What your Father sees in secret

“Take care not to perform righteous deeds
in order that people may see them….

….When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites,
who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners
so that others may see them…..

…When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.
They neglect their appearance,
so that they may appear to others to be fasting….”

Wow, it’s like it’s Lent again, right?

No, actually it’s just Back to Ordinary Time – at least in daily Mass. Which means we’re back to working our way through portions of the Old Testament (Kings right now) and the Gospel – Matthew for the moment, and today’s Gospel is this portion from the Sermon on the Mount, also read on Ash Wednesday, of course.

As I have said countless times before, in this era in which everyone is a potential mass-media producer with a global reach and in which the standard for religious authenticity and truth has completely devolved to personal appeal, of course, evangelization, spreading the good news and such centers on that point of convergence now.

Spread the Good News far and wide by inviting engagement with your personal life – your journey, your tragedy, your quirks, your growth, your conversion, your encouragement, your inspiration.

So much more interesting than Jesus, eh?

Last year, I offered some thoughts of the ethics of this via the prism of time. I toyed with the question of whether it is right for any of us to ask others to spend a minute of precious time engaging with us as we build our brand, no matter how much value we think we’re adding to the world?

Sometimes yes, most of the time no, is my take.

Today’s Gospel offers another angle for consideration.

Jesus, in this excerpt from the Sermon on the Mount, also proclaimed, of course, on Ash Wednesday, much to our evergreen consternation – do I keep my ashes on or not?? – commands that the disciple keep her religious practices to herself. God knows your heart and your actions. The rest of the world doesn’t need to.

So, when consumers of mass media and spiritual seekers and tourists virtually approach the online evanginfluencers expecting and demanding “openness” and “authenticity” and almost claiming a place in their role model’s lives, they’re putting them in a spot. Yes, it’s a spot most of them have cleared out for themselves and settled in, happily, Patreon button at the ready, but everyone has a role to play here, everyone’s responsible in their own way.

Keep saying we’re one body in Christ, sure. Keep saying we take care of each other, that we’re here to help each other to sainthood and holiness.

How is encouraging, expecting, and paying for another person to put their lives on public display as your spiritual food helping them?

Whose command wins?

Inspire me with your relatable authenticity….

…..your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you

Related:

From a blog that you should be reading if you are at all interested in art and spirituality – a reflection on images. It’s related because it’s about keeping our eyes on Christ and because so much of what I’m discussing above is, indeed, related to visual images.

Images shape our desires. As much as we like to think we’re immune to their influence, that we can encounter them without letting them tell us what is good or true or beautiful, they tend to work a subtle magic on us, especially after years of constant exposure.

I’m talking not just about advertisements and entertainment media, which perpetuate the myth that only one particular type of female body is attractive, and likewise one particular type of male body, and train us to desire that type for ourselves and for our partner.

I’m talking too about the seemingly innocuous images posted on social media. Studies have shown that regularly browsing Facebook, for example, can lead to depression, as users engage in social comparison that may cause them to resent both others’ lives as well as the image of themselves they feel they need to continuously maintain. A network member posts a photo of the just-because gift her amazing, so-thoughtful husband just bought her, and it makes you feel less loved. Another one posts a selfie taken from his scuba dive in Malta, and you wonder where all the adventure has gone in your life. A friend from high school posts a whole album of birthday photos of her two-year-old, and you are reminded of your ticking biological clock, or of her twenty-two-year-old in cap and gown, and you wish your kid had decided to go to college.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with images—creating or consuming. In fact, we need them. But we also need to beware of the propensity they have to plant themselves firmly in our minds and become idols. ..

…..

Part of my private spiritual practice is to spend a little time each day gazing on a holy image. I’m particularly fond of ones of Christ. For me this gazing serves a centering function; it reorders my desires. Sitting still with an image of Christ reminds me of Whose image I bear, and I take that with me as I encounter other images throughout the day that try to tell me otherwise.

While my body doesn’t conform to the culture’s ideal and I’m not as well traveled or as skilled with my hands as I’d like to be, I have in Christ an icon of God, a mirror of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful. And I am being conformed to this icon. As such,

I desire peace—and not just any old peace, but the peace that Christ gives, and not just for myself, but for the world….

…..We are shaped by what we see, and I want to be shaped by the right things. We can have unholy icons nurturing our seeing and knowing, or we can have holy ones. I choose holy.

Of course, as we say all the time, in the Incarnational reality of Christianity, in the reality of the Body of Christ that is the Church, we do, indeed experience and greet the holy through other people. But what I am suggesting is that we look on the possibilities of the present moment in this regard with a critical and honest eye. Consider other realities, too: ego, vanity, greed, the temptation to make idols, the temptation to encourage idolatry under cover of “evangelization” and “inspiration” – we best be wary. That’s all.