Don't be an actor, be yourself.
“Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them;
otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father”. (cf. Mt. 6:1)
Hanna Arendt, a Jewish thinker, interpreted the above warning of Christ quite literally. In her opinion, Jesus claims that our works retain value if they are not seen by others. When a good deed becomes public to a wider audience, it loses its "goodness". In this exhortation, Arendt saw one of the reasons for the alleged withdrawal of Christians from the public sphere. But does Jesus really want us to hide our goodness from others? Wouldn't that be a display of false humility? After all, he himself acted in public. Arendt overlooked an earlier sentence from the same Gospel: " Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father." (cf. Mt 5:16). But are these two statements not mutually exclusive?
Part of the misleading impression is the imprecise translation. The key to the puzzle is the phrase "that people may see you" that appears in both sentences. In the original Greek text, we find two different words which were probably rendered "see" for lack of equivalents. But in this way, a significant difference was blurred. When Jesus speaks of pious works in Matthew 6: 1, there is the word thehatridzo, which means "to make a spectacle", "to play a role on stage", "to make someone mock". Jesus' warning should therefore be rendered as follows: “Do not perform pious works so that people will see you as street actors entertaining the crowd. Do not make a laughingstock of yourself. " It is worth mentioning that in ancient times actors wore masks - the second "me", hiding their authentic face.
In turn, in Mt 5:16 we come across the word eido, which can mean both "to see" and "to know." Aristotle wrote at the beginning of "Metaphysics" that "all people by nature want to know". It literally says, "all people want to see." The Greeks used the two words interchangeably. So, one could translate Jesus' sentence as follows: " Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may know your good deeds”.
The meaning of this sentence becomes more interesting when we consider the fact that in the Bible, cognition is about establishing a personal relationship. I get to know someone when I live with him and share my worries and joys. Certainly, this kind of knowledge was closer to the mindset of Christ's listeners. One could, therefore, consider yet another version of this sentence: "Act in this way so that people would like to know you, enter into a relationship with you, and thus glorify the Father who is in heaven." The conclusions turn out to be surprising. First, Jesus expects us to be authentic, not to pretend. The actor is admired or laughed at. You cannot really imitate him. Looking at the actor, we see the role he plays. The evangelical hypocrite goes out into the street and tries to make the observers believe that he is pious, that he is a bearer of light, while this light is not in him. Such a man is not taken seriously. He arouses short-term admiration or is considered a comedian.
Secondly, our actions should be visible to others because the testimony of a life united with God requires it. Christians are not to be admired and applauded. Their task is to make people come to life with a different kind of vision thanks to their attitudes and actions, knowledge that comes from faith, which does not stop only at the external, but breaks through the veils. We need to live in such a way, drawing Light from God, that others would want to join us, be interested in getting to know us, and feel encouraged to make a decision. Incidentally, it is interesting that of the crowds who admired Jesus, only a small handful eventually followed His path. Christ needs people who believe and are open to Him as "conductor" of the Light. Hence the beautiful comparison of the disciples to the lamp.
True Light emanates from those who do not even know it. They do not have to flaunt it. It is they who will say in astonishment at the judgment: "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you" (cf. Mt 25:37)? That Light is God who worked in Christ. Therefore, when Jesus performed the signs, it happened that "multitudes praised God, who gave such power (light) to men" (cf. Mt 9: 8). Witnesses to our actions, seeing the true Light, should spontaneously move from focusing on what is visible with the naked eye to what is invisible. God makes himself known within interpersonal relationships. Then we give Him glory. This is an amazing paradox of Christianity. It is not evidence, persuasion, and intellectual speculation that spreads faith, but a simple example of life. Nothing can move a person more and draw him to God than a personal testimony that reflects authentic commitment.
"Take care that you ..." can be the motto of all our life. It is a call to transform our motivation internally, to achieve a balance between the external and the internal, to discover the value of relationships, community and personal Christian testimonies. It is a long process. It is then difficult to fill ourselves with Light and bring it to other people. That is why God leads us to our inner room that allows us to discover the inner dimension of life. Let us take this chance.
Until Tomorrow
fr. george