Wednesday in the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time, June 21, 2023

Matthew 6, 1-6; 16-18

Jesus said to his disciples: “Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father. When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your almsgiving may be secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to others to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.”

“Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father.”  The desire for the approval and applause of others is rooted in weakness.  It is as though we depend on this approval and applause to reassure us of our essential goodness and reaffirm our high opinion of ourselves.  It is also true that some very deliberately and publicly perform some act of charity in order to uphold their place in society by gaining and cementing the good opinion of others.  The Lord is criticizing these latter, for they make a travesty of charitable actions, which are done for the sake of the needy and not for the sake of oneself.  Because these actions are performed for the sake of the needy, the person doing them does not draw attention to the recipients of his actions, lest they be embarrassed by their need.  Done properly, with true love for the recipients, these deeds receive “recompense” from our Heavenly Father.  What kind of recompense?  One only the Father can render: “He who has mercy on the poor, lends to the Lord: and he will repay him” (Proverbs 19, 17).

“When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do.”  The Greek word translated here as “hypocrite” is used in the Septuagint (the early Greek translation of the Old Testament) to translate a Hebrew word that means “godless”.  We see, then, how strong the Lord’s condemnation is.  To be “godless” is to act as the heathen do, without any reference to God but solely based on one’s own self-interest.  Godless actions harden a person in his godlessness so that he deserves a severe punishment in hell: “Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.”  That is, they make their place in the afterlife more certain.

“Do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your almsgiving may be secret.”  Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord uses figures of speech to drive home his meaning.  He uses hyperbole, for instance, in advising people to cut off their hands lest their hands cause them to sin, or not to resist evil.  Here he speaks of one hand not knowing what the other is doing, as though hands had their own minds.  His point is that his followers should be so accustomed to performing good deeds that they themselves do not notice the significance of what they are doing.  That is, charity ought to become ordinary behavior, not extraordinary.

“When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them.”  This May seem ridiculous behavior to us today, but in the very religious culture of the Jews in .Israel at that time, it often happened that someone whose heart was full would cry out in prayer publicly.  We see an example of this in the case of Zechariah when he recovered his ability to speak after naming John the Baptist.  Prayer was always spoken aloud at that time, whether on the street or in the synagogue or Temple.  It could be used to proclaim one’s good fortune or supposed virtue.  But the Lord cautions his followers, “When you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.”  This practice preserves the purity of the prayer, which is meant for God alone.

“When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.”  That is, like the godless heathens who are only interested in the approval of others.  In the days when Jesus walked the earth, there was one major fast, the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), and various minor fasts that prohibited eating from sundown to sunrise.  The Lord says not to make a show of fasting, but to act as one would on ordinary days.  The purpose of fasting is to do penance, to remember one’s lowliness.  Calling attention to oneself when fasting directly contradicts this purpose.

Just as the Law given by God to the Hebrews in the wilderness made them a nation distinct from the peoples around them by its particular regulation of behavior, so the fulfillment of the Law in the Sermon on the Mount does this for Christians.  We are not to act like the others around us, but like Jesus our Lord.