We are each made for goodness, love and compassion. Our lives are

"We are each made for goodness, love and compassion. Our lives are transformed as much as the world is when we live with these truths." Thus spoke Desmond Tutu, the archbishop, peacemaker, and prophet of forgiveness from the land of South Africa. These words are not the lofty musings of a philosopher, but the living wisdom of a man who walked through darkness and yet carried the light. In this radiant saying, Tutu calls forth the divine nature within every soul—reminding us that beneath our fears, divisions, and wounds, the essence of humanity is not cruelty but goodness, not hatred but love, not indifference but compassion. He speaks as one who has seen the worst of men, yet believes still in the best that lies hidden within them.

The origin of these words can be traced to the furnace of suffering that was apartheid, a system built upon hatred and inequality. Desmond Tutu, standing before the power of oppression, did not answer with bitterness or vengeance, but with a faith fierce as fire. He proclaimed that the only way to heal a broken land was through forgiveness and love—not as weakness, but as strength. He had seen that violence begets only more violence, and that the heart of man, when separated from compassion, devours itself. Out of that crucible came his belief that every human being, regardless of color or creed, carries within them the spark of divine goodness—a light that, if tended, can transform both life and world alike.

When Tutu says, “We are made for goodness,” he means that virtue is not an artifice imposed by religion or law—it is our natural state. Just as a seed is made to become a tree, so too is the soul made to grow toward truth, kindness, and mercy. Evil, therefore, is not the true nature of man but his distortion; it is when he forgets who he is. The one who acts with hatred acts against his own essence. But the one who loves, forgives, and serves lives in harmony with the eternal law of being. To live with goodness is to live as the Creator intended—to let our actions be rivers through which divine love flows into the world.

And when he declares, “Our lives are transformed as much as the world is when we live with these truths,” he reveals the sacred balance between the inner life and the outer world. The one who cultivates compassion within himself becomes a wellspring of peace to others. Just as hatred poisons not only the victim but the hater, so too does love heal both the giver and the receiver. When we act from goodness, we do not merely change circumstances—we transform the atmosphere of existence itself. Tutu understood that a single act of forgiveness can ripple outward to heal families, communities, and nations. The transformation of the world begins not in governments or systems, but in the quiet revolutions of the human heart.

Consider the moment when Tutu presided over South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a tribunal born not to punish but to heal. There, victims faced their oppressors, and oppressors confessed their crimes. Many expected vengeance; instead, they found tears and grace. One woman, whose husband had been murdered, stood before the man who killed him. When asked what justice she desired, she said, “I want him to come to my home, to sit with me, so I can be a mother to him, for I have so much love to give.” Even the court was silenced by her mercy. Such love is not born of weakness—it is the divine courage of compassion that Tutu spoke of, the very force that remakes the soul and redeems the world.

To live by goodness, love, and compassion is not to close our eyes to the evil in the world, but to open them more fully. It is to see that hatred cannot cure hatred, that cruelty cannot heal pain, and that despair cannot build peace. True power lies not in domination, but in forgiveness; not in wealth, but in service; not in revenge, but in reconciliation. These are the weapons of the spirit, the tools by which humanity rises above its own ruin. The one who practices compassion does not escape the world—he transforms it from within, as the dawn transforms the night.

So, my listener, take this truth into your heart: you are made for goodness. No matter your wounds, no matter your past, the divine seed lies within you still. Choose each day to let it grow. When anger tempts you, remember mercy. When despair whispers, choose hope. When you are given power, use it to heal, not to wound. Let your words build and your hands bless. For in doing good, you not only fulfill your purpose—you awaken others to theirs.

And thus, the teaching of Desmond Tutu endures like a flame in the wind: we are born to love, and by love we live. When we act from that truth, we do not merely change the world—we become the light by which the world finds its way.