CHAPTER VI — “Take care not to practice your righteousness…”
After they have been instructed in a more perfect righteousness, He now treats of the end (or intention), namely that they are not to do these things for this end, that is, for human favor. And He treats of three virtues — almsgiving, fasting, and prayer — removing from each this false end. He does not forbid that works be done before men, because above He said, “Let your light shine before men” (Matthew 5); but He forbids that they be done with this intention, namely in order to be seen — that is, that they may wish to be seen.
Mt 6:1-2 “When therefore…” Since indeed no righteousness, and therefore not even almsgiving, is to be done for praise, He touches upon the custom of the Jews, who, when they wished to gather the poor, used to sound a trumpet in public places. And this was done especially by hypocrites, who under the appearance of good sought praise. As if He were to say: Do not sound a trumpet — that is, do not make your deeds known and publicize them with this intention, as the hypocrites do, because they have received their reward, namely the reward of praise. Or, some of them have received their reward in hell — that is, a fitting reward.
Mt 6:3-4 “But you…” Because someone might say, “I will do it for both — for eternal good and for human praise,” He forbids this, because God does not suffer a شریک (partner) to Himself. The right hand is the love of heavenly goods; the left hand is the love of temporal goods, namely praise and other such things. Therefore, let not these loves be joined together. And let not the left hand — that is, the seeking of human praise — know what the right hand does — that is, the love and regard for heavenly things.
“That your almsgiving may be in secret,” that is, in a pure conscience, where man does not see, but God alone.
Mt 6:5 “And when you pray…” Those who love to pray standing, as though with great effort, in synagogues — that is, in the corners of the streets. He notes two kinds of hypocrites: some who pray openly in public in order to be seen, such as those who pray in synagogues where there is a whole assembly of people; and others who, although they pray in public, nevertheless pretend to wish to be hidden, while in fact they wish to be seen — such as those who pray in the streets but in the corners.
Mt 6:6 “But you, when you pray, enter into your chamber…” Literally, this is good to do; yet it is more fittingly understood as the chamber of secret conscience. In this chamber there must not be a quarrelsome wife — that is, carnality — which disturbs and causes the mind to wander outward, not allowing it to rest. Therefore it must be subdued and restrained, lest it disturb and quarrel.
But it is not possible to withdraw into the chamber unless the door is shut, lest the crowd of phantasms enter. The doors are the five bodily senses, and especially fear and earthly love. For through these two doors enter all the phantasms of sins, which must be closed.
Mt 6:16 “But when you fast, do not become…” He had spoken of almsgiving and prayer, that if they are affected by the desire for human favor, etc. In like manner now He admonishes concerning fasting. He does not forbid the sadness of penitence, for “a contrite and humbled heart God will not despise” (Psalm 50/51), but He forbids sadness through hypocrisy. For if a wolf puts on the skin of a sheep, the sheep is not therefore to be deprived of its own skin.
“They disfigure,” that is, they destroy their faces by paleness and emaciation. They disfigure their faces — taken from exiles, that is, they make their faces pale and wasted beyond the measure of true penitents, but with this intention, that they may appear just to men.
Mt 6:17 “But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face…” He has taught what is not to be done; now He teaches what is to be done. “Anoint your head.” Banqueters, as Horace says, are accustomed to anoint their faces. And it was the custom of the Palestinians to anoint the head and wash the face on festive days, in order to represent the joy of the day; and with oil they were accustomed to refresh the flesh and make it cheerful.
Therefore it is not to be believed that God commanded those who fast to do what belongs to the luxurious and pleasure-loving, but He spoke metaphorically. Therefore those troublesome interpreters are false in both extremes, who wish to take nothing literally in the Old Testament and nothing allegorically in the New.
Here two fasts are noted: one of joy, the other of sadness. The fast of sadness is for sins; the fast of joy is when the contemplative, thinking on God, is so delighted that he even forgets the eating of temporal food.
Therefore He commands: “When you fast, wash your face,” that is, your conscience, in which God knows you, by fasting for sins. Or anoint with the oil of the Holy Spirit your head — that is, your mind — delighting in God and rejoicing. The order there is reversed; therefore, wash the face, anoint the head, lest when you fast you appear to fast for the praise of men.
Mt 6:18 “Who is in secret,” that is, in His eternity, invisible. “Sees in secret,” that is, in the conscience.
CONTINUE
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