If we consider, dearly beloved, all the degrees of righteousness by which the work of religion is built up, you will find not one for which a service pleasing to the Lord does not procure a place of dignity. But these very things — the faith that works in us — although they advance by human labor, are to be referred to the Lord, through whom and in whom, if anything is well done, they subsist, and are preserved to profit each one hereafter. Whence let no wise man reckon that God's benefits are to be attributed to his own virtues, lest he hear that sentence of the Apostle who says: 'What have you that you have not received? Or if you have received, why do you glory as though you had not received it?' (1 Cor. 4:7).
We know indeed, dearly beloved, that according to the faith of the Gospels which recounts the promises of blessedness, righteousness has made for man a place in the heavenly realms: that is, the grace of meekness and humility has obtained the promise of paradise and the land of promise; purity of heart has merited to see Christ; mercy has received a like reward of recompense; the delight of peace has prepared a place for many among the sons of God;
the suffering of the saints acquired from the merits of virtue the crown of victory and the glory of the heavenly kingdom. But all these things one and the same power of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit works in us, which grants perfection to righteous labors, and supplies to the good will whatever things are best. There is indeed one thing, and that a very great one, which has descended from that seat of mercy, wherein a mortal man may daily and justly glory: this is the refreshing of the poor and the redemption of captives — provided vainglory do not scatter it, or ungrateful sadness disturb it. Behold, you hear the Evangelist saying: 'Come, blessed of my Father, possess with me the kingdom of heaven promised to you from the foundation of the world.'
'I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was naked, and you clothed me' (Matt. 25:34, 36). You see therefore that if anyone ought to glory, it is fitting to glory in no other work than this, in which the Lord commands that He be fed and clothed, and daily asks that His hunger be satisfied with a little morsel of broken bread. If then you wish that your glorying be not empty, let us in the first place redeem the friendship of the supreme King with abundant almsgiving; and that the heavenly kingdom may lie open to us, let us all turn the zeal of mercy toward the Lord.
In whose love the tears of the poor are not to be handled idly or negligently, lest He who is wont to feed the whole world seem, to our confusion, to hunger among beggars. Contemplate, in short, the needs of individuals, and the solicitude of our Savior toward the wretched: and you will understand that our Christ is there, where you have seen an abundance of tears. For the Lord is not to be sought far from you, if you be not greedy. Behold, He awaits us outside, with that crowd of His servants.
You must not err with your eye, so as to doubt on whom above all to bestow the work of pitying distribution. Know that it is our Christ Himself whom you have seen naked, whom you have beheld blind, whom you have found lame, wrapped in rags, whom you have seen covered with sordid garb. In this garment, indeed, He was found when sought by the Magi; when He lay placed in the manger, under this attire He received the gifts offered when their treasures were opened. To this responds that evangelical sentence which says: 'Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither the moth corrupts, nor thieves dig through' (Matt. 6:20). These are those treasures which are reckoned to heavenly merits, which no adversity defiles;
that is, the substance of one's means dispensed through the wretched. Hear then, in the first place, my counsel, whoever you are that glory in an abundance of riches. If you fear the moth, entrust them; if you dread the thief, entrust them in the region above. Behold, you have a fit guardian who will keep your wealth for you, to profit you forever and unto ages of ages. He adds to this: 'Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth' (ibid. 19). Not without reason, dearly beloved, does the Lord admonish that no one entrust his treasure to the earth. For often we see things heaped up imperiled by a flaw of the ground, and riches too deeply buried consumed by a kind of rot of the mire. Whence I judge it more useful to lend than to hide, and to trust to interest rather than to consign to the earth.
It is a kind of folly to keep shut up what could increase by manifold gain, and yield the fruit of righteousness for the use of eternal life. I warn you, then, that no one hide his treasure in the earth — that is, that no one think the dignity of a heavenly soul is to be assigned to earthly deeds. But the moth devours the treasures of that man who serves vanity and sets his life in the pomp of this world. The moth, therefore, dearly beloved, is the worm of envy and avarice, which alone possesses the secrets of the heart, and alone consumes what is heaped up in the treasuries. But believe the devil to be the thief, who, that he may lie in wait for good works, flatters by setting before you the pomp of the world;
and that he may exclude a man from fellowship with the heavenly kingdom, he thrusts gold into the hands, sets silver before the eyes, hangs gems upon the neck. Thus he nourishes pride, and kindles the desires of the flesh with the goad of covetousness; which, as Scripture says, 'plunge a man into destruction' (1 Tim. 6:9). But without doubt that man relieves the deep of its penalties who sends his treasures ahead to heaven. Hear what the Lord offers: 'Come, blessed of my Father, possess with me the kingdom promised to you from the foundation of the world. I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was naked, and you clothed me' (Matt. 25:34-36). Who would doubt, after this word, to depart from this world with all the pomp of his patrimony?
It is assuredly the vanity of folly, a vice in the choosing of merits, to choose the world rather than the heavenly kingdom, to please the world rather than Christ. If anyone therefore wishes to find a place in the heavenly seat, let him not cease to minister necessities to the needy. But perhaps someone will say: My means are slender, they do not admit such great expenses of distribution. If someone were to offer you a splendid house of this temporary possession, would you not, once the price was fixed, heap up coins from every side; and if perchance the weight of your purse did not suffice, would you not procure the thing you needed with borrowed money, until you might rejoice in a possession enlarged by new ground?
Behold, the possession of the heavenly kingdom is offered to you, and indeed rated at a small price, which can easily be bought even by him who is not wont to plead poverty. Let us see, however, what it is that is asked of you under the name of price: food, drink, and clothing. For these I find no one to whom a daily distribution is not available. If you inquire, perhaps in your granaries the kinds of grain overflow, and the good repute of its ancient taste commends the new cellar of wine. What does it profit you to keep these, if you know not how to devote yourself to profitable trade? But you say, I am poor. Can you excuse yourself under this word to those to whom you set the prices of goods according to the barrenness of the seasons? Without cause do you accuse the scantiness of your means:
can you have what you may sell, and not have what you may give? Not without cause is it said: 'Break your bread to the hungry' (Isa. 58:7). I think that sentence pertains to the inhuman, whose bread, stored away and untouched, wasting decay is wont to consume. Break, then, your bread to the hungry, lest it perish and shut you out from fellowship with the heavenly kingdom. He adds to this: 'And despise not the members of your own household' (ibid.). Who are our household? Necessarily all who are joined to us by the law of birth. What does it mean that in doing alms no one's person is to be excepted, nor is any judgment of selection to be held?
Because the thing that serves necessity requires no order of distribution. What need have you to inquire whether he who asks is a Christian or a Jew, a heretic or a heathen, a Roman or a barbarian, a free man or a slave? Where necessity presses, there is no need to scrutinize the person, lest, while you set apart the unworthy from your mercy, you likewise lose the Son of God. But how can we know in what part of the world Christ dwells? He is to be believed to be everywhere, who is known to possess all things. There follows upon the foregoing: 'Then shall your light break forth betimes, and your garments shall soon spring up, and righteousness shall go before you, and the brightness of God shall encompass you. Then shall you cry to the Lord, and the Lord shall hear you.'
'While you are yet speaking, He will say, Behold, I am here' (ibid. 8, 9). And this for the sake of a morsel of broken bread. How much do you think you will acquire, if you bestow greater things? Hear the Evangelist saying: 'Blessed are the merciful, for God will have mercy on them' (Matt. 5:7). Many indeed are the degrees of mercy; but it must be inquired which stand foremost. The chief part of mercy is indeed to stretch out a hand to the fallen, to show the way of salvation to the erring, to visit the sick, to cleave with consolations to those set in tribulation; but that is especially to be looked for: to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to redeem the captive, to furnish us with necessities in time of need. Besides these, we find at times many kinds of mercy by which human endeavors commonly commend themselves:
which, though they yield no fruit of mercy, yet feign the affection of mercy. For of these James says in his Epistle: 'If a brother or sister be naked, and lack daily food, and one of you say to them: Go in peace, be warmed and filled, yet give them not the things needful for the body, what shall it profit you?' (James 2:15-16). Who would not hate such a kind of mercy, where elegance of speech, an idle piety, flatters the weak, and fruitless tears are offered to heaven? What does it help to weep over another's shipwreck, if you neglect the body cast up on shore? Or what profits it to torment the soul with grief at another's wound, if you deny the cup of health?
Flattering conversation does not feed the hungry, nor do fruitless counsels clothe another's nakedness. What does it help to have soothed the beggar with soft comforts, if you do not refresh one about to die of hunger? What kind of mercy is this, to wish a man to live, and be unwilling to preserve him in his need? Cruel indeed is that piety which knows how to grieve for the wretched, and knows not how to succor the perishing. What more do you seek, dearly beloved, in return for the bestowal of broken bread? Even had the portion of the heavenly kingdom not been promised to you, that sentence ought to suffice for sinners, which has brought to mortals the hope of future salvation and the joy of perpetual security.
For if you look to the fruits of your labor and the indulgence of heavenly piety, you receive much more than you give. Behold, for the feeding of the poor, the kingdom of heaven is promised to you in the Gospels; for the bestowal of broken bread, and for the shelter of hospitality, or for the clothing of the naked body, the Lord promises through the prophets His help to you who call upon Him (Isa. 58:9); in the Psalms the righteousness of your mercy is set up unto ages of ages (Ps. 111:9). If we compare heavenly things with earthly, so precious a thing costs by a very small exchange; or how great a part is your alms compared with those things which the Lord is seen to have bestowed on mortals? Behold, we give earthly things, He heavenly;
by us temporal things are offered, He bestows things everlasting. Do you wish to know how far your possessions stand from heavenly gifts? In the comparison of benefits, it is not the same reckoning to receive perpetual riches and to give things that were bound to perish. Above all, care must be taken for those tears which lately the fury of bloody hostility has decreed. Nor indeed would there be lacking a work in which good will might exercise itself. For, what is worse, we see many anxious for the redemption of themselves and their own, to whom a hand must be stretched out. But you say, I am poor. Nor do we persuade anyone to give what he has not:
but let him whose means are so scanty that he cannot redeem a captive at least add that which is least to the price, so that even by a small coin he may be seen to have satisfied the commandment.