Three Levels of Good Things

Today is the Feast of St Benedict.

As a young man, St. Benedict observed that the lives of the people around him were totally out of control. He realized to be happy and at peace we need a hierarchy of good things in our life – actually - three levels of good things:

1.   The Divine Good – Union with God, sharing in His Life by means of the sacraments, prayer and the practice of virtue.

2.   Profound Goods:

a.   Physical goods (food, shelter, health, safety, security, exercise, rest)

b.   Psychological well-being

                                         i.    Order and stability

                                        ii.    Variety / Uncertainty, opportunity for change and growth

c.   Friendship with family and friends

d.   Knowledge – truth

e.   Achievement / Meaningful Work / a way that we make the world a better place

f.     Beauty – which is very different from entertainment

3.   Superficial or Instrumental goods – These are just a means to an end and not an end in themselves – like books –

a.   Books are good, but only as a means to knowledge or beauty or achievement.

b.   Protein and carbs and fats as a means to nutrition…my main food groups are coffee and butter, oh yea and bacon…

c.   Money, and a good reputation

d.   Again the superficial goods are just a means to higher goods

We need all of these, but we must keep them in order.

●      Love the lesser things less; Love the greater things more; Virtue is rightly ordered love

●      C.S. Lewis: “put first things first and we get the second things thrown in; put second things first and we lose both first and second things.”

Our Problem is that we have

●      Too much of some ingredients

●      Too little of others

●      And in some instances - the wrong ingredients – harmful or at least unfulfilling ingredients

We all have sinful habits. Things that we habitually think, say or do that are ruining our happiness – ruining our recipe.

So today, make a resolution to identify those sinful habits, routines, triggers or occasions that lead us into the sin, and create a rule of life in order to pursue good and avoid evil.