“Motives and Rewards” by Colleen O’Sullivan

“Motives and Rewards” by Colleen O’Sullivan

Wednesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

Jesus said to his disciples: “Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father. When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your almsgiving may be secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. (Matthew 6:1-4)

Piety

Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but [also] everyone for those of others. (Philippians 2:3-4)

Study

Sermon on the Mount, Carl Heinrich Bloch, 1877,
The Museum of National History, Denmark,
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

Today’s verses from Matthew’s Gospel are from Jesus’ sermon on the mount. The Lord addresses multiple issues in this discourse aimed at the crowd gathered before him. In this passage, he talks about the motives behind our almsgiving, prayer, and fasting, specifically our human tendency to want to impress others.

Jesus says that what we give to the poor should be between us and God. No one else needs to know how we respond to the needs of our brothers and sisters. Give, and don’t talk about it. With regard to prayer, Jesus says to look at it as a private conversation between each of us and God. There’s no need to flaunt our piety before others. The third topic Jesus touches on is fasting. Do it quietly. No one needs to know how much goes in your Catholic Relief Services’ Rice Bowl during Lent or what you did to put it there. God knows, and that is sufficient.

It’s all about our motives and the rewards we seek. Jesus talks about our desire for the admiration of other people. He’s quite blunt on the subject. If that’s what we seek, when we find it, that is our reward. Period. But beware, because prestige accorded by others, like money and material possessions, doesn’t go with us when our days on earth are finished. Better to give to those in need, to pray and to fast because these are ways God has asked us to show our love for the Lord and all his children. Jesus assures us that God ultimately rewards what he sees in secret.

There are other motivations for our actions that are equally empty. Monday through Friday I receive an email from The Divinity School at Duke University containing the day’s headlines on the church and the world. Today’s offerings included one from Pacific Standard that caught my eye in light of the Gospel reading - Will Tax Reform Reduce Charitable Giving?  According to Alex Brill and Derrick Choe of the American Enterprise Institute, charitable giving could be reduced by 4% in response to recent tax legislation. Jesus never heard of tax deductions for charitable giving but giving to get something in return isn’t giving from our hearts.

Action

I once heard a middle-aged man confess that up to that point in his life, everything he’d ever done had been for himself, not for God.  Fortunately, the Lord is always willing to help us turn our lives around. Talk to Jesus today about the desires and motivations of your heart.