BORN TO LIVE IN GOODNESS

 

 

Paolo Cugini

 

 

Jesus sternly ordered him, “Be silent! Come out of him!” And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him (Mk 1:24).

There is an ancient truth that spans time and insinuates itself like an echo into the labyrinths of the human soul: Mystery is pure goodness, an inexhaustible source from which everything flows and to which everything returns. Since the dawn of reflection, philosophers and spiritual masters, from Plato to Plotinus, have recognized in the One, in the unspeakable, the principle of all Goodness. And so, if we listen to the deepest pulse of history, we realize that all humanity is driven by a nostalgia for our origins, by a call to unity, because we come from the Good and we reach for it like a river seeks the sea.

But Mystery doesn't offer itself as an obvious answer, but rather as a path: it whispers and shakes, inviting us on an inner pilgrimage where, step by step, our essence is purified. Whenever evil weighs us down and negativity clouds our minds, Mystery reminds us that the light of Good lies waiting, like a seed beneath the snow. In confrontation, in struggle, we learn to rediscover the treasure hidden within ourselves.

Here is the prophecy engraved in the depths of our being: the closer we draw to the Mystery, the more capable we become of giving Good. We are not called to isolation, but rather to openness, to that communion that transforms our narrow horizon into a universal embrace. Living well, then, means living for others, embracing the world in all its complexity, and choosing, each day, to make it grow in the direction of Good. 

Listen, then, O children of the inner shadow! Here come, like silent storms, negative thoughts: black vultures that descend on the mind and submerge it when we let it wander, free and defenseless, in the labyrinths of doubt. But I say to you: awaken! Rediscover the goodness buried in your heart, that immortal seed planted by the Mystery. It is life! It is the river that flows pure, that teaches the art of living well, that opens the right path to others, to the sister, the brother beside you, in the warmth of everyday life.

Woe to you who give in to evil! It rises like a wall of thorns: voracious selfishness that devours the soul, hermetic self-absorption, blind disregard for the fate of others, for the groaning of a wounded world. Evil is death pretending to be a refuge; it is solitude armed against the winds of communion.

The path toward Mystery is therefore the supreme mission: to free ourselves from the chains of selfishness, to see in others the reflection of our luminous origin, to work so that life itself becomes a shared blessing. Mystery, the source of all Good, invites us to be light, so that the entire world may shine with its original beauty.