Daily Catholic Lectio. Wed, 19 June 2024. God’s validation

Daily Catholic Lectio

Wed, 19 June 2024

Eleventh week in Ordinary Time – Wednesday

2 Kings 2:1, 6-14. Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18.

God’s validation

In our social media world, two words are common today: ‘visibility,’ and ‘validation.’ We want to create visibility for ourselves, for our works, for our brands, and for our institutions. And we value ourselves, our works, our brands, and our institutions based on external validation, i.e., validation from others. Our value depends on the likes, the shares, and the comments that we get. This leads us to think that we must show everything in the media; there is hardly any privacy. Any video clip, audio content, or text seems to be acceptable today. What is being hidden as valuable – privacy of the spouses, for example – comes to be ‘marketed’ as Instagram reels. The traditional values of respect between the spouses, modesty, and secrecy are done away with.

And this has affected our spiritual realm as well. A preacher is valued not on account of the impact that he creates on the lives of people, but on the number of likes he gets. In order to promote ‘likes’ there are strategies and strategists. An act of prayer, a pilgrimage, an act of self-sacrifice – all are captured as moments and are portrayed on social media platforms.

This is not our case alone. This was the case in Jesus’ time as well. The so-called tri-foundations of Judaism – almsgiving, prayer, and fasting – were made public. Jesus, instructing his disciples on these, makes them go in the opposite direction. He insists on ‘internal validation’ and ‘God’s validation.’ He decries external validation and wants to be avoided at all costs.

Jesus’ instruction is centred on three things:

(a) Whatever is hidden becomes valuable.

(b) God sees the inner core of our being and rewards.

(c) It is not visibility and validation that matter, but acceptability from God and reward from him.

Let us wake up by closing our eyes! The great things of life are not visible to our eyes. The gospel reading invites us to return to the core of our being, into that inner darkness, where God will see us and our actions and validate them.

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In the first reading, the baton passes from Elijah to Elisha. God continues to work among his people through his chosen ones. (Jubilee 2025 AD, bite 128).

Fr. Yesu Karunanidhi

Archdiocese of Madurai

Missionary of Mercy