On Works and Almsgiving 1–22

Many and great, dearest brothers, are the divine benefits by which the abundant and plentiful mercy of God the Father and of Christ has worked and always works for our salvation: that the Father sent the Son to preserve us and give us life, so that he might restore us; and that the Son willed to be sent and to be called the Son of man, so that he might make us sons of God. He humbled himself to raise up the people who before lay prostrate; he was wounded to heal our wounds; he became a servant to draw out to freedom those who were in servitude. He endured death to show forth immortality to mortals. Many and great are these gifts of divine mercy. But further, what providence and how great mercy it is that provision is made for us by a saving plan, so that man, once redeemed, is more fully cared for by being kept safe! For when the Lord at his coming had healed the wounds which Adam had borne and cured the ancient poisons of the serpent, he gave a law to the one made whole and commanded him to sin no more, lest something worse befall him if he sinned. We had been confined and shut up in a narrow place by the command of innocence. Nor would the weakness and frailty of human fragility have had anything to do, unless the divine goodness, coming to help once more, had opened a certain way of safeguarding salvation by showing works of righteousness and mercy, so that by almsgiving we might wash away whatever stains we afterwards contract.

The Holy Spirit speaks in the Scriptures and says: “By almsgiving and faith sins are purged.” Not, of course, those sins which had been contracted before, for those are purged by the blood and sanctification of Christ. Again he says: “As water will quench fire, so almsgiving will quench sin.” Here too it is shown and proved that, as by the washing of the saving water the fire of Gehenna is quenched, so by almsgiving and righteous works the flame of sins is laid to rest. And since remission of sins is given once in baptism, constant and continual works, imitating the likeness of baptism, bestow God's indulgence again. The Lord also teaches this in the Gospel. For when his disciples were criticized because they ate without having first washed their hands, he answered and said: “He who made what is within also made what is without. But give alms, and see, all things are clean for you,” teaching, of course, and showing that it is not the hands that must be washed but the heart, and that filth is to be removed from within rather than from without; but that he who has cleansed what is within has also cleansed what is without, and, the mind being cleansed, has begun to be clean in skin and body as well. Moreover, warning and showing how we can be clean and purified, he added that alms must be given. The merciful one admonishes that mercy be shown; and since he seeks to save those whom he redeemed at a great price, he teaches that those who have been defiled after the grace of baptism can be cleansed again.

Let us therefore recognize, dearest brothers, the wholesome gift of divine indulgence; for cleansing and purging our sins, we who cannot be without some wound of conscience, let us heal our wounds with spiritual remedies. Nor let anyone so flatter himself about a pure and spotless heart as to rely on his innocence and think that no medicine need be applied to his wounds, since it is written: “Who will boast that he has a chaste heart, or who will boast that he is clean from sins?” And again John sets it down in his letter and says: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” But if no one can be without sin, and whoever says he is blameless is either proud or foolish, how necessary, how kind is the divine mercy, which, knowing that some wounds will not be lacking afterwards to those who have been healed, has given saving remedies for healing and curing wounds again!

In short, dearest brothers, the divine admonition has never ceased or fallen silent from calling the people of God, always and everywhere in the holy Scriptures, both old and new, to works of mercy; and with the Holy Spirit singing and exhorting, everyone who is instructed in the hope of the heavenly kingdom is commanded to give alms. God charges and commands Isaiah: “Cry out,” he says, “with strength, and do not spare. Lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their sins and to the house of Jacob their crimes.” And when he had commanded that their sins be charged against them, and had set forth their crimes with the full force of indignation, and had said that even if they used prayers and petitions and fasts they could not make satisfaction for their sins, nor could they soften the anger of God even if they rolled in sackcloth and ashes, yet in the last part, showing that God can be appeased by almsgiving alone, he added, saying: “Break your bread for the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house. If you see the naked, clothe him, and you shall not despise those of your own seed. Then your light shall break forth in its season, and your garments shall quickly spring up, and righteousness shall go before you, and the glory of God shall surround you. Then you shall cry out, and God will hear you; while you are still speaking, he will say: See, I am here.”

Remedies for propitiating God have been given in the words of God himself; the divine teachings have taught what sinners ought to do: that satisfaction is made to God by righteous works, that sins are purged by the merits of mercy. And in Solomon we read: “Shut up alms in the heart of the poor, and it will pray for you against all evil.” And again: “He who stops his ears so as not to hear the weak will himself call on God, and there will be no one to hear him.” For he cannot deserve God's mercy who has not himself been merciful, nor will he obtain anything from the divine goodness by his prayers who has not been humane toward the prayer of the poor. The Holy Spirit likewise declares and proves this in the Psalms, saying: “Blessed is he who considers the needy and poor; in the evil day the Lord will deliver him.” Mindful of these precepts, when King Nebuchadnezzar was troubled and terrified by an ominous dream, Daniel gave a remedy for turning away evils by obtaining divine help, saying: “Therefore, O king, let my counsel please you, and redeem your sins by almsgiving and your iniquities by mercy to the poor, and God will be patient with your sins.” And the king, not obeying him, suffered the adverse and hostile things he had seen, which he could have escaped and avoided had he redeemed his sins by almsgiving. The angel Raphael too bears like witness, and exhorts that almsgiving be done willingly and generously, saying: “Prayer is good with fasting and almsgiving, for almsgiving delivers from death and itself purges sins.” He shows that our prayers and fasts are of less power unless they are aided by almsgiving; that petitions alone avail little to obtain what they ask, unless they are made full by the addition of deeds and works. The angel reveals and makes plain and confirms that by almsgiving our petitions are made effective, by almsgiving life is redeemed from dangers, by almsgiving souls are freed from death.

Nor, dearest brothers, do we put these things forward without confirming what the angel Raphael said by the testimony of truth. In the Acts of the Apostles the proof of the fact is set down, and it has been established by the evidence of a thing done and accomplished that by almsgiving souls are freed not only from the second death but also from the first. When Tabitha, much given to righteous works and to giving alms, fell sick and died, Peter was summoned to the lifeless corpse. When he had come promptly, out of apostolic kindness, the widows stood around him weeping and pleading, showing the cloaks and tunics and all the garments they had received before, and pleading for the dead woman not with their own words but with her works. Peter perceived that what was asked in this way could be obtained, and that Christ's help would not fail the pleading widows, since Christ himself had been clothed in the widows. So when he had knelt and prayed, and, as a fit advocate of the widows and the poor, had carried to the Lord the prayers entrusted to him, he turned to the body, which lay already washed on the bier, and said: “Tabitha, arise in the name of Jesus Christ.” Nor did he fail to bring help to Peter at once, he who had said in the Gospel that whatever was asked in his name would be given. So death is suspended and the spirit is given back, and, to the wonder and amazement of all, the body, revived, is animated again to the light of this world. So much could the merits of mercy do, so much did righteous works avail! She who had bestowed on the toiling widows the means of living deserved to be called back to life at the widows' request.

And so in the Gospel the Lord, the teacher of our life and the master of eternal salvation, who gives life to the people of believers and provides forever for those to whom he has given life, among his divine commands and heavenly precepts commands and enjoins nothing more often than that we should persist in giving alms, and not brood over earthly possessions but rather lay up heavenly treasures. “Sell your goods,” he says, “and give alms.” And again: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and eating destroy and where thieves dig through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor eating destroys and where thieves do not dig through. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” And when he wished to show one who had kept the law how to be perfect and complete, he said: “If you wish to be perfect, go and sell all you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Likewise in another place he says that the merchant of heavenly grace and buyer of eternal salvation ought, having sold all his goods, to purchase with the whole of his patrimony the precious pearl, that is, eternal life, precious by the blood of Christ. “The kingdom of heaven,” he says, “is like a merchant seeking good pearls; and when he found a precious pearl, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

He calls sons of Abraham those whom he sees working at helping and feeding the poor. For when Zacchaeus had said, “See, half of my goods I give to the needy, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore fourfold,” Jesus answered: “Salvation has come to this house today, since he too is a son of Abraham.” For if Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, surely he who gives alms according to God's command believes God; and he who has the truth of faith keeps the fear of God; and he who keeps the fear of God thinks of God in showing mercy to the poor. For he works because he believes in God, because he knows that what was foretold by the words of God is true, and that Scripture cannot lie: that unfruitful trees, that is, barren men, are cut down and cast into the fire, and that the merciful are called to the kingdom. In another place too he calls those who work and bear fruit faithful, but denies faith to the unfruitful and barren, saying: “If you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will entrust to you what is true? And if you have not been faithful in what is another's, who will give you what is your own?”

But you are afraid and fear that if you begin to work generously, your patrimony will be used up by your lavish giving and you may perhaps be reduced to want. Be fearless on this score; be secure. That cannot be used up from which spending is made for the uses of Christ, from which the heavenly work is carried out. Nor do I guarantee this to you on my own account; I promise it on the faith of the holy Scriptures and the authority of the divine promise. The Holy Spirit speaks through Solomon and says: “He who gives to the poor will never be in need; but he who turns away his eye will be in great want,” showing that the merciful and those who work cannot be in need, but rather the stingy and barren afterwards come to poverty. Likewise the blessed apostle Paul, full of the grace of the Lord's inspiration, says: “He who supplies seed to the sower will also provide bread to eat, and will multiply your sowing and increase the growth of the fruits of your righteousness, that you may be enriched in all things.” And again: “The ministry of this service will not only supply what the saints lack, but will also abound through much thanksgiving in the Lord”; because, while thanksgiving is directed to God by the prayer of the poor for our alms and works, the wealth of the one who works is increased by God's repayment. And the Lord in the Gospel, already considering the hearts of such men and denouncing the faithless and unbelieving with foreknowing voice, testifies and says: “Do not be anxious, saying: What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For the nations seek these things. For your Father knows that you need all these. Seek first the kingdom and righteousness of God, and all these things will be added to you.” He says that all things will be added and given to those who seek the kingdom and righteousness of God; the Lord says that, when the day of judgment comes, those who have worked in his church will be admitted to receive the kingdom.

You fear that your patrimony may fail if you begin to work generously from it, and you do not know, wretched one, that while you fear that your property may fail, life itself and salvation are failing; and while you watch that nothing of your goods be diminished, you do not see that you yourself are being diminished, a lover of mammon more than of your own soul; and while you fear to lose your patrimony for your own sake, you yourself perish for the sake of your patrimony. And so the apostle rightly cries out and says: “We brought nothing into this world, nor can we take anything out. Having therefore sustenance and covering, let us be content with these. But those who wish to become rich fall into temptation and a snare and many harmful desires which plunge a man into ruin and destruction. For the root of all evils is covetousness, which some have sought after and made shipwreck of the faith, and pierced themselves with many sorrows.”

You fear that your patrimony may fail if you begin to work generously from it? But when has it happened that the righteous could lack support? For it is written: “The Lord will not kill a righteous soul with hunger.” Elijah is fed in the wilderness by ravens ministering to him; and for Daniel, shut up by the king's command in the lions' den, a meal is prepared by God. And do you fear that food will be lacking to one who works and deserves well of the Lord, when he himself, in the Gospel, to rebuke those whose mind is doubtful and whose faith is small, testifies and says: “Look at the birds of the sky, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more worth than they?” God feeds the birds, and daily food is provided to the sparrows; and those who have no sense of divine things lack neither drink nor food; and do you think that anything will be lacking to a Christian, to a servant of God, to one devoted to good works, to one dear to his Lord?

Unless perhaps you think that he who feeds Christ is not himself fed by Christ, or that earthly things will be lacking to those to whom heavenly and divine things are granted. Where does this unbelieving thought come from, this impious and sacrilegious reflection? What is a faithless heart doing in the house of faith? Why is one who does not believe Christ at all called and named a Christian? The name of Pharisee suits you better. For when the Lord in the Gospel was speaking about almsgiving, and faithfully and wholesomely warned us beforehand to make for ourselves friends from earthly gain by provident working, who would afterwards receive us into eternal dwellings, Scripture added after this, saying: “But the Pharisees, who were very covetous, heard all these things and mocked him.” We now see some such in the church, whose closed ears and blinded hearts admit no light from spiritual and saving admonitions; about whom we need not wonder that they despise the servant in his discourses, since we see that the Lord himself was despised by such people.

Why do you applaud yourself with these foolish and silly thoughts, as though you were held back from works by fear and anxiety for the future? Why do you hold out the shadows and illusions of a vain excuse? Rather confess the truth, and since you cannot deceive those who know, bring out the secret and hidden things of your mind. The darkness of barrenness has besieged your soul, and as the light of truth has withdrawn from it, the deep and profound fog of avarice has blinded your fleshly heart. You are the captive and slave of your money; you are bound with the chains and fetters of covetousness; and you whom Christ had already set free are bound again. You keep money which, though kept, does not keep you; you heap up a patrimony which burdens you with its weight; nor do you remember what God answered the rich man who boasted with foolish exultation of the abundance of his overflowing crops: “Fool,” he says, “this night your soul is required of you; then whose will be the things you have prepared?” Why do you brood alone over your riches? Why do you pile up the weight of your patrimony for your own punishment, so that the richer you are to the world, the poorer you become to God? Divide your revenues with your God; share your fruits with Christ; make Christ a partner in your earthly possessions, so that he may also make you a fellow heir of the heavenly kingdoms.

You err and are deceived, whoever you are who believe yourself rich in this world. Hear in the Apocalypse the voice of your Lord rebuking such men with just reproaches: “You say,” he says, “I am rich and have grown rich and need nothing; and you do not know that you are wretched and poor and blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may be rich; and white clothing, that you may be clothed and the shame of your nakedness may not appear in you; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.” You, then, who are wealthy and rich, buy for yourself from Christ gold refined by fire, so that, your filth burned away as by fire, you may be pure gold, if you are cleansed by almsgiving and righteous works. Buy for yourself white clothing, so that you who, according to Adam, had been naked and were before hideous and misshapen may be clothed in the white garment of Christ. And you, a wealthy and rich matron, anoint your eyes, not with the devil's antimony but with Christ's eye salve, so that you may come to see God, while you deserve well of God both by your conduct and by your works.

But you who are such cannot do works in the church; for eyes overspread with blackness, covered with darkness and night, do not see the needy and poor. Wealthy and rich, do you think you celebrate the Lord's Supper, you who do not look at the offering box at all, who come to the Lord's Supper without a sacrifice, who take a part of the sacrifice which the poor person offered? Look in the Gospel at the widow, mindful of the heavenly precepts, doing works amid the very pressures and straits of poverty, throwing into the treasury the two small coins which were all she had. When the Lord noticed and saw her, weighing and considering her work not by her patrimony but by her heart, not how much but from how much she had given, he answered and said: “Amen, I say to you, that this widow has put more into the gifts of God than all. For all these have put into the gifts of God out of what they had in abundance; but she out of her want has put in all the living she had.” Greatly blessed and glorious is the woman who deserved to be praised by the voice of the Judge even before the day of judgment. Let the rich be ashamed of their barrenness and unhappiness. A widow, and a needy one, is found at work; and though everything that is given is bestowed on orphans and widows, she gives who ought to receive, so that we may know what punishment awaits the barren rich man, when by this example even the poor ought to do works. And so that we may understand that these works are given to God, and that whoever does them deserves well of God, Christ calls them “gifts of God,” and says that the widow put two farthings into the gifts of God, so that it may be more and more manifest that he who has mercy on the poor lends to God.

Nor, dearest brothers, let this hold back and call a Christian away from good and righteous works, that someone thinks he can be excused by the benefit of his children; since in spiritual expenditures we ought to think of Christ, who has declared that he receives them, and we should prefer to our children not our fellow servants but the Lord, as he himself instructs and warns: “He who loves father or mother more than me,” he says, “is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” Likewise in Deuteronomy the like is written for the strengthening of faith and the love of God: “Those who say to father and mother, I do not know you, and have not acknowledged their own children, these have kept your precepts and observed your covenant.” For if we love God with our whole heart, we ought to prefer neither parents nor children to God. John too sets this down in his letter, that the love of God is not in those whom we see unwilling to work for the poor: “He who has this world's goods,” he says, “and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart, how does the love of God abide in him?” For if God is lent to by the alms of the poor, and when it is given to the least it is given to Christ, there is no reason why anyone should prefer earthly things to heavenly, or set human things before divine.

So the widow in the third book of Kingdoms, when in drought and famine everything had been consumed, and from the little meal and oil that remained she had made a hearth cake, after eating which she was to die with her children, Elijah came and asked that he be given it to eat first, and that then she and her sons should eat of what remained. Nor did she hesitate to obey, nor did the mother prefer her children to Elijah in famine and want. Rather, in the sight of God what pleases God is done: what was asked is offered promptly and willingly, and not a portion from abundance but the whole from a little is given; and while her children are hungry, another is fed first; nor in poverty and famine is food thought of before mercy, so that, while in a saving work life is despised according to the flesh, the soul may be saved according to the spirit. Elijah, therefore, bearing the type of Christ, and showing that Christ repays each person for mercy, answered and said: “Thus says the Lord: the jar of meal shall not fail, and the cruse of oil shall not diminish, until the day when the Lord gives rain upon the earth.” According to the faithfulness of the divine promise, what the widow gave was multiplied and heaped up, and the vessels of meal and oil were filled as they took increase and growth from her righteous works and the merits of her mercy. Nor did the mother take from her children what she gave to Elijah, but rather she bestowed on her children what she did kindly and dutifully. And she did not yet know Christ, had not yet heard his precepts, had not been redeemed by his cross and passion, so as to repay food and drink for his blood; so that from this it may appear how greatly he sins in the church who, putting himself and his children before Christ, keeps his riches and does not share his abundant patrimony with the poverty of the needy.

But there are many children in your house, and the number of your children holds you back from persisting generously in good works. Yet for this very reason you ought to work the more, because you are the father of many children. There are more for whom you must pray to the Lord; the sins of many must be redeemed, the consciences of many cleansed, the souls of many freed. As in this worldly life, in feeding and supporting children, the greater the number, the greater the expense, so also in the spiritual and heavenly life, the larger the number of children, the greater ought to be the expenditure on works. So Job offered numerous sacrifices for his children; and as great as the number of children in the house was, so great also was the number of victims given to God. And since there cannot fail to be daily sin in the sight of God, daily sacrifices were not lacking by which sins could be wiped away. Scripture proves it, saying: “Job, a true and righteous man, had seven sons and three daughters, and he cleansed them, offering victims to God for them according to their number, and for their sins one calf.” If, then, you truly love your children, if you show them the full and fatherly sweetness of love, you ought to work the more, so as to commend your children to God by righteous works.

Nor should you think of that father for your children who is both temporary and weak, but obtain for them the one who is the eternal and strong Father of spiritual children. Assign to him the means you are keeping for your heirs; let him be guardian to your children, let him be trustee, let him be protector with divine majesty against all worldly injuries. A patrimony entrusted to God neither the state seizes, nor the treasury invades, nor any lawsuit of the forum overturns. An inheritance is placed in safety that is kept with God as its guardian. This is to provide for dear children for the future; this is to care for future heirs with fatherly devotion, according to the faithfulness of holy Scripture, which says: “I have been young and have grown old, and I have not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed seeking bread. All day long he shows mercy and lends, and his seed will be in blessing.” And again: “He who lives without reproach in righteousness will leave blessed children.” You are therefore a betrayer and traitor as a father, unless you care faithfully for your children, unless you provide for their preservation with religious and true devotion. Why do you strive for an earthly rather than a heavenly patrimony? Do you prefer to commend your children to the devil rather than to Christ? You sin twice and commit a twofold and double crime: both because you do not prepare for your children the help of God the Father, and because you teach your children to love their patrimony more than Christ.

Be rather such a father to your children as Tobias proved to be. Give your children useful and saving precepts such as he gave his son; command your children what he also commanded, saying: “And now, son, I command you: serve God in truth and do before him what pleases him; and command your children to do righteousness and almsgiving, and to be mindful of God and bless his name at all times.” And again: “All the days of your life, son, keep God in mind and do not transgress his precepts. Do righteousness all the days of your life, and do not walk in the way of iniquity; for if you act in truth, there will be regard for your works. Give alms from your substance, and do not turn your face away from any poor person; so it will be that the face of God is not turned away from you. As you have, son, so do: if your substance is abundant, give more alms from it; if you have little, share from that very little. And do not be afraid when you give alms; you are storing up a good reward for yourself against the day of necessity, for almsgiving delivers from death and does not allow one to go into darkness. Almsgiving is a good gift for all who do it before the most high God.”

What a show this is, dearest brothers, whose presentation is given with God as spectator! If, in the shows of the heathen, it seems a great and glorious thing to have proconsuls or emperors present, and the preparation and expense of the givers of the show are greater so that they may please their superiors, how much more illustrious is the show, and how much greater its glory, to have God and Christ as spectators! How much richer the preparation and more lavish the expense must be here, where the powers of heaven gather for the spectacle, where all the angels gather, where the giver of the show seeks not a four-horse chariot or a consulship but is granted eternal life; where the empty and passing favor of the crowd is not courted, but the everlasting reward of the heavenly kingdom is received!

And so that the lazy and barren, who through love of money do nothing toward the fruit of salvation, may be more ashamed, so that the blush of their disgrace and shame may strike their sordid conscience more, let each one set before his eyes the devil leaping forth into the midst with his servants, that is, with the people of perdition and death, and, in the presence of Christ himself and with Christ as judge, challenging the people of Christ to a test of comparison, saying: “For these whom you see with me I neither received blows, nor endured scourges, nor bore the cross, nor shed my blood, nor redeemed my household at the price of suffering and blood; nor do I promise them a heavenly kingdom, nor do I call them back again to paradise with immortality restored. And yet what precious, what great shows, sought with how excessive and long a labor, they provide for me with most costly preparations, pledging or selling their property to procure the show; and unless a creditable presentation follows, they are driven out with abuse and hisses, and sometimes nearly stoned by the fury of the people. Show me such givers of shows of yours, Christ, those rich men, those overflowing with abundant wealth: do they give a show of this kind in the church, with you presiding and watching, having pledged or sold their property, or rather transferred it to heavenly treasures, their possessions changed for the better? In these perishable and earthly shows of mine no one is fed, no one is clothed, no one is sustained by the comfort of any food or drink. Everything perishes, between the frenzy of the giver and the error of the spectator, in the prodigal and foolish vanity of deceiving pleasures. There, in your poor, you are clothed and fed; you promise eternal life to those who work; and yet your people, who are honored by you with divine wages and heavenly rewards, are scarcely equal to mine, who lose everything.”