When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Jesus continues in verse 7: “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases like pagans, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them…”

Jesus then tells us how to pray, and teaches us the Our Father (vv.9-13).

The word of life assures us: “… your Father (God) who sees in secret will reward you.” Verse 8 adds: “For your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” Prayer requires favourable conditions. One of them is to go into your room and shut the door, that is, to quieten your heart and not be immersed in your plans or worries. Today, the Internet, mass media, mobile phones, and thus constant communication with people, are major obstacles to silence of heart. There is no need to go into your room for such communication. But if you are to communicate with God, this requires outward separation from the world, but also inward silence of thoughts.

But when you do a charitable deed,

do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

In connection with this statement, Jesus says: “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.” And next, Jesus explains: “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.” (Mt 6:1-2) And He continues: “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.” So, Jesus emphasizes that we should not seek recognition, or even glory, from people. If we apply this counsel of Christ, we are spared many disappointments. Jesus points out that we should do good deeds in secret with the motivation to please God. In addition, it is true that we thus store up for ourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy them and thieves do not steal them. Such motivation requires faith. This involves sacrifice, and you can even expect that people will slander and discredit you for that. But you have all the more credit with God if you endure all this out of love for Him.

But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.

Jesus tells us what our relationship should be to our enemies:

1) we are to love them;

2) to bless those who curse us;

3) to do good to those who hate us;

4) to pray for those who spitefully use us and persecute us.

Each of these four requirements may seem absurd at first glance and give the impression that by fulfilling them we open the door for evil to spread through evil people. The world has different standards, which are contrary to Christ’s requirements:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.”

This quote cannot be taken out of context; otherwise we would reach the wrong conclusions. The given principle applies to cases where it is necessary to prevent an avalanche of revenge. The fact is that when a person is harmed, he automatically seeks revenge, regardless of whether he himself provoked the offensive reaction or was harmed unjustly. This response, the will to revenge, proceeds from corrupt human nature. Rather than respect the principles of justice, a person is carried away by the spirit of anger and hatred. He burns with a desire to knock out all teeth for one tooth and two eyes for one eye. He will pay back in spades and not allow for forgiveness. Sometimes it goes so far that he takes revenge even on the offspring of the one who hurt him. This automatism of revenge coming out of the old self within us takes no account of God, our own guilt before God, or the reality of God’s just judgment and eternity.

To conquer the law of vengeance, a person needs a clear motivation, that is, faith in God. He needs to be aware that the one who harmed him was to some extent deceived by the spirit of lies, just as each of us is deceived many a time and harms others. In the end, it is often our fault that we get hurt. And even if we were quite innocent and someone wronged us, we should forgive our enemy from the heart for God’s sake.

If you do well, will you not be accepted?
And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door.
And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.

The Lord spoke these words to Cain before he committed fratricide. Why did he commit fratricide? Because his heart was filled with envy at his brother Abel, who was righteous before God and offered God-pleasing sacrifices of his first-born sheep. Cain, on the other hand, was an egoist and had no good relationship either to God or his brother. He reproached God for not hearing his insincere prayers from a heart full of jealousy, resentment, even hatred, which he felt towards his brother, and for no reason at all. The Lord says that it is not enough just to be passive, but we should do well both to God and to our brethren. If we do not do well, God warns us that sin lies at the door of our soul and seeks to blind us and dominate us like it did with Cain. That is why God commands us: You should rule over sin and not be its slave.

But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.

At the time of Jesus, marriage was not yet a sacrament, which is why, as we know, for example, King David had several wives. In this verse, which refers to the indissolubility of marriage, Jesus points to the Old Testament practice where it was said: Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce. But Jesus says: But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.

What does the Catholic Catechism say? What is the sacrament of marriage?

The sacrament of matrimony is a sacrament that sanctifies the indissoluble union between a Catholic man and woman and entitles them to special graces for the due performance of marital duties.

If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you.It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be cast into hell.

This verse is a continuation of the preceding verse speaking of an impure look, which is the root of the sin of adultery. Jesus gives the saving instructions in the words “cut it off and cast it from you”. In another place, He says “pluck it out”. It is not about physically cutting off your hand or foot or plucking out your eye, but rather about making an inner self-denial by cutting off a thought or feeling, that is, a momentary sensation which can take control of the human mind or will and lead a person to an irresponsible act, sin or even crime.

The words about cutting off the hand or foot mean that we should not use our members as instruments of sin. Scripture says in another place: “Men should pray with holy hands lifted up to God.” (1Ti 2:8) Our feet should not walk where there is danger.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

On the evening before His death, Jesus emphasized: “Whoever has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me.” Many commandments are part of the Sermon on the Mount, which opens with the eight Beatitudes. Jesus touches on an issue that is extremely topical today, namely moral purity. He says: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” The Lord, through Moses, gave people the Sixth and Ninth Commandments of the Decalogue. Jesus speaks here as the supreme Lawgiver, saying: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you…” When a judge promulgates a law, he does so in the name of political authority and power, such as a kingdom or republic. Being God, Jesus promulgates moral laws by His own divine authority. He Himself says that He did not come to destroy but to fulfil the essence of what had already been given by God in the Old Testament before His coming. Jesus now clarifies the question of purity, and says: “Whoever looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

The Lord Jesus explains anger with one’s brother in connection with the Fifth Commandment: “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you…” Jesus speaks here as the divine Lawgiver. He emphasizes: “But I say to you…” Then He speaks of three degrees of the expression of anger, almost hatred. Firstly, there is the one who is angry and unwilling to forgive. Jesus says in another place, too, that such a one will not be forgiven – it means that he will be liable to judgment. He who insults his brother will answer for it. And if anyone spreads malicious slander about his brother and calls him a fool or, in other words, a mentally ill person, with the intention of morally destroying – killing – him and removing him from social life, he will be liable to the hell of fire.

But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.

What does it mean to be in the flesh, in other words to be carnal, and what does it mean to be in the Spirit, in other words spiritual? To be in the flesh means to have a carnal mind, which takes seriously neither God nor God’s judgment nor eternity. Scripture says that the works of the flesh are envy, murders, quarrelling, impurity, sorcery etc.

What does it mean to be in the Spirit? To have our mind most deeply united to the Spirit of God. Then the following applies to us: “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” (Rom 8:16)

Our spirit is the innermost essence of our being. The human spirit was created by God in His image; it is immortal. Our flesh is mortal. Our being is spiritual in essence: we are a soul with a spirit clothed in a body. In this earthly life, our body is like a spacesuit that we take off at the hour of death.

How often it happens that the worst vagabond, if he turns to God with a sincere heart, is saved rather than righteous pharisees. But the fact is that pharisaism and deceit is in the hearts of us all. That is why Jesus speaks about it in the Gospel. When a tax collector and a Pharisee went up to the temple to pray, the Pharisee prayed thus: “O God, I thank You that I am not like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get…” The Pharisee’s deeds were not bad, but what was his heart like? His heart was not broken before God.

The Apostle Peter said to the Jews on the day of Pentecost: “You killed God; you crucified Jesus!” They were cut to the heart… and they asked: “What shall we do?” “Repent, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Indeed, the Holy Spirit comes each time we repent. Every day we make mistakes time and time again, we sin by thoughts, finding fault with everyone… We must stop: “Lord, forgive me, I am twice as bad. And if this person sins and causes offence, forgive him too.” But we immediately condemn our neighbour and think how good we are.

For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

If we want to be honest about love, we need to lay the foundation of righteousness (or justice). Today, people often speak about love. You can hear this word in every other sentence; however, to many it means anything but true love. Righteousness towards God means to give Him what belongs to Him – the first place in our life, true worship, submission, and observance of His laws and commandments. Then we are obliged to practise righteousness towards our neighbours. Here, unfortunately, many Christians, even persons consecrated to God, lack a proper understanding of righteousness. The current trend is a purely subjective egocentric approach looking to one’s own interests and rights. The rights and interests of others are mostly ignored. This is the cause of quarrels, hatred, etc.

If we deal with problems only by our reason or emotions, we obtain some experience but it is not sufficient. The most important thing in our life is to walk in the truth, i.e. to be humble. The devil is a very, very intelligent spirit. Even the very last spirit of lies is more intelligent than Einstein or anyone else. If we try to fight against the spirit of lies with logic, he deceives us. He exploits everyone’s weakness – women’s emotions and men’s logic. However, if we really want the Holy Spirit to lead us and to work through us, we need to stop: “Lord, I see, feel or understand it in this way but now I stand in Your light.” Jesus says: “I am the light of the world.” So if we stand in the light of God, Jesus opens our eyes as He opened the eyes of Mary Magdalene after His resurrection. She did not know Him; she supposed Him to be the gardener. Only when Jesus called her by name, her eyes were opened and she cried out: “Rabboni!” On the same day, two disciples went to Emmaus and were joined by Jesus who pretended to be a pilgrim.

God speaks to us but the problem is that we are unable to hear Him. The problem is in our receiver. Our heart needs to be attuned to His voice. He wants to work through you, through your faith too. The weaker we are, the more trust we need to place in the Lord, because “when I am weak, then I am strong”. Jesus, I trust in You.

Do not indulge in self-pity but go to Jesus, cling to Him and learn from Him. He will give you true wisdom, He will give you strength, He is alive, He is here, and He loves you more than your parents or your children can love you. He loves you more than you love yourself.

He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?”  Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep.”

Peter was the first of the apostles to whom Jesus appeared. On Sunday morning, Peter overcame the fear that paralysed the apostles and came to Christ’s open tomb.

At the Lake of Gennesaret, where Jesus appeared to seven apostles, He asked Peter three times about his relationship to Him. The Apostle Peter had publicly denied Christ three times with an oath. Although he immediately repented of his denial and wept bitterly, he lost the office that Jesus had entrusted to him as the head of the apostles, saying, “You are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and on this rock I will build My church.” (Mt 16) By his denial, Peter ceased to be the rock; his faith and love for the Saviour failed. Peter did repent of his sin, but he only did so in private. Even though Jesus forgave him, the public guilt and offence required public satisfaction. How could he remain the head of the apostles if he had publicly renounced Christ with an oath? Jesus therefore demanded public repentance and public confession of a personal relationship of love – namely, divine love (agape) rather than human love – when He asked Peter twice about it.

Why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? It is a question addressed to each of us. Why are you weeping? We weep when we lose something or when we feel pain in our soul.

Now is a time when the souls of defenceless children are being deprived of Jesus. Whenever we lose the living Jesus, we should weep. If the soul takes pains to seek God, God can touch this soul.

Whom are you seeking? Jesus! And whom are we seeking? How often we seek pleasure, money, human praise, vanity… But all glory is senseless. We should seek God, seek the truth, seek moral values, seek what gives us eternal life, and our eternal life is in Jesus. Our heart should ache at the living Christ being cast out of the souls. Without Him there is no eternal life, without Him there is eternal punishment and moral devastation.