I must have done something in secret that I haven't talked about, right? We aren't talking about those things we may have done in secret, that if they were known, might bring shame or rejection upon us? Stealing a pack of Marlboro's from the grocery store when I was seventeen is a secret, I've kept it for 50 years. Until now that is.
I imagine we're looking for the sense of that part of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus advises the disciples to not let our left hand know what our right hand is doing when we give alms. I'm sure that once or twice I may have, inadvertently, performed a random, anonymous act of kindness that I never told anyone about. I administered Narcan to a woman who was dying of an overdose once, but I told a friend and she insisted that I should shout that from the mountaintops and I preferred to remain silent, for reasons of what: false humility? I realize that I haven't done this enough, that there is always some little bit of calculation which is authored by the ego. While the outcome was pure, the implementation was covered in self regard and congratulations; often in secret, but with the desire that someone will notice. In Lent, let me lose attachment to self and adopt the Way of Christ, who surrendered all ego for the sake of the world.
— Steve
I imagine we're looking for the sense of that part of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus advises the disciples to not let our left hand know what our right hand is doing when we give alms. I'm sure that once or twice I may have, inadvertently, performed a random, anonymous act of kindness that I never told anyone about. I administered Narcan to a woman who was dying of an overdose once, but I told a friend and she insisted that I should shout that from the mountaintops and I preferred to remain silent, for reasons of what: false humility? I realize that I haven't done this enough, that there is always some little bit of calculation which is authored by the ego. While the outcome was pure, the implementation was covered in self regard and congratulations; often in secret, but with the desire that someone will notice. In Lent, let me lose attachment to self and adopt the Way of Christ, who surrendered all ego for the sake of the world.
— Steve
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