GOOFUS AND GALLANT MEET REAL LIFE
Author: Fr. Michael Byron
September 12, 2020
When I was in the 2nd or 3rd grade I used
to love reading a magazine that arrived in the mail every month. It was called Highlights for Children, and maybe it’s
still around. Every issue of the magazine had stories and games and activities
that were focused on readers who were maybe 6-10 years old. And it also had a
regular feature cartoon. If the names Goofus and Gallant mean anything to you,
then you know what I’m talking about. The cartoon featured these two boys, and
was intended to teach kids about the difference between good and safe behavior
and bad and dangerous behavior.
As you might expect, Goofus was the name of the guy who did
stupid things, and Gallant was the guy who did perfectly right things all the
time. Not surprisingly, Goofus was always angry, while Gallant was always
smiling. The cartoons were about as silly as you might expect, and they contrasted
the activities of these two youngsters. For example – and I’m not making this
up, because you can’t – in one episode Goofus is depicted as throwing stones at
birds, while in the next panel Gallant is shown feeding birds. Goofus refuses
to drink milk. Gallant likes milk. Goofus says to his mother, “Gimme a pencil!”
Gallant says, “Please give me a piece of paper.” You get the picture.
Goofus is perpetually unhappy and always in conflict.
Gallant is serene and popular. The only problem with Goofus and Gallant is that
their lives don’t square very well with the real world – the world where it can
often feel so good to do the wrong thing, to hold on to grudges, to insist on
me first all the time, to withhold love and compassion from the people I don’t
like, and to not notice the people and situations around me that demand that I step
out of my comfort zone and do something generous or kind. And of course, to
forgive those who hurt me. I’m willing to bet that Goofus is not a forgiver of
persons, but Gallant is.
However, I’m also willing to bet that Goofus takes a good
deal of satisfaction in his refusal to let go of old wounds, and that it often
pains Gallant to have to do the right thing, and to extend friendship to those
who don’t seem to have deserved it, or to be at peace with having been unfairly
treated.
Gallant is undoubtedly the hero, but I’m not immediately
inclined to like him. Goofus, on the other hand, is a kid that I can identify
with – even as a grownup. Because in my world there is often a perverse
pleasure that comes with being self-centered and uncaring about the needs of
others. And that’s especially true when it comes to the matter of forgiveness –
or of the failure to forgive. Goofus and Gallant always get exactly what they
deserve on account of their speech and actions. But that’s not my experience of
life. Not here and now.
Like most of us, I try to be virtuous most of the time, but it
often doesn’t please me to have to do that. Sometimes my best efforts at doing
good are met with scorn rather than gratitude. Sometimes unfairly. And sometimes
I don’t even give my best efforts, and I hurt people either out of carelessness
or even bad intention – because I can and I want to. That’s what sin does to
people like me – and you, and all of us.
And that’s why today’s Gospel is addressed to all of us. And
that’s why our habitual gathering for Eucharist is so essential for all of us. It
is our regular enactment of how we are supposed to live together, especially
when it is hard. We willingly come together to rededicate ourselves to the way
we know that we need to be – compassionate, welcoming, encouraging, and yes,
forgiving.
People who are honest don’t get very far in real life
without realizing that we can’t possibly earn our way to success in this world
or to glory in the life to come. Sooner or later we are going to have to throw
ourselves upon the mercy of others who will forgive us, and upon the God who
does the same. The good news in all of that is that God is very willing to
forgive, as often as we get ourselves in trouble. But the real challenge is to
take on the responsibility to be as generous as God is. That’s what Eucharist
requires.
Not seven times are we to forgive, but seventy seven time. In
other words, endlessly! I am not naturally inclined to do that, and neither are
you.
But this is the pledge that we make whenever we presume to
eat and drink from this table. Ours is not the cartoon land of Goofus and
Gallant. Ours is the world where sin demands an acknowledgement of
responsibility and a cry for mercy. And it’s where we are required to listen
and to respond to those who beg that from us, in the very same way that God
does. Our First Communicants today, surely, can’t yet imagine the weight of
that responsibility, but the rest of us can. And we can teach them all about it
in the way that we strive to live together as they grow among us. And let us
have no doubt: They are watching!
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