Fr Joseph Hastings homilies to Read
That Private Place with the Lord by Fr Joseph
In the Gospel Jesus is teaching the apostles what to do and not do in regards to prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. For prayer he says do not do it for show, but in secret… “when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.” If we take this literally it doesn’t need much translation. It means go into your room, shut the door, and pray to God where no one can see you. But there is a deeper meaning as well. Many saints and other spiritual writers often talk about the heart.
According to the Catechism: “The heart is our hidden center, beyond the grasp of our reason and of others; only the Spirit of God can fathom the human heart and know it fully. It is the place of decision, the place of truth where we choose life or death.” It is in the heart that we encounter God.
This is something that we can do throughout our day. Go into your room and shut the door, meaning go into this deepest part of yourself, the heart, where you can encounter God in the silence and be with Him. Shut the door of your senses to all the various distractions that draw your attention away from Him. This can be as easy as spending a few minutes with Him throughout the day, and if we spend time with Him in secret, He will reward us by drawing us closer to Him.
