RELATING TO GOD IN SECRET

WEDNESDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK IN ORDERINARY TIME

2 Kings 2:1,6-14; Ps 31:20,21,24; Mt 6:1-6,16-18

Interior and Spiritual Communication

Our sharing one life with God is an interior and a family thing, and not public. Family life and interactions are only known to the members of the family. The love each member has for the others is evident within the house or home, but it also motivates each member of the family in their external engagements. Once in a while, we witness an abnormality in family life, a member of a family hates another member, spouse, son or daughter, sibling, and makes a public show of loving them. Such hypocrisy is evil. Saint John informs us in his first letter, 1 Jn 3:15, that one who hates his brother or sister is a murderer. One who hates his brother or sister, or spouse, mother, or father, is indeed a murderer; such a one is not begotten of God and does not know God at all. Our Lord confirms this in Mt 5:23, where he directed us not to make an offering to God bearing a grudge against our brother or sister. This evil is rampant in the lives of families, causing untold pain, suffering, and sometimes physical death. We say physical death because spiritual death is immediate when such hatred appears in a soul.

We are applying this situation to the family of God, to our relationship with God our Father. What applies to our natural families also applies to our spiritual family. To care less about our relationship with God our Father, or with one another in the Lord, while feigning intimacy in prayer, is pure hypocrisy. This is not uncommon, for many souls live on a physical level. We go to Church, receive the Sacraments, do every other thing that physical membership of the Church requires or entails, but have little or no relationship with God. We have no spiritual life when this is the case in our lives. When we lack a relationship with God, we tend to finetune the physical appearances of our religiosity to deceive ourselves and others. When our religion is basically external activities, we will surely betray the Son of Man on every turn. The betrayal follows from our external religious practices, which showcase our love for ourselves and never our love for God. Our Lord warns us in the Gospel against this sort of hypocritical religion. “Be careful not to parade your good deeds before men to attract their notice; by doing this, you will lose all reward from your Father in heaven.” It is a worship of self and not the worship of God.

The evil one can easily effect this change, moving us from worship of God to self when we are not attentive and vigilant over our relationship with God. Since our relationship with God rests on our spiritual birth, we must develop an interior or spiritual life. We do this by remaining interior or spiritual in all our doings. We must ensure that every action, thought, or word originates from within and is prompted by the Holy Spirit. The interiority of our life is what the Lord emphasises in the three statements on almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. “But when you give alms, your left hand must not know what your right is doing; your almsgiving must be secret, and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.” Very importantly, on prayer, he says: “But when you pray, go to your private room and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in that secret place, and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.” These religious acts must be prompted by the Holy Spirit and carried out according to His direction, and solely to please the Father in heaven. Living in such constant communion with God is already a spiritual possession of heaven; we need not chariots of fire to carry us to heaven as Elijah did. “Now as they walked on, talking as they went, a chariot of fire appeared and horses of fire, coming between the two of them; and Elijah went up to heaven in the whirlwind.” The Incarnation of the Word of God brought heaven down to us.

Let us pray: O God, strength of those who hope in you, graciously hear our plea, and, since without you mortal frailty can do nothing, grant us always the help of your grace, that we may please you by our resolve and our deeds. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.