Consecration of Saint Augustine. Painting by Jaime Huguet (15th century), Museum of Art of Catalonia, Barcelona.
On Purity of Intention
St. Augustine
Sermon on what is written in St. Matthew’s Gospel: “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). And on the contrary: “Take heed that you do not your justice before men, to be seen by them…” (Matt. 6:1).
1. Two Apparently Contradictory Precepts
“In the Sermon related in the Gospel, Our Lord Jesus Christ says in one passage: ‘Take heed not to practice your justice before men, in order to be seen by them,’ although in an earlier passage He had said: ‘Let your light shine before men, in order that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father Who is in heaven.’ And this fact, dearly beloved, usually occasions perplexity to many persons, for the mind which does not fully understand those precepts and is anxious to obey both the one and the other is perturbed and perplexed by their difference and opposition. Indeed, it is just as true that no one can obey even one master who gives contradictory orders as it is that no one can serve two masters, and in that same Sermon the Savior Himself has borne witness to this latter impossibility. What, then, is the wavering mind to do when it thinks itself unable to obey, and dreads the consequences of not obeying? For, if a man places his good works in the light where they will be visible to men, in order that he may obey the precept, ‘Let your light so shine before men, in order that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father Who is in heaven,’ he will think that he is held accountable for having acted contrary to the precept, ‘Take heed not to practice your justice before men, in order to be seen by them.’ On the other hand, if, in his fear of this transgression and in his precaution against it, he keeps his good works hidden, then he will think that he is not obeying the command of Him who says: ‘Let your light shine before men, in order that they may see your good works.’
2. How the Apostle Paul Obeyed These Two Precepts
”But, whoever rightly understands these precepts can fulfill both of them, and will be able to serve the Supreme Master. If that Master were to give commands which could by no means be fulfilled, He would not condemn the slothful servant. Hearken, then, to ‘Paul, the servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an Apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,’ while he both observes and teaches the one precept and the other. See how his light shines before men, so that they may see his good works. ‘We commend ourselves,’ says he, ‘to every man’s conscience in the sight of God’ (2 Cor. 4:2). And again: ‘For we take forethought for what is honorable, not only before God, but also in the sight of men’ (2 Cor. 8:21). And yet again: ‘Be pleasing to all men in all things, as I myself in all things try to please all men’ (1 Cor. 1O:33). On the other hand, see how he takes heed ‘not to practice his justice before men, in order to be seen by them.’ For he says: ‘But let everyone test bis own work, and so he will have glory in himself, and not in comparison with another’ (Gal. 6:4). And again: ‘For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience’ (2 Cor. 1:12). And nothing is plainer than this other saying, namely, ‘If I were still trying to please men, I should not be the servant of Christ’ (Gal. 1:10). Let none of those who are disconcerted by the apparently contradictory commands of the Lord Himself become all the more perplexed regarding the Apostle’s meaning. Let them not ask him how he can say to us: ‘Be pleasing to all men in all things, as I myself in all things try to please all men,’ while he also says to us: ‘If I were still trying to please men, I should not be the servant of Christ.’ Rather, may we receive the aid of the Lord Himself, who has spoken through the person of His servant and apostle. May the Lord Himself reveal His will to us, and may He enable us to fulfill it.
3. Conciliation of the Two Precepts
“Of course, the very words of the Gospel are self-explanatory, but, while they feed the hearts of those who knock, they do not preclude the clamor of those who hunger. One must look into the human heart, to see in what direction it is turned and on what point its gaze is fixed. If a man wishes his good work to be seen by men, and if he then reckons his glory and profit according to the estimation of men and seeks it in the sight of men, he fulfills neither the one nor the other of the commands which the Lord has given in this matter. For, he has sought to practice his justice before men, in order to be seen by them; and his light thus has not shone before men for the purpose of having them see his good works in order that they may give glory to the Father Who is in heaven. That man did not wish to have glory rendered to God; he wished to have glory for himself. He did not love the will of God; he sought advantage for himself. Of such men the Apostle says: ‘For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ’ (8 Phil. 2:21). So, the saying was not completed by the words, ‘Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works,’ for He immediately adds the reason why this should be done; He says: ‘that they may give glory to your Father Who is in heaven.’ This means that, even though a man is seen by men when he is performing good works, in his con-science he ought to have the intention of a good work, but it is only for the sake of God’s glory that he ought to aim toward having it be-come known. And this aim ought to be directed toward the good of those to whom it becomes known. For it is to their advantage to be well disposed toward God because He bestows this power on a man, in order that they may not lose hope in the possibility of its being given also to themselves if they desire it. Accordingly, the clause, ‘in order to be seen by them,’ is the only ending that He gave to this other saying, ‘Take heed not to practice your justice before men.’ He did not subjoin the clause, ‘that they may glorify your Father Who is in heaven.’ Rather, He went on to say: ‘Otherwise, you shall have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.’ With regard to those who are not the kind of men He wishes His faithful followers to be, He thereby shows that they seek their reward in the very fact of being seen by men, that they reckon this as their good, that they delight the vanity of their hearts in it, and that they are being emptied and puffed up and swelling and wasting away in it. Why is it not sufficient to say: ‘Take heed not to practice your justice before men’? Why did He add the words, ‘In or-der to be seen by them’? Only because there are some who practice their justice before men, not in order to be seen by them, but in order that the works themselves may be seen and that glory may be given to the Father Who is in heaven and has vouchsafed to grant those works to men who have turned from impiety to justice.
4. St. Paul’s Conduct in Regard to This Point
“Such men do not account even their justice as their own; they account it as the justice of Him by whose faith they live. Hence, the Apostle says: ‘That I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a justice of my own, which is from the Law, but that which is from faith in Christ, the justice from God based on faith’ (Phil. 3:8-9). And else-where he says: ‘So that in him may be the justice of God’ (2 Cor. 5:21). Hence, he also reprehends the Jews in this manner: ‘lgnorant of the justice of God and seeking to establish their own, they have not sub-mitted to the justice of God’ (Rom. 10:3). Therefore, if any man wishes his works to be seen by men, in order that glory may be given to the Divine Giver of the things that are seen in him, and in order that those who see them may be prompted by the piety of faith to imitate the work-that man’s light truly shines before men. The smoke of pride does not belch forth from that man; the light of charity beams forth from him. He takes heed not to practice his justice before men in or-der to be seen by them, because he neither accounts that justice as his own nor practices it in order to be seen. He practices justice in order that He who is praised in them that are justified may become known, and may endure the praised with the justice that is praised in another, that is, in order that God may make the praised praiseworthy. And observe that the Apostle did not stop-as if he had fixed the aim of his intention in the mere pleasing of men-when he has said: ‘Be pleasing to all men, as I myself in all things try to please all men.’ If he had stopped at that point, he would have spoken falsehood when he said: ‘If I were still trying to please men, I should not be the servant of Christ.’ But he at once added the reason why he was trying to please men; he said: ‘Not seeking what is profitable to myself but to the many’ (1 Cor. 10:33). So, he was not trying to please men for the sake of any profit to himself, lest he might not be the servant of Christ; at the same time he was trying to please men for the sake of their salvation, so that he might be a fit dispenser of Christ. A ‘good conscience in the sight of God’ was enough for him; in the sight of men, there shone forth from him the kind of example that they ought to imitate” (St. Augustine, The Fathers of the Church – St. Augustine, Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, Sermon 54, Fathers of the Church, Inc., New York, 1951, vol. 11, pp. 227-232 [Imprimatur: Francis Cardinal Spellman, archbishop of New York, January 26, 1951]).