Wednesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

Take care not to perform righteous deeds
in order that people may see them;
otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father.

If you make a point of attending Mass on Ash Wednesday you’ll be very familiar with this passage from the Sermon on the Mount. The practices should not be unfamiliar to us, and were not to Jesus’ contemporaries.

However, his insistence on invisibility is startling. Religion is not by nature a private affair. We learn it from others and teach it to others. It is usually done in public, in the church, synagogue, mosque or sweat lodge. Religion has a vital interest in promoting public virtue. If we’re all fasting, praying and giving alms together we’re more likely to live peaceably with one another. The isolated individual who takes upon himself a stressful regimen of religious practices will soon be discouraged by the lack of support and the skepticism of his neighbors.

But the individual who sounds his piety abroad will often meet encouragement and admiration, especially in a culture that values piety. I understand that the young Osama bin Laden was greatly admired by family, friends and neighbors in Saudi Arabia. He was known for his religious fervor. From what I’ve heard of Saudi Arabian culture they have very little skepticism of people we would suspect of overzealous, pharisaic hypocrisy.  Though not every Muslim is pious and the majority is indifferent, the openly cynical are not admired as they are in western culture.

In today’s gospel Jesus encourages the individual Christian to find her identity apart from family, church or society. Who are you behind closed doors? Do you enjoy yourself? Can you make and keep resolutions for the love of God under the radar of public notice?

One of my mentors told me years ago, “If you can’t go to a restaurant alone and enjoy a good meal, you’ll never make it in this life.” I would add to that solitary pleasure: movies, museums, plays, state parks and days of prayer.

The phrase, “I enjoyed myself!” should mean more than, “I enjoyed the company and the entertainment around me.” It should also mean: “I enjoy being who I am.”

This gospel insists that each Christian can welcome the scrutiny of God the Father into her private life, just as Mary welcomed the Angel Gabriel into her solitude. In that intensely private place which no one sees, the Christian basks under God’s affectionate gaze. Leaving that place she is like Moses whose ruddy face glowed; she is ready to be God’s presence to others