Your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you
It feels good to be appreciated, to have a good reputation, to be admired, to have one’s achievements recognized, to stand out among the crowds. The ideal is that others get to know about our good qualities or accomplishments and make them known without our efforts. We can then smile benevolently, feeling good inside of us. But often enough people either do not see the positives about us we want them to see, or if they see them, they do not show that they have. It is then that the temptation to make them known by ourselves kicks in. We can show off or brag or parade our good works in subtle or less than subtle ways.
In today’s gospel reading Jesus teaches us to overcome this vice. “Be careful not to parade your good deeds before men to attract their notice, by this you will lose all reward from your Father in heaven.” The cheap reward we get by inviting others to think well of us is made even cheaper, by the fact that we do our own self-advertisement. While people admire those who are good, they despise those who go out to impress. Often enough our efforts show through, then our self-sought glory backfires. Either people overtly look away in disdain, or they do so more discreetly. In the meantime, our good deeds lose all merit; we do not expect the eternal and much greater reward from the Heavenly Father.
The reward which comes from doing good and not publishing it often enough starts here. People get to see it eventually and make it known. Reputations grow without our efforts. Others are inspired and edified, even when they do not make it known to us. The best part is that whether our good deeds are known or not, we grow in self-assurance and self-esteem, and we learn to love good for its own sake, not for the sake of the cheap reward of admiration from others it brings. Moreover, we are assured of an eternal reward from our heavenly Father.
