A Moment Aside --- 11 March 2021
“Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be
seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.
5 And
whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and
pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by
others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 6 But
whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father
who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Matthew 6: 1, 5-6)
If we call ourselves
Christians, why do we act like Christians? For our own purposes and our own
glory? Or for the glory of God? That’s a good question because if we do things
to be seen, then maybe we’re acting out of our own desire to be seen as
good/holy/special.
If we do what we do for the
glory of God, our actions might not be seen as such by others. In fact, our
actions might never be seen… except by the one whose seeing counts most.
If, over time, who we are
before all the world reflects the One whom we follow, others may ask why we do
what we do and why we are what we are. Then the light of God has shone through
us.
In word attributed to
Francis of Assisi, the message come across as this:
What we are before God is
all we are and nothing more.
This is a humbling
statement and a liberating statement. It humbles us by reminding us that our
illusions about ourselves are just that – illusions. It liberates us by tell us
that we are fine as God has made us and all we have done in our lives are the
results of grace and our living in that grace.
As Matthew wrote: …and your Father who sees in secret will
reward you.
(And we even get to address
God as “Father” for we are his children.)
Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not
yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will
be like him, for we will see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)
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