A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Matthew. Our lord said to his disciples, be on your guard against performing religious acts. Notice religious acts for people to see. Otherwise, expect no recompense from your heavenly father. When you give alms, for example, do not blow a horn before you in synagogues and on the streets like hypocrites for applause.
You can be sure of this much. They are already repaid. In giving alms, you are not to let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Keep your deeds of mercy secret, and your father, your heavenly father, who sees in secret will repay you. When you are praying, do not behave like the hypocrites who love to stand and pray in synagogues or on street corners in order to be noticed.
I give you my solemn word. They are already repaid. Whenever you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your father in secret. When you fast, you are not to look glum as the hypocrites do. They change their appearance of their faces so that others may see that they are fasting.
I assure you, they are already repaid. When you fast, see to it that you groom your hair and wash your face. In that way, no one can see that you are fasting except your father who is in heaven and hidden. And your father who sees what is hidden will repay you. And this is the gospel of the lord.
Praise to you, lord Jesus Christ. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. For the last three and maybe four mornings, we have had our Lord speaking directly, direct quotations, on various subjects, all of which, historically speaking, in the history of Christendom or in the history of Christianity, have become extremely controversial issues. Extremely, extremely controversial issues. Because people, in the best of goodwill, and let us say sincerity, as you know I of which I have the lowest regard, have taken these texts and have pushed them to the limit.
And they have come up with at least error, if not absurdity, and often tragedies. Now I'm not exaggerating this all when because I I knew something about the Bookman Knights and the Oxford movement and then the moral rearmament. I I saw some of it. Now what do you make of this? Here our lord today is telling us that when you pray, don't do it in public.
What are you doing here this morning? What are you doing here this morning? Why aren't you home with your door locked praying on your knees beside your own little bed? Which, of course, you have very neatly made because if you're gonna pray, ought to pray before a well made bed. Everybody knows that.
You're have pray to god in a, you know, in a in a unpardoned bedroom. So let let's all get out of here and go home and lock our doors. That's what Christ is saying this morning. What do you make of it? Well, look, what did Calvin make of it?
What did cal remember, Calvin Luther is not the the the the driving ram of so called Protestantism. Presbyterianism. Remember that. Because Calvin was far more of an intellectual, and he wrote a book. He wrote a book called The Institute, which very few people have read.
But just what Calvin did was to take a text like this, and this is one of the very important ones. Because if you take this literally, Christ is saying, go home and go into your own bedroom. Go up on the high mountain. When you pray, don't do it in public. Don't make a show of yourself.
What has what have stained glass windows, churches, altars, flowers, candles, books, music, getting down on your knees, sitting up, standing up, lying around. What has all this to do with worship of God? When Christ says do it in spirit, he says that absolutely unequivocally. Calvin said Christ said it, and he did say it. Therefore, away with churches, away with altar, away with music, away with statues, away with stained glass windows, destroy them, and they did.
They did. We could still see the ruins in Europe. And they did it on principle, and they took the principle right out of the words of Jesus Christ. How about that, folks? You see what happens?
If you take a book, if all if the only guide you have are these words that we just read? I remember Calvin insisted that you read the testament in the original languages. See, Calvin had a brain. He was a very intelligent man because this is not the inspired word of God. This is somebody's interpretation of it.
So he Calvin, he insisted or tried to that the Old Testament be read in Hebrew and the New Testament in the original Greek. He was very consistent. I I know this is the fact of life. But don't think I'm talking about the sixteenth century. I have talked to any number of our young Catholic boys and girls in our Catholic high schools who tell me exactly what our Lord's saying today.
Why should I go to church? Christ said, go into your bedroom to pray. It's what's in my heart that matters. Christ sees my heart. He knows he knows that I wanna worship him so they don't go to mass on Sunday.
Now I'm not exaggerating this, not in the slightest bit. Not in the slightest bit. And they and they're quoting our blessed lord, and and quotation is accurate. What do you make of it, folks? Here once again we come back, if you take a single text because you see the point is this.
Oh, did Christ say what he's saying this morning? He did, of course. It's beyond dispute. Did Christ ever go into a synagogue to pray? Did Christ ever go up into the temple of Jerusalem to pray and to offer sacrifice?
Did Christ ever rise up in a synagogue and preach? Did he or didn't he? And the answer is he surely did. He didn't miss one of the festivals up in Jerusalem. Christ said that you should obey the law every single jot and tittle of the law.
I have come not to destroy the law, but to fulfill the law. And the law of Moses said that you were supposed to worship God in Jerusalem in his temple, and there was only one temple. Why the Jewish religion was absolutely surrounded, permeated, use any words you want, with religious rights. And Christ said, I have come not to destroy one of them. One of them.
And yet look what he says today. Well, of course, the answer is as I said, as CS Lewis said, some people should never read a book. They're not competent to read a book. Because if you say, what is Christ's attitude towards public worship, social worship? You can't just quote one text.
You say, well, let's see what Christ said. Let's look at his life. How did he behave? Was Christ a religious man? If he was a religious man, how did he behave?
What did he do with his own life? And the answer, of course, is clear to all of you. There were times in his life when he went up into the mountain alone to pray. There were other times when he went down into the synagogue with Capernaum and stood up in the synagogue, and he prayed, and he sang psalms, and he preached. There were times when he went up into Jerusalem with all the rest of faithful Jews to offer the sacrifice on the appropriate occasions.
He did both of those things. Not either or, but both and. And that's the answer. Not either or, both and. For the simple reason, you see, as I say, Christ may not have I don't think he read much of Freud, and I'm not sure that he read much of Jung, but Christ had a pretty good idea of human beings.
Pretty good, you know. Our blessed lord realized that a human being is an individual, and that what matters is is the the essence of religion is not the physical, the external. It's the internal. It's the offering of the mind and the heart to god, and you can't get away from that. But we're not angels.
We are not just minds. We are not just wheels. We are human beings. We are social beings. Therefore, we have to give god the worship of social beings.
You know, the more you read of our blessed lord, the more you realize he wasn't too bad a psychologist. In the name of the father and the son and holy spirit. Amen.