Wednesday of 11th Week in Ordinary Time, Yr. II: reflection

Theme: What you shouldn’t do when performing acts of piety

Reading: Mt 6:1–6,16–18

Do you know that two people can perform the same acts of piety (prayer, fasting, and almsgiving), one person will be richly rewarded/blessed by God, while the other will go home empty handed? In the gospel reading of today, Jesus tells us the dos and don’ts while performing acts of piety if we want to be rewarded by God.

Prayer is a form of communication with God that brings us closer to Him in a special way. It is, however, possible for one to pray without attaining this spiritual impact and other benefits of prayer. According to Jesus, when one prays to himself or to the people around him rather than to God, he loses the benefits of prayer. How does one pray to himself or to those around him? When one prays in order to be noticed or praised as a powerful man of prayer, such prayer is directed to the people rather than to God.

Like the Pharisees who preferred to pray in city centres in order to be noticed and applauded by passersby, many men and women of God of our time say their prayers just to earn the praises of men; in prayers, they fine-tune their voices in a way that will attract people, speak in unknown tongues without the prompting of the Holy Spirit and do some kinds of sensational gyration. As a communication between man and God, prayer should not be said to attract the attention or the praise of human beings, but should be a conversation with God.

The same is true for giving alms. The reward promised by God to all those who give alms to the needy may not be received by those who performed acts of charity solely to gain the praise of others. A common trend in today’s world is to publicize charitable acts through all channels of communication. While it is not wrong to share testimonies of good works, it is, however, wrong to do so in order to gain the praise of men. Those who only help the poor in places where they will be seen and praised by men have already received their reward.

Nowadays, the internet is frequently flooded with images of men and women of God fasting on mountains and appearing famished, but Jesus warns that no one should fast in order to be noticed and praised by men; whoever does so has already lost the spiritual strength that fasting provides.

Dear friends, Jesus is urging us to avoid eye service and ostentation when performing acts of piety.

May your Wednesday be abundantly blessed. Amen

Fr Isaac Chima