How does the sermon distinguish public display from the stated purpose of justice?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The chapter joins secrecy in alms, prayer and fasting with the full prayer, forgiveness, treasure and the priority of God’s kingdom.

Chapter breakdown

Continuing the sermon, Jesus warns against doing justice before others for the purpose of being seen, else there is no reward from the heavenly Father. The separate note calls fasting, prayer and alms works of justice, to please God rather than people. Alms should not be trumpeted like hypocrites seeking honor in synagogues and streets; they have already received their reward. The left hand should not know the right’s deed, keeping alms secret before the Father who repays. Prayer likewise avoids ostentatious standing in synagogues and street corners. Entering a chamber and shutting its door, one prays secretly to the Father. Heathen confidence in much speaking is rejected because the Father knows needs before the request.

Jesus gives the prayer to the heavenly Father: hallowed name, coming kingdom, will done on earth as in heaven, today’s supersubstantial bread, forgiveness of debts as debtors are forgiven, not being led into temptation and deliverance from evil, concluding amen. The separate bread annotation says Luke renders the same word daily bread and understands it as the bread of life received in the Blessed Sacrament; it does not add a separate dual nourishment interpretation. The temptation note interprets the petition as not being overcome by temptation. Jesus says forgiving others’ offenses brings the Father’s forgiveness, and refusing forgiveness brings its refusal.

Fasting must not imitate hypocrites’ sad, disfigured faces intended for public notice, whose reward is already received. Anointing the head and washing the face directs the fast toward the Father in secret, who repays. Jesus contrasts earthly treasure consumed by rust and moth or stolen with heavenly treasure beyond those losses; the heart is where treasure is. He calls the eye the body’s light: a single eye makes the whole body lightsome, an evil eye makes it darksome, and darkness in what should be light is great. The image is retained without assigning single and evil new definitions of generosity and covetousness. No one serves two masters, hating one and loving the other or sustaining one and despising the other; God and mammon cannot both be served. The separate note defines mammon as riches and worldly interest.

Jesus tells his hearers not to be solicitous for life’s food or the body’s clothing: life exceeds food and the body clothing. Birds neither sow, reap nor store in barns, yet the Father feeds them; his hearers are worth more. Thought cannot add a cubit to stature. Field lilies neither labor nor spin, yet even Solomon’s glory was less arrayed. If God clothes grass present today and burned in an oven tomorrow, how much more those of little faith. He repeats the questions of food, drink and clothing, noting heathen pursuit of these and the Father’s knowledge of need. He tells them to seek God’s kingdom and justice first and says these things will be added. Tomorrow is not to occupy today’s solicitude: each day has sufficient evil. These are the sermon’s statements, without presenting a clinical cure for anxiety or inventing a specified guarantee of every earthly circumstance.

The story inside

The warning targets actions performed to be seen. The prayer and three separate notes retain their own wording. Birds, lilies, stature and grass develop the concluding instruction without becoming medical treatment claims.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Retain Luke’s translation comparison in the bread note.
2
Eye imagery and mammon’s explicit definition remain distinct.
3
Do not convert the sermon’s instruction into a promised clinical outcome.

Test your recall

What comparison does the note make between Matthew’s bread word and Luke’s rendering?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 110894–110962
Matthew Chapter 6 A continuation of the sermon on the mount. 6:1. Take heed that you do not your justice before men, to be seen by them: otherwise you shall not have a reward of your Father who is in heaven. Your justice.... that is, works of justice; viz., fasting, prayer, and almsdeeds; which ought to be performed not out of ostentation, or a view to please men, but solely to please God. 6:2. Therefore when thou dost an alms-deed, sound not a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be honoured by men. Amen I say to you, they have received their reward. 6:3. But when thou dost alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth. 6:4. That thy alms may be in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret will repay thee. 6:5. And when ye pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites, that love to stand and pray in the synagogues and corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men: Amen I say to you, they have received their reward. 6:6. But thou when thou shalt pray, enter into thy chamber, and having shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret, and thy father who seeth in secret will repay thee. 6:7. And when you are praying, speak not much, as the heathens. For they think that in their much speaking they may be heard. 6:8. Be not you therefore like to them for your Father knoweth what is needful for you, before you ask him. 6:9. Thus therefore shall you pray: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. 6:10. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 6:11. Give us this day our supersubstantial bread. Supersubstantial bread.... In St. Luke the same word is rendered daily bread. It is understood of the bread of life, which we receive in the Blessed Sacrament. 6:12. And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. 6:13. And lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from evil. Amen. Lead us not into temptation.... That is, suffer us not to be overcome by temptation. 6:14. For if you will forgive men their offences, your heavenly Father will forgive you also your offences. 6:15. But if you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your offences. 6:16. And when you fast, be not as the hypocrites, sad. For they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Amen I say to you, they have received their reward. 6:17. But thou, when thou fastest anoint thy head, and wash thy face; 6:18. That thou appear not to men to fast, but to thy Father who is in secret: and thy Father who seeth in secret, will repay thee.
Lines 110964–111017
6:19. Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth: where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through, and steal. 6:20. But lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven: where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal. 6:21. For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also. 6:22. The light of thy body is thy eye. If thy eye be single, thy whole body shall be lightsome. 6:23. But if thy eye be evil thy whole body shall be darksome. If then the light that is in thee, be darkness: the darkness itself how great shall it be! 6:24. No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Mammon.... That is, riches, worldly interest. 6:25. Therefore I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than the meat: and the body more than the raiment? 6:26. Behold the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns: and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not you of much more value than they? 6:27. And which of you by taking thought, can add to his stature one cubit? 6:28. And for raiment why are you solicitous? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they labour not, neither do they spin. 6:29. But I say to you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of these. 6:30. And if the grass of the field, which is to day, and to morrow is cast into the oven, God doth so clothe: how much more you, O ye of little faith? 6:31. Be not solicitous therefore, saying: What shall we eat: or what shall we drink, or wherewith shall we be clothed? 6:32. For after all these things do the heathens seek. For your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. 6:33. Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you. 6:34. Be not therefore solicitous for to morrow; for the morrow will be solicitous for itself. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.