PRELIMINARY NOTE: During these forty days, the “3 Minutes for Abba” are presented as part of the daily meditations, which form a kind of spiritual retreat for Lent: https://en.elijamission.net/category/3-minutes-for-god-the-father/
“Your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Mt 6:4b)
Beloved Father, these are the words that Your Son left us and that the Church reminds us of at the beginning of Lent, so that we do not display before others the works of penance, charity, and prayer that we perform for Your sake, and so that we do not seek their praise.
Certainly, others may recognize our good works, because our light must shine before people so that, seeing them, they may glorify our Father who is in heaven (Mt 5:16). But we must never seek our own honor, for we know very well that it is only thanks to You that we can do good. Would it not even be a kind of theft to seek the praise that belongs only to You, since only You are good (cf. Mk 10:18)? Far be it from us to commit such usurpation!
Moreover, works done in secret remain within the intimacy of the loving relationship between You and us. How greatly, then, does this exhortation of Your beloved Son help us enter into intimacy with You, doing everything simply for Your sake, without paying attention to whether others see it. Perhaps we will even manage to do good for them without their knowing where it came from. That would be a worthy concealment and would preserve a secret between You and us. The people to whom we have done good will know it in eternity, when there is no longer any danger that vanity might undermine charity.
In any case, beloved Father, we want to take this exhortation to heart and do everything with our eyes fixed on You, just as Jesus taught us. You see it, and that is enough for us.