DAILY DEVOTIONAL

November 15, 2018

“Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.  “So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.  But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” – Matthew 6:1-4

“So that your alms … your giving to the poor … your love made tangible in the practice of charity … may be done in secret.”  I have come to believe that Christ is here revealing something Beautiful in the nature of God’s Grace … a secret key into an even greater Realm of Grace … authentic charity of the heart that allows one to hear the applause of angels.  It is the glorious joy of being part of the Mercy of God.

We often speak of Christ calling us to be one with Him and with the Father.  And here in this tucked away teaching to which we give merely passing nod, Christ us a tangible expression of that oneness … being one with the providential work of God.  In this giving of alms, this giving to the poor, we become as the rain and the sunshine to a farmer’s field.  We enter into a most holy work … an instrument of the merciful Love of God.

Oh, when we seek the praise of onlookers in our giving to the poor, we decline to fully enter this experience of Oneness.  We are seeking satisfaction from worldly sources rather than from sources Divine.  Such giving has its worth and it is a good thing within its limitations, but it steals from the experience of becoming a radiance of the Glory of God.

Loved Ones, be as the rain and the sunshine on a farmer’s field.

Always in Christ’s Service,

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz