"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.

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…….

Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.

But you, when fast, anoint your head and wash your face, So that you do not appear to be fasting, but to your Father Who is in the secret place; and your Father Who sees in secret will reward you openly." [Matthew 6: 1-18]

• With God
• With people
• With self

 
God’s promises to reward us great blessings in this world and in heavens, if we follow the rules of His Kingdom.

God wants us not to loose His rewards. He warns us to, "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." [Matthew 1:6] God warns us against doing well before people, just to show them and we loose the reward. St Paul said, " For if I still pleased men, I would not be a servant of Christ." [Galatians 1:10]

God then showed us three ways to do righteousness:

1-Charity

2- Praying

3-Fasting

Let us now examine each one:

What does it mean?

It simply means giving some of what we have, to those who are in need. If we do, then we have obeyed the fourth law that said, "Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away." [Matthew 5: 42]

In studying this law, we see that our duty is to give those who ask us to give as long as we can afford to do it.

Charity in Greek means also: benevolence and compassion.

It also means the same words mentioned about Tabitha, who served and clothed the widows, "This woman was full of good works and charitable deeds, which she did." [Acts 9:36]

It may be impossible for all of us to provide others need. But we can be responsive gently to them to please them as Peter and John said, "That which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." [Acts 3:6]

The Roman Pope commented by saying that the time we say we have nothing to offer is something of the past. We encourage sinners to return back to God and similarly we can give a word of encouragement and some hope in helping them over their difficulties.

This should not be done in public, or we may loose our reward. God’s reward in secrecy far exceeds that given by people.

The essential point in this law is to give in secret without any intend to show it to the public. Don’t let your left hand knows what the right one does. None of the human organs is aware of the movements of the other organs. St Augastin explained it this way, the left hand is eager to show and likes to be praised, while the right hand is keen to execute the commandments.

What a marked difference between what goes on in our present time and what should be. Frequently we want the people to praise us and we become eager to let the church to know what we do. This is common among business people whose main wish in participating in charity deeds is letting the people to see their names at the top of those who give. They want everyone to see how much they give generously and advertise about it. These people mat get their reward from the people, but they do loose the noble and greater reward that was promised by God for those who only give in secret.

Some may be under the impression, that others, seeing what they did, may follow them and give the poor. God scored the Pharisees who did just that and accepted favor in the eyes of the people. God never did ask for glory from people.

In Germany there is a saying, that who gives a "mark" of "love & sympathy" then he gave in "golden coin", in contradistinction to those who give their "mark" of arrogance or a "mark" of pride that is made of iron or copper. "For God loves a cheerful giver." [2 Corinthians 9:7]

There are many who give generously in secret. Father Mina who became H. H. Pope Kyrillos VI was the one that put a box in the church in Old Cairo instead of passing a collection plate. When he provided a home for the student, he asked them to put in the box what they could afford without any minimum or obligation. There were no monthly dues for living in the house. His project was very successful and was blessed and had no financial problems in maintaining it.

Lord Jesus said the same about praying as He did about charity. "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. But 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:

Praying is a sharing life between God and people. As we will live with God in heaven, we have to live with Him on earth.

There are three ways of praying

1. Public: as we pray together during the Holy Liturgy.
2. With family: when the family gets together to pray.
3. Individually: where you go to your bedroom and pray to God Who sees you in secret. God Who sees you in secret will reward you in public.

During praying we need to feel fully our presence with God. Whoever has no such feeling may not feel worthy to be with God. Hence we should pray in secret, in a calm place, that is isolated from the outside world. Open doors usually cause distraction to those whom pray.

Your bedroom is the heart, so go there and shut its door. These will safe you from any thoughts that may disturb your feelings.

The role of the heart during praying is to direct you towards the eternal life.

1. Praying in secret: so people do not see you. We enter our bedroom with the door closed, away from the external world. We give our your true hearts, that loves our children, our parents and friends to God and stay with Him. Our Father Who is in heaven will reward us in public.
2. Praying is a prayer of faith: "Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them." [Mark 11-24]

Praying has a marvelous power that renews man’s life. When young boy at Sunday school was asked by his teacher to lead in praying, he said, "We want to welcome you Our God and want to put our hands in your hand. Would you like us to come to you? Or better come to us, as we are many. His prayer was full of love and faith that was a beginning for a blessed future for him, as he became later a spiritual priest in one of Cairo’s churches. We need to feel that our hands are always with God’s hand that wouldn’t leave us.

Lord Jesus warned us not to repeat unnecessary words during our prayers, that have no truth and thoughtless and with no sincere faith in God’s will. God can’t be deceived like humans.

Lord Jesus does not condemn repeating the words, but condemns the words that lag faith, love, and submission and lack the desire to live within His way.

One may ask, why God wants us to pray, when He knows what we need?

The fact is that the mere standing before Him purifies and calms our hearts. Thus we are prepared to receive God’s spiritual gifts. Raising our heart to Him will ensure receiving more than what we ask for.

3- The Lord’s Prayer is the ideal one.

He taught us how to pray:

1. As children, "Our Father Who art in heaven"
2. As priests, "Hallowed be thy name, Thy kingdom come"

d- As beggars, "Give us this day, our daily bread"

e- As sinners, "And forgive us our trespasses"

6. Having to forgive, those whom trespassed against us, so our Father would forgive ours.

When we pray, the Lord’s prayer, we glorify His name, accepting His will, expressing our union with His Son, as He became our Father, through Baptism.

We were granted the daily bread, forgiveness of our sins and the protection from temptation and evil.

Let us feel when we begin praying that we entered heaven, meeting Him at His Holy place.

We have to pray faithfully and consistently with our thoughts and hearts as He asked us to do.

Praying and fasting have great augmentation together.

I remember when I graduated from Law School, I went on a mission during the Great Fast to serve Sunday Schools in rural areas in Upper Egypt. It was planned that my colleague Engineer Zarif Abdulla, [the late Fr, Boulis Boulis, would accompany me in this journey in an area from Assuit to Aswan. However he was unable to come with me as he got a job in Kom–om–Bo, the day before our planned trip and was unable to join me. My own father was concerned that I would be going alone. He told me that God sent then "in pairs, two and two". I tried to make him feel at ease and assured him that God will be with me. We took the train together. I departed at Luxor and Zarif continued to his new destination. As I found myself alone, I felt that the strong and powerful Grace of God was with me. I was just a new graduate, armed only with a recently printed book about how to establish a Sunday school, but things went very well, with me.

We arranged services that extended at times from the evening till the morning, followed by attending the Holy Liturgy. The service was successful that we established 50 classes in about 80 villages.

Once I got to a small town that had no hotels. I had to accept a preacher’s invitation to stay at his home. I felt uncomfortable imposing myself on this family, as my program obliged me to stay late at night at different places and felt I was too much of a burden on them. I prayed with tears, asking God to prepare for me another place so I wouldn’t be a burden on this family. One day I was at a meeting that took place in an apartment on a roof of a building studying the Holy Bible. Three persons asked me if I was the one from "Giza." When I said "yes" they told me that they live in this apartment which has 4 rooms and asked me to take the fourth empty room. They had a private cook and I was assured that I can come and go at anytime without disturbing anyone. These were blessed days and I felt it was a response to my deep prayers.

Charity, praying and fasting are the essentials to be a good person. Lord Jesus first mentioned charity deeds, as they represent giving and a sacrifice.

We have to practice charity, which is based on love to others. This also promotes our relations with God, Who will give us also our needs. Fasting exercises will care for our relations.

Fasting is not an order, but rather an exercise to augment our spiritual life. St. Paul said, "I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need." [Philippians 4:12] In the 4:11 verse in the same epistle, he said, "I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content." In fast we aim in strengthening the soul to be more powerful than the body. You may have noticed that during fasting periods more people attend church.

Lord Jesus also said, "Moreover, when you fast, do not be like hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For…" [Matthew 6:16-18]

With fasting we do not eat for a certain period of time then we eat only non-fatty food.

With fasting we isolate ourselves from the world’s related concerns.

Prayers are our way to communicate and associate with God.

If we become totally involved with worldly matters only, we may not have time to be deeply involved with God.

A wife once asked me to visit her and her husband for prayers. She warned me that her Orthodox husband became influenced by the Protestants and lately began to deny the Orthodox believes and wouldn’t accept anointment with oil. She insisted that I pat them a visit..

When I arrived to their home, he said, "Priest what about these prayer and anointment? And how did you invent it?" I asked him if he had a Bible. He mocked at me and expressed his astonishment, being a priest and not carrying a Bible. I assured him that I have one with me but was an Orthodox edition. He went and brought his Bible and I read for him from the Epistle of St. James, "If anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven." [James 5:14-15] The wife pointed to him that these verses were in his Bible. He replied asking why using the oil? I replied that these were the words and he said "oil" and had he said butter, we would have used what he said.

The husband apparently was satisfied with the finding and said that he can see it is mentioned in the Bible, but again asked why we have 55 days, forty days fasting and even three days for Jonah? He asked how this happened? I replied that I would not try to convince him as he may not understand it, but I told him let me talk logically. Suppose we were elevated to heaven for judgment and find out about fasting. If it wasn’t required, God will not ask you about it, and God will not punish you for fasting. But if you find it required and you didn’t fast then what would be your answer? He couldn’t reply.

I asked him how many days did he fast since he joined the Protestant Church? He replied, "not a single day". I pointed to him that he missed a virtue that could have helped you. Finally he expressed his pleasure in what he heard in our conversation. He confessed that he indeed missed good chances. Then I asked him, if he now would believe in anointment with oil and he replied positively, so I anointed him. From that day he return back to our church.

I have heard from time to time some arguments about the Apostle’s Fast. One said why 33 days. Why not one day for each apostle?

The fact is that we fast for our sins and not for the sake of the apostles. We fast pegging for repent. This is an "official fast". It was said, "But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast." [Matthew 9:15]

Fasting is not an obligation but rather an exercise to boost our spiritual life. You don’t stop your physical exercise if you are keen to stay fit!

Fasting means avoiding some "extras" from your menu. We can give some to those who don’t have. We have to remember that fasting should be done in secret. We don’t need to show other people or our rewards would be from people and not as the unmatched blessed reward from our Lord.

Unfortunately, frequently we like to make people aware of what good we make, so they talk about what we did. Sometimes we even become disappointed when such praise was not that much to satisfy our ego.

There is a big difference between this and that. People’s rewards can’t mach God’s promise. Jesus said that he doesn’t accept glory from people.

Some Christians wrongly are concerned with the praise for what good they do. They may be interested in impressing the priests and the congregation of their spirituality. Sometimes they deceive themselves with an excuse that they are trying to motivate others as encouragement. Their excuse is worse than their wrong attitude. This is equivalent to what the Pharisees used to do.

I am afraid that many people behave as such at our present time. The Holy Bible did warn us against it:

"When you have done all those things which you are commanded, say "We are unprofitable servants." [Luke 17:10]

"So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase," [Corinthians 3:7]

Lord Jesus said, "Without Me you can do nothing," [John 15:5]

Had Lord Jesus wished to make what you did publicly, He could do that without your help, but He wishes all the Christians to keep looking towards Him only. This will increase our faith.