bible
 
He went about doing good.  
   
“With the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus of Nazareth went about doing good and healing those who were under the power of the devil, for God was with him” (Acts, 10, 38). These words of the Apostle Simon Peter summarized all the life of Jesus. They were pronounced in a special context, the baptism of the first pagan. Being called to the centurion Cornelius’ home, Peter first overcame a taboo: being a Jew respectful of the law, he should not have entered the home of a foreigner; this would be a legal impurity. But in a vision, the Lord made him understand that God does not make a difference between the persons. “ You should never call somebody impure or blemished.”  
   
Il est passé en faisant le bien Then Peter took a risk. Once in the house, he spoke about Jesus, “ the Lord of every body” and he rapidly drew what were the major features of Jesus life. To speak very highly of the Master, no mention of words, gestures or whereabouts that would be specific of a good Jew like prayers in the Temple of Jerusalem, observance of the Sabbath or ritual prayers… Peter went to the essential, which is also the most human: Jesus has done good and specially helped numerous disabled persons; it was a sign that “God was with him”.
 
   
To do good! “He or she did that good thing”. Is not it a universal saying when we want to celebrate the death of a person? Whatever are the time, the religion or the degree of the advance in “civilisation”. The same if we speak of Sister Emmanuelle or an anonymous person. It is what we remember. “ Their works come with them” as the Scriptures, say.  
   
We should emphasise the importance of “doing”. Jesus was someone who got the things done. He did not limit himself to speak about what should be good or encourage others to do it. He did not neither restrained himself to well-behave like the religious society of his times. Facing obstinate and warped opponents, sometimes he had to describe the true good and the hierarchy of the values. At several instances he healed sick people on a Shabbat day that shocked the Pharisees who considered it as a forbidden work. For instance Jesus healed a man with a disabled hand on a Shabbat day. To answer to their hostility, he raised the real question that matters: ”Is it lawful on the Shabbat days to do good or to do evil? To save life or to destroy it?” (Luke 6, 9). In Mathew Gospel, Jesus added: “A man having one sheep, if it falls into a pit on a Shabbat day, will he not hold onto it and lift it out rather than lose it? How much is a man better than a sheep!” (Mathew 12, 11).  
   
To save a life, the life of any man or any woman, to save a child going to die like the son of the widow from Naïm or the little girl of Zaire, to heal a leper by fearlessly touching him, on a little road to make a blind to see …All these things with discretion, when he was passing by.
guérir les lepreux
 
   
Jesus did pass by. He passed through his life like we do during ours. He had a precarious life. His public life was especially short for a spiritual Master who had so much influence on History since twenty centuries! When he was going from one village to another, people who were meeting him had their life profoundly changed afterwards and at their turn those persons were passing their existential change to others. Any word, gesture or confidence from Jesus was opening a new future for them, the future of the family of God: “He that does good is of God” (3 John, 11).  
   
vie en abondance After living amongst us, he then freely gave up his life, passing over on Easter to return to his Father who is also our Father “ in order that we ourselves have a plentiful life” (John 10, 10). The good he did was not only for the men of his time but also for all men of any time and of any religious belief or civilisation. For us it is a reason of living.