When Jesus tells his disciples in Mt. 6.1-6,16-21 not to show off their piety in public, he promises "the Father who sees in secret will reward you." Fr. Daron was struck by the "intimacy" of the image, as "secret" has to do first with being set apart, before we add the connotations of concealment.
While we usually read this passage through the lens of morality and reward, when we read it with the lens of love, the reward is not something after you die, but the immediate continuing relationship of the believer and God. Daron suggested that it's like the delight of a husband and wife in each other during a quiet moment; to broadcast such a moment to the world would be to cheapen it and destroy it.
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