Hypocrisy And Virtue

'Attendite ne justitiam vestram faciatis coram hominibus, ut videamini ab eis: alioquin mercedem non habebitis apud Patrem vestrum qui in coelis est.'  Qui tuba canit, eleemosynam faciens, hypocrita est. Qui jejunans demolitur faciem suam, ut ventris inanitatem monstret in vultu, et hic hypocrita est. Qui in synagogis et in angulis platearum orat, ut videatur ab hominibus, hypocrita est. Ex quibus omnibus colligitur hypocritas esse, qui quodlibet faciunt, ut ab hominibus glorificentur. Mihi videtur et ille qui dicit fratri suo: 'Dimitte ut tollam festucam de ocula tua, propter gloriam hoc facere, ut ipse justus esse videatur. Unde dicitur ei a Domino: Hypocrita, ejice primum trabem de oculo tuo. Non itaque virtus, sed causa virtutis apud Deum mercedem habet. Etsi a recta via paululum declinaveris, non interest utrum ad dextram vadas, an ad sinistram, cum verum iter amiseris.  Sanctus Hieronymus, Commentaria in Matthaeum, Liber I, Caput VI Source: Migne PL 26 41-42

'Take care lest you make your righteousness before men, that you be seen by them, thus you will not have a reward from your Father who is in heaven.' 1 He who blows his trumpet while giving alms is a hypocrite. He who disfigures his face when he fasts, so that he might show the emptiness of his belly by his face, is a hypocrite. He who prays in the synagogues and at the street corners so that he be seen by men, is a hypocrite. It should be gathered from all this that the hypocrites are those who do what they do so that they may be glorified by men. It seems to me that even he who says to his brother, ' Allow me to remove that speck from your eye,' does this on account of glory, that he might appear to be righteous. Thus it is said to him by the Lord, 'Hypocrite, first take the plank from your own eye.' Not otherwise is there virtue, but that the reason of virtue has a reward with God. If you wander a little from the correct way, it does not matter it you go off to the right or to the left, since you have lost the true way. Saint Jerome, from the Commentary on the Gospel of St Matthew, Book 1, Chapter 6  1 Mt 6. 1