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

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, and, distributing to our merits and good works the promised rewards, to give heavenly things for earthly, eternal things for temporal, great things for small; to present us to the Father, to whom He has restored us by His sanctification; to bestow upon us immortality and eternity, to which He has renewed us by the quickening of His blood; to bring us anew to paradise, to open the kingdom of heaven, in the faith and truth of His promise! Let these things abide firmly in our perceptions, let them be understood with full faith, let them be loved with our whole heart, let them be purchased by the magnanimity of our increasing labours. An illustrious and divine thing, dearest brethren, is the saving labour of charity; a great comfort of believers, a wholesome guard of our security, a protection of hope, a safeguard of faith, a remedy for sin, a thing placed in the power of the doer, a thing both great and easy, a crown of peace without the risk of persecution; the true and greatest gift of God, needful for the weak, glorious for the strong, assisted by which the Christian accomplishes spiritual grace, deserves well of Christ the Judge, accounts God his debtor. For this palm of works of salvation let us gladly and readily strive; let us all, in the struggle of righteousness, run with God and Christ looking on; and let us who have already begun to be greater than this life and the world, slacken our course by no desire of this life and of this world.  If the day shall find us, whether it be the day of reward64    A more ancient reading seems to be, “of return” (scil. “reditionis”). or of persecution, furnished, if swift, if running in this contest of charity, the Lord will never fail of giving a reward for our merits: in peace He will give to us who conquer, a white crown for our labours; in persecution, He will accompany it with a purple one for our passion.

XXVI. Quae illa erit, fratres charissimi, operantium gloria, quam grandis est summa laetitia, cum populum suum Dominus coeperit recensere, et meritis atque operibus nostris praemia promissa contribuens, pro terrenis coelestia, pro temporalibus sempiterna, pro modicis magna praestare, offerre nos Patri, cui nos sua sanctificatione restituit, aeternitatem nobis immortalitatemque largiri, ad quam nos sanguinis sui vivificatione reparavit, reduces ad paradisum denuo facere, regna coelorum fide et veritate suae pollicitationis aperire! Haec haereant firmiter sensibus nostris, haec intelligantur plena fide, haec corde toto 0621B diligantur, haec indesinentium operum magnanimitate redimantur. Praeclara et divina res, fratres charissimi, salutaris operatio, solatium grande credentium, 0622A securitatis nostrae salubre praesidium, munimentum spei, tutela fidei, medela peccati , res posita in potestate facientis, res et grandis et facilis, sine periculo persecutionis, corona pacis, verum Dei munus et maximum, infirmis necessarium, fortibus gloriosum, quo Christianus adjutus perfert gratiam spiritalem, promeretur Christum judicem, Deum computat debitorem. Ad hanc operum salutarium palmam libenter ac prompte certemus, omnes in agone justitiae Deo et Christo spectante curramus; et qui saeculo et mundo majores esse jam coepimus, cursum nostrum nulla saeculi et mundi cupiditate tardemus. Si expeditos, si celeres, si in hoc operis agone currentes dies nos vel redditionis vel persecutionis invenerit, nusquam Dominus meritis nostris 0622B ad praemium deerit. In pace vincentibus coronam candidam pro operibus dabit, in persecutione purpuream pro passione geminabit.