On Works and Alms.

 1. Many and great, beloved brethren, are the divine benefits wherewith the large and abundant mercy of God the Father and Christ both has laboured and

 2. The Holy Spirit speaks in the sacred Scriptures, and says, “By almsgiving and faith sins are purged.” Not assuredly those sins which had been previ

 3. Let us then acknowledge, beloved brethren, the wholesome gift of the divine mercy and let us, who cannot be without some wound of conscience, heal

 4. Finally, beloved brethren, the divine admonition in the Scriptures, as well old as new, has never failed, has never been silent in urging God’s peo

 5. The remedies for propitiating God are given in the words of God Himself the divine instructions have taught what sinners ought to do, that by work

 6. Neither, beloved brethren, are we so bringing forward these things, as that we should not prove what Raphael the angel said, by the testimony of th

 7. Therefore in the Gospel, the Lord, the Teacher of our life and Master of eternal salvation, quickening the assembly of believers, and providing for

 8. In fine, He calls those the children of Abraham whom He sees to be laborious in aiding and nourishing the poor. For when Zacchæus said, “Behold, th

 9. If you dread and fear, lest, if you begin to act thus abundantly, your patrimony being exhausted with your liberal dealing, you may perchance be re

 10. You are afraid lest perchance your estate should fail, if you begin to act liberally from it and you do not know, miserable man that you are, tha

 11. Are you afraid that your patrimony perchance may fall short, if you should begin to do liberally from it? Yet when has it ever happened that resou

 12. Unless you imagine that he who feeds Christ is not himself fed by Christ, or that earthly things will be wanting to those to whom heavenly and div

 13. Wherefore do you applaud yourself in those vain and silly conceits, as if you were withheld from good works by fear and solicitude for the future?

 14. You are mistaken, and are deceived, whosoever you are, that think yourself rich in this world. Listen to the voice of your Lord in the Apocalypse,

 15. But you who are such as this, cannot labour in the Church. For your eyes, overcast with the gloom of blackness, and shadowed in night, do not see

 16. But neither let the consideration, dearest brethren, restrain and recall the Christian from good and righteous works, that any one should fancy th

 17. Thus that widow in the third book of Kings, when in the drought and famine, having consumed everything, she had made of the little meal and oil wh

 18. Moreover, also, (you say) there are many children at home and the multitude of your children checks you from giving yourself freely to good works

 19. Neither should you think that he is father to your children who is both changeable and infirm, but you should obtain Him who is the eternal and un

 20. Be rather such a father to your children as was Tobias. Give useful and saving precepts to your pledges, such as he gave to his son command your

 21. What sort of gift is it, beloved brethren, whose setting forth is celebrated in the sight of God? If, in a gift of the Gentiles, it seems a great

 22. And that the indolent and the barren, and those, who by their covetousness for money do nothing in respect of the fruit of their salvation, may be

 23. What do we reply to these things, dearest brethren? With what reason do we defend the minds of rich men, overwhelmed with a profane barrenness and

 24. And therefore, dearest brethren, whose fear is inclined towards God, and who having already despised and trampled under foot the world, have lifte

 25. Let us consider, beloved brethren, what the congregation of believers did in the time of the apostles, when at the first beginnings the mind flour

 26. What, dearest brethren, will be that glory of those who labour charitably—how great and high the joy when the Lord begins to number His people, an

23. What do we reply to these things, dearest brethren? With what reason do we defend the minds of rich men, overwhelmed with a profane barrenness and a kind of night of gloom? With what excuse do we acquit them, seeing that we are less than the devil’s servants, so as not even moderately to repay Christ for the price of His passion and blood? He has given us precepts; what His servants ought to do He has instructed us; promising a reward to those that are charitable, and threatening punishment to the unfruitful. He has set forth His sentence. He has before announced what He shall judge. What can be the excuse for the laggard? what the defence for the unfruitful? But when the servant does not do what is commanded, the Lord will do what He threatens, seeing that He says:  “When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then shall He sit in the throne of His glory: and before Him shall be gathered all nations; and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: and He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them that shall be on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom that is prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was an hungered, and ye gave me to eat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me to drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came to me. Then shall the righteous answer Him, saying, Lord, when saw we Thee an hungered, and fed Thee? thirsty, and gave Thee drink? When saw we Thee a stranger, and took Thee in? naked, and clothed Thee? Or when saw we Thee sick, and in prison, and came unto Thee? Then shall the King answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Insomuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it unto me. Then shall He say also unto those that shall be at His left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, which my Father hath prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was an hungered, and ye gave me not to eat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me not to drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer Him, saying, Lord, when saw we Thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and ministered not unto Thee? And He shall answer them, Verily I say unto you, In so far as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not unto me. And these shall go away into everlasting burning:  but the righteous into life eternal.”60    Matt. xxv. 31–46. What more could Christ declare unto us? How more could He stimulate the works of our righteousness and mercy, than by saying that whatever is given to the needy and poor is given to Himself, and by saying that He is aggrieved unless the needy and poor be supplied? So that he who in the Church is not moved by consideration for his brother, may yet be moved by contemplation of Christ; and he who does not think of his fellow-servant in suffering and in poverty, may yet think of his Lord, who abideth in that very man whom he is despising.

0619A XXIII. Quid ad haec respondemus, fratres charissimi? Sacrilega sterilitate et quadam tenebrarum nocte coopertas divitum mentes qua ratione defendimus, qua excusatione purgamus, qui diaboli servis minores sumus, ut Christo pro pretio passionis et sanguinis vicem nec in modicis rependamus? Praecepta ille nobis dedit, quid facere servos suos oporteret instruxit, operantibus praemium pollicitus, et supplicium sterilibus comminatus, sententiam suam protulit, quid judicaturus sit ante praedixit. Quae potest excusatio esse cessanti, quae defensio sterili, nisi quod non faciente servo quod praecipitur, Dominus faciet quod minatur, qui et dicit: Cum venerit Filius hominis in claritate sua, et omnes Angeli cum eo, tunc sedebit in throno claritatis suae : et colligentur 0619Bante eum omnes gentes, et segregabit eos ab invicem, quemadmodum pastor segregat oves ab haedis, et statuet oves ad dexteram suam, haedos autem ad sinistram. Tunc dicet rex iis qui ad dexteram suam erunt : Venite, benedicti Patris mei, percipite regnum quod vobis paratum est ab origine mundi. Esurivi enim, et dedistis mihi manducare; sitivi, et potastis me; hospes fui, et adduxistis me; nudus, et vestistis me ; infirmatus sum, et visitatis me; in carcere fui, et venistis ad me. Tunc respondebunt ei justi dicentes: Domine, quando te vidimus esurientem et pavimus, sitientem et potavimus? quando te vidimus hospitem, et adduximus, nudum, et vestivimus? quando autem te vidimus infirmariet in carcere, et venimus ad te? Tunc respondens rex dicet eis: Amen dico vobis, quamdiu fecistis uni horum 0619Cex fratribus meis minimis, mihi fecistis. Tunc dicet et illis qui ad sinistram ejus erunt : Discedite a me, maledicti, in ignem aeternum quem paravit Pater meus diabolo et angelis ejus. Esurivi enim, et non dedistis mihi manducare; sitivi, et non potastis me; hospes fui, et non adduxistis me; nudus, et non vestistis me; infirmus et in carcere, et non visitastis me . Tunc respondebunt et ipsi dicentes: Domine, quando te vidimus esurientem aut sitientem aut hospitem aut nudum aut infirmum aut in carcere, et non ministravimus tibi? Et respondebit illis: Amen dico vobis, quamdiu non fecistis uni ex minimis his, neque mihi fecistis. Et abibunt isti in ambustionemaeternam, justi autem in vitam aeternam (Matth. XXV, 31-46). Quid potuit nobis majus Christus edicere? Quomodo magis potuit justitiae ac misericordiae 0619D nostrae opera provocare, quam quod praestari 0620A dixit sibi quicquid egenti praestatur et pauperi, et se dixit offendi nisi egenti praestatur et pauperi? ut qui respectu fratris in Ecclesia non movetur, vel Christi contemplatione moveatur, et qui non cogitat in labore atque in egestate conservum, vel Dominum cogitet in ipso illo quem despicit constitutum.