Ash Wednesday (February 25, 2009)
I am so happy that you have chosen to accompany me on this journey. I am very excited because last night someone very special decided to join us. She wants to walk with us, guide us, and help us find her son Jesus during this journey. Our Blessed Mother is going to be taking these steps with us, next to us, side by side. She has always been a source of inspiration and comfort in my life, yet many times, I forget to invite her to be part of my dreams... I am glad, though, that she is never offended when I forget to send her an invitation, and she shows up anyway. I once again forgot to invite her to this special journey, but I was not surprised at all when she knocked at the door of my heart sometime during the night and told me she wanted to be part of it.
Today is Ash Wednesday so the season of Lent has officially started. I meditated on today's readings last night before I went to sleep. I continued meditating this morning, while I walked with Rafael, and afterwards, while I attended mass and listened to the homily. The part of the reading that kept touching my heart was: "When you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your almsgiving may be secret." Matthew 6:3-4
We live in a society that encourages us to make our almsgiving public. If our children attend a catholic school, we need to place our contributions in an envelope in the collection basket so the school may know that they attended mass on Sunday. If we donate to the ABCD, most likely our names will be printed in the church bulletin. If we make a substantial donation, our names will be part of a brick on a sidewalk, in a door, bench or on a building itself. Even the IRS wants us to make our almsgiving public so we can have a receipt to be able to deduct our contributions as a tax deduction.
As I meditated about this and I shared my thoughts with Rafael this morning, we reached the conclusion that what is important to God is our intention. We can fool the world, but we cannot fool God, since He knows all the secrets of our hearts. If we give with the sole purpose of getting public recognition, "we have received our reward" here on earth. However, if we give from the heart and happen to see our name later plastered on a wall, printed in the church bulletin or anywhere else, we accept this recognition with a humble heart, knowing full well that was not our intention at all.
You may have heard on the news about Leonard Abess, Jr, the Miami banker who quietly gave $60 million of his own money to his loyal staff. His intention was to do this in secret. He did it from his heart. Of course, when the local newspaper found out, it was all over the news. However, he has accepted all this media attention humbly by simply saying: "I didn't feel right getting all the money for myself. Those people who joined me and stayed with me at the bank with no promise of equity - I always thought some day I'm going to surprise them." Last night, he was invited by President Obama to his first presidential address. Abess said that "he felt humbled and more than a little nervous about all the attention he is getting."
During this Lent, let's give from our heart, let's find time to pray in silence, let's fast in secret. However, if anybody finds out and approaches us about it, let's accept the recognition with a humble heart. We can use Mother Theresa as our guide. She was always in the news, received many awards for her service, yet she accepted it all with a humble heart and never lost sight of her goal.
Our goal during this journey is to find Jesus. Our blessed Mother will help us to keep our eyes on Jesus. Let's keep our hearts humble and let us not lose sight of our goal.
Thank you, Mother, for joining us in our journey. We know that with you by our side, we will be able to keep our focus on your Son.
No comments:
Post a Comment