Sermon 54

SERMO 54

ON WHAT IS WRITTEN IN THE GOSPEL MT 5, 16:
"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven."
And in reply, Matthew 6:1:
"Take heed that you do not do your righteousness before men, to be seen by them."

Rules seemingly contradictory.

It often moves many, dearest ones, that our Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel Sermon, after first having said: "Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven," later said: "Take heed that you do not do your righteousness before men, to be seen by them." For the mind of one who understands little, and who certainly wishes to obey the precept, is disturbed and stretched by diverse and opposing things. For as no one can obey even one master that commands contradictory things, so no one can serve two masters: which the Savior himself attested to in the same Sermon. What, therefore, will a wavering soul do, when it thinks that it cannot obey, and fears not obeying? For if he places his good works in the light for men to see, so that he may do what is commanded: "Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven," he will consider himself guilty, because he acted against the precept where it is said: "Take heed that you do not do your righteousness before men, to be seen by them." And again, if fearing and avoiding this, he hides the things he does well, he will not think he is serving the one commanding and saying: "Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works."

The Apostle fulfills each commandment.

Whoever understands correctly fulfills both and will serve the most universal Lord, who would not condemn a lazy servant if He commanded things that could by no means be done. For listen to Paul, the servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an Apostle, separated for the Gospel of God, both doing and teaching. See how his light shines before men, so that they see his good works. "We commend ourselves," he says, "to every man's conscience in the sight of God": and again: "For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of man": and again: "Please everyone in everything, just as I try to please everyone in everything." See again how he is careful not to do his righteousness before men, to be seen by them. "Let each one test his own work," he says; "and then he will have glory in himself alone, and not in another": and again: "For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience": and that which nothing is clearer: "If I were still trying to please men," he says, "I would not be a servant of Christ." But lest anyone of those who are troubled by what seem like conflicting precepts of the Lord Himself should bring up the question even more, and say: "How do you say: please everyone in everything, just as I try to please everyone in everything: and yet say: if I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ?" May the Lord Himself be present, who also spoke in His servant and Apostle, and open to us His will, and grant us the capacity to obey.

The two precepts are reconciled.

The very words of the Gospel indeed carry their own expositions along with them; nor do they close the mouths of the hungry, because they feed the hearts of those who knock. Indeed, the intention of the human heart, where it is directed and to what it is focused, must be considered. For if someone who wants his good works to be seen by men places his glory and advantage before men, and seeks this in their sight, he has fulfilled none of the things the Lord commanded concerning this matter: because he also does justice in front of men to be seen by them, and his light did not shine before men in such a way that they would see his good works and glorify his Father who is in heaven. For he wanted to glorify himself, not God; and he sought his own benefit, not the will of the Lord. About such people the Apostle says: For all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. Therefore, the sentence does not end there where he says: Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works: but immediately adds why it should be done, so that they may glorify, he says, your Father who is in heaven: so that when a man’s good deeds are seen by men, he has the intention of the good deed in his conscience, but the intention of being known only in the praises of God, for the benefit of those to whom it is known; to whom it is beneficial that God may be pleasing, who granted this to man; and thus they may not despair, but even believe this can be granted to them if they will it. Therefore, another sentence, where he says: Take heed that you do not your righteousness before men, ends nowhere else than when he said, to be seen by them: nor did he add: And glorify your Father who is in heaven; but rather added: Otherwise, you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. Thus, he shows that those who are such, whom he does not want his faithful to be, are seeking their reward in the fact that they are seen by men, placing their good in this; delighting their vanity of heart there, being emptied and inflated there, swelling and pining away there. For why was it not sufficient to say, Take care not to do your righteousness before men; but added, to be seen by them: unless because there are some who so do their righteousness before men, not to be seen by them, but that the works themselves may be seen, and the Father who is in heaven be glorified, who deigned to grant these to the justified ungodly?

Who indeed truly fulfilled both commandments.

Those who are such do not reckon their own righteousness, but that of Him by whose faith they live. Hence the Apostle says: "That I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness which is from God by faith." And in another place: "That we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." Hence he also reproves the Jews thus: "For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God." Therefore, whoever wishes in this way that his works may be seen by men so that He may be glorified from whom those things seen in him are received, and thus the same ones who see may be incited to imitate the good in the devotion of faith, truly his light shines before men: because the light of charity is radiated from him, not the smoke of pride spewed. And in this very thing, he is cautious not to do his righteousness before men to be seen by them; because he neither reckons that righteousness his own, nor does he do it to be seen by them, but so that He who is praised in a justified man may be understood, so that He may also perform in the praiser what is praised in another, that is, so that He may make the praiser to be praiseworthy. Consider also the Apostle, when he said: "Please all men in all things, just as I also please all men in all things," how he did not remain there, as if he had thus established the end of his intention to please men; otherwise, he would have falsely said: "If I were still pleasing men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ." But he immediately adds why he pleased men. "Not seeking my own profit," he says, "but the profit of many, that they may be saved." Thus, he was neither pleasing men for his own benefit, lest he would not be a servant of Christ, and he was pleasing men for their salvation, so that he might be a fitting steward of Christ; because both his conscience before God sufficed him, and what in him was to be imitated before men shone forth.