A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 6:1-6, 16-18)
“When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your almsgiving may be secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.”
“Even now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole heart.” These words from the first reading invite the people of Israel to fasting and prayer as a way to return to the LORD. In the Gospel, Jesus speaks to the disciples about what we have come to know as the three pillars of Lent: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. With your whole attention focused on our Father, Jesus tells us, pray, fast, and give alms without drawing attention to yourselves so that “your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.” The desire to please God in a genuine way becomes the means to return to an intimate relationship with him. So Lent begins. As Saint Paul says, Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
God, help me today consider how to put into practice prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Every year Lent comes, and I find myself in the midst of it without fully participating in the opportunity to connect more deeply with you. The interior life of the spirit that Jesus calls the disciples to is a universal invitation to see you as my Father and do what pleases you. A spiritual return to you doesn’t isolate me from those around me but reinvigorates how I respond to them—the poor, those in need of prayer, and emptying of self through fasting. Give me the grace to take the gifts of sacrifice you give me and make them the means of returning to you with my whole heart.
From the responsorial psalm: “Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness; in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense. Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.”
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.