Hey everyone. Welcome back to the Daily
gospel, exegesis podcast. Produced biological Bible study.
Our goal in this podcast, is to help you really understand the
text of the Bible. We do a verse by verse exegesis
into the text of the Gospel reading.
You would hear it today's mass. So, a really helping you
understand, The very words that Jesus used.
What did he mean in his original context?
And we're faithful to the teaching of the church?
We start with the literal sense of the text, which is where we
must start as Catholics. So today's reading is a really
interesting one one, you've probably heard many times but
perhaps one you haven't really thought about it.
And it's quite an important one to understand.
We're in The Sermon on the Mount here.
So Matthew chapter 6, verses 1 to 6 and then verses 16 to 18.
Jesus said to his disciples, be careful, not to parade your good
deeds before men to attract their notice.
By doing this, you will lose all reward from your father in
Heaven. So when you give arms, do not
have a trumpeted before you, this is what the Hypocrites do
in the synagogues and in the streets to win men's admiration,
I tell you solemnly, they have had their reward, but when you
give arms, your left hand, must not know what your right is
doing. Your arms, giving must be secret
and your father, who sees all that is done, in secret will
reward you. And when you pray do not imitate
the Hypocrites, they love to say their prayers standing up in the
synagogues and at the street corners for people to see them.
I tell you solemnly, they have had their reward but when you
pray, go to your private room and when you have shut your
door, pray to your father who is in that secret place and your
father who sees all that is done.
In secret will reward you. When you fast do not put on a
gloomy, look as the Hypocrites. Do they pull long faces to?
Let me know that they are fasting.
I tell you solemnly, they have had their reward but when you
fast put oil on your head and wash your face so that no one
will know that you are fasting except your father who sees all
that he's done in secret and your father, who sees all that
is done. In secret will reward you.
So that's our text for today. A very important one in
understanding, what Jesus expects of Christians.
So we're in The Sermon on the Mount, which is where Jesus
gives an extended sermon across. Matthew, 527, contrasting, what
some people in his time thought righteousness was with what true
righteousness actually is. So the whole sermon is a
teaching on. What does it mean to be truly?
Holy truly righteous. And it's well worth doing a full
study on the entire Sermon on the Mount.
You can hear the entire A sermon during week, 10 11, and 12 of
ordinary time, we go through it verse by verse, as part of this
podcast. So Jesus just before this in the
sermon has said you have heard it said but I say to you so he's
done a whole series of those things.
Now we get to today's text and we need to make a couple of
comments before we get into today's text.
Jesus is going to refer here to a person that he calls a
hypocrite. A hypocrite, can mean different
things in today's society, but in Jesus time and basically
meant, it was a technical term referring to someone who wears a
mask. So it's like a stage actor.
Someone who's playing a role. And in the context of when Jesus
speaks in his sermons, typically a hypocrite is someone who
pretends to be righteous externally.
So by all appearances, they are righteous.
If you were to look at someone a hypocrite, they would appear to
be righteous externally but internally Lee, they're not
righteous. They don't have true
righteousness. So on the outside they might
appear to be righteous but internally they're not and Jesus
primarily refers to the Pharisees as Hypocrites.
Although in his sermon, here he doesn't specifically lists the
Pharisees at every single point. So, certainly, it's true to say
that anyone who does the things in hypocritical way.
Jesus criticism is leveled at them.
Jesus, in today's reading is going to address three different
practices. He wants his disciples to do but
not in the way that the Hypocrites do.
So he's going to talk about three practices a bad way of
doing them and then the right way to do them.
So the three practices are giving arms praying and fasting.
Those are the three that are mentioned today.
Now if those three things sound familiar to you as a Catholic,
there's probably a good reason for that.
So, giving arms praying, and fasting.
Other three, things traditionally, considered to be
the basic Good Deeds that Christians should do in order.
Did you draw closer to God? And in fact, they'll listed in
the Bible as the three things that followers of God should do
to make Penance for their sins. That's in tobert chapter 12
verses 8 to 10. It actually lists those three
and four. Catholics these three things are
very prominent during Lent, which is why this reading is
read on Ash Wednesday. So, Jesus says that for each of
these three things, giving arms praying and fasting.
There's a right way, and a wrong way of doing it.
So, let's Art here at verse 1. Jesus said to his disciples now
that's in our lectionary but it's not in the original.
Jesus is not necessarily speaking to his disciples here.
It looks like he's speaking to a large crowds probably crowds of
people who are interested in being Christian.
Here's what he says first be careful not to parade your good
deeds before men in order to attract their notice another
word there for good. Deeds is piety be careful.
Not to parade your piety before men in order to attract their
noses. Now notice here, let's read the
sentence carefully. Jesus doesn't say be careful not
to do good deeds. That's not what he says.
He says Don't parade your good deeds before men in order to
attract their notice. So Jesus here is not saying
don't let other people see your good deeds.
In fact, elsewhere in Matthew, he says there's a good there's a
time for that. He says that when people see
your good deeds they will see us a shining our light.
And those other people who see our good deeds will glorify God.
So, there's certainly a time and a place Ace for having other
people. See your good deeds as a
Christian but he says don't do good deeds in order to attract
their attention that would be the wrong motive so we can't do
good deeds as Christians in order to attract the notice of
others that would be a wrong motivation and Jesus goes on.
He says, if you do this, you will lose all reward from your
father in Heaven. This is an interesting phrase
reward from your father in Heaven.
This seems to imply that there are different Freeze of reward
in heaven, when you get to the kingdom and those different
metaphors that are used, but when you get to the kingdom of
heaven, the final new heavens and new earth.
The picture we get from the New Testament is some people will
have more rewards than others and that is unpacked, later in
the New Testament. And that does Calment come in to
Catholic teaching even today Jesus, he is says that if a
Christian even someone who is in the Kingdom, if they continually
do acts for self-gain, they lose mirror before.
For God and therefore they lose some of their rewards in heaven.
This is a controversial teaching.
We don't often talk about it. But certainly even for
Christians, your conduct in this life can affect your level of
Merit or rewards in the next life.
And there's lots of good theological writings about this
and certainly it is Jesus own teaching verse 2 when you give
arms. Now arms giving that basically
just means giving money to the poor.
Jews were expected to give money to the poor.
That's in Deuteronomy 15. 11 notice Jesus.
Here assumes that Christians are going to do it.
It's part of basic Christian Duty when you give arms, do not
have a trumpeted before you. So this is a metaphor.
That means attention-seeking, don't give money to the poor.
In order to seek attention, that would be the wrong motive.
Jesus goes on, this is what the Hypocrites do in the synagogues
and in the streets to win admiration or more.
Literally what it says there is that they may be praised by men.
So, In the local synagogues, the Pharisees and other prominent
Jews would come out the front and they would put money in the
Box in order that everyone would see them and say about them.
Ooh isn't that person so wholly. So there would do these good
acts in the synagogues and sometimes on the streets as well
in a very visible way so that everyone would look at them and
realize how holy they are because they wanted to receive
praise from others. This is the problem with the
Pharisees and the other Jewish leaders.
At the time, one of the issues is they're doing these These
things that in and of themselves are good but they're doing them
in order to get praise from others.
And that is a wrong motivation and that does not get you any
Merit before. God Jesus says, I tell you
solemnly or more literally, truly I say to you and whenever
you hear that, that's a flag. That Jesus is about to say
something important, they have had their reward.
So for the Hypocrites who do these things for attention, the
attention of men is their reward.
They've already gotten their reward, they're not going to get
any more rewards from God in heaven.
They lose their Merit before God when they do these things with
selfish motive verse 3, when you give arms your left hand, must
not know what your right hand is doing.
Now, this has to be what we call a hyperbole or an exaggeration.
It's not metaphysically possible for your left hand, to not know
what your right hand is doing. So here we have a clear example
where Jesus is definitely exaggerating in order to make a
point and certainly Jewish teachers in his time, would do
exactly that. What he means when he
exaggerated here, is something like this when you do good, it
must not be so that others will notice just do it in secret as
far as possible. That's basically what he's
trying to say verse for your arms, giving must be secret.
So that's literally what he says next.
Now, sometimes it's not possible for it to be entirely secret.
There will be people who probably see you giving money
just by chance, but Jesus teaching is that As far as
possible, your arms, giving has to be private and secret less
you fall into pride and attention seeking.
If you do this, your father who sees all that is done in secret.
Notice, this is an affirmation of God's omnipotence.
God sees and in fact knows his omniscience.
He sees and knows everything that is done.
Even if other people don't see you giving arms.
God always sees it. Jesus says your father who sees
all that is done, in secret will reward you.
So you can build up merits before God by doing good acts
for the sake of God that is Jesus teaching.
Here verse 5, Jesus turns his attention to prayer.
Nell When you pray do not imitate the Hypocrites.
So once again he's going to tell us how the Hypocrites do it
badly. They love to say their prayers
standing up in the synagogue's now.
The first thing to say here is Jesus is not condemning standing
prayers. That was actually the normal
prayer posture for most of the Jewish history.
So Jesus is not saying don't stand up when you pray, what he
is doing is he's condemning praying in a position.
Ocean where everyone can see them.
So if you can imagine a Pharisee sort of standing up in a high
place so that everyone can see him pray.
Jesus says, you can't do that. So he says they love to say
their prayers standing up in the synagogues and at the street
corners. So the Pharisees and others
would literally stand on the street corners in a very visible
spot, so that everyone who's passing by can look at them and
think. Wow.
Isn't that man, righteous? So they would literally say
their prayers in a visible position.
Because they wanted other people to think that they're righteous.
So the Pharisees in the Jewish leaders in a way, their position
was appointed by God, there did need to be authoritative leaders
of the Jewish people. It's just that by the time of
Jesus, the Pharisees and some of these other Jewish leaders had
missed the point. And in fact, many of them have
become quite selfish and attention-seeking.
And that was the problem. So, Jesus will now tell us how
he expects Christians to pray. When you pray, go to your
private. Ivett room.
Now this is an interesting one and Scholars are a bit divided
on what exactly. This means some people have
looked at this phrase go to your private room and have said well
people didn't have their own bedroom in those days.
They just had kind of a big shared house, so when Jesus says
here you go to your private room, Jesus must mean, it's
private prayer in your heart. Now that could be right that
might be the right interpretation because it's
certainly true that people did not have their own bedrooms, so
they couldn't really go to. Bedroom and closed the door.
However, it does seem that many houses had what was kind of like
a prayer closet. It was a storage room that could
be used as a prayer closet that could actually close the door.
So, many Jewish houses, had essentially a prayer closet.
So, perhaps, Jesus. Here means when you pray go to
your private room, he literally means say your prayers in your
prayer, Closet, in a private room, it could mean, and
certainly an extension of this would be pray in your heart and
certainly both of those. Feel the criteria of not doing
it in public and Jesus says, when you have shut your door.
So the key thing is so when no one can see you doing it, pray
to your father, who is in secret.
So Jesus says when you pray it can't be for attracting
attention. He's not saying, don't pray in
public ever because certainly there's you know, prayer
meetings and things where that's needed, but he's saying that
your general posture of prayer should not be to attract
attention. Pray to your father who is in
secret. So when you're praying, For the
purposes of drawing closer to the father, rather than for
attention. So the whole point of this
section Jesus is making sure that when Christians do these
Pious practices, they have to have the right motivation for
it. If they do they'll develop
righteousness true righteousness.
But if they don't, they'll become less righteous.
That's the basic teaching here. So there was this mentality of
the time that just because you do certain actions, it makes you
more righteous. Will Jesus says actually know
your motive is what counts that is what's To determine whether
you have true righteousness or not.
Pray to your father, who is in secret and your father who sees
all that is done, in secret will reward you.
So that's the end of verse 6. Now, our reading today skips
verse 7 to 15, which is the Our Father prayer.
And of course, the Our Father prayer is an extension of what
Jesus has just been saying about prayer.
So if you want to hear the, Our Father prayer that is read on
Tuesday, a week 1 of Lent and also Thursday of Of week, 11 in
ordinary time. So you can hear both of those if
you look through the podcast archive.
So, choose day of week, 1 of Lent and Thursday of week, 11 in
ordinary time, it's worth studying the Our Father in
depth. So, we now skipped a verse 16
today, which is just after the, Our Father and Jesus is now
going to address fasting. When you fast notice that, that
phrase when you fast, so that implies that Jesus followers are
expected to fast. It's not if you fast, it's when
you fast, we sometimes forget this.
Jesus expects, Christians, too fast.
It's not just part of the old Covenant, do not put on a
gloomy. Look as the Hypocrites do or
more, literally do not look dismal as the Hypocrites.
They pull long faces to let men though.
Know, they are fasting. What it says there literally is.
They Disfigure, their faces to let me know.
They are fasting. So it looks like in this time,
the Pharisees and other Jewish leaders who were being
Hypocrites, when they fasted, which was actually quite often.
That was probably weekly or maybe more than that, they would
do things to their face. They will put ashes on their
face. They would maybe make themselves
look on untidy. So that other people could look
at them and other people would realize this person is fasting.
So again, they're fasting in order to attract attention,
they're making it very obvious to everyone else that they're
fasting. So Jesus says, I tell you
solemnly, they have had their reward.
Pretty strong words there from Jesus.
He says that those who do fasting with a motive to attract
attention has an they have no merit before God, they're only
reward is what is the attention they get from other people in
their lifetime? Jesus says verse 17, when you
fast put oil on your head and wash your face.
So Jesus says, when you're fasting, stay clean and
presentable so that no one is going to suspect that you're
fast. Acting.
It shouldn't be obvious to other people when you're fasting.
It's something you're doing as part of your personal prayer
Devotion to draw closer to God, and it should not be
particularly obvious. And it certainly shouldn't be to
attract the attention of other people.
Put oil on your head and wash your face so that no one will
know you are fasting except your father who sees all that is done
in secret and your father, who sees all that is done, in secret
will reward you. So Jesus point is that, for all
of these good actions, you need to ensure that you do it out of
the right motives which means that as far as possible, God
needs to be the only one knowing you are doing them.
It's a challenge, but it's that's what Jesus wants for
Christians. When you're doing good action,
As far as possible you want to make it so that only go only God
knows what you're doing. And in that way, you can build
up Merit and righteousness of yourself.
So, Jesus has more to say in this speech we've done up to
verse 18. If you want to hear the next
section, verse 19 to 23, which is when Jesus says, do not store
up Treasures for yourselves on Earth, rather store them up in
heaven, you can hear that on Friday of week, 11 in ordinary
time. Now, if we turn to the
catechism, which is a summary of Catholic teaching, there's all
sorts of places where the Sermon on the Mount and particularly
these words get reference, so I'll read out a few of them.
There's quite a lot paragraph, 14 30 is about interior
pennants, Jesus call to conversion and Penance like that
of the prophets before him does not aim.
First at out, Woodworks sack cloth and Ashes, fasting and
mortification. But at the conversion of the
heart into Interior conversion without this, such penances,
remain sterile and false. However, interior conversion
urges expression in visible signs gestures and works of
penance. So, pretty strong Catholic
teaching there, which is that visible signs gestures.
And pendants are important, when they're done with the right
motive, they can bring about interior conversion with the
right motives, but it's not just about performing the external
actions for their own sake. Jesus, does not I'm at outward
works for their own sakes rather he wants out interior conversion
and of course as this passage teaches us it's the motivation
that's going to determine whether that happens or not
paragraph. 1969 is about the new law, the new law practices, the
acts of religion arms, giving prayer and fasting directing
them to the father who sees in secret, in contrast with the
desire to be seen by men. It's prayer is the Our father.
So that's a very good summary of what we've been saying.
Saying here paragraph 1753 is about the sources of morality.
This is a really interesting section about the way that moral
actions are determined a good intention.
For example, that of helping one's neighbor does not make
behavior that is intrinsically disordered such as lying or
calumny, good. Or just the end does not justify
the means, thus the condemnation of an innocent person cannot be
justified as a legitimate means of saving the nation.
On the other hand and added bad intentions such as vainglory
makes an act evil that in. And of itself, can be good such
as arms giving. So, here, the catechism talks
about Matthew chapter 6, as an example, of how motivation can
determine whether an action is overall good or bad.
So that's in a really interesting section of the
catechism, all include, all of these in the episode
description, if you want to look at them paragraph, 2447 is about
love for the poor. The Works of Mercy are
charitable. Double actions by which we come
to the aid of our neighbor in his spiritual and bodily
Necessities, instructing advising consoling comforting, A
Spiritual Works of Mercy as are forgiving and bearing wrongs
patiently. The Corporal Works of Mercy,
consists of specially of feeding the hungry, Sheltering the
homeless clothing, the naked, visiting the sick, and
imprisoned and burying the dead among all these giving arms to
the poor is one of the chief witnesses to Fraternal charity.
It is Also a work of Justice pleasing to God.
So there we see the Catholic teaching echoing Matthew 6, that
giving arms to the poor is an important witness to the faith.
Paragraph 1693 is about life in Christ Christ.
Jesus always did what was pleasing to the father and
always lived in perfect. Communion with him, likewise,
Jesus disciples are invited to live in the side of the father
who sees in secret in order to become perfect.
As your heavenly father is perfect.
So, here's the Catholic teaching that if you're a Christian, you
should be trying to live to please the father because the
father sees all that you do as Jesus says here paragraph 26. 08
is about Jesus teaching us how to pray from The Sermon on the
Mount on words. Jesus insists on conversion of
heart reconciliation, with one's brother.
Before presenting, an offering on the altar love of enemies and
prayer for persecutors prayer to the father in secret.
Not heaping up, empty phrases, prayerful forgiveness from the
depths of the heart, purity of heart and seeking the kingdom
before all else, this filial conversion is entirely directed
to the father. So this catechism reference
tells us that a whole lot of The Sermon on the Mount.
Reminds us about the way we should pray as Christians
paragraph 269 want, we'll make this the last last one.
This is in the section about where are the places that are
favorable for prayer? And the catechism says, for
personal prayer, this can be a prayer corner with the Sacred
Scriptures and icons in order to be there in Secrets before our
father So the verse he would Jesus says go to your private
room and close your door and pray in secret.
The catechism extends that and says it's actually a good idea
to have a private place in your house where you can pray Like a
Prayer Corner. The catechism actually talks
about trying to set up a prayer Corner in your house so I'll
include all those paragraphs in the episode description.
I hope you've learned something new today.
I believe that when you dive into The Sermon on the Mount and
go through it, verse by verse as we are, it'll really open up
what Jesus Has meant in his original context and what he
wants for Christians today. So, if you've learned something
new, please tell other people about this ministry.
Share this podcast with them so that the ministry can continue
to grow and will continue looking at the gospels in the
coming days.