The Catholic Calendar for Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Wednesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
St. Aloysius, religious

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
2 Kings 2:1, 6-14
Psalm 31:20, 21, 24
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

Jesus continuously warned His disciples against striving for personal gain. His message was always this: the last will be first and the least is the greatest. His warning to us is that we should always check our motivation for what we do to make certain that our intentions are pure and set on the right goal.

In today’s gospel, our Lord gives further warning, addressing specifically the acts of prayer, fasting and alms giving. At first it seems that one’s motivation in these three acts would be pure, but as we know that was not the case with the Pharisees of the time. Just because these three things may be righteous in nature does not mean they are always done for righteous purposes.

Do we attend mass regularly to truly worship and receive His holy body and blood, or do we attend to be seen by others in the community that we do business with, or to look good to the pastor? Do we make a spectacle of our donations to charity, or do we do it in private to aid God’s poor? Do we announce our fasting in an effort to gain pity, or to strengthen our prayer lives and grow closer to the Lord?

It seems hard to believe that these three holy acts can be used for wrong purposes, but they can. We must be constantly vigilant to assure our intentions are pure and our goal is in sight – to grow ever closer to Him.

- Don Claunch, SFO
(dlclaunch at bresnan dot net)