Friday, February 22, 2013

Unhappy people


A common mistake we do fall into is when we do our works and deeds just to be noticed or appreciated by others.  Then we feel unhappy and disgusted when nobody seems to notice us or appreciate our actions or deeds.  It should really have been the other way around.  We should feel good and happy in doing some good deeds for others whether we are noticed or not. Because the positive attitude should be the doing of a noble act, not whether we be noticed or appreciated.  Why?  Because there is a God who knows and observes all things, who is just in rewarding the good and punishing the evil doers.

That is precisely the advice of Jesus how we should merit life everlasting by our good deeds.  That is what He, the Lord Jesus, proposes in the whole chapter 6 of St. Matthew’s gospel, how to perform our good deeds and thereby merit eternal life.  If you do the opposite, you will just continue in life being an unhappy, frustrated person.

“Be careful not to parade your good deeds before men to attract their notice; by doing this you will lose all reward from your Father in heaven.  So when you give alms, do not have it trumpeted before you; this is what the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win men’s admiration.  I tell you solemnly, they have had their reward.  But when you give alms, your left hand must not know what your right is doing; your alms giving must be secret, and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you” (Mt. 6:1-4).

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