5th Sunday A 8 February 2026 Good Works There is a practical side of the faith, as expressed in the first reading, Share your bread with the hungry…(Is 58, 7-10 Treat well those under your power, and you will see good things happening.
Your prayers are more likely to be heard and generally everything will run better, because we are grounded firmly in the love of God, and He will make His presence felt.
Think of the world as like a finely tuned machine which might or might not run well.
Sin brings discord and the machine does not run well, and we have seen a great deal of that in human history.
Then, on the bright side, consider the saving presence of Jesus Christ and that presence is in Him and permeates among us, as we place all our actions under His patronage.
His presence is healing itself and cannot but do good when properly invoked.
It is no great mystery. It comes to saying, Do the right thing and other right things will follow.
Do not hide your light under a bushel (today’s Gospel, Mt 5,15) We show by our example the power of Christ to do good in every kind of way.
This is a medicine for every illness, a light for every path, food for the journey - whatever is not going well can be lifted to higher things.
We might think we would not be much good at giving Christian example to people around us, but such example can take many forms.
The key is how much we love God, how close we are to Him. We offer all our actions to God's glory, and let Him do what He will with our offerings.
We want to behave as well as possible, for our own sake (it feels good to be good); and for others wherever they may be in the faith world.
A chance word or action from us may set off other things, and then other things again.
It is all co-ordinated by the Holy Spirit who can use anything good for a good purpose.
Some will do good deeds but ignore God, thinking that they can work out for themselves what needs to be done.
‘Religion’ to them is just an impediment.
But it gets back to the question of union with God. If we are close to God things will happen for the better. If away from God we are a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal (1 Co 13,1-3)
Many would be impatient with prayer, thinking that this time could be spent elsewhere.
But we need time to immerse ourselves in God's view of the world.
God wants us to identify with His Body, the Church. He wants us to look after each other. He could do it Himself - feed the hungry, rescue the lost etc, but He wants us to activate His power, to benefit ourselves as we help others benefit.
We need to be both Mary and Martha (Lk 10,38-42).
Good deeds do not displace prayer but blend in with them, and everything gets better..
We seek to please God for his own sake. Good works - as good as they are - are not the best thing. The best thing is to please God.
The Church attracted early converts of that time (Ac 5,12-14).
And the Church has seen various renewals, eg monastic life, religious orders, scholarship of popes, teachers, saints in great number.
At any point we can pick up the pieces, and resume the great quest for finding Heaven. We help each other by word and example, prayer and practice.
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