Lie: Appearing to care and caring are the same thing.
Truth: Appearing to care is vanity – we must actually care.
. . . Self-forgetfulness, the ability to be unaware of ourselves, is the true attitude of our ‘alms’. Jesus said it: “But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. That your charitable deed may be in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.” Matthew 6:3–4
Giving alms in secret is loving in such a way that we are hardly aware of the performance of it ourselves; we simply do it, so focused on the person in need, that we fade into the background in our own minds.
How do we achieve this self-forgetfulness? It can only be gained . . .