God deals with us, He deals with us in this world, that nothing of ours may perish in the world to come: as shines forth from the very beginning of the reading. 'Take heed,' He says, 'that you do not do your justice before men, to be seen by them: otherwise you shall have no reward with your Father who is in heaven' (Matt. 6:1). And how is it that what is done by men before men is not done? What is hidden of a manifest justice, what is secret of a public work? He who can conceal the rays of the sun will be able to hide the splendor of justice. Justice is the light of things; it is not veiled by dark designs. Justice, when it shines by its own deed, enlightens all by its example. And what is it that the Lord does not will to be done before men, through which human affairs receive their stability?
And where is that saying: 'So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven' (Matt. 5:16)? How does He will to conceal justice, whose works He wills so to shine forth? Brethren, here the heavenly precept wills to take away boasting, to remove pomp, to strip off vanity, to put away vainglory: thus it wills to conceal justice. Justice, which of itself abounds unto glory, does not seek the spectacle of the crowd, the praises of the mob, the favors of men, the glory of the world: born of God, it looks to heaven; it acts in the divine eyes; mingled with the powers above, it ever awaits to be glorified by God alone. But this is the justice which is from God;
but that justice which is hypocrisy is no justice: it lies to the eyes, deceives the sight, mocks the beholders, deceives the hearers, seduces the crowds, draws the peoples, sells reputation, buys applause, is done for the world, not for God, snatches the present reward, seeks no prize in the future, blind of eye, itself blind and seeing nothing, wills to be seen: on account of which blindness Christ thus begins in the present precept. 'Take heed.' That is, do not be eager to be observed. 'Do not do your justice before men.' Why? 'That you may not be seen by them.' And if you shall have been seen, what then? 'You shall have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.'
Brethren, here the Lord does not condemn, but expounds; He lays open the deceits of thoughts, He bares the secrets of minds; to those who handle justice unjustly He appoints the measure of a just recompense. Justice, which sets itself before human eyes, cannot await the reward of the divine Father: it willed to be seen, and it is seen; it willed to please men, and it pleased; it has the reward it willed; the prize it willed not to have, it shall not have. But for what cause these things were premised, let us hear from what follows. 'When you do alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do.' Well does He say 'trumpet,' for such almsgiving is hostile, not civil, not devoted to mercy but to clamor: a slave-born thing of sedition, not a nursling of piety;
a hawking of ostentation, not a commerce of charity. Whoever displays his almsgiving, insults. 'You, therefore,' He says, 'when you do alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be glorified by men. Amen I say to you, they have received their reward.' You shall hear how He marks the almsgiving in the assembly, in the squares, at the crossroads, given not for the relief of the poor, but set forth for the favor of men, so that they are found to be selling mercy, not bestowing it. Hypocrisy is to be fled, to be fled, brethren, which, being a captive of glory, does not relieve the shame of the poor but wearies it, and seeks from the groan of the needy the pomp of its own boasting, which spreads its own praise out of the poor man's grief;
which spreads the fame of its own display out of the misery of the one who begs. But someone says: 'Then in the assembly, in the squares, at the crossroads is mercy to be denied? Is sustenance not to be offered?' Plainly, both in every place and at every time mercy is to be done, sustenance is to be offered, nakedness is to be clothed; but so as the Author of mercy taught, that the mercy may be known not to earth but to heaven; not made known to men, but to God. In the squares, at the crossroads, piety has its own secret: on the contrary, it is a public square, it is a crossroads, when in secret the hypocrite does nothing secret. Brethren, God by His admonition thus blames the wheel, not the places; the intent, not the works; the eagerness, not the giver: He arraigns the one who is bountiful for his own fame, not for the poor man's hunger;
He judges not where you do it, when you do it, but how you do it: for God measures deeds from hearts, not from hands; and from the intent, not from the places of the works, He gathers their quality. He wills mercy to be done before Himself alone, who alone is both the rewarder and the witness of mercy; and who says: 'I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat' (Matt. 25:35). He wills it to be given to Himself in the poor: and He who wills it given to Himself, wills that what is given be owed to Him; and He who wills that what is given be owed, wills that nothing perish for the bountiful. God asks small things, being about to repay the greatest. Wherefore, O man, if in the poor you lend to God, do not require men as witnesses: faith requires no arbiters. He argues about the faith of the receiver, who gives nothing without mediators;
who defames what has been entrusted, burns his debtor with shame. Therefore, O man, about to give to God, give in secret; that what you shall have given may not be of burden, but of honor. For this cause your Enricher comes to you in the poor, that you may not doubt to render back what you have received, since it is He who by His grace gave you to have what you might give. But how modest is the poverty in the poor man, who seeks the secrecy of your bounty, he himself makes plain, when he says: 'But when you do alms, let not your left hand know what your right hand does.' Do you think how much he wills another not to know, who wills you yourself who do it not to know in some part of yourself? 'Let not your left hand know what your right hand does.' As we have the virtues in the right-hand part, so the part of vices is on our left.
Therefore, as it is the work of the right hand what the silent giver does, so what the garrulous giver does is the hypocrisy of the left. Hypocrisy, deceit, dissimulation, fraud, lying, arrogance, swelling, boasting press upon us, and threaten from the left. As often, therefore, as we have a cause of goodness, of piety, of mercy, let the left hand not know it. The left is that which ever declares against us the battles of souls, and labors that the virtues may not come into effect. That there may be no piety, impiety works; that almsgiving may not conquer, cupidity fights; avarice rages, that mercy may not grow strong; that innocence, purity, simplicity, holiness may not reign, hypocrisy alone gives battle, which Christ shuts out from us by such a proclamation:
'But when you do alms, let not your left hand know what your right hand does.' Brethren, in this world let us flee the things that are on the left, if in the world to come we desire to stand on the right, and to hear: 'Come, blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom, which was prepared for you from the foundation of the world' (Matt. 25:34). O man, give on earth to the poor, what you will to have remain for you in heaven. O man, be a fellow-soldier here to the poor, if you will to reign there with the same our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed unto the ages of ages. Amen.