NOTES for Mat 6:1-15

Every action must have a definite goal, and more than that, this goal is reached: the one who loves for show, in order to earn respect and honor, easily reaches his goal - he "has already received his reward." But the one who loves in secret, even from himself, so much that his "left hand does not know" about it, that is, inwardly, in the depth of the heart where even a person's own consciousness does not always penetrate, all the more receives "repayment," that is, reaches his goal.

And it seems that the Gospel, the good news, consists precisely in this promise that the goal will be reached, even if our left hand never finds out about it. Christ promises that compassion, participation in another person's life, will reach that person's heart, that the one who seeks God will manage to be alone with Him in his closet, behind a closed door.

Preparation for Lent concludes with a reading of Christ's words, handed down to us by the evangelist Matthew, about what fasting and prayer are. In the Sermon on the Mount the Lord tells His disciples that fasting and prayer have meaning only in secret from people. Only when they become events in your deeply personal relationship with God and are visible to no one except God - only then do fasting and prayer have meaning. The Lord warns us about the subtle temptation to "appear to people to be fasting." In this time of fasting, our enemy really does tempt us with the desire to appear so that those around us will think (even if not out loud): "Ah, how devout, practically a saint..." This "Ah!" destroys the whole meaning of fasting. "Rend your hearts and not your garments," as we heard from the prophet Joel (Joel 2:13).

And today the Lord also speaks to us about prayer: do not heap up words like the Gentiles. Neither the length of a prayer nor the number of words said in it means anything. Only the movement of the soul toward God gives prayer its value. And today's reading ends with the Lord's Prayer. The apostles had the custom of saying this prayer three times a day: morning, noon, and evening. Without doubt, the apostles prayed beyond that, but these three times became for Christians a kind of spiritual frame on which the whole day - and all of life - rests.

Prayer, as the highest form of communion, contains many different components. Somewhat conventionally, we divide them into thanksgiving, praise, and petition. Someone may offer another classification or suggest other types of prayerful speech; here nothing defines anything completely, just as no scheme fully applies to the living current of life. But this is what today's reading reminds us of. The Lord calls us to brevity in prayer, and at first glance this appears to contradict the whole practice of long services and extensive prayer rules. It would contradict them, if not for the words: for your Father knows what you need. That is, when speaking about prayer, the Lord has only petitionary prayer in mind. Why, if He Himself so loves to pray from the Psalter, where there is so much praise and so many other expressions of the spirit of a person's communion with God? It appears to us that this is full of deep meaning and is not accidental at all. We sometimes rank petitionary prayer below the others; it appears to us that asking for something means humiliating ourselves. We are accustomed to relying on ourselves, especially now in today's world, when so much is accessible to human powers. But in reality, and Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh writes about this, petitionary prayer is a very important prayer; perhaps it is even more important than the others, and the text of today's reading reminds us of this. But here is the question: how should we ask, in order to raise petitionary prayer to such a height? The answer to this question is contained in the priceless treasure that is the Lord's Prayer, in which the element of petition is very strong precisely in this highest sense. One recalls Metropolitan Anthony's conversation with an atheist woman. She said that in the Lord's Prayer she could accept everything except the words "and lead us not into temptation" - a sign of weakness, she said. And when we think little of petitionary prayers, we act like that woman. In these moments let us remember the revelation of the apostle Paul: "...for My power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor 12:9).

God Himself never forces His mercy on anyone. Even His coming into this world takes place simply as the birth of an earthly Child. If we are called to become like His perfection (Mt 5:48), then our mercy and piety too must be neither showy nor intrusive, but a joyful expression of our hidden relationship with the heavenly Father.

Each of us can recall many examples of how setting aside a small share from the surplus of wealth became a form of self-advertising. One is tempted to speak about such people in the sharpest terms. Much can be said about crumbs that cannot satisfy all who are in need, and about laundering unjust income through showy charity...

But we should also not forget that Christ advises us not only to avoid sounding a trumpet when giving alms, but even tells the right hand to give alms secretly from the left. It is no accident that from ancient times the most honored kind of almsgiving was secret almsgiving, when only the Heavenly Father knew the name of the one who had done the good deed. But even this is not enough, because one can sound a trumpet not only in synagogues or in the streets or on television, but also inside oneself, not always noticeably to others, when we boast to ourselves and take tender delight in our own generosity and virtue. At the same time, we begin to take special pleasure in contrasting our genuine almsgiving with someone else's ostentatious kind.

It is much harder to refrain from that kind of self-admiration, but we must remember it, so that the charity that comes from us does not serve to cultivate pride and self-satisfaction in us.

There are various ways to interpret these well known words. Firstly we can understand them in such a way, that when we give alms with our left hand, we should not calculate how many we have already given before with the right hand. Secondly we can understand in such a way, that the right hand is responsible for receiving, earning money, and when we give alms with our left hand, there is no point to remember how much money we have in total. Thirdly we can also understand these words allegorically: the left hand (from the heart) stands for love, alms; and the right hand stands for righteousness, justice and truth. Then it can be a question of relationship with people here in the general view and not of alms; let love and truth not hinder one another, but complement each other. We have to choose interpretation depending on how we are directed by the Holy Spirit; - you know any reading of the Scripture will be ineffective without Holy Spirit’s guidance.

Just as He rejects ostentatious almsgiving, Christ rejects demonstrative prayer and tells those who pray to shut themselves in their room. Does this mean that any prayer in the presence of other people falls under His disapproval?

Such a conclusion would be hasty, since He Himself prayed in the presence of many people and did not forbid His disciples to do so. Words of disapproval do not and cannot apply to genuine, sincere prayer that directs the soul toward meeting God. It is another matter when religious formalism turns into showy piety, when public prayer becomes an element of etiquette, deprived of inner fire. Prayer without faith becomes meaningless.

The same is true of many words in prayer. This does not mean that prayer has to be short, but its strength does not depend on its length. Someone compared standing in prayer to shooting a bow, which requires concentration. Prayer may be long, but purposeful; therefore unnecessary words can weaken it, or even destroy it.

From Christ's words that the Heavenly Father sees our needs even before we ask, people often conclude that there is no need to ask Him: He will give anyway. In fact, He does give us much regardless of our requests. But it is sad if we look at Him only as a supplier of gifts while avoiding entering into a relationship with Him that is filled with something greater.

To help us learn this better, Christ gave us the prayer "Our Father" as a model for our prayer. We can repeat its words and meditate on them every day.

Jesus Christ firmly rejects any manifestations of “spirituality for show” in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus rebukes the Pharisees exactly for this, and particularly the aspiration to expose spiritual life before men appears to be Pharisees’ most typical symptoms. The Lord tells the disciples that whatever, even the most serious things – like prayer and alms – lose sense if they are not fulfill for God’s sake. We should pay attention to our own hearts when reading these words: We should resist Pharisaism first of all in ourselves.

God opposes pharisaic ostentatious piety with such prayer that testimonies only God alone. Praying secretly, communicating with God not for “show “, we find God Himself in such unbelievable closeness, which nobody would have ever imagine himself. To be in private with God is a new covenant astonishing gift and Christian astonishing vocation. It is necessary to remember this invitation to pray the Father in secret when we read these words of Jesus about almsgiving, loving your neighbors, serving people. God calls exactly this communication with Him in private the rock on which all Christian life is based.

Besides it is necessary to notice that late versions of Byzantine Gospel add superfluous word: “render to you plainly”. There is not this word in ancient manuscripts; this means requital consists most likely not in obvious prosperity (what Pharisees thought obligatory). It is remarkable and very important that Jesus Christ doesn’t speak at all about what God’s answer consists of; because it has no value for love; the meaning of the answer in love is inside the answer itself.

In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus Christ decisively rejects every display of "spirituality for show." In fact, this is precisely what He rebukes the Pharisees for, and this desire to put one's spiritual life on display turns out to be the most characteristic symptom of Pharisaism. The Lord tells His disciples that anything, even the most serious things, such as prayer and almsgiving, loses its meaning if it is done not for God's sake. Reading these words, we can pay attention to our own heart: we must resist Pharisaism first of all in ourselves.

The Lord contrasts Pharisaic ostentatious piety with prayer witnessed by God alone. Praying in secret, communing with God not for show, we find God Himself in an incredible nearness no one could ever have imagined. To be alone with God is an astonishing gift of the New Covenant and an astonishing calling of Christians. When we read Christ's words about almsgiving, about love for neighbors, about service to people, it is important to remember this call to pray to the Father who is in secret. The Lord calls precisely this communion with God alone the rock on which the entire life of a Christian is founded.

In addition, it must be noted that later Byzantine versions of the Gospel add an extra word: "He will reward you openly." In the ancient manuscripts this word is absent. This means that the reward most likely does not consist in visible prosperity, the very thing the Pharisees considered obligatory. It is remarkable and very important that Christ does not say at all what God's answer consists of. For love, this does not matter. The meaning of the answer in love is contained in the answer itself.

The context, in which these words of the Savior are said, is clear: Jesus sharply objects spirituality for show specific to Pharisees (prayer, alms, fasting). Certainly, it is important for us to hear this, because we also – oh as it is not indifferent, whether people notice that we are high-spirituals. But if we step aside a little from this context, then we can see again two typical cases, when these words fall the cap fits.

One case – when we limit our devotional life by situations of common prayer. We promptly attend church services, other prayer meetings, but there is no personal, intimate prayer. We put the church, the community intermediary between God and us, being fenced off from excessive closeness to Him. But indeed intermediaries cannot be in love and excessive closeness cannot be also! Jesus reminds us today of this.

The second variant - is when we are so filled by our personal problems that we perceive any prayerful situation as a reason to lay out at once all these problems to God. Then we don’t listen attentively to worship service when being in Church, we don’t pray together with others, we think only of our own and ask only about our own, breaking down the prayerful unity of the assembly. Jesus’ words turn out to be a hint: There is a place, where to bring all our problems to God – it is our personal, “home” prayer. The church has been created for our communal standing before God.

Jesus, in essence, makes a revolution in the understanding and practice of prayer. It turns out that God has no need at all of our prayer requests. Moreover, the one who asks also does not need prayer. Someone may object: "Well, everything is clear with God, but people, when they pray, sometimes grasp their needs more clearly by putting them into words, and in a peaceful state become aware of their inner needs - as, generally speaking, their outer needs as well. In the end, prayer often serves precisely as a source of resolve to pursue conscious and clearly defined goals." All of this can be acknowledged as true to some degree, but such inner self-reflection can no longer really be called prayer - rather, meditation with elements of verbalization.

Still, meditation (in the sense of reflection or in the sense of silence) is not such a useless thing. But it too should have as its content not so much our isolated psychic life as the openness of heart and mind toward God and the circumstances of life. And the emphasis here should be placed precisely on God, who gives perspective and space to human life.

Jesus is speaking precisely of prayer as the striving of the whole human being toward God - the Source and Foundation of all. And the only real goal of prayer understood this way is to gain inner sensitivity to the movements of the Spirit, who alone makes people co-workers and like-minded friends of the God revealed in Christ. In that case every Christian man or woman receives the possibility of taking part in building His Kingdom and fulfilling His will, and therefore of realizing his or her calling and gifts, receiving His forgiveness and freedom, and giving them to those near us who are deprived of them.

The first three verses of the "Our Father," the Lord's Prayer, in a sense speak about the same thing - the Kingdom. A kingdom is the King's domain. We ask that our world belong more fully to the King, that there be more of God in it. In the Kingdom the King is glorified, His name is hallowed, people pray to Him and call upon Him to judge. In the Kingdom people do the will of the King and obey Him...

Even when we say these words thoughtfully, not mechanically, we perceive them abstractly because we apply them to the whole world and not to ourselves. But Christ says that His Kingdom is within us. And we can ask while thinking that this Kingdom is to be the Church: I, you, all of us saying these words together. For this, His name must be hallowed in me, in you, in us; I, you, we together must do His will. If after the Eucharist we say these words together in exactly this way, maybe the Kingdom of God will draw near, take up more room in our heart, and become more clearly visible in the Church.

Forgiveness Sunday is one of the most remarkable days in the church year. And the old custom comes to mind: when someone asks for forgiveness, to answer, "God will forgive." To a modern person these words grate on the ear. That is the fate of language. But I think our ancestors had no less spirituality than we do, and so let us think about this once more.

We do not value these words because we treat God's forgiveness too easily, as though it were something self-evident because of His great mercy. We say to ourselves: a person, yes, can forgive or can refuse to forgive, and so when we ask for forgiveness we want to hear not "God will forgive," but "I forgive you." And here precisely we must remember the words of today's Gospel reading: if you forgive people their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive people their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. In other words, the situation turns back on you yourself (and that is how it should always be in life!).

But what do we know about forgiveness? At times a person is guided by the common saying: I forgive everyone who owes me. But seriously, in reality the first true teacher of forgiveness is, of course, Joseph, who forgave his brothers. Let us learn from the great teachers.

And I would like to say one more thing. It is no accident at all that the words about forgiveness are joined here in the text with words about asceticism. These two aspects of life have the deepest connection, which can be pictured this way: fasting - humility, in the biblical sense and not the everyday one - the suppression of pride - forgiveness.