Anti-Epal Giving

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

“So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."

- Matthew 6:1-4

Several days ago, I visited Facebook again (to change my profile picture) and was browsing through my news feed. As usual, right after Yolanda, almost everything was about solicitations for cash donations and relief goods. I was impressed that, this time, there were many options to choose from on how to help.

Others also posted pictures or notes of themselves helping out in giving, repacking, and otherwise spending their time prepping relief goods for delivery. Others posted prominent politicians in the act of doing a photo ops session: handing out a check to a relief organization  or a package to another victim. While nothing can be done to de-politicize the latter (as you know, most politicians cannot be shamed into dropping the epal act such as Binay, Roxas, Marcos et. al.), I have something to say about the former.

The formal definition of epal points to one who likes to always be in the scene or be given attention in things that don't concern them.

But being an epal is not confined to politicians but can extend to those in the private sector. Epal also points to people who make a show of their generosity. Simply put, one is also an epal if one gives not solely to give but to get attention or compliments from others.  The Gospel, fortunately, has something to say about this.

In this time, the look-at-me generation, such epal-ing often takes place in our online social networks, where the purity of one's intention to help is sullied or questioned by one's act of posting notices of their generosity online. So the end result is that you have these tweets, status updates, and selfies of people doing humanitarian work, all of which are catered to solicit as many likes and comments as possible. That brings the term "attention whore" to a whole new level by adding a bit of "charity" to a rather narcissistic (not to mention pedestrian) act.

Am I discouraging such brazen acts of self-promotion? Of course, not. This isn't my business. Besides, if tweeting that you're helping the poor gets someone to help as well, that's good. 

It's just that we've somehow twisted the act of giving to revolve around us instead of around others. We've succeeded to make our generosity glorify us instead of glorifying the One who blessed us so that we can give. 

Happy Sunday everyone.