and sense of connection is called an instinct. But we have the same thing.
In relation to our loved ones this is truly an instinct of human nature.
“Does anything make for compatibility except blood? The human
mind or spirit senses a blood relationship as if it could smell it. In this
compatibility, and the harmonious feeling it generates, lies the essence of
goodwill. On the other hand, incompatibility that causes antipathy is
like having no blood relationship and therefore no goodwill.
“And because familiarity is a second nature and it too produces com-
patibility, it follows that goodwill is also doing good to our friends.
“If we have been at sea and then we dock at some port and hear that
we have arrived in a foreign land whose language and customs we do not
know, we feel out of tune with ourselves and have no enjoyable feeling of
love for the local people. But if we hear that it is our own country, with a
language and customs we know, we feel in tune with ourselves and have an
enjoyable feeling of love, which is also the enjoyable feeling of goodwill.”
[ 7 ] Then someone from the third row on the right stood up and said
in a loud voice, “My opinion is that goodwill is giving donations to the poor
and helping the needy.This is definitely goodwill, because the divine Word
teaches that it is. What the Word declares allows for no contradiction.
“It is a pointless display to make donations to the rich and wealthy.
There is no goodwill in it; instead the purpose is to be paid back. In it no
genuine feeling of love for our neighbor is possible; it is an illegitimate
feeling that may work on earth but does not work in heaven. Therefore
poverty and need are to be the focus of our donations, because then the
idea of a personal payback does not arise.
“In the city where I live, I know who the honorable and the dishon-
orable people are. I have observed that all the honorable people, when
they notice a poor person in the street, stop and make a donation. All the
dishonorable people, on the other hand, when they see a poor person off
to the side, keep walking as if they were blind to the poor person and deaf
to his or her voice. Everyone knows that the honorable have goodwill but
the dishonorable do not.
“Someone who gives to the poor and helps the needy is like a shep-
herd who leads starving, thirsty sheep to something they can eat and
drink. Someone who gives only to the rich and well-off is like someone
who entertains the elite and presses food and wine on those who have
had far too much already.”
[ 8 ] After that, someone from the third row on the left stood up and
said, “In my opinion, goodwill is building hospices, hospitals, orphanages,
singke
(singke)
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