the heart of man is a treasury of good and bad alike. The word “heart” represents the entire human nature. When people are good, they draw from that treasury good things to share with all; when they are bad, they draw out bad things. What, then, shall be done to anchor our human nature in goodness, to be saved from the danger of following evil or from its tyranny?
The relationship between God and man is cultivated in this tense condition. Paul the Apostle describes to the Romans, in very clear terms, his—and everyone’s—inward struggle between good and evil. In our inmost selves, we clearly love God’s good law, yet we see a different law guiding the powers in our bodies. We do not understand our own behavior, for we do not act as we mean to but do things we hate, fighting against the good law of God impressed in us as His own image. And Paul exclaims, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body doomed to death?” Only God, through the grace given to us in Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 7.14–25).
Our Lord extends His hand, touches our human nature, and “plants” His Holy Spirit there so that He may prepare our “hearts” for the miraculous dwelling of the Most Holy Trinity. He frees us and saves us by showing us how to choose what is good, because if we choose what is evil, we will certainly die a certain death, a death more terrifying than the physical demise of our human nature, because it snatches us from the care of God and enslaves us to the evil enemy of God by stripping away the Holy Spirit.
Our Heavenly Father saved us through the power of the sanctifying grace of our Baptism, and gave us His Holy Spirit through the power of divine adoption. He has given us the power to elect the good and shun evil, as Jesus stressed in no uncertain terms. Indeed, the most palpable sign of the advent of God’s kingdom is our power to recognize and choose what is good and righteous. When the wind is from the south, we say it’s going to be hot, and it is, explains Our Lord, and He is puzzled that we are good at scrutinizing nature’s phenomena but are remiss in using the measure of divine grace and choosing what is good and right. (Luke 12.54–57).
Matthew has recorded Jesus’ invitation to become perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5.48), so that we too may become good as our Heavenly Father is good and kind to the ungrateful and the wicked (Luke 6.35).
This is the best way to “plant” the presence of God in our human nature and make it a treasury of God’s goodness. Then we will be able to draw only good things from our hearts.