Week 11 Wednesday (Year 1)

 Readings: 2 Corinthians 9:6-11; Psalm 112; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

The teaching of Jesus in today's gospel reading seems to contradict something he said earlier in the same sermon. Here he says that prayer, fasting and alms-giving are better done in secret, our heavenly Father sees all that is done in secret, and will reward people for their good actions done in that way.

Just a week ago, though, we heard another passage from the same sermon in which he tells his disciples that they are the light of the world, and that they are to let their light shine before others so that seeing their good works, people would give glory to the heavenly Father.

So which is it to be, in secret so as to avoid hypocrisy or in public so that God might be glorified?

A first response to the question is to think about our motivation for doing what we do. That seems to explain the apparent contradiction. Earlier it was a question of allowing light to shine and not contradict its nature by covering it up. Now it is a question of not acting in order to be seen by others - as much as to say, if that is your entire or primary motivation then it is hypocrisy rather than a true testimony to the light.

'God loves a cheerful giver', Saint Paul says in the first reading, a comment that some think might be a saying of Jesus himself handed down in the tradition. The cheerful giver is one who gives with spontaneity and freedom, without thinking too much about anything or anybody other than the gift they have to share (which they have also received), the people who need it, and the joy there is in being able to help them.

The 'gaze of the other' can be a very difficult think to manage and we can easily allow it to influence and shape our actions, either positively or negatively. Doing the right thing for the wrong reason is one kind of problem. Doing something wrong because we are intimidated by that gaze is another kind of problem. Not doing the right thing out of fear of that gaze is still another kind of problem. Hypocrisy, cowardice, fear: all take from the freedom of our actions. If we only do what we do in order to be seen by others, out of intimidation by them, or from fear of them, then we are living other people's lives and not our own. We have lost the freedom for which Christ has set us free.

The kind of generosity to which Jesus (and Paul following him) calls us these days is one that is self-forgetful. Focused on the good, on the needs of people, and on the Lord who is good above all, it is a generosity that is truly free. It is like those moments when we get so engrossed in something or in being with somebody that we forget the time and we forget ourselves. We are not thinking about ourselves at all, so that even if what we do is done in public it is as if it were being done in secret, before the eyes of our heavenly Father alone.

All of this is contained within the term 'grace', the gift of God that enriches, and enriches by making those who receive it gracious in their turn. This is what it means truly to receive the grace of God: we are then not simply grateful recipients but we become cheerful givers.

Let us pray today that God will 'enrich us for generosity', as Paul puts it, so that whether we do good things in secret or in public, it will be out of love alone that we do it, for our neighbour and for God, who is the source of all light and all grace.