Office Of Readings | Week 34, Monday, Ordinary Time | A Reading From The Sermons Of Pope Saint Leo The Great | According To A Man’s Works, So Are His Rewards

Christian Art | Jesus Christ | King Of The Universe

Office Of Readings | Week 34, Monday, Ordinary Time | A Reading From The Sermons Of Pope Saint Leo The Great | According To A Man’s Works, So Are His Rewards

‘According to a man’s works, so are his rewards.’

Saint Leo considers the Lord’s instruction that Christian justice must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. He frames this not as an expansion of legal detail but as a transformation of motive. The justice of the kingdom is marked by compassion, because mercy reflects the way God has acted toward humanity. Leo recalls the central Christian claim: God restores the guilty not by force of law but by forgiveness. The transition from sin to innocence is not earned but given, and this gift becomes the model for Christian conduct. Justice is therefore fulfilled when believers imitate the divine pattern—allowing mercy to rise above strict judgment.

This reading continues Leo’s contrast between external compliance and interior disposition. The Pharisaic model, as he describes it, is preoccupied with appearance. Fasting undertaken for public display reveals a concern for reputation rather than conscience. It becomes a form of self-presentation that hides the reality of the heart. Leo presents this as ‘concealed injustice’, where the outward form masks a lack of genuine alignment with God.

Against this, Leo sets the love of God as the true measure of righteousness. Love seeks no reward beyond the One loved, and therefore does not depend on public recognition. A soul fixed on God finds its delight in God’s presence rather than in passing praise. At this point Leo introduces the imagery of treasure. A person’s treasure is the object of their deepest desire, the place where they seek satisfaction. What the heart values reveals what the person truly is. Human beings may attach their hearts to many forms of gain—material wealth, status, influence—but such treasures are unstable and incapable of giving lasting joy.

Leo then turns to the alternative: the ‘treasures of justice’, drawn from the prophet’s words. These are wisdom, instruction, and piety—gifts that flow from God and orient the heart toward what is enduring. Leo does not reject earthly possessions but shows how they can be reoriented. When surplus wealth becomes a means of supporting the poor, it is transformed: what is given becomes secure, because it is entrusted to God rather than to circumstances. This is the reversal characteristic of the gospel—the apparent loss becomes true gain. The heart resides where the treasure is placed, and therefore the believer who invests in mercy and generosity aligns the heart with what is incorruptible.

A Reading From The Sermons Of Pope Saint Leo The Great | According To A Man’s Works, So Are His Rewards

The Lord says: Unless your justice exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven. How indeed can justice exceed, unless compassion rises above judgment? What is as right or as worthy as a creature, fashioned in the image and likeness of God, imitating his Creator who, by the remission of sins, brought about the reparation and sanctification of believers? With strict vengeance removed and the cessation of all punishment, the guilty man was restored to innocence, and the end of wickedness became the beginning of virtue. Can anything be more just than this?

This is how Christian justice can exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, not by canceling out the law but by rejecting earthly wisdom. This is why, in giving his disciples a rule for fasting, the Lord said: Whenever you fast do not become sad like the hypocrites. For they disfigure their faces in order to seem to be fasting. Amen I say to you, they have received their reward. What reward but that of human praise? Such a desire often puts on a mask of justice, for where there is no concern for conscience, untruthful reputation gives pleasure. The result is that concealed injustice enjoys a false reputation.

For the man who loves God it is sufficient to please the one he loves; and there is no greater recompense to be sought than the loving itself; for love is from God by the very fact that God himself is love. The good and chaste soul is so happy to be filled with him that it desires to take delight in nothing else. For what the Lord says is very true: Where your treasure is, there also will your heart be. What is a man’s treasure but the heaping up of profits and the fruit of his toil. For whatever a man sows this too will he reap, and each man’s gain matches his toil; and where delight and enjoyment are found, there the heart’s desire is attached. Now there are many kinds of wealth and a variety of grounds for rejoicing; every man’s treasure is that which he desires. If it is based on earthly ambitions, its acquisition makes men not blessed but wretched.

But those who enjoy the things that are above and eternal rather than earthly and perishable, possess an incorruptible, hidden store of which the prophet speaks: Our treasure and salvation have come, wisdom and instruction and piety from the Lord: these are the treasures of justice. Through these, with the help of God’s grace, even earthly possessions are transformed into heavenly blessings; it is a fact that many people use the wealth which is either rightfully left to them or otherwise acquired, as a tool of devotion. By distributing what might be superfluous to support the poor, they are amassing imperishable riches, so that what they have discreetly given cannot be subject to loss. They have properly placed those riches where their heart is; it is a most blessed thing to work to increase such riches rather than to fear that they may pass away.

Christian Prayer With Jesus

Lord God,
whose mercy restores what sin has damaged
and whose compassion renews what judgment could not heal,
turn our hearts toward the justice that is born of love.
Teach us to seek no reward but your presence,
to store our treasure in what does not decay,
and to labour for those works that endure in your sight.
Free us from the desire for praise,
and shape in us the mind of Christ,
that we may serve without display
and give without calculation.
Grant that the gifts you entrust to us
may become instruments of mercy for others,
so that our hearts may rest where you are.
Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Glossary Of Christian Terms

Justice (biblical/Christian sense)
Not limited to legal fairness; refers to a life aligned with God’s will, shaped by mercy, integrity and right relationship.

Scribes and Pharisees
Groups within first-century Judaism noted for their expertise in the Law. In Christian preaching they often represent outward conformity without interior conversion.

Conscience
The inner faculty by which a person discerns right and wrong. In Christian thought it is formed by grace and guided by divine teaching.

Hypocrite
One who presents a false exterior to conceal an inner reality. In the Gospels, hypocrisy particularly concerns religious display designed to win admiration.

Love (caritas/charity)
Not a feeling but a disposition shaped by God’s own self-giving. It is the form of all Christian virtue and the motive behind genuine justice.

Treasure
Biblical shorthand for what a person most deeply values. It indicates the true centre of desire and loyalty.

Recompense
A return, reward, or outcome that corresponds to one’s actions or labour.

Piety
Obedient devotion to God expressed in reverence, prayer, and faithful conduct.

Wisdom (sapientia)
Knowledge shaped by divine truth; the ability to see and act according to God’s purposes.

Instruction
Teaching that forms the mind and heart, particularly in moral and spiritual matters.

Earthly vs. eternal goods
A distinction between temporary, material benefits and those rooted in God’s unchanging life.

Mercy
The divine disposition to forgive, restore, and heal; in Christian ethics, mercy is the measure by which God judges and the pattern believers are called to imitate.

Hidden store / incorruptible riches
Images drawn from Scripture referring to spiritual goods—virtue, grace, and acts of charity—that cannot be lost because they are held in God.