In the Gospel reading today, we see that the Lord Jesus insists on the privacy of the cure that He is about to work in behalf of the two blind men. We see this pattern played out in many places in the Gospels. The Lord Jesus regularly takes people aside to deal with them personally, separately, to work the cure of their ailments for them. In this, we are able to see the Lord Jesus as one who practices what He Himself teaches, for He tells us not to do good works to be seen by others, but to do good works in secret so that the Heavenly Father Who sees in secret can reward us. Just so, the Lord Jesus, when He cures so many bodily ailments, does not have the disciples sound a trumpet before Him, so that everyone will know that He is about to work a cure. No, rather, He takes those who are to be effected apart, separately, and heals them in a completely private manner.
In acting this way, the Lord Jesus acts in our behalf to give us an example. God is all-glorious and acts only for His own glory, just as He Himself tells us when He says, "I give not my glory to another." Thus, when we do something good, praiseworthy, virtuous, we should do it in a hidden and secret way, so that it is obscured from human gaze. In this way, we fulfill the commandments of the Lord Jesus to avoid praise. Avoiding praise, we avoid conceit and pride and we come to know more and more fully that all true good comes from God.
Yet, how can we make the Christian life known? How can we bring others to the Christian Faith without doing our works in the sight of men? For God this is a simple thing. It is our responsibility to adhere to the commandments of Christ. If God wants our works to become known, then He will make them known, for the Church of God is built up by the power of God, not by marketing strategies. In the Prologue to Saint John's Gospel there is a clear allusion to this truth, for there the members of God's Holy Church are called "the children of God," and Saint John tells us that they are born "but by blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of men, but of God."
It is the Father's responsibility to reveal His works (those which we do in His name) if He desires that they be known. It is our responsibility to diligently work without concern for recognition, praise or reward except from God. In fact, our concern should be the opposite. Our concern should be that we will be found out in doing good and have to forgo our reward in Heaven for a transitory reward acquired on earth. Thus, we also have the commandment of the Lord to work for treasure that moths cannot destroy, treasure that is stored up in the Kingdom of Heaven.
So, what works should we guard ever so carefully, so that they can be only for God and we can attain our reward only from Him? Well, we know that the eminent good works are prayer, fasting and almsgiving. There are others, of course, but these are the foundation and basis of the others. Of the three, prayer is the ruler and queen, since it alone among them is able, if need be, of existing without the others. Fasting, on the other hand, is worthless without prayer, and almsgiving without prayer is only human pride. Prayer can fill up the need for all three when fasting and almsgiving become impossible for a variety of reasons.
So, how are we to harmonize the commandment to conceal our good works from the eyes of men, so that our reward will come from God and the commandment to let our light shine before men, so that they see our good works and give glory to God the Father in Heaven? It is a difficult and intricate question. The commandment concerning the light is given in the context of a comparison between the disciples and a burning lamp. The only way to obscure the light of a burning lamp is to hide it underneath something like the bushel basket, which is described in the metaphor. Otherwise, unimpeded, the light of the lamp diffuses throughout the surrounding universe of its own, because it radiates light. The light emanates from the lamp without any action by the lamp. This lesson is key to our understanding. The kind of works that this metaphor is talking about are the generalized "fragrance" of the Christian life, which emanates from God's people due to the action of Divine Grace in their lives. Christians would only be able to obscure the radiation of this light by refusing to live as Christians, to cast the beatitudes behind their backs and thus to cease to be Christians in any sort of meaningful sense. When God's people live according to the commandments of Christ, the world perceives this generalized "fragrance." They see the peace of those who believe in Christ. They see the manner in which believers in Christ handle adversity. They see the love that Christians have towards other people around them.
There is nevertheless a contrast between this generalized "fragrance" of Christian life and the hidden, specific works of God, wrought by disciples of Christ in everyday life: prayer, fasting and almsgiving done only for God, seeking a reward only from God. Ultimately, because these works have their foundation in faith, they are the works of God Himself and God can make them known if their knowledge would conduce to His glory.
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