If a man indebted for benefits, dearly beloved, would satisfy his own promise, and by zeal for fulfilling his devotion show faith to his pledges; the repetition of a debt would never confound anyone as thankless: nor would there be room for any to be reproached, if presently the vow of the promised gift were followed by its effect. But hence it is that at times the faith of friendships, being wounded, sighs, because it is necessary sometimes for a man either to rebuke the delay of repayment, or to reproach the perfidy of the debtor. For to have said 'enmities' is to have denied what was promised: because it pertains to a lawsuit, if either the one repays unwillingly, or the other, embittered by delays, exacts payment. You have heard the prophet saying: 'So will I sing to your name, O God, forever and ever, that I may pay my vows from day to day' (Ps. 60:9).
It is boundless, dearly beloved, what the benefits of grace attain, if the debtor forestall his creditor by payment before the day. Whoever repays borrowed money in season lays it up for himself. For a man, when there is need, does not with difficulty obtain whatever he will, if he answers his lender with speedy satisfaction. But he whom perfidy accuses always finds the door of his creditor shut; and although he knock and entreat often, sad and empty he departs with rebuke. If, then, a man by lying stirs up hatreds against himself in another man; how much more if he deceive God, and mock the Lord of the heavenly majesty with a slippery promise?
Therefore we have set forth these things, dearly beloved, because some are wont, when perils are imminent, so to compose the vows of their minds that, when the time comes on, they forget that they have promised something to the Lord. This one offers the victim of his own body: that one promises the tears of penitence: another has stood forth guilty of a vow in love of the churches, another in honor of the saints. But these things are as easy to promise as to deny, concerning which the hope of fulfilling one's devotion lasts only so long as pain is felt in the head. Thus little by little he grows accustomed to deny his promises, after he has begun not to fear death. And do we marvel why sometimes the Lord responds so slowly to flowing tears, nor hears the voices of suppliants serving their just griefs!
We wonder why the field does not array itself more richly than usual for the diligent farmer, why the multiplying ear of grain does not bring forth from the fertile turf, why the rich olives do not yield precious trade, why an abundant vintage does not sweat in brimming winepresses! Let no one here lay the blame upon the earth, let no one accuse the harshness of the air: a barren hand gathers nothing; or if it should gather anything, it soon loses it. The barns of a fruitless farmer are always empty and idle. For hence it also comes that medicine sometimes does not find those whom it might heal. It is difficult for a physician to lend his hand faithfully when the vain promise of the sick man frequently fails him. Behold, here a man sighs over the sickness of his own son, and day and night troubles the doors of the saints with his prayers.
This man, afflicted by his wife's illness, that one by his own, knocks at the secret of his own breast, and with tearful prayer implores the aid of heavenly mercy, offering himself and his gift to God. But when these prayers have succeeded, we sometimes see all these things suddenly slip from the mind, so that you would judge that the wretched men had rather drunk the cup of forgetfulness than of health. Thus what is to profit does not always answer to deceitful prayers. But when will it come to pass that he finds a benefit who does not repay his debt? It cannot but be that at some time he pays the penalty for his own perfidy, who with empty words has frequently mocked the patience of the Judge.
Hence it is that men's prayers vanish upon the idle ears of God, and the intercession of tears has no effect, because it is difficult that they should be heard who frequently flatter their God with a vain promise. Blessed are those in whom abides fidelity to their pledge and no zeal for lying. It is surely better not to promise than to defraud what has been promised: for although a man may there be branded with the fault of inhumanity, he is nonetheless not burdened with the injury of any deceitful circumvention. Turn, in short, to the Acts of the Apostles, and you will find that to break faith with a promise pertains to the ruin of the soul. We read, then, that Ananias and Sapphira his wife, having sold their patrimony, brought part of the money to be distributed to the Apostles, and kept part hidden and reserved at home;
to whom Saint Peter said: 'Iniquity has filled your heart, Ananias, to lie to the Holy Spirit, whereas the land was in your own power; you have not lied to men, but to God' (Acts v, 3, 4). Thus, while they work fraud, they have purchased death; and while they serve covetousness, they have lost eternal rewards. Behold, the prophet says: 'I will pay my vows to the Lord in the courts of the house of the Lord' (Ps. cxv, 18). Bound without doubt by the lawful compact of the debt is he who is convicted of having promised something to the Lord: and he who says that he will repay necessarily confesses the debt. For your patrimony is your own by right only so long as it has not been bound to another by the pledge of a written bond.
In every pledge, therefore, whether what friendship has offered or what the will has assigned, the rendering must not be delayed. For all the grace of an offered gift perishes when the necessity of reclaiming presses upon it. Thus he has furnished nothing by his own vows who is compelled to render unwillingly what he promised. For we read in Solomon: 'If you have vowed a vow to your Lord, do not delay to pay it: for your Lord will surely require it of you, and the words that go forth through your lips will be counted as sin unless you pay it' (Deut. XXIII, 21). Therefore, most beloved, I admonish that whoever knows he has promised a vow to the Lord should pay it at once. Certainly let him who is not able to pay not make the promise. We do not here, as some think, exaggerate the vices of inhumanity;
but we speak of the faith which we see imperiled in a good many by the pestilence of vanity. For there are many, and what is worse, who, having withheld the price of their own freedom, have brought to the Lord not the whole sum, that is, a half-filled faith of religion. Hear the prophet saying: 'Vow, and pay your gifts to God' (Ps. LXXV, 12). 'Vow'—by this he gives counsel of conversion. 'Pay'—from these he demands the debt of promised holiness. But little of religion has he whom you see zealous for the world, and favoring the present life more than eternal glory. Then you prove that you have defrauded the Lord of nothing in your offering, if you cultivate the parts of justice, love integrity, and display the holiness which you have promised.
But he ought to shudder at the end of Ananias or of his wife, who understands that he has lied to the Lord. 'Vow, and pay your gifts to God.' In this passage he not inopportunely pursues the cause of munificence, since we are admonished by fitting testimonies. For if we should acquiesce in unfruitful men, so that this voice indicates the disposition of one asking: Does God require anything of you, as though it were lacking to Him? But what does He not have, who possesses all things? Is it because you promise gold in your tribulations, or pledge silver in your griefs, that it is necessary for God's uses? Or does anyone therefore offer precious stones or garments because God has need of these?
For this reason your gift is sought from you, that you yourself may shine with your own gold, you yourself may glisten with your own silver, you yourself may be adorned with your own gems, you yourself may be clothed with your own silk. With your own gifts the Lord wishes your soul to be adorned, which He sees depraved either by the vice of pride, or of wickedness, or of avarice, or of luxury. 'Vow, and pay your gifts to the Lord your God.' But perhaps you say, God has no need of our gifts. Indeed He has no need of gifts: but He requires the fruit, which He has appointed to mercy for the redemption of your soul.
For besides that victim of your body which it is fitting to present uncorrupted and inviolate upon the altars, and also the duties of the voice which we owe to our Maker—this is a sacrifice acceptable before the Lord: that you be zealous for goodness and mercy, that you cherish the parts of justice, and with unblemished faith strive continually to please the Lord; that you clothe the naked not unwillingly, that you feed the needy not unwillingly, that you willingly redeem the captives, that you set free him who is placed in chains, mindful of your own redemption. To this perhaps you may reply: What shall I do for my child, what shall I leave to my son? Hear the Lord saying: 'He who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me' (Matt. x, 37).
You see, therefore, that nothing is to be preferred to God, nor is a son to be thought of more than God. You say, What shall I leave to my son? If, while you have one son, your wife's childbearing should present you, despairing, with another, does not paternal affection commend both to you in one degree of succession, and, that you may make room for the one that comes after, do you not even rescind the rights of the will? Thus we frequently see that an inheritance, in which one alone is wont to inherit, when the number increases suffices for many. He, therefore, who has an only son, let him consider that Christ has been born to him;
and let him so divide his wealth among two or three or more that our Christ may not depart disinherited. But if you rejoice so greatly in the number of your children, I admonish that, having admitted your Redeemer to a share of the inheritance, you so temper the division of your patrimony as either to judge that one less has been born to you, or to congratulate yourself that one more has been added. Make room, then, for your Christ among the sons beloved by Him. But why should you not unite in one division of a patrimony on earth those whom one same portion of the promised inheritance awaits in heaven? But whoever withholds from the needy and wretched the necessities of life has denied to the firstborn—and indeed the better among all the sons—the portion due to him. Hear in this passage the Scripture saying:
'He who has mercy on the poor lends to God' (Prov. XIX, 17). There are many who think the need of the wretched should be thus mocked, so that they deceive them by promising from day to day; and this pertains to those vows which we said above are consumed by forgetfulness. What does it help to put off the wretched man, if abundance of means is at hand? Where you see that a man can at once do good, and yet defers the alms by procrastinating kindness, there you understand that the will alone was lacking. Hear the Psalmist in this passage saying: 'So will I sing to your name, O God, forever, that I may pay my vows from day to day' (Ps. LX, 9). Did he say from year to year? But he said from day to day. Therefore every day is to be worked, most beloved;
but the debt and the promised gift to God is not to be prolonged in time. He owes nothing to the future judgment, because he daily pays his vows: nor is there anything from which he must render an account hereafter, who from day to day, enriched by just labor, has offered to the Lord the fruits of good works. Behold, He says: 'Whatever you have done to one of these least ones, you have done to me' (Matt. xxv, 40). Whether, therefore, one does good or evil, let him know that it pertains to the majesty of the Lord; for the recompense of either part awaits the man. Hence we must be zealous for mercy and almsgiving: lest, when the Lord of heaven and earth comes, He set before us, among the other errors of the soul, the nakedness of the poor, and cast before our eyes the miseries of the wretched.
Let no one, therefore, despise the naked, let no one trouble the beggar with a harsh mouth. This, among all offerings, is the victim pleasing to God, this is the order of saving sacrifices: that you come to the aid of the wretched in their need; and, lest you fall into the mark of infidelity, that, master of your vow, you fulfill the faith of your promise.