In Secret!

Wednesday, June 19, 2024

2Kgs 2:1,6-14; Mt 6:1-6,16-18

Today’s Gospel invites us to do charity, prayer, and fasting in secret. 

What is the need for such anonymity when these religious practices concern spiritual upliftment? 

When Jesus insists on doing charity, prayer, and fasting, he wants us to think of the recipients. 

It is the recipients who determine the anonymity in each case. 

Charity: In charity, the recipient is someone in need. Why should charity be done in secret? Quite often, the tendency to acquire popularity through generosity comes at the cost of making others feel small. As a result, those who receive charity are forced to endure the loss of dignity and respect. Here, we conveniently forget the truth that wealth is God’s blessing (Prov 10:22), and therefore, the haves are obligated to share with the have-nots. Hence, disobeying the Divine intention regarding charity as an obligation to share and looking to make a name for ourselves through charity that seeks attention are sinful. Hence, Jesus wants us to do charity in secret.

Prayer: In prayer, the recipient is God Himself. Jesus asks us to pray in private because God can read through our hearts (1 Sam 16:7). Apart from our worship as a community, we understand prayer as a heart-level communion with God. If so, fancy words uttered mechanically become redundant and unnecessary within prayer. If words were so important for prayer, Jesus would have taught his disciples eloquence and fluency. Whereas Jesus, who always prayed, taught his disciples only the Lord’s prayer. Hence, when God is the recipient of our prayer, it should be marked by sincerity and not superficiality. When even Every Sigh Can Be a Prayer (Mk 7:34, Rom 8:26), it is better that our prayer is in private.  

Fasting: In fasting, the recipient is the self itself, because fasting is done for personal and spiritual purification. In a spirit of renunciation, we are to discipline ourselves through fasting so that it facilitates our movement toward God. By asking us to fast in private, Jesus seems to be asking, ‘If fasting is done for ennobling the self, who should we be proclaiming about it?’ If spiritual betterment of the self is the goal of fasting, our energy should not be wasted on unhealthy attention-seeking behaviour. Since we need not proclaim our spiritual upliftment to anyone, Jesus wants us to fast in secret. 

Let us pray earnestly that by carrying out the spiritual practices of charity, prayer, and fasting in secret, we may honor the Divine Intention!

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar