The Left And The Right

Te autem faciente eleemosynam, nesciat sinistra tua quid faciat dextera tua. Jamdudum significavimus haec omnia ad animam dici, non ad carnem, quod hic sermo manifeste declarat. Alioqui quantum ad corpus, quomodo potest fieri ut nesciat sinistra quid dextera faciat, cum ambae manus in adjutorium sibi invicem sint creatae, ut altera alteri administret, nec cito inveniatur opus quod una manus sine altera possit implere? Sed secundum quod diximus supera, dextera manus est voluntas animae, semper ad bonum contendens; sinistra autem voluntas carnis, semper Deo contraria. Nesciat ergo carnis voluntas, quod facit voluntas animae. Quando ergo voluntas est nobis faciendi eleemosynas propter Deum, voluntas est animae, et dextera manus nostra. Si subeuntem nobis voluntatem vanam, ut ab hominibus videamur, id est voluntatem carnis, et manum sinistram represserimus, nescit sinistra voluntas quid facit dextera. Si autem subeunti hujusmodi vanae vountati consenserimus, conjunximus sinistram voluntatem dextrae, et dextram sinistrae: et notum facimus sinistrae quod dextera operabatur. Opus Imperfectum in Matthaeum, Homilia XIII Source: Migne PG 56.707

But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. 1 Earlier we remarked that all these things speak of the soul, not of the flesh, and this passage manifestly declares it. Besides, as much as it concerns the body, how is it possible that the left hand does not know what the right is doing, when both hands were created for the help of one another, that one administer to the other, and it is not easy to find some work in which one hand can perform it without the other? But according to what we have said previously, the right hand is the will of the soul which always strives for the good, but the left hand is the will of the flesh, which is always opposed to God. 2 Therefore let not the will of the flesh know what the will of the soul is doing. When, therefore, it is for us to give alms for the sake of God, it is the will of the soul, and it is our right hand. If there comes upon us a wish to be seen by men, this is the desire of the flesh, and with its restraint the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. If, however, there comes upon us the same vain wish and we consent, we join the left's desire to the right, and the right to the left, and we make known to the left what the right was doing. Opus Imperfectum on Matthew, from Homily 13 1 Mt 6.3 2 cf Galat 5.17