Many matters, dearly beloved, coming from the Gospel reading draw the mind in diverse directions; and if we should wish to arrange them under the setting-forth of a single subject, it is inevitable that one matter should hinder another, and that the one should shut out the understanding of the other business. But when can it come to pass that the wit either of the speaker or of the hearer is not hindered by the confusion of many things? Among the rest, then, dearly beloved, of the things which the Evangelist recounts to have been bestowed according to their merits by the grace of blessedness, we have thought meanwhile the cause of mercy should be set forth before you, which requires the fruit of daily work: the rest we will pursue in their own times, when there shall be occasion;
so that each matter, having stood fixed with its own forces, may not require the material of another cause. Behold, the Lord says: 'Blessed are the merciful, for God will have mercy on them' (Matt. 5:7). I marvel if, after this word, anyone should hesitate to spend his coin, when he has seen a benefit answer to the righteous. And what does it profit to guard a heaped-up mass of gold in a purse, when you could daily both do good and bring back the interest of the money laid out? 'Blessed are the merciful, for God will have mercy on them.'
Rejoice, dearly beloved, and give in security, and spend without doubting. And who would not vie in dispensing his wealth by a bountiful distribution among the wretched, when he understands he will receive manifold fruits and double gifts? Behold, in short, the Lord has judged those blessed in this life to whom He has promised mercy in the future. Hear the Lord saying in another place: 'Give to everyone that asks you' (Luke 6:30). It is not idle, dearly beloved, that the Lord bids alms be given to all who ask. He knew of necessity that at times good men too lie hidden among the bad; and therefore He mingled good with bad, lest, while an overly cautious distribution should pass by the unworthy, one worthy of mercy should also depart ungifted. There is no discrimination of the petitioner;
nor is the need of the poor to be explored; the fruits sought are those of the giver, not of the receiver. It matters not to which petitioner you distribute; for the Lord does not require whether he who asks be worthy, but seeks how much he who gives bestows. Hear on this point the Apostle saying: 'He who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly' (2 Cor. 9:6). Assuredly we provide for ourselves as often as we succor the wretched; it is our gain, the distribution of our means. For if you look to the hope of future recompense, whatever is ministered to the hungry is entrusted to the Lord, as the prophet says: 'Blessed is he who understands concerning the needy and the poor; in the evil day the Lord will deliver him' (Ps. 40:1). Of all these Christ is the surety, who says:
'I will render to you a hundredfold' (Matt. 19:29). Moreover, eternal life too is promised; but for impiety and avarice the severity of judgment is reserved, as the Evangelist says: 'When the Son of Man shall come in His majesty, and all the angels with Him, then shall He separate them all one from another, the sheep on the right and the goats on the left; saying to those on the right: Come, my children, possess with me the kingdom of heaven. I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in; I was naked, and you clothed me. He shall say to those on the left: Depart from me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire. I was hungry, and you gave me not to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me not to drink'
(Matt. 25:31, 32, 34-36, 41, 42). Let us therefore consider, dearly beloved, and take heed lest the recompense of impiety find us. For as the Lord is appeased in the feeding and clothing of the poor, so is He offended in the contempt of the wretched; for Him so great is the care of the unfortunate that He reckons as given to Himself whatever clothes or refreshes the needy. Hear Solomon saying: 'Son, do good to yourself; shut up alms in the bosom of the poor' (Ecclus. 29:15). Whoever therefore desires to consult his own advantage, let him feed the poor not unwillingly. Nor is there lacking wherein you may daily make gain, if you look to the need of another's poverty. For Scripture says: 'By alms and faith sins are purged' (Prov. 15:27).
Behold, this one with fasting throat seeks nourishment; that one bears witness that a wretched garment is lacking to him in his nakedness. Cruel enough and too hard is he whom grief does not touch, when either weakness, or nakedness, or poverty pricks a member of his own body. Little indeed does he provide for himself who does not attend to the case of another's need. Your riches profit you nothing, if you use not the benefits of riches. For it is a part of beggary to possess money heaped up in secret. Do you not know that whoever does not sow receives no fruit, according to that sentence which we mentioned above: 'He who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly' (2 Cor. 9:6)?
This, then, is the method of practicing husbandry: that the more a man entrusts of seeds to the earth, the greater grows his hope for the harvests to come. He who does not sow, with idle hands watches others reaping. For he who among the other farmers has labored more will store up more. But when can it come to pass that he beholds his granaries empty, who has continually committed his seeds to the earth with a multiplied furrow? What does it profit you to brood over heaped-up riches, if you take no gain from them? We see, in short, that often a store of grain grown old is consumed by age, and wines spoiled by time flung away as of no future use.
That alone we understand at times to have profited the Lord the more, which the husbandman is wont to lend to the needy for the sake of renewing it. But whatever avarice has kept, either the excessive summer heat cheats, or ungrateful age consumes, or the destructive moth corrupts. Here alone a man stores up for himself whatever he has spent for the sake of compassion. For thus the Lord says: 'Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither the moth consumes, nor thieves dig through and steal' (Matt. 6:20). Let us therefore provide, dearly beloved, lest the worm of avarice destroy our means. Let us send our wealth ahead thither, where no thief may break in, no plotter set it ablaze. Let us entrust our riches to the Lord, who says:
'Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth' (ibid. 19). For whoever faithfully lays out his means in the work of God, keeps them stored and laid up in the region of heaven under a just surety. Let no wise man look to the ornaments of this world, which, while they temporarily serve the wills of men, mock the souls of the possessor. There are two kinds of riches: one which counsels to death, another which leads to life. It is the riches of death to brood over another's means, and to count out to the day money heaped up, purchased with the tears of the unfortunate, destined to profit the inheritances of the world.
Those riches are whole and incorrupt by which souls are redeemed, by which sins are purged. Those riches are acceptable to God, by whose bounty the poor man is fed, the naked clothed, the captive redeemed, the bound set free, and the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom procured. I want not those riches which daily by their own increase make famine, and hereafter, stripped of the flower of their dignity, suffer their lovers to hunger. Let us at last have recourse to the Scriptures, and you will understand that in comparison with riches, poverty stands under a better lot.
For in the chastisement of avarice the Lord records that a certain rich man among the dead so besought Abraham our father, that he might send the beggar Lazarus, resting in a higher place, to cool his mouth and slake his lips burning with thirst. To whom this answer is recorded to have been given: 'Son, remember that you received good things in your life, and Lazarus likewise evil; but now he is comforted here, while you are tormented' (Luke 16:25). You see that certain alternations of the pursuits of good and evil men await them, which it is fitting to anticipate by the pursuit of mercy;
lest fruitless riches kindle against themselves the avenging flames of crimes. Let us therefore prepare for ourselves, dearly beloved, a place of grace with the Lord, and let us fortify the way of life by our munificence and bounty. Let us purge the stain of our affections before the Lord by satisfaction sent ahead, looking to that prophetic sentence which says: 'They who sow in tears shall reap in joy' (Ps. 125:5). If anyone therefore diligently questions his own conscience, let him not think these things are to be received with idle ears. For you will not be able in that day of the judgment to come to find any refreshment otherwise, unless you have either healed your wounds by the refreshing of the poor, or washed them by a flood of tears.
But weep yourselves the more freely, and distribute your means to those who weep, that in times to come, reaping joys among the rest, you may gather the fruits of mercy.