Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to
be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. Therefore, when
you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites
do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men.
Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But
when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right
hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in
secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.
The Model Prayer
“And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For
they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets,
that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But
you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door,
pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your
Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do
not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they
will be heard for their many words.
“Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the
things you have need of before you ask Him. In
this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Today’s blog deals with
Matthew 6:1-13, the account of which you can read above. The Church prepares us
for the Great Fast by outlining the need for our spiritual renew and to reject
the ways of the world. Today when a natural disaster or an affair occurs the
first thing people will do is announce that they are supporting the cause and
to make a large show of support. We are seeing this today with the Russian-Ukraine
Crisis and the support for both sides. People rush to make their intentions
known to not be called out for being on the wrong side and to receive the glory
of being on the side that everyone supports. However, this is foreign to the
Orthodox Christian because we are called to do our works in secret. We do not expect to receive great rewards
from people here on Earth because of our actions. Satisfaction should be enough
that we will be recognized by God for our actions. Christ also outlines the way for us to pray. I’ve
spoken before on prayer on this blog, but we will revisit the subject again
today for the purpose of this reading. Finally, we will talk about the goal of
all of this and how it impacts our lives.
Christ within this passage
of Scripture is talking directly to those who follow Him. He is doing away with
the old and ushering in a new wave of spirituality, one that was and is foreign
to the way of the world. Those who performed charitable acts, just like today
would often announce the act before they performed it to draw a large crowd and
receive the applause and admiration of the admiring public. When a celebrity
donates money towards a charitable cause or starts a foundation to help the underprivileged,
they will most of the time make a big display on social media and in public
announcing its arrival or the amount of money contributed, and it will be broadcast
on the news stations. As stated in the opening paragraph, this is foreign to true
Christianity, because as Christ says, “do not let your left hand know what your
right hand is doing.” Giving to charitable causes that are based in morally righteous
causes is itself not a bad thing. In fact, it is the job of the Church to take
care of the underprivileged and misfortunate who cannot take care of themselves.
We see this in Acts with the distribution of the food to the widows. However, we have failed in this and have
allowed the government, especially in the West, to take this role from us and
allow them to promote unscrupulous causes like abortion and homosexuality. When
was the last time any of us, were involved in a soup kitchen, a campaign, or
taking the time to do something nice for someone without expecting something in
return? Many of us will admit that we always want to be compensated for our work
and want to be honored among men. However, Christ would call us hypocrites! Woe
to us! When we take dinner to a family or buy groceries or a meal for someone in
line at the store, we should not expect any compensation. We should do our jobs
in the same manner. Yes, a salary is nice, but a salary will not matter when we
get to heaven. Our impact on the lives of those we touched will. In this same vein
I am reminded of the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man. The Rich Man, saw Lazarus
every day at his gate, and yet never invited him inside to dine at his table. The Rich Man eventually was condemned for his
actions and suffered eternal torment in the fires of Gehenna. Our actions
define our character. I pray that our actions become pleasing to God and that
we accept Christ to work in our lives and to tune out the wiles of the devil.
Secondly Christ causes us
to prayer. The Church is a Church of Prayer, and we must do as our Lord commands.
Prayer should come from the heart, not of the mind. When we intellectually place
our own thoughts and feelings into prayer, we lose the focus of what the heart
of the matter is. That is why Christ calls us to go to our inner room, our
inner sanctum and to close out all distractions that might impede us in our
prayer. He also calls us to not use lofty words and repetitions. While repeating
a phrase repeatedly is perfectly fine, especially when saying the Jesus Prayer,
it is more about tuning our hearts and minds to the will of God. People love to
call continuously on the name of Jesus or to call God father, but during their prayer
they are focused on what they want, and what God can give them. Prayer is never to be used solely for our needs,
but is to be used for repentance, forgiveness, and spiritual growth. I am again
reminded of another passage of scripture the Church has placed in our path
before Great Lent, that of the Publican and the Pharisee. The Publican in his humility
did not ask anything of God, except for mercy, whereas the Pharisee praised
himself and was condemned. The Pharisee used prayer for his own means. Many
people do this today during prayer they want people to glorify them in how well
they speak, how much knowledge they have and how righteous they are in the eyes
of man. But this is delusion. Prayer is our open communication with God. Just
like any good relationship, communication is the best way to develop a
relationship with God. It is the way our Father speaks to us and we speak to
our Father. We might not know the words to say or the things to speak and that’s
why the Church gives us written prayers to use because they help focus our
minds on what’s important.
These two aspects of the
scripture that has been read today is important to understand. I do not claim
to know all the answers or have the spirituality that many of the saints had. I
am simply speaking from my heart. We are approaching the Great Fast and we must
prepare our hearts to receive the King of All. Great Lent is a 10th
of the year, a tithe of our year to the Lord. We are called to holiness, to be
set apart from the world. Without these two aspects of faith that I have
mentioned above, we cannot be set apart. We are no different than those who reject
Christ. Let us pray that our actions be pleasing to the Lord and we are set on
the narrow path towards salvation.
Amen.
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