Gospel (Except USA) Matthew 6:1-6,16-18 Your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you. Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Be careful not to parade your good deeds before men to attract their notice; by doing this you will lose all reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give alms, do not have it trumpeted before you; this is what the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win men’s admiration. I tell you solemnly, they have had their reward. But when you give alms, your left hand must not know what your right is doing; your almsgiving must be secret, and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you. ‘And when you pray, do not imitate the hypocrites: they love to say their prayers standing up in the synagogues and at the street corners for people to see them; I tell you solemnly, they have had their reward. But when you pray, go to your private room and, when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in that secret place, and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you. ‘When you fast do not put on a gloomy look as the hypocrites do: they pull long faces to let men know they are fasting. I tell you solemnly, they have had their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that no one will know you are fasting except your Father who sees all that is done in secret; and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.’ Gospel (USA) Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18 And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you. Jesus said to his disciples: “Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father. When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your almsgiving may be secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. “When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. “When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to others to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.” (i)Wednesday, Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time Three times in the course of the gospel reading Jesus speaks of God as ‘your Father who sees all that is done in secret’. Jesus is saying that God sees what humans often do not see. God sees the good we do that others do not get to see. Jesus saw in the way that God sees. He often saw the good people were doing that others never saw. He recognized the generosity of the widow at the Temple treasury. She put in two small copper coins, hardly making a sound as they were dropped into the treasury. She would have gone unnoticed by most people present. However, Jesus noticed her and drew the attention of his disciples to her extraordinary generosity; he recognized that in giving the little she gave she was, in reality, giving everything she had. Jesus often saw goodness in people whom others would have written off. He invited himself to the house of Zacchaeus because he recognized that there was more to Zacchaeus than his reputation would suggest. The human eye only sees so much. As the Jewish Scriptures declare, we look at appearances, whereas the Lord looks at the heart. The Lord always sees what is best in us, even when the goodness in our heart and the good we do is below the radar when it comes to human seeing. We are called to live as people who are always before the Lord, aware that the Lord is always seeing us, not with judgmental eyes but with eyes of love, eyes that recognize the good in us that others very often do not see and that, perhaps, we do not even see ourselves. And/Or (ii)Wednesday, Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time Today’s gospel reading is taken from the Sermon on the Mount. The gospel reading begins with Jesus saying, ‘Be careful not to parade your good deeds before others to attract their notice’. Yet, a little earlier in the same Sermon on the Mount, Jesus appears to have said the very opposite of that, ‘Let you light shine before others, so that they may see your good deeds and give glory to your Father in heaven’. There seems to be a tension between both of these sayings. Yet, there is truth in both. We are not to hide the light of our faith, keeping it under a bushel. Rather, we are to publicly proclaim our faith, our relationship with the Lord, by the lives that we lead, by the deeds that we do. On the other hand, we don’t publicly proclaim our faith in order to attract notice, in order to draw attention to ourselves, to bring praise or glory on ourselves. Rather, our public living of our faith is with a view to bringing glory to God. Today’s gospel reading invites us to ask, ‘Who is being honoured by my public living of my relationship with the Lord? Is it myself or is it God?’ Another way of asking that question is, ‘Who is being served by my good deeds? Is it myself or is it the Lord?’ The opening petitions of the Lord’s Prayer points us in the right direction, ‘Hallowed by your name, your kingdom come’. And/Or (iii) Wednesday, Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time There often appears to be a tension between the various sayings of Jesus in the gospels. At the beginning of the Sermon of the Mount, Jesus calls on his disciples to ‘let your light shine before others, so that seeing your good works they may give praise to your Father in heaven’. In this morning’s gospel reading, also from the Sermon on the Mount, he calls on his disciples, ‘Be careful not to parade your good deeds before others to attract their notice’. Do you let our light shine or not? The answer to that question has to be ‘yes’. We have been enlightened by Christ, and we must let that light shine by doing works inspired by the gospel, the kind of works Jesus himself did. However, today’s gospel reading raises the question of motivation. We do not let our light shine to be noticed; we don’t do good works to draw attention to ourselves. In all that we do, we work to bring glory to God and not to ourselves. One of the great temptations that people of faith come up against is the temptation to do the right thing for the wrong reason. As Paul says in his first letter to the Corinthians, ‘whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God’. And/Or (iv) Wednesday, Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time The gospel reading this morning reminds us that there is always a danger that our good deeds can end up being quite self-serving, whether it is the good deed of almsgiving, praying or fasting. Jesus calls on us not to do our good deeds to attract the notice, the attention, of others. Our focus in doing what we do is not so much other people and how they see us but God. Three times the gospel reading refers to the Father who sees all that is done in secret. We live our lives in the conscious awareness of the presence of God with whom we have an intimate relationship through faith and baptism. The Father who sees in secret is not to be understood as a kind of a Big Brother watching us. Rather, Jesus, God-with-us, has promised to be with us to the end of time out of love for us. Our good deeds are our loving response to God’s love for us through Jesus. In all we say and do our focus is to be on the Lord who is always present to us, rather than on ourselves. In this way we give expression in our lives to that beatitude which declares, ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God’. And/Or (v) Wednesday, Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time It is often the case that you discover the good people have done only after they have died, or, maybe, on the occasion of their funeral. They were doing deeds of kindness and generosity in a very unobtrusive way in the course of their lives. They did not draw attention to themselves. It was only after their earthly journey had come to an end that attention is drawn by others to what they had been doing. Such people show themselves faithful to the Lord’s teaching at the beginning of today’s gospel reading, ‘when you give alms, do not have it trumpeted before you’. There is always the danger that we do the right thing for the wrong reason, such as giving of ourselves with a view to gaining honour or recognition. Jesus declares that what really matters is the honour we receive from God. Such honour is not necessarily immediate or tangible. However, it is the only honour worth having. Paul says something else about the nature of our giving in today’s first reading. He declares that God loves a cheerful giver. We can be tempted to give grudgingly or in a complaining fashion. It is cheerful giving which really opens us up to the experience of God’s generosity. If we give cheerfully, Paul says in that reading, ‘there is no limit to the blessings that God can send’ us. The call of today’s readings is to give cheerfully and in a way that serves the Lord rather than ourselves. And/Or (vi) Wednesday, Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time I have always been struck by that statement of Paul in today’s first reading, ‘God loves a cheerful giver’. He contrasts giving cheerfully with giving grudgingly or under a sense of compulsion. What is it that makes our giving cheerful rather than grudging and resentful? I think it is ultimately a sense of gratitude. We give cheerfully to those whose presence we have experienced as a grace and a blessing, whose love has touched our lives deeply. As we grow in our appreciation of the ways God has blessed and graced us, as we come to know the depth of his love for us, our giving to God will be a cheerful giving, and that giving to God will express itself in a giving to all those whom God loves. Paul was a cheerful giver. Even as he wrote his letter to the Philippians while in prison, with a death sentence hanging over him, he was giving cheerfully to that church. The highest concentration of the noun ‘joy’ and the verb ‘to rejoice’ is to be found in that letter. His cheerful giving at that time was rooted in his profound sense of the many blessings and graces he was receiving from the Lord. ‘I can do all things through him who strengthens me’, he wrote. Even if our situation leaves a lot to be desired, we can still give cheerfully, if we allow ourselves to appreciate just how much the Lord has blessed and graced us through his life, death and resurrection. In the gospel reading, Jesus warns against a giving that is calculating and self-serving, namely, giving alms, praying and fasting to attract the notice of others. Such giving is at the opposite end of the spectrum to the cheerful giving Paul speaks about and embodies in his own life. Paul assures us in that first reading that our cheerful giving will bring down upon us God’s blessings and graces even more abundantly.16th June >> Fr. Martin’s Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Matthew 6:1-6,16-18 for Wednesday, Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time:‘Your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you’.
Wednesday, Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
Reflections (6)
Fr. Martin Hogan.
See Also
9th January >> Fr. Martin’s Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Mark 6:45-52 for the 9th January: ‘Do not be afraid’.20th June >> Fr. Martin’s Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Matthew 6:7-15 for Thursday, Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time: ‘And Do not put us to the test’.27th April >> Fr. Martin’s Gospel Reflections / Homilies on John3:16-21 for Wednesday, Second Week of Easter: ‘The light has come into the world’.22nd June >> Fr. Martin’s Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Matthew 6:24-34 for Saturday, Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time: ‘You cannot be the slave both of God and of money’.