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Good morning.

In the midst of a recent online row a friend of mine tweeted, ‘Lord help me to remember that not all my views need to be shared.’

It’s easy to understand the frustration that lay behind that particular prayer. The ubiquity of social media with its insatiable appetite for content means people can feel pressured to broadcast every aspect of their lives instantly to the whole universe. We are in danger of becoming entirely public human beings.

Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of the season of Lent, and one of the Bible readings that Christians will hear today suggests a very different way of managing our lives. In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus speaks of the need to give alms to the poor, but tells people to do so in secret so that their left hand does not know what their right is doing. He instructs them to pray but to do so unseen, in a private place. He asks them to fast, but to do so discretely so that nobody else would even know. Rather than broadcasting every virtue or posting a selfie of every good deed, he invites them to build up the inner life in a secret place.

Doubtless as he spoke those words Jesus was reflecting on his own experience, for the forty days of Lent echo the time that he spent in the privacy of the wilderness. That’s why, during this season, many Christians will seek to create a wilderness of the heart as they live to a personal rule: fasting, giving, praying, confessing. The idea is to make a secret space for quiet, intentional growth in Christian character and commitment.

Perhaps though it’s not just people of faith who can benefit from this ancient practice. In the secret place there is a chance to escape for a while from the public gaze. There is space to focus honestly on one’s own growth and development as a human being. And it seems to me that almost anyone can benefit from that.

Moments of frank self-reflection can change behaviour and build up relationships. Acts of kindness which no one except the donor will ever know about can foster an ever richer generosity. Quietly letting go for a while of needless luxuries can undermine a lazy sense of entitlement. All these things can slowly serve to build up the interior life and foster character for the benefit of others.

But this requires space. The secret place does not create itself. It need to be fashioned. Nor is it a physical room. Rather it is an attitude of the heart. But within that private space, the best of humanity can flourish.

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