Homily for June 20, 2018.
“Beware of practising your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.” Matthew 6:1.
In his conversation with the woman at the well, Jesus said: “the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:23-24.
A vast majority of Christians today who claim to be worshipping God are not sincere. Our worship is essentially eye-service. Such worship of God, Jesus teaches us, attracts no reward from God. It is essentially useless. When Jesus said “God is spirit” he meant to emphasize the fact that God is not a human being who can be deceived with appearances or carried away by an external show of holiness.
If we humans get put off by persons who simply pretend to be our friends when we get to discover their hidden agenda, how much more God who sees everything; who knows what we do in secret? As the Psalmist puts it: “O LORD, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away… Even before a word is on my tongue, O LORD, you know it completely.” Psalm 139:1-4.
The painful truth is that most of the time, it is not God we worship but our own ego. We do not really care about what God thinks of us but what people think. Our actions are done to attract the good opinions of people, to massage our ego; our sense of pride and accomplishments. The moment we notice no one is watching, we become demons.
Jesus is basically asking us today to replace our people-centred worship with a God-centred worship; to replace our eye-service with God-service; to become secretive with good deeds rather than evil deeds. We don’t have to announce goodness before people to be rated highly by them but we must ensure that the things we do in our secret places attract the loudest applause of God.
Let us Pray: Lord Jesus, free me from inferiority complex; the desire to please people and create in me a consciousness of your presence always. Amen.
*Happy new week. Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. God bless you. (Wednesday of the 11th week in Ordinary Time. Bible Study: 2nd Kings 2:1-14, Psalm 31:20-24, Matthew 6:1-18).*
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