How do we anchor ourselves in God’s goodness? What would Jesus do? For some Christians, that’s the easy answer to every question. In every situation, all we need to ask is: What would Jesus do? At a deep level, that’s actually true. Jesus is the ultimate criterion. He is the way, the truth, and the life, and anything that contradicts him is not a way to God. Yet, I suspect many of us find ourselves irritated by how that expression is often used in simplistic ways, as a fundamentalism challenging to digest. Yet Jesus is still, and forever, a non-negotiable criterion. While Jesus is a non-negotiable criterion, he’s not a simplistic one. What did Jesus do? Well, the answer isn’t simple. Looking at his life we see that sometimes he did things one way, sometimes another way, and sometimes he started out doing something one way and ended up changing his mind and doing it differently, as we see in his interaction with the Syro-Phoenician woman. That’s why, I suspect, within Christianity, there are so many different denominations, spiritualities, and ways of worship, each with its own interpretation of Jesus. Jesus is complex. So where does this leave us as we seek to know and find the good in things? Do we give ourselves over uncritically to some ecclesial or academic authority and trust that it will tell us what Jesus would do in every situation? We need to answer that for ourselves by faithfully holding and carrying within us the tension between being obedient to our churches and not betraying the critical voices within our own conscience. If we do that honestly, one thing will eventually constellate inside us as an absolute: God is good! Everything Jesus taught and incarnated was predicated on that truth. Anything that jeopardizes or belies that, be it a church, a theology, a liturgical practice, or a spirituality, is wrong. And any voice within dogma or private conscience that betrays that is also wrong. How we conceive of God colors for good or for bad everything within our religious practice. And above all else, Jesus revealed this about God: God is good. That truth needs to ground everything else: our churches, our theologies, our spiritualities, our liturgies, and our understanding of everyone else. Sadly, the God who is met in our churches today is often too narrow, too merciless, too tribal, too petty, and too untrustworthy to be worthy of Jesus or the surrender of our souls. What would Jesus do? Admittedly, the question is complex. However, we know we have the wrong answer whenever we make God anything less than fully good, whenever we set conditions for unconditional love, and whenever, however subtly, we block access to God and God’s mercy. [Excerpted from Fr. Ron Rolheiser’s “Anchoring Ourselves within God’s Goodness”]