1. Almsgiving alone does not suffice to blot out crimes. It is vain if sins are not avoided. I beg you, dearest brethren, consider more diligently, and as much as you can dread and beware, lest that cruel enemy of the human race so creep upon you, as he is wont with wicked cunning to deceive the incautious and negligent. For to some murderers, robbers, and adulterers he instills a vain security; so that, though they commit crimes daily, they believe that they redeem them by daily alms, thinking that God, after the manner of corrupt judges, takes money and forgives sins. He does indeed take money, and delights in almsgiving;
yet on this condition, that each sinner, when he offers God his money, should at the same time offer also his soul. For I ask you, brethren, what justice is it, that some criminal should offer his money to God by almsgiving, and hand over his soul to the devil by lust? that in his money he should offer to God the image of the emperor, and in his own self hand over to the devil the image of God? Not thus does the Lord command in the Gospel. For when he says, 'Render the things that are Caesar's to Caesar, and the things that are God's to God' (Matt. 22:21); what else does he seem to say, but that just as in the coin you render the image of Caesar to Caesar, so in your very selves you should render the image of God to God. For however lavish the alms any man may bestow;
if he does not cease from capital crimes, I fear, and greatly fear, lest perhaps, deceiving himself with false security, he both lose his money and not redeem his sins. Let no one therefore think that daily alms consume daily adulteries. 2. To change one's life or to bear it. What alms accomplishes, if life is not changed. For it is one thing to change one's life, another to bear one's life. To bear one's life is to redeem by daily alms the small sins, without which we cannot be: to change one's life is to abstain from capital crimes. For then, as I have already said above, more abundant almsgiving frees the soul, if the criminal already ceases from deadly sins.
But if, as has already been said above, he give his substance to God, and offer his soul to the enemy; there is fulfilled in him that which is written, 'He who is baptized from a dead body, and again touches the dead, what does his washing profit him' (Sir. 34:30)? and that which the apostle Peter cries out, saying, 'For if, fleeing the defilements of the world, they are again entangled in them and overcome, their latter state is made worse than the former' (2 Pet. 2:20). Consider, brethren, that the blessed Peter testifies this to sinners, that if, after they have begun to redeem their sins, they return again to the wallowing-places of crimes, their latter state shall be made worse than the former:
and there shall befall them that which the same apostle Peter adds and says, 'The dog returned to its vomit, and the sow washed to her wallowing in the mire' (ibid., 22). Which thing Solomon also more terribly and plainly admonishes, saying: 'As a dog is hateful when it returns to its vomit; so is the sinner when he returns to his sin' (Prov. 26:11). Which the Lord himself also confirms in the Gospel: 'Behold,' he says, 'you are now made whole: sin no more, lest something worse befall you' (John 5:14). Which again Solomon testifies and cries out: 'My son, you have sinned, add not again; but for your former sins also pray that they may be forgiven you' (Sir. 21:1).
That this was said not of the small sins, without which we cannot be, but of capital crimes, is manifest. Whence also it is written in the Gospel: 'When the unclean spirit has gone out from a man, he wanders through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. After this he returns, and finds his house from which he had gone out swept clean; and he takes with him seven spirits more wicked than himself, and the last state of that man shall be worse than the first' (Matt. 12:43-45). For this befalls those who attempt by almsgiving to redeem capital crimes, but are again defiled by lust: as almsgiving cleanses, so lust defiles.
For if anyone should frequently wash his garment, and again and again plunge it into the mire; I know not with what face he would presume to put it on at some festival: especially when the Apostle cries out concerning Christ, 'He fitted to himself a Church having neither spot nor wrinkle' (Eph. 5:27). If one could enter into eternal life with spot and wrinkle; with what conscience does anyone oppressed with capital crimes trust that he will enter into it, unless he has cleansed himself by amending his ways and by giving alms? 3. If life is changed, it profits much. And attend diligently, dearest brethren, to what I suggest, lest perhaps someone, ill understanding, believe that I say almsgiving cannot profit sins. Far be this from us, brethren.
We not only believe that it profits, but we confess that it profits much: yet on this condition, that he who pays out alms for his sins should already cease to practice capital crimes; and so let him give alms at the Lord's bidding, that he may disdain to serve sin. Concerning this matter I wish to set forth to your Charity a certain likeness. I ask you, brethren, does any one of us wish that his servant should so render him a wage for his work, that he should nevertheless continually serve his enemies, and never depart from their company? It is certain that I know not whether any man could endure this. What therefore you would not endure to suffer from your servant, it is not just that you do to your Lord.
And therefore, as we have already often said, when we dispense money to the poor, let us offer to God our soul, where our heart also is. For this reason God exhorts us to lay up treasure in heaven through almsgiving to the poor, so that our heart may follow there, where we send our treasure ahead (Matthew 6:20, 21); and when the priest says, 'Lift up your hearts,' let us answer with a secure conscience that we hold them toward the Lord. Incontinence is rebuked. What is commonly thought lawful for men, we do not perform. But someone says: 'I am young, and therefore I cannot conquer pleasure or overcome lust.' If you cannot contain yourself, hear the Apostle saying, 'It is better to marry than to burn' (1 Corinthians 7:9).
For since it is lawful to have a wife, but not lawful to keep concubines or to commit adultery, why do you wish to practice what is not lawful, and not wish to have what is lawful? No one ought more to shun the unlawful than he who has spurned what was lawful. Truly I say to you, brethren, that this, according to the Lord, has never at any time been lawful for anyone, nor is it lawful, nor ever will be lawful. But, what is worse, these sins have so passed into custom, and so many are they who commit them, that they are now believed to be done as though they were lawful. For if there is no man who would wish his betrothed to have an adulterous union before the wedding, but all men wish to take virgins as wives, with what face, with what conscience do they not blush to keep concubines before marriage?
With what face does he wish to find his wife untouched, when he himself is corrupted? For if, according to divine Scripture, 'The soul that sins, it shall die' (Ezekiel 18:20), how does anyone wish to receive a living spouse, when he himself is dead? But as I have already said, this evil and most wicked custom is committed by so many without any fear of God, that it is not even believed to be a sin. Yet perhaps someone thinks this is lawful for men but not lawful for women; for that it should be lawful for men, as I have already said, the multitude of sinners has established. But among a Christian people, whatever is not lawful for women, neither was nor ever will be lawful for men.
Wherefore, whoever recognize that they have done this, I ask that they be angry not with me but rather with themselves, and that they be zealous to think more about their own correction than about our reproach or persecution: so that when the day of judgment comes, even if they do not deserve to receive a crown, they may at least obtain pardon of their sins. Amen. SERMON 310. On Almsgiving. The efficacy of almsgiving, provided it is not made from another's goods. Those who give lavishly from plunder are brought to judgment. Brethren, the remedy for sins, the medicine, is almsgiving. For almsgiving delivers from death, and does not suffer a man to go into darkness (Tobit 4:11).
It pleads for a man on the day of judgment, that he may not fear the eternal flames, as James says in his Epistle: 'Mercy exalts itself above judgment; and judgment without mercy to him who has not shown mercy' (James 2:13). But such must the mercy itself be, brethren, that it may be received and not rejected; that may purge sins, not burden the soul; from good, from righteous labor, from one's own resources, and not from the poor man's need. Brethren, God does not wish a man to cease from mercy, nor does God gladly look upon anyone who gives from frauds: as Solomon the prophet says, 'Honor the Lord your God from your righteous labors' (Proverbs 3:9). From righteous labors He commanded that giving be done;
but from unjust plunder He forbade giving. But when God begins to judge, those who live by frauds and give alms from the spoils of the wretched will say: 'Lord, we have kept your precepts, and in your name we have done deeds of mercy; we have fed the poor, clothed the naked, and received strangers into our lodging.' To whom God will say: 'You tell what you gave; why do you not tell what you plundered? You remember those you fed; why do you not recall those you slew? Those you clothed rejoice; and those you despoiled lament. Those you received into lodging you keep; and have you forgotten how many you shut out from their own dwellings? I, I commanded mercy to be shown; I did not command frauds and plunderings to be carried out.'
One man is filled with bread, whom you have satisfied from plunder, and he blesses God; not you, but God. The one you slew, that wretched slain man groaned, and He who saw what you had done to him heard his groaning. From evil you acquire, and rejoice; you plunder and are glad: the poor man begs, and you are grieved; you prepare a banquet, and you invite such men to your banquet as may repay you in turn. You adorn the feast, that nothing be lacking, and you dine with your friends; and the poor man begging before your door you do not hear. You are filled with diverse goods, and you do not have mercy on the needy. Stuffed with many delicacies, and lulled to sleep with much wine, you despise the poor man who begs. You have forgotten the saying of the prophet who says, 'He who turns away his ear from the needy, he too shall call upon the Lord,
and He will not hear him' (Proverbs 21:13)? Incline your ear, hear the voice of the needy and of him who perishes from hunger; that God may also hear your voice when you are afflicted. Give from that which Christ has deigned to bestow upon you. He Himself has made you rich; therefore render back to Him what is His. He says that He Himself receives what is given to the poor; He proclaims that it is conferred upon Himself, whatever has been sown in the heart of the poor; as He says in the Gospel: 'Make for yourselves friends of the mammon of iniquity, who may receive you into eternal dwellings' (Luke 16:9). Behold, Christian, you have an eternal dwelling, if you give food to the poor. If you give anything, you transmit it thither, you lay it up for yourself in the future: not that from which you may be carnally sated, but that from which you may be spiritually glorified;
not that with which you may fill your belly, but that with which you may extinguish the flames: because it is written, 'Almsgiving delivers from death, and does not suffer a man to go into darkness.' Mercy averts the wrath of God. All things are the gifts of God. Why He gave more to some, less to others. For it is mercy, brethren, that averts the wrath of God, redeems from sins, extinguishes the fires to come; as Solomon the prophet says, 'As water extinguishes fire, so almsgiving resists sins' (Sirach 3:33). Give therefore to the needy, bestow upon him who has not, succor him who perishes from hunger. It is cruel that from what you have you do not give to him whom you know has not. It is grievous that from your abundance you do not sustain the need of the poor. Hence we are always scourged in our fruits:
because we do not do good to the needy. Truly, if you consider, O man, whence come the losses, whence the extortions, except from this, from your barrenness? You do not give to the needy what you can, what does not burden you; one extortion comes, and you lose even what you do not have. You walk with a full belly, and you do not consider the empty belly of the poor. It is well with you from the goods of God, you lack nothing, you use honorable garments; and the naked man trembling with cold you do not clothe. If God should say to you: 'I myself made you; that you live is mine, what you have I gave; and you are ungrateful. I take away what I gave, I deny what I bestowed, I abandon you whom I made; and live without me, if you can. I gave you more, that you might have from which to give to the poor; to the poor I did not give, for this reason, that I might test you:
not because I did not have from which to give to both, but through the poor man I wished to test you. I am He who made both the rich and the poor; I appointed you as a dispenser of my goods. Show mercy; for you will lose nothing, and you will not offend me who gave to you. Give, why do you hesitate? For if you give, I will give more. Why do you claim for yourself what I gave to both? Why do you alone eat what I created for both? As if you assign this to your own labor, or think it to be your own? I take away my help; keep your own labor. I take away my mercy, and then your misery will appear.' The providence of the covetous is empty. To no one is the divine wanting. What we have is not ours. To this what will you say, O wretched man?
You are wretched, who do not see the wretched; you alone enjoy the beasts, cattle, animals, birds, serpents. The food is common; and you deny sustenance to a fellow man? But, I believe, you do not give for this reason, lest by giving you come to an end, lest by dispensing you fall short. You who consider these things, do you not consider the end of your life? Even if money does not come to an end, yet life comes to an end: and when you do not expect it, it comes upon you. Thus that rich man did not consider, who was tormented in his abundance, and as it were complained of want. 'What shall I do,' he said, 'how shall I have where I may gather my fruits?' And he heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Fool, this night your soul shall be taken from you; the things you have prepared, whose shall they be?' (Luke 12:17, 20). O the vanity of this rich man!
He does not know whether he will live, and he thinks about his fruits; about to die that night, he plans to build. Behold, you too have heard, Christian, what you should fear. Show mercy. Why do you hesitate? He who appointed you as dispenser will not desert you. For it is His own voice in the Gospel, reproving the unbelieving and saying: 'Consider the birds of the sky, for they neither sow nor reap, and have no storehouses; and your heavenly Father feeds them' (Matthew 6:26). If you say that whatever you have is your own; if you can, station watchmen in your house against thieves, dig pits, hide your riches, make for yourself coffers and chests where you may store them, hold against the will of God, keep, live, if you can.
Therefore, brethren, let us show mercy, let us feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and receive strangers into our lodging. Let us therefore not fail in doing good, and in due season we shall reap eternal life unto ages of ages. Amen. SERMON 311. On Almsgiving. In the judgment he shall incur no ruin who has purchased godliness with alms. Happy is the laborer who is a cultivator of alms, in that from his own granary he has purchased heaven, and by giving bread to the hungry has suppressed the fire of his own sins: to whom the prophet furnishes such testimony, and he has the Holy Spirit as his advocate in the cause. Such a laborer lives happy, and dies now secure, for with him walks an immortal patrimony.
The granary in which he has made the Lord his debtor, while he feeds another, in giving he himself receives. With a little bread he has purchased heavenly life, making himself an heir. On the day of judgment he shall be able to incur no ruin who has purchased godliness with alms. To whom the prophet furnishes such testimony: 'Save him and give him life, O Lord' (Psalm 40:3). O the twofold benefit of the prophet! He saves at once, and commends that he be saved, because he himself also saved; that he be given life, because he himself also granted life on earth to one who asked. Blessed is that man, while he thus runs all the way to heaven.
But lest at any time the benefit of life should be idle in him, let him hasten to the great reward, and leave behind in the world also the testimony by which he says: 'Blessed is he who understands concerning the needy and the poor; in the evil day the Lord will deliver him' (Psalm 40:2). And again Isaiah says, and thus testifies: 'Loose,' he says, 'every knot of injustice. Break your bread to the hungry, and bring the needy who is without shelter into your house. If you see the naked, clothe him; and despise not the household of your own seed. Then shall your timely light break forth, and your garments shall speedily arise, and justice shall go before you, and the brightness of God shall surround you. Then you shall cry out, and the Lord shall hear you; while you are yet speaking, He shall say: Behold, I am present' (Isaiah 58:6-9).
Perfect mercy is not to wait for the one who asks. Thus God acts toward us. Thus also Christ acted. Perfect therefore is mercy, dearest brethren, when it runs ahead to meet the hungry before the beggar ever asks. For that piety is not perfect which is extorted by prayers. But if the beggar be silent, his pallor speaks in his face, well-nigh exhausted, weary and broken, nowhere regarded. Hasten to succor with piety, lest you hear him asking, lest you claim for yourself what is owed to the Lord. Imitate your God, who makes His sun to rise upon the good and the evil, and rains upon the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45): and behold, rain will come to you before you ask, abundance will descend by night while you snore;
while you are still in bed, by His command the day keeps watch, the elements stand on guard, the fruits pour forth without your knowing. Heaven casts down and the earth brings forth: so many storehouses of harvests, while we know it not, we thus receive, and consume such great riches before we ask. And to you, O man, is that bread itself so scanty, that you sell it for entreaties? The four thousand did not ask Jesus in the desert for seven loaves and a few fishes, that endless throngs might dine, by which meal He might overcome at least the interest of the measure. And when these were being distributed, 'Gather up,' He said, 'the fragments, that nothing perish' (John 6:12): because that whole thing was holy. Seven baskets of morsels are filled, so many thousands are satisfied;
and nothing was diminished, and the food grew for them while the sustenance was being spent: so also is almsgiving, if it be dispensed to the needy. Almsgiving does what God does. It is a second baptism. It delivers from Gehenna. It is to be dispensed here and now. Almsgiving is a great work, dearest brethren, that a man should do what God did: because He left these few hungry ones on earth, who with one small vessel feeds the whole world of heaven, that through them it might be permitted us also to dispense. But if there had everywhere been abundance, mercy would have perished: God gave us a second baptism. For who is without sin? For as water extinguishes fire, so also almsgiving extinguishes sin (Sirach 3:33).
In our granaries we have an abundance that may extinguish our flames by the offering of one loaf: and mercy stands before the thieves of Gehenna, and permits no one to be cast into prison. And whoever has shown mercy, mercy shall be shown to him: and if anyone has not shown mercy, woe to him. You who can, will hunger in the hell of the outstretched: because after death you will have no grain, nor will you find there any beggar whom you might feed; because there will be no time for showing mercy. For the distinction of the good and the evil will remain in their own deeds, Christ Himself our Lord, King and Judge, separating the sheep from the goats, and setting them apart to the right hand and the left:
He who says that He Himself hungered and thirsted, and asserts that He suffered all the rest in His least ones. Give therefore to all, most beloved brethren, give especially to those of the household of the faith. Give to all, lest to the one to whom you did not give, it be Christ Himself; or to whomever you gave, it be Christ Himself. SERMON 312. On Almsgiving. Almsgiving is urged in view of the divine judgment. From its own reward. That riches are entrusted for the poor. If a man should know his ancient origin, or understand the dignity heaped upon himself, or weigh with anxious fear the judgment appointed for him, he will find what the first-formed man lost at the beginning, what afterward the mercy of Christ conferred, what He has appointed for the judgment to come:
so that, first pondering these beginnings with anxious care, he may review them, hold fast the present things, and dread the future with anxious fear. 'Shut up,' says Wisdom, 'alms in the bosom of the poor, and it shall pray for you' (Sirach 29:15). For the wounds of sins are easily healed, when one has cared for the need of the poor; and he shall receive mercy who does not deny to his neighbor the offices of piety. Finally, let him to whom it is commanded to give rejoice that he was not born under such a lot that he should be in need. It suffices for the giver's glory that another's misery makes him rich in the poor man by his giving, that mercy lends to God at interest, that he feeds Christ in the poor man, that through another's need he receives pardon of his sins.
It is the voice of the reproving Lord: 'If you have not been faithful in another's mammon, who will give you what is your own?' (Luke 16:12). For such should each one show himself to a poor man, as he would wish another to show himself to him, if he himself had been poor. But it is a great loss, if you are unwilling to earn God's favor from God's gift, or when the Lord has given to you for this purpose, that you might dispense, you do not keep the things entrusted by Him. For the Lord has always commended His own things to you to be dispensed in the meantime; from His own goods He commanded you to give to the poor. Why do you despise the commands of the Giver? Why do you desert the covenant? Why do you refuse to hear the Lord who commands you to give? For he will easily be able to lose the money received, who has been unwilling to dispense at a profit what he received. That we may thereby show ourselves sons of God.
Let money be safely kept. Which perhaps would be kept for an ingrate. 'Be merciful, as your heavenly Father also has had mercy on you' (cf. Matthew 18:33; Luke 6:36). Let the deeds of the offspring show the likeness of the parent. Let the likeness of the work indicate the likeness of the lineage. Let the deed confirm the name, that the name may demonstrate the lineage. What the Father has conferred, let the son keep; so that to the son also the Father may present the promised rewards. The patrimony you have, if you put it to work, is yours; if you cease, it is another's. Money that is hoarded is subject to mischances: that which is stored up in mercy acquires a future reward. Why do you fear to entrust to Christ what you will scarcely be able to keep from robbers? 'He who gives to the poor,' He says, 'shall not want' (Proverbs 28:27).
Will you leave your patrimony to an heir, and is Christ unworthy to take away something of yours with you, to carry off some things with you into the ages to come? Why do you keep for an heir what, whether he uses it, you know not? Why do you heap up substance, which perhaps you leave to an ingrate? Perhaps you will bestow upon him whatever you withdraw from his portion for mercy's sake. Wherefore do first what is commanded, that you may be able to receive what is promised. He cannot receive interest who has been unwilling to lend to the Lord. 'He who gives to the poor,' he says, 'lends to God at interest' (Proverbs 19:17). For neither can he lay hold of the divine promises who has been unwilling to observe the heavenly precepts. SERMON 313.
An admonition by which we are taught that we ought continually to flee base thoughts, and to hold in the heart those that are holy. A holy thought guards, an unholy one destroys. When a thought about food and clothing is holy. He who unlearns the habit of evil thoughts. In the holy Scriptures, dearest brethren, we read that a holy thought guards those who are anxious for the salvation of their soul: for thus the divine word says, 'A holy thought shall guard you' (Proverbs 2:11). If a holy thought guards, that which is not holy not only does not guard, but even destroys. But perhaps someone says: And who is there that can always think about God and eternal blessedness,
when it is necessary for all men to bear care about food and clothing and the ordering of their household? Nor does God command this, that there should be no care about the present life, enjoining through His Apostle: 'He who does not work, let him not eat' (2 Thessalonians 3:10): and that which the same apostle said about himself, 'Working night and day, lest we should burden any of you' (2 Thessalonians 3:8). For if to that thought by which one reasonably thinks about food and clothing, because God has specially commanded this, there be joined avarice and cupidity, which are wont to serve luxury, then whatever is done, whatever is thought, is most justly believed to be holy.
Only let these very occupations not be so excessive that they do not allow us to be free for God; on account of that which is written: 'The hindrances of the world made them wretched.' And because the necessity of the body is met with few things, and cupidity is never sated with anything, even if it should acquire the whole world, let us reject the impious thoughts which are born from the venomous root of cupidity; and let us love only those by which one arrives at the eternal reward: that there may be fulfilled in us that which was said before, 'A holy thought shall guard you.' And because two kinds of thoughts, of good and of evil, continually strive to insinuate themselves into our hearts;
let us hasten, with God's help, with our whole heart and whole soul, to receive those that are holy, so that we may be able to shut out the lustful and wicked ones. But perhaps someone says: Evil habits and base thoughts are so fixed in my heart, that by no means can I drive them from me. For it is known to all that love is conquered by love. Let us begin, therefore, to love good thoughts; and at once God will deign to free us from those that are evil. Let chastity occupy the place which a lustful and sordid thought held in the heart; let mercy repair the place which avarice laid waste; let humility rebuild the place which pride destroyed;