When you give alms...
When you pray...
When you fast...
Today we begin our annual campaign of Lenten renewal and transformation. Although we are invited to the traditional practices of prayer, fasting, and alms-giving, these are not meant to be manifestations of self-hatred. We do not undertake them because we are bad, in order to punish ourselves, but because they are good, in order that we might grow in holiness.
But when you pray, go to your inner room,
close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.
The point of our Lenten practices not so much what happens externally, much less what others witness, but rather what happens within our hearts. It isn't so much about whether these actions are functional or meet some success criteria as to whether they lead us closer to the Father who sees in secret.
When you fast,
do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.
They neglect their appearance,
so that they may appear to others to be fasting.
We sometimes seek consolation prizes through our Lenten practices, something less than drawing near to God, something apparently more easily attainable. But such prizes have a very limited ability to console. We may seek pity from others, or simply content ourselves with a narrative of self-pity within our own thoughts. We may seek to appear pious or generous in the eyes of others, or simply content to think of ourselves as paragons of virtue. But all of these options fall short of acting for the Father who sees in secret, who is interested, above all, in what happens within our hearts.
There is something more at work here than a merely automatic consequence of virtuous asceticism. We are asked to enter into something deeper than would be possible without the assistance of grace. We are invited to experience a transformative that we could never bring about through our own efforts, to "become the righteousness of God" in Christ. To do so we must rely on God in such a way that if he were not there we would fall flat. But he is there, always, in secret, awaiting us.
Behold, now is a very acceptable time;
behold, now is the day of salvation.
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