Why delay doing the good

 May be someone else would do what is to be done. Why should it be only me; anyone could do and in the end it may happen that nobody does what is needed to be done.

That corpse or dying person on the road is someone else’s responsibility. The police and the Corporation should do that. Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta did not hesitate to care for such people for whom nobody cared because they were dying. Similarly God often enough inspires us to do some good deed or other.

He puts compassion in our hearts but we delay doing the good that needs to be done. The book of Proverbs says in 3.27-28 “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is done, when it is in your power to do it. Do not say to your neighbour, ‘Go, and come again, tomorrow I will give it’—when you have it within you”. Sometimes the opportunity to do that particular good deed may not come again. God will somehow save the situation through some other means because He is rich in mercy and resources; but you would have lost not only your opportunity to do a good deed; you would have let darkness and destruction come into you. Mordecai the uncle of queen Esther told her that if she did not help, God would somehow save his people but queen Esther and her family may perhaps perish (Cf. Esther 4.13-14)

So, friend, whoever you may be: young or old, do the good which God inspires you to do. Be generous and be not close fisted. God who is generous will generously reward even the little good that you may do. It is not the quantity that counts but the goodness and readiness of the heart to do the good deed. There is an old Latin saying which says “bis dat qui cito dat” (He gives twice [or many times over] who gives quickly).

The good here does not mean financial help though at times it could be that. It means any good: it could be a word of encouragement to someone depressed, a word of sympathy to one who is mourning; it could be visiting the sick and the bed-ridden that nobody visits or care for. It may be a broken family which is looking for a mediator, a peace maker. It may be a student not having the means to go to college.

Oh, we can go on multiplying any number of good deeds to which God may inspire us. Let us learn to attune ourselves to the need which God grants us to perceive in a given situation. That indeed is a moment of salvation for you or me.