Tuesday in the Twelfth Week of Ordinary Time, June 23, 2026

Matthew 7, 6; 12-14

Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not give what is holy to dogs, or throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them underfoot, and turn and tear you to pieces.  Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the Law and the Prophets. Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many. How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few.”

“Do not give what is holy to dogs.”  Verse 6 seems out of place with what came before and what comes afterwards.  It possibly goes with the Lord’s later instructions to the Apostles about their first preaching mission. In this case, “the holy thing” (as the Greek says) might be the message to repent for the Kingdom of heaven has approached.  We could read it thus: “Go ye not into the way of the Gentiles, and into the city of the Samaritans enter ye not (Matthew 10, 5) . . . Do not give the holy thing to dogs.”  Or if this saying properly belongs to the Lord’s sayings after his Resurrection as he is telling his Apostles to go out to all the world to preach the Gospel, “the holy thing” could refer to Baptism or to the holy mysteries of the Mass.  indeed, one of the Church Fathers identified “the holy thing” as baptism.

Without context, it is difficult to know to what “the holy thing” refers.  We do know what the Lord has in mind when he speaks of “dogs”.  Though the Jewish Law does not explicitly list the dog as an unclean animal in the way the pig is, Old Testament references to dogs eating the flesh of the dead certainly taints the animal as unclean.  The “dog”, then, was anyone unclean, primarily meaning the Gentiles.  The Lord himself spoke of the Gentiles in this way: “It is not good to take the bread of the children, and to cast it to the dogs” (Matthew 15, 26).  Likewise, “or throw your pearls before swine”.  The Lord explains why the Apostles should not corrupt what is holy: “Lest they trample them underfoot, and turn and tear you to pieces.”  That is, the unholy people will ruin the holy things and also attack the ones who provide them.  We can understand this verse today in terms of the reception of Holy Communion by non-Catholics or by those who are not in the state of grace.  While perhaps sounding harsh, it is necessary to keep in mind the great holiness of the Lord’s Body and Blood and the great vileness of the state of a person who has maliciously cast away the grace that the Lord Jesus died on the Cross to give him.

“Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.”  This verse also seems unconnected from what has gone before.  One explanation for this seeming collection of unrelated sayings is that Matthew is working from his memory and he puts down only what he is sure of and does not try to cobble together a flow of speech he is not certain of.  While for the believer, the meaning this admonition seems apparent, others have criticized it for being impossible to carry out in real life.  They argue that if someone were to ask us to give them our house, we should do this if we follow this rule if it is what we would have them do for us if we asked.  However, the Lord gives the rule to those who believe in him and who therefore would not ask a neighbor to give them something that would ruin the neighbor.  Such behavior would, in fact, violate the commandment that we love our neighbors as ourselves.

“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many.”  The “narrow gate” leads to life.  It is said to be a “gate” because it presents restrictions.  It is said to be “narrow” in that the restrictions are demanding.  The Lord says that the way to eternal life passes through a narrow gate, one side of the gate being the commandment to love God with all our heart, mind and soul.  The other side of the gate signifies the love of neighbor as oneself.  These “restrict” us from doing harm to our hopes for salvation by keeping us from worshipping false gods such as power, wealth, and sex and from doing harm to our neighbor.  The gate that leads to destruction is said to be broad because the two sides of the gate that leads to life have been torn down and only a wide hole in the fence remains. “Those who enter through it are many.”  Many people reject the narrow gate because they think themselves too good for any perceived abridgment on their imagined autonomy, and who want nothing more than to pursue the false gods that appeal to them.  It is the sin of Adam and Eve all over again, and leading to the same disaster.

“How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few.”  The gate to life is not narrow to keep people out.  It is narrow to keep people in.  Those are few who find it because those are few who look for it.  

Monday in the Twelfth Week of Ordinary Time, June 22, 1026

Matthew 7, 1-5

Jesus said to his disciples: “Stop judging, that you may not be judged. For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you. Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove that splinter from your eye,’ while the wooden beam is in your eye? You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.”

“Stop judging, that you may not be judged.”  This verse has been much misinterpreted over the years.  The traditional English translation of the Greek verb in the verse has a range of meanings and has in fact shifted in meaning down through the centuries though the word continues to be retained.  In fact, in Ancient Greek it means “to bring to court”, “to accuse”, “to condemn”.  It most emphatically does not mean “to make or hold an opinion” or “to criticize”.  In practice, Jesus means for us not to act with malice on our thoughts or words about another person.  Neither should we jump to conclusions, assume the worst about someone’s intentions, or draw conclusions from generalizations.  By withholding our accusations and condemnations, we avoid sin and escape condemnation from God.  “The measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.”  While the first part of the verse tells us what not to do, the second part advises us on what we should do.  We should “measure” generously and graciously unto others, but because we imitate Jesus in his immeasurable generosity to us, offering his life for us, and because we thus increase our capacity for what God wants to give us.

“Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?”  This “beam” would hold up a roof.  Jesus speaks to our desire to divert our own and others’ attention from our own faults.  He also hints that once this “beam” is removed we will find that it distorted our eyesight so badly that the fault we attributed to our brother in fact did not exist, and so we look doubly foolish.  “Let me remove that splinter from your eye,’ while the wooden beam is in your eye.”  Not only do we point to the supposed fault, we attempt to correct it though we truly do not understand how.  This is also the sign of a person who wishes to control other people.

“You hypocrite.”  Jesus calls such a person who accuses others of faults while themselves being riddled with faults “godless”.  This is the work not of a religious soul but of a pagan.  Pagan do not always worship statues, but they do always act in destructive ways against their neighbors in order to promote themselves.

The Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time, June 21, 2026

Matthew 10, 26–33

Jesus said to the Twelve: “Fear no one. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge. Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.” 

In this part of his Gospel, St. Matthew is recording how the Lord Jesus prepared his Apostles to preach to the cities and towns in Galilee and Judea.  He has given them them specific instructions on what to take with them, how to act while on mission, and what to say.  The verses that make up today’s Gospel Reading, however, may actually come from a later time, during the forty days after the Resurrection, when the Lord was preparing the Apostles to go out to the world.  If this is correct, then Matthew adds them on to the instructions the Lord gives his Apostles at the an earlier time during his Public Life because the content is similar and it seemed to to him to fit there.  The reason for thinking this possible is that the Lord is sending the Twelve to nearby localities where they will not experience the persecution he speaks of here — they are just dipping their toes in the preaching life that they will know after Pentecost.  But whether Jesus spoke these words in the order we have them or indeed after the Resurrection, their meaning does not change for us.

“Fear no one.”  The Lord tells this to the Apostles who will be confronted by resistance, mockery, and both religious and civil authority.  A message which ought to cause universal rejoicing will be seen by many as a threat.

“Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known.  What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.”  This verse seems detached from “Do not fear”, but this addresses another fear, that the machinations and persecutions of the wicked will prevent the Gospel from being preached.  The Lord is saying, Do not worry, for the Gospel will be made known to everyone, everywhere.  Just do as I tell you.

“And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.”  The Lord returns to the subject of fear for their personal safety.  Down through the ages, from the time Adam and Eve lost immortality for the human race, people viewed death as the worst possible thing that could happen to a person.  They viewed it this way because death meant the end, extinction, though a person’s “shade” might persist for a time.  The Lord, however, revealed that the life of this world amounted to only the beginning of life for those who believed in God.  And this new life would make us forget about the pains of this life: “The sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come that shall be revealed to us” (Romans 8, 18).  The soul, Jesus reveals, is beyond the power of any man because it is in the hands of God.  “Be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.”  It is God alone who has power over the soul, and he will allow those who persevere in wickedness to suffer the consequences of their actions in hell.  “Gehenna” is a valley outside the city of Jerusalem into which trash was thrown and often burnt.  It was also a place where, during the time of the Kingdom of Judea, wicked priests and kings offered human sacrifices to pagan gods (cf. 2 Chronicles 28, 3).

“Even all the hairs of your head are counted.”  Each of us is fully accounted for in God’s marvelous Providence, and he dwells through his grace in each believer.  He knows us intimately and thoroughly.  He knows every action we have performed, no matter how slight and unconscious, and every reason for it: “You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, lo, O Lord, you know it through and through (Psalm 139:3-4).”

“Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.”  The Greek word translated here as “acknowledge” also has the meanings of “profess”, “confess”, and “praise”. Any of these options work better than the vague “acknowledge”.  One “acknowledges” the existence of another, but to “profess”, “confess”, or to “praise” express knowledge of another and allegiance to him.  We confess and praise God through our good deeds as well as verbally.  In fact, we act like Christians without regard for what anyone else thinks.  The reward for this is that our Lord will praise us before his Father in the life to come.  We ought to dwell on this, that the infinite and all-powerful Son of God who died for our sins will praise you and me for the comparatively little things we did for him here on earth!

We have no reason to fear anyone but have every reason to rejoice always (cf. 1 Thessalonians 5, 17).

Saturday in the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time, June 20, 2026

Matthew 6, 24-34

Jesus said to his disciples: “No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span? Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them. If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith? So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear?’ All these things the pagans seek. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides. Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil.”

“No one can serve two masters.”  In our modern world many different masters make demands on us.  Often these conflict with one another.  Men and women engage in demanding careers and then try to still be a spouse and parent.  Many people work more than one job, perhaps a main job and then a side gig that they hope will turn into the main job.  Those with dual citizenships are sometimes cast into difficult situations.  We may pride ourselves on our ability to multi-task, too.  In the end, we have to choose because it is unsustainable to have multiple masters.  Portable phones and computers have aggravated the situation because now we can work or communicate with others in places where our attention ought to be focused on higher priorities. 

The Lord begins to speak on this subject in what seems to us a general way: “No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other.”  We ought to consider the societal context to gain understanding.  When we say “master” today we mean something very different from what the Lord  meant when he used the term.  In the Lord’s day, a “master” was someone who owned slaves.  The slave was dependent on the master for his life, and to disregard his master’s command for another’s was to put his life in jeopardy.  Only if he deeply despised his master could he risk obeying the other man, otherwise the other man represented a threat to his existence and so he would be despised.

“You cannot serve God and mammon.”  The Lord here gives a prime example of what he means by two masters.  The Greek word translated as “serve” here means “to be subject to”, or “to be a slave to”.  Here we see another word that means something entirely different now than it did two thousand years ago.  The Lord is telling us that we are either God’s slaves or mammon’s, that is, the pursuit of wealth.   We can either slave for God or slave for money.  If we slave for God we will enjoy his presence here on earth during our lifetimes, and will enter its ecstasy in heaven.  If we slave for mammon. We may or may not become wealthy, and we will not live long  after we obtain wealth.  Then, because we have rejected God, we will suffer forever.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear.”  The Lord now turns back to explain what it means to accept God as one’s Master.  Because the slave belongs to the master, it is the master’s responsibility to shelter, clothe, and feed him.  Thus, the slave did not have to worry about finding shelter, clothes, or food.  They were provided.  Therefore, the slave need not “worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear.”  The one who belongs to the Lord Jesus has even less worry in this regard, for Jesus is not a harsh master who thinks little of his slaves, but a tender Master who thinks only of his slaves.  In fact, he even calls us “friends” (cf. John 15, 15) though we remain in bondage to him.  “Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?”  That is, we ought to pay little attention to these things.  The Lord will see to them so that we can devote ourselves to our life of serving him.

“Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they?”  This brings to mind these lovely verses from the Psalms: “You have made [man] a little less than the angels, you have crowned him with glory and honor and have set him over the works of your hands. You have subjected all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, moreover, the beasts also of the fields, the birds of the air, and the fishes of the sea” (Psalm 8, 6-9).  

“Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?”  This line in the lectionary does not translate very well the Greek, which says, “Can any of you, being anxious, add one cubit to your stature?”  One of the differences between the two translations is the participle I have translated as “being anxious”.  That is, “being anxious” is a persistent state for someone — he or she is an anxious person.  The lectionary reading implies that “worry” is used as a tool in order to gain a moment of life.  The anxious person is in a worse state than one who can utilize worry.  This is anxious one is Martha, to whom the Lord said, “You are worried and upset about many things” (Luke 10, 41).  He counsels her to follow her sister’s example: to sit at his feet and to listen to his word.  That is, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.”  The “cubit” mentioned in the text would measure between two and three feet, so this would make a substantial increase in height for someone.  It could make a person of average height a giant.  A person can become a giant, but, as the Lord says, an anxious person cannot achieve this.  The one who is the “greatest” will be the servant of all, in the servitude of Jesus Christ, for “whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled: and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted” (Matthew 23, 12) by Almighty God.  

Friday in the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time, June 19, 2026

Matthew 6, 19-23

Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be. The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light; but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness. And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be.”

“For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.”  The Lord Jesus offers us an acute piece of wisdom which enables us, with some ease, to identify our true priorities and to understand the target to which the trajectory of the choices we make will take us.

In Psalm 119, 97, we read: “O how have I loved your law, O Lord! It is my meditation all the day.”  The tense of the verb in the first sentence of the verse is in the perfect, indicating that an action begun in the past has continued into the present where it is completed.  The loving of the law does not mean a single action completed in the past but is continuous to the present time.  In order to accomplish this action a person must be vigilant and concentrated.  No other action may interfere with it or surpass it.  “It is my meditation all the day” tells us the result of this love of the law of God.  Notice that “all the day” does not rule out other activities, but that these would be subordinated to or derive from the meditation.  This preoccupation with the law of God — that is, his nature, his work as Creator, his Divine Providence, the Redemption of the human race, and so on, shows where this person’s heart is because this is his treasure.  

In contrast, Ecclesiastes 5, 11 says: “Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income.”  The one who loves money or devotes himself to fornication, drunkenness, or power never has enough.  The more he has, the more he wants.  These are his treasures.  As Ecclesiastes 4, 8 reflects: There is a man, who has no spouse, no child, no brother, and yet he ceases not to labor, neither are his eyes satisfied with riches, neither does he reflect, saying: For whom do I labor, and defraud my soul of good things?”  Giving in to the drive for more and more makes it almost impossible for a person to realize that the treasures which he seeks are ultimately worthless: “You fool, this night do they require your soul of you. And whose shall those things be which you have obtained?” (Luke 12, 20).  His heart lies in his treasure, which “moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal.”

At what do we spend our time and our attention?  Is it on video games or social media?  On our career or our personal ambitions or those we have for members of our family?  These are our treasures, for these are where our hearts are.  But these are not treasures in heaven.  Ultimately they will fail and we will have nothing to show for having hard them.

But to place our hearts on Jesus Christ and knowing and serving him results in everlasting riches.  We will have no need to ask ourselves, “For whom do I labor, and defraud my soul of good things?”  For we labor for God and receive good things now and in eternity.

Thursday in the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time, June 18, 2026

Matthew 6, 7-15

Jesus said to his disciples: “In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. This is how you are to pray: ‘Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.’ “If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.”

There seem to be two stories of how Jesus teaches the Our Father to his followers.  Here, he teaches it as part of his Sermon on the Mount.  In Luke 11, 1 we read: “And it came to pass that as he was in a certain place praying, when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him: Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.”  Luke then quotes the Lord, who presents a slightly different form of the prayer.  The most sensible way to understand this as that these are two separate occurrences.  The settings and circumstances of the accounts are very distinct.  And it is likely that many people would have asked the Lord how to pray during the course of the three years of his Public Life.

The prayer itself is meant as a sign of the distinction between the followers of John the Baptist, those of the Pharisees, and others, as we can tell from the quote from Luke.  It is not a prayer for the coming of the Messiah, as John would have taught his disciples, nor for worldly goods, as the Pharisees would have taught theirs, but for the Kingdom of God to come.  That is, for the great judgment at the end of the world and the raising up of the just into heaven.  The main intention of the prayer is made clear at the beginning.  After addressing the heavenly, Father, he is blessed: “Hallowed by thy name.”  Then the leading petition, to which all the others are subordinate which relate to it, is made: “[May] thy kingdom come.”  The petition that follows it is akin to it: “[May] thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  That is, the Father’s will is accomplished by the coming of his kingdom.  The Lord instructs us to pray for our “daily bread”, grace and the Holy Eucharist, which will preserve us until God’s kingdom comes.  We pray for the forgiveness of our sins, which we must have in order to enter heaven, which is conditioned upon our forgiveness of others: “If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you.”  The petition translated centuries ago as “Lead us not into temptation” sounds alarming to modern ears.  The Greek says, “Put us not to the test.”  We can learn the meaning of the petition by considering the Lord’s admonition to the Apostles at the Last Supper: “Pray that you be not put to the test” (Matthew 26, 41), that is, their faith.  We are praying for perseverance in our faith in Jesus, come what  may, so that we may enter the Kingdom of God.  “Deliver us from evil”, or, “Deliver us from the evil one” concludes the prayer, for we owe our salvation to God alone, and cannot buy it or earn it on our own.

This prayer that Jesus teaches, emblematic of the Christian, is concise and to the point.  May all of our prayers be like this and not the rambles of lawyers who seek to gain a positive outcome for their clients by clouding the issue at hand with an over abundance of words.

Wednesday in the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time, June  17, 2026

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.