Acting in the open when fasting or not?

Some people struggle with the idea of helping or performing spiritual activities, like fasting, when others can see them. One of the verses that seem to motivate us NOT to do good deeds in the “open” is Matthew 6:6, where Christ teaches us that “When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly”.

Many take this verse literally and thereby do not help others in social circumstances as they are not acting in “secret” anymore but in the “open” as the Pharisees did. Yet this verse cannot be viewed in a literal sense to cover all spiritual acts to be done within one’s room, as this would imply several problems.

One of these problems is that if we are instructed by St. Paul to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17), and we ought to do it in secret, no one would come out of his room. This will leave us all locked down in our rooms, yet we are also expected to be the light of the world (Matthew 5:14-16). Therefore, Matthew 6:6 should not be taken literally, but in a discerning manner. Believers who are fasting continually for weeks at a time could also not isolate themselves within their bedrooms for this whole time.

The Church Fathers also viewed Matthew 6:6 in a discerning way.

Augustine of Hippo (430 AD) explained the room as follows:

“What are those bed-chambers but just our hearts themselves, as is meant also in the Psalm, when it is said, What ye say in your hearts, have remorse for even in your beds? And when you have shut the doors, says He, pray to your Father who is in secret. It is a small matter to enter into our bed-chambers if the door stands open to the unmannerly, through which the things that are outside profanely rush in and assail our inner man.

Now we have said that outside are all temporal and visible things, which make their way through the door, i.e. through the fleshly sense into our thoughts, and clamorously interrupt those who are praying by a crowd of vain phantoms. Hence the door is to be shut, i.e. the fleshly sense is to be resisted, so that spiritual prayer may be directed to the Father, which is done in the inmost heart” (Augustine of Hippo. On the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, Book 2, chapter 3.2)

Hilary of Poitiers (368 AD), in line with St. Augustine, said:

“We are asked to pray with the bedroom door closed, as it were, and we are taught to pour out our prayer in every place. The saints’ prayers were undertaken in the presence of wild animals, in prisons, in flames, from the depths of the sea and the belly of the beast.

Hence we are admonished not to enter the recesses of our homes but the bedroom of our hearts. With the office of our minds closed, we pray to God not with many words but with our conscience, for every act is superior to the words of speakers” (Hilary of Poitiers on Matthew 5:1, also as a commentary on Matthew 6:6 on Catena: Bible & Commentaries)

In addition, John Chrysostom (407 AD) said:

“It is worth observing in this case also, how exact the definition, which He made when He said, “That they may appear unto men.” So that even if you shut the doors, this He desires you duly to perform, rather than the shutting of the doors, even to shut the doors of the mind. For as in everything it is good to be freed from vainglory, most especially so in prayer.

For if even without this, we wander and are distracted, when shall we attend unto the things which we are saying, should we enter in having this disease also? And if we who pray and beseech attend not, how do we expect God to attend?” (John Chrysostom. Homily 19 on Matthew, section 3)

In conclusion:

Therefore, the “room” that Christ is talking about is not a literal room, but rather a spiritual one. We ought to focus on being with God so that there are no mental distractions, symbolizing having an “open door”, but our hearts should be closed to any external noises. Many Protestants view Matthew 6:6 as applying to their private supplications to God only, and not in a strictly spiritual sense, which would exclude the need to be fasting in secret within their bedrooms.