Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving

Gospel Reflection for Wednesday June 18, 2025

Courtesy of Sacred Art Series Blog

Today’s Gospel is a familiar one that occurs on Ash Wednesday. We hear of the three traditional practices of Lent: Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving. The last two times I wrote on this passage, I emphasized the need to do these in secret here and the importance of the interior room here. Today, I want to look at these three acts as parts of the virtue of justice as well as a defense against the three-fold concupiscence found in the first letter of St. John.

Our Lord tells us:

“When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others… When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them… When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting.” Matthew 6:2,5,16.

These three practices: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, are cited by St. Thomas Aquinas as being parts of the Virtue of Justice.¹ This is in two ways:

1. As a part of Satisfactory Justice

2. As a part of the Virtue of Religion

According to the first way, these three practices make satisfaction for sins committed. And thus, when we practice these three acts according to the way that Our Lord commands in this passage, we make satisfaction for the sins we have committed. This corresponds to the three ways in which we sin:

1. Against God

2. Against Neighbor

3. Against Self

These likewise correspond to the three-fold concupiscence spoken of by St. John. The Evangelist writes:

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of this world. And the world passes away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.” 1 John 2:15-17.

Here we can see what the spiritual tradition calls the three-fold concupiscence:

The Pride of Life

Concupiscence of the Eyes

Concupiscence of the Flesh

It is these three that correspond to the three ways in which we sin, respectively:

Against God through the sin of pride

Against Neighbor through the sin of greed

Against Self through the sins of the flesh

These three encompass the totality of sin, at least at the root of the sins committed. Thus, we must root these out through contrary virtues and acts of Charity. This is where today’s Gospel and the commands of Christ come in. The three practices commanded by Christ oppose these sins. St. Thomas writes:

“Against God one sins by pride: and to this is opposed the humility of prayer: the prayer of him humbling himself (Sir 35:21). We sin against our neighbor by greed, and this is satisfied for by almsgiving. We sin against ourselves by the concupiscence of the flesh, and this is satisfied for by fasting. Jerome says: by prayer the pestilences of the mind are healed, by fasting the pestilence of the body.”²

At the very root of prayer ought to reside the virtue of humility. True prayer comes from a fount of humility in the interior life since we must approach God in a spirit of admittance that we are nothing before the immensity of God and are completely dependent on Him. Thus, the humility of prayer makes reparation for our sins of pride and counters it in our soul.

The sin of greed is committed against our neighbor when we covet what they have and seek to hoard more and more material wealth. This leads to an inordinate attachment to worldly goods and wealth in general. To cleanse us of this attachment, the practice of almsgiving allows us to detach from the material goods and give them to those who need them more than us. Thus, we sacrifice our attachment to such things and place our treasure in God.

Finally, the concupiscence of the flesh refers to the sins of the flesh, attached to lust and the sixth and ninth commandments that cause us to sin against our dignity and goodness of our bodies. This inordinate attachment to bodily pleasure is countered by the practice of fasting. Two of the capital sins, lust and gluttony, are intimately connected and occur frequently together in those who struggle with them. The spiritual tradition has always considered them together and cited temperance as the counter virtue. This leads to a practice of self-denial through fasting. When we can deny ourselves the pleasure of something good and permitted, like food, it will strengthen our resolve and our ability to deny ourselves the pleasure in the sins of the flesh, which are not permitted.

In addition to these practices being satisfaction for sins committed, St. Thomas also cites them as part of the virtue of religion. It is by this virtue that we give proper worship to the one and true God. St. Thomas writes:

“Likewise, these three are parts of justice which is the most proper act of religion: for it belongs to religion to offer sacrifice to God. But there are three kinds of goods, namely the external good of belongings, and the interior ones of body and soul. Thus, by almsgiving they offer external goods: do not neglect to do good and to share what you have (Heb 13:16). By fasting they offer their own body: present your bodies as a living sacrifice (Rom 12:1). And by prayer, their souls: for prayer is the raising of the mind to God: let my prayer be directed (Ps 141:2).”³

The heart of worship is sacrifice. One does not properly worship without a sacrifice present. This was attested to by the Old Covenant and the temple sacrifices. This is attested to through the death of Christ on the cross. And this is attested to by the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in which Our Lord, truly present in the Eucharist, is present as sacrifice on the Altar.

In the three-fold practice of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we give a sacrifice of external belongings, our body through self-denial, and our soul through the humility of prayer.

1. See St. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Gospel of St. Matthew, C. 6, L. 1, 563.

2. Ibid. While I am writing concerning the three-fold practice of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving as helps against the three-fold concupiscence, it should also be understood that the virtues of poverty, chastity, and obedience, which tradition refers to as the Evangelical Counsels, are also properly understood to root out the three-fold concupiscence. However, that lies a bit outside of the scope of this gospel reflection.

3. Ibid.