Talk fot Phoenix Festival

Br. Jaime Abundiz, IVE

How to Nurture Goodness in my Life

I would like to begin with a Prayer, and I have written it down, so that I do not forget.

Now, I want to share a small tale with you guys about three inseparable friends, well at least they were.
I will not take the credit for the tale, because that would be dishonesty. Once upon a time there were
three really good friends named Oge, Em, and Uoy. It is a story to which we can all relate and if the
names don sound familiar to you, well pay close attention.

This kids had their friendship founded upon a tree trunk. They would tell stories and laugh all day long.
Now, I would like to introduce another character, in this village there was an older man by the name of
Natiash, whom was known by all as ‘loaner’, he never spoke, was strange, but never did anything bad, so
nobody minded him. Naitiash began to place close attention to the three and finding their inseparable
happiness, became envious and this led him to anger, which grew and consumed him. So, one day N.
has an idea…Moral of the story: Satan is the Loaner, and seeks division: the three friends are none other
than you and ego and me. This is the truth about our (you and me) ego.

First Part: Why does Evil Exist? Evil exists because or rebellion, that is, there was a law, which was
broken. Have I ever broken a law? A rule? A command?...well let me tell you yes and all of them. But we
must know that evil exists because we allow it. Evil is not a thing, have you ever seen “evil” roaming the
roads of Phoenix, doing bad things…NO. Well you tell me?

What is evil? I would like to focus on the Moral evil. Moral mean that is done by a free choice,
such that we choose to do the action. Now actions are either good or bad, and the bad we will call evil.
Sin is what we call a moral evil: because the free being chooses to do something. Now, there are only
two beings which fall under this category (Angels and Men). A moral evil is an act that goes against
God’s will. The sinner becomes an enemy of God.

Another kind of evil could be a physical evil, such as an injury, or blindness. This are evils,
because they make us weaker or not allow us to act accordingly, BUT they are not moral evils.

Rather, who is evil? If we define evil as a noun it will say that is an evil force, or
something that brings sorrow, distress or calamity…is ‘evil’ a person, a place, a thing?...NO. Then what is
it? To understand it we need to consider A NEGATIVE, that is, since ‘

The first evil: now, since we have tried to understand this point. I want to go back to the
beginning of time. Before time was, God was…then the angels and when God created the world “all was
god? So what happened after that?

Pride: it is excessive love of one's own excellence. It is the queen of all vices. This sin
should not exist in man, for it is the darkest thing we can ever do. We deny any sort of authority, and
most of all God, because the prideful man still abides by the law, such as: paying taxes, stopping in a red
light, voting…
 Satan: once upon a time there was an Angel. He was most beautiful of all, his
name was “Lucifer”, which meant Morning star. But he is famously known for the phrase “ego non
serviam” I will not serve. “Then war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels battled against the
dragon. The dragon and its angels fought back, but they did not prevail and there was no longer any
place for them in heaven. The huge dragon, the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, who
deceived the whole world, was thrown down to earth, and its angels were thrown down with it.” Rev
12:7-9

Disease, old age and death…evil? Oh the Coronavirus...sometimes we would consider them to
be ‘evil’ things, but they are not that bad, actually...if we take them as “sufferings”, they help us to seek
God, but we will see this in the second part of the talk, in the “final combat”.

Musica Maistro!

The effect is sadness and misery. This is something that we do not want. For it would be
meaningless to want sadness, even those who are considered EMO who cut themselves in order to
forget a psychological pain.

Second Part: If sin (pride) is the cause of evil? And what is its remedy? So, just like any disease, it
corrupts us, because it should not be in us. The same goes for sin, and just as there should be a cure for
all diseases, or at least we intend to find the cure…well evil has one, the cure for evil is goodness and it is
the goodness that springs from every individual, which shuns the evil in some. Because “At the end of
2016, there were about 2.2 million people behind bars in the U.S., including 1.5 million under the
jurisdiction of federal and state prisons and roughly 741,000 in the custody of locally run jails. That
amounts to a nationwide incarceration rate of 860 prison or jail inmates for every 100,000 adults ages
18 and older.

Goodness: grace and virtue. And if this is the antidote, then would it make sense that we take it.
What is grace? Grace is to live the supernatural life of God, it is a free gift from God, which we can
choose to partake in or not. What is Virtue? It is the goodness in us that can be seen in works, for Jesus
says it is not enough to say ‘I am good”, but let your works show who you are. He himself says about
who is GOOD.

Third Part: Does goodness exist? Of course it does, in fact GOODNESS is what makes all thing, and
therefore we must say that all things are good, because they come from the GOOD. All things are good!
And I say this including the man who is in jail for stealing, for killing…because they did something bad,
we cannot consider them to be evil. They are simply victims. For have you ever gone to a prison to ask a
prisoner why he is there, and what kind of a childhood he had…do you think that you are better than
they.

What is goodness?

Rather, who is good?

The first good!

Humility and kindness

Jesus Christ
 Grace, Youthfulness, and life eternal…goodness?

Therefore it brings true Joy.

Tips for nurturing goodness in my life. 1. Choose goodness. 2. Understand goodness. 3. Practice,
practice, practice. 4. Develop rituals. 5. Set up reminders. 6. Talk to people. 7. Live boldly. 8. Dream big
and dare greatly. 9. Stop questioning and get busy. 10. Be mindful.

Fourth Part: Conclusion with the Tale of the Two Wolves.

And the Final question: Which wolf would you rather feed?