Not to us, but to Your Name

In today’s Gospel, Jesus warns us not to act like hypocrites who do religious things to get human recognition. That is not true religion: that is bragging. Any religious things we do should be true manifestations of our faith and devotion, directed to God – for His glory, not for ours.

Non nobis, Domine, non nobis,
sed nomini tuo da gloriam
super misericordia tua et veritate tua.
Psalmus 115:1

On the other hand, there are people who use this Gospel as justification for hiding their faith – for keeping it private, even though our faith calls us to be witnesses of Christ and to proclaim the Gospel to every creature. Sometimes, false humility is used as a cloak for cowardice.

There can be a fine line between witnessing and bragging and between humility and cowardice.

We must neither exalt ourselves nor our hide our faith. We must act and speak as our faith requires us, never to make ourselves look or feel good, but always to give glory to God -- because of His mercy and His Truth.