41. It is better to do a good work out of love than out of command. — For very often men bestow much upon the poor, not because they love these poor, but because, if they gave nothing, they dread the wrath of the Judge on high; and if they did not fear God, they would have been unwilling to give what they have. And indeed in a good work the first step of beginners is that he who does not yet know how to love his neighbour as himself may nevertheless begin to dread the judgments from above. Since, therefore, it is one thing to do a good work out of command, and another to do it also out of love, let the holy man, in order to make known to us the disposition of his working, say: 'I was a father of the poor.'
For he testifies that he was not a patron, nor a neighbour, nor a helper of the poor, but a father—because indeed by the great service of charity he turned the zeal of mercy into the affection of nature, so that through love he regarded as his own sons those over whom, like a father, he presided by his protection. Since, therefore, the force of his mercy had imitated nature, he records that he was a father of the poor. Whereupon he also adds: