We hear a lot about quid pro quo's these days, don't we? All the talk about the impeachment investigation, dealings with the Ukraine and such-- we can't seem to get away from it. That's the bad news. The good news is that I have no intention of going there in this post, although Jesus is clearly talking about the same idea-- doing something for someone so that the other person will do something for you-- that we discuss these days. Jesus tells us not to act that way. He says that we shouldn't do things for others that look nice and accommodating, like inviting them to dinner, when our real motivation is to get something in return. That's not charity, Jesus is telling us. That is simply a business transaction-- you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. That's not the stuff of charity. When we think about this message, we have to wonder about all the times when we see charity come with a reward. At its worst we see people making massive donations to colleges, apparently then giving their kids a leg up in the admissions process. Or we see people who have a hospital facility or something like that named for them, or in the memory of a loved one. On a smaller scale, we see people get their names on the back of chairs when they buy them for the church, or have their names added to a wall. The Jesuit magazine, America, publishes a list of donors, starting with the folks who have given the largest amounts. Recognition, it seems, is the "quid" for the "quo" of a donation. I don't mean to discourage donations. Heaven knows that we need them, particularly these days, when other sources of funds to care for those in need seem to be drying up. But the process of recognizing donors does seem to undermine the very idea of helping others simply because they need help, and threatens to turn donating into a way to burnish one's reputation. That can quickly lead to a sense of cynicism, where charitable motives are called into question. When we're asked to contribute to something, our first thought shouldn't be: "what's in it for me?" It should be: "how will this build up the Kingdom of God in this time and place?" If we are going to get something back, even a little something, we should be suspicious that the cause isn't as deserving as it would seem to be. Why else does the pot need to be sweetened with some way of saying "look at me-- I donated"? Motives matter, as Jesus' instruction to the host who invited Him to dinner makes very clear. It can never a be a bad idea to ask ourselves why we're doing what we are doing.