De eleemosyna

Chrysostom on almsgiving. Again a time has been given to us by our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ to sow the seeds of almsgiving in your ears; again Christ has given us the opportunity to imitate the sower who sows his seed on good ground and reaps a hundredfold. For behold, the herald of the hands has sounded; behold, the theater of almsgiving has been assembled. Let those who love God, who love honor, and who love the poor be called forth; let those who are lovers of crowns be called. For God is present, the provider of prizes, receiving small sums of money from those who love the poor and granting them the kingdom of heaven. Let none of you, I beseech you, be deprived of such grace; let no one disregard this great and supermundane gift for the sake of a little money—not the poor, not the rich, not the slave, not the free, not the wise, not the unlearned, not the man, not the woman; but let all of us, I beseech you, with eagerness purchase the kingdom of heaven. And let none of the poor say to me: I am a beggar; for it is necessary first to address them, since they think their excuse appears acceptable to God. For what does the poor man often say? I have no money, I do not have enough for daily food, I labor and suffer all day long so that I can barely sustain my life; I carry loads, I do carpentry, I hammer, and I wear out the strength of my body; and do you sit judging me to give away the fruits of my labors to others? For tell me, do you speak of your own labors, and do you consider the strength of your body your own possession?

And do you not believe that if you give a small portion of what you call your labors, you provide alms to the one who granted you the strength and power for your work? Rather, give a little to your body, so that you may bestow the great treasure upon your soul. For if you have ten obols and give nine to the body and one to the soul, does this overturn all your affairs in life? If you have fifty obols and give five to God through the helpless, and keep forty-five for yourself, have you not strengthened your soul through faith, invigorated your body through the prayers of others, and received grace to work again, to gain again manifold, and become richer than the rich in almsgiving? But you will surely say to me: "And what," you say, "will I gain from this?" That you are no longer called a poor man, but a lender to God. "And how," you say, "will this come to me?" Trust the Scripture which says: "He who gives alms to the poor lends to God"; and you will hear from Him: "Insofar as you have done to one of these least ones, you have done to me." Have you not often, sitting in the marketplace, seen a rich man passing by and called him blessed, saying, "Blessed is this rich man, because he has no need of others' provision, but rather even lends"? And that man lends to men, but you to God; that man receives from each the fruits of labors with toil and strife in sin; you receive from God without toil, without care, with joy a hundredfold; that man receives for this brief life, but you inherit eternal life for the endless life.

If you do not believe me, believe God, who has assured you under oath, saying: "Truly I say to you, you will receive a hundredfold and inherit eternal life." Do not, therefore, think that you are diminished by giving to the poor; for you do not become poor by sharing with the poor. If a poor person pities a poor person, he does not become poorer, but is praiseworthy, and secures his poverty all the more. Have you heard the Prophet saying: "I became younger; for I grew old; and I did not see a righteous man abandoned, nor his offspring seeking bread"? And again: "All day long the righteous man gives alms and lends, and his offspring will be for blessing"? For blessing—why? Because he who sows for blessing reaps for blessing; for he who takes care of your garments will also take care of your soul. For nothing clothes the soul so much as the covering of the widow, the orphan, and the poor. For it does not allow the soul to appear naked before God on that fearful and dreadful day, but, clothed in a garment of light through almsgiving, it appears before God with all glory. For God says through the prophet: "Break your bread for the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; and then your light will be early, and your healings will quickly rise, and your righteousness will go before you." Do you see how great a reward is stored up for you for a small piece of bread or a single obol? Do you know how much light the fruit of almsgiving brings to you? Do you wish to learn how great a treasure the small gift to the poor has procured for us?

Do you wish to see which poor people, bringing poor offerings, inherited the place of great treasures? Listen. For we do not only inform you from the New Testament, but also from the Old, so that you may gain the heavenly treasure through love of the poor. Once a famine consumed men throughout the whole earth, and such a famine that each day a river of men and animals was delivered to death, not in a short time, but in three and a half whole years, so that the entire land was destroyed. The cause of the evil was the idolatry of the Israelites, and the lawlessness of Ahab and Jezebel, on account of which Elijah, being a man, was able to place bars on the heavens, saying: "As the Lord lives, if there will be rain, it will be only through my mouth." And it did not rain upon the earth for three years and six months. Then, when the lawless king perceived that the prophet Elijah had become the servant of this decree, he went about seeking to kill him. So on account of this, fleeing into the land of the Philistines, the prophet found a widow woman, a remnant of the famine, having a little flour and a little oil, in which she had hung all the hope of her own life and that of her children. And the prophet Elijah says to her: "Bring me a small loaf in your hand." And the woman said to him: "As the Lord your God lives, if I have a hearth cake, it is only as much as a handful of flour in the house, and a little oil in the flask; and behold, I am gathering two small sticks, and I am coming to make it for myself and my children, and we will eat and we will die.

Does any one of us today fall into such poverty? God forbid. But from this remnant of death the widow first made a hearth-cake for the prophet and brought it out to him, disregarding herself and her children. And what recompense did she receive for this poor almsgiving? Listen clearly to what the prophet says: Thus says the Lord: The jar of flour will not fail, and the flask of oil will not diminish. Until when, prophet? Until the Lord gives rain and dew upon the earth. Therefore the prophet says: Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord; and his hope will be in a time of drought, and it will not be diminished nor fail. And the word of the prophet became deed, and neither did the jar fail nor the flask diminish. Are you poorer than this, O man? Does such a famine press upon you that you cannot give alms? It is not so, God forbid; but you both have and are able, whoever you are, and especially if you are faithful. And toward the body you are ambitious, but concerning the soul you are negligent. Almsgiving is food for the soul; and just as bread and wine are food and delight for the body, so almsgiving and prayer are treatment and joy for the soul. And what does a man give in exchange for his soul, except only almsgiving? But if you are ignorant, learn also from the widow in the New Testament, that through two obols she gained the entire kingdom of heaven, having God himself as the praiser of this poverty, her fruitfulness reaching up to the heavens.

Have you not seen the Savior in the holy Gospels accepting the widow who cast the two lepta into the treasury, and bestowing upon her the heavenly crown? For he saw the fragrance of her soul, he saw the poor woman who loved the poor, he saw the one lacking in money contributing together with those who were not lacking. Many were those who cast much into the treasury; and God, who is at once both God and man, was present at these events, the same one not judging by outward appearance, but searching the hearts of men. And what judgment does he pronounce concerning these things, let us hear: "Truly, truly I say to you, that this widow cast more than all." For I do not accept all that is cast, he says, but I also test the intention of those who contribute together. "Truly, truly I say to you, that this widow cast more than all." Why? Because these brought from their surplus, but she brought her entire livelihood. Therefore, since he judged justly, let us all say to God, as the Prophet said: "You are just, Lord, and your judgments are straight," because you test the intention of men, and you do not define the kingdom by the quantity of offerings. For you do not attend to the offerings, but to the disposition of those who offer. Let none of you, therefore, hesitate, I beseech you, to deposit even two lepta, even ten obols, into the treasury of widows and orphans; for thus also holy Scripture teaches, that as one's intention is, so is one acceptable to God. Let not that table, therefore, become alien to your fruit-bearing.

but have a share with her, so that you may receive a share with those who are receiving, mercy from the merciful God who said: Have mercy, that you may be shown mercy. For just as it is believed that there is an angel from heaven who receives the prayers of the people and offers them to God, and you strive together with all to render your prayers to God, so that your gift of prayer may be accepted along with all, so believe that in these matters also there is an angel who receives what is given by you to the poor and offers these to God. And who is this angel, but the one who brought the prayers and alms of Cornelius to God, and said to him: Cornelius, your alms and your prayers have ascended as a memorial before God? And he was formerly a Greek; but after this, when the angel spoke to him, he became faithful, and thus they were accepted. How much more so for you, who are a lover of Christ? We must then also exhort the rich. For the most part, the many are lovers of the poor and do this of their own accord; for they have been well trained to bear fruit by such men, those teachers before us. But nevertheless, since they also demand an account of the poor among us, I will not shrink from exhorting them and guiding them toward almsgiving, guarding against these two things: that they not be accused before God, nor I be slandered before the angels. And how, I say. For if I do not lay down the words of divine Scripture into your good

table, just as money is deposited with a money-changer, I am immediately accused by God, and I hear from him: "You should have paid my money to the money-changers, and when I came I demanded my own with interest." For this is why he rebuked in the holy Gospels the one who was entrusted with the denarius and hid it. And how the prophet speaks of money, listen: "The oracles of the Lord are pure oracles; money purified sevenfold, tested by fire, refined in the earth." Thus also God says to the prophet: "Son of man, bear witness to this people"; and again in another way: "Exhort, O priests, my people; speak into the ears of Jerusalem." Having received such commissions, I exhort all of you to come to almsgiving, so that I may not be slandered by you at that hour, if, which may not happen, someone hears from the Judge on that fearful day: "Wicked servant, why did you not have mercy on your fellow servant? And now how do you wish to be shown mercy?" And again: "Repent now, for there is no time for repentance there"; lest someone accused at that dreadful hour say: "I was not taught by the shepherd, I did not learn what a man will give in exchange for his soul, nor did he tell us that almsgiving atones for sins, nor did he interpret for us the Scripture given to him by you which says, 'Blessed is he who understands the poor and needy; on a bad day the Lord will deliver him'; but he only separated us from Jewish unbelief, and again forbade the superstition of the Greeks; from whose lawlessness we also, having been taught, desisted.

For even if He had taught us only about almsgiving, we would have had the fruits of this to show. Therefore I do not cease exhorting with boldness, but I admonish and testify to both rich and poor, men and women alike: spare your souls, and ransom them through your money from the coming wrath; lighten the burden of your sins through almsgiving; have mercy, that you may be shown mercy. For almsgiving has the power of holy baptism; and just as the holy bath cleanses men's sins, so almsgiving cleanses the transgressions of the soul of those who give alms. This is not my word, but divine Scripture teaches, saying: "Alms and faiths there are; sins are cleansed away." Money, even if we do not wish it, remains here; but the soul, even if we do not wish it, is dealt with there, undergoing the accounting for its sins. For this reason our Lord Jesus Christ also said in the Gospels: "What will a man gain if he wins the world but loses his own soul? Or what will a man give as an exchange for his soul?" Listen, then, I beg you, to this saying, that in peace it is disregarded, but in times of need it shows the power of the law of God. For the hearer often hears: "What will a man gain if he wins the whole world but loses his own soul?" and he passes over the power of this saying. And if he disregards the saying in peace, he learns in times of need the power of the one who spoke it.

What does God do, then, when He sees someone clinging to money but turning away from almsgiving, and choosing to suffer anything rather than betray his wealth? In times of necessity He teaches him to recognize the law of God. And how? Listen. Picture for me a merchant sailing the sea, with his mind fixed only on money, choosing to suffer anything rather than lose a single obol, heaping countless oaths upon his soul so as not to give up any of his possessions. But such a man is harsh and despised in a moment of crisis, when he is violently storm-tossed and in danger on the sea. For the swell rises, the sea stirs up mountainous waves, the billows are raised to the heavens. Then immediately his love of money withers, and the man who endured every labor to amass his wealth makes jettison with his own hands of all he has, and bestows his riches upon the sea. But ask him at once: What are you doing, O man? Why are you mad? Why do you throw your money away uselessly? The sea does not guard your deposits for you. It is not like the earth, which receives seeds and gives you back many times more; for it does not take seeds and give sheaves. Why then do you lend uselessly to an ungrateful element? Why do you trust faithless waves? Why do you give your investment as a deposit to the sea, which does not repay? You were unwilling to lend to God, and yet you throw your money to the wild sea?

What then does he immediately answer? "I wish to save my soul, or to gain the whole world." Now you have learned: what will a man give in exchange for his own soul? Now you have understood the saying of Christ, when He exhorted and said, "What will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world but damages his soul?" But did the law not teach you? Fear will teach you, if nothing else. Did the teaching of God not instruct you? Let the madness of the sea instruct you. O the inconsistency of the deed! O the necessity that teaches all things! The sea, by force, takes everything; but God, urging you toward the kingdom of heaven, does not even take a part? Do you trust the sea, which promises you nothing good, and do you not obey God, who promises and grants you a hundredfold? Do you wish me to set before you another image of such necessity? For it is necessary that your soul be benefited from all sides, both through fearful things and through good things. Consider, then, also those who trade on land, who do and perform everything for the sake of gaining something, who dare to swear and are full of all perjury in order to get one extra obol, because such men transgress the laws of God. Prophets proclaim, and they close their ears; teachers cry out, and they mock the admonition. And what then happens in their case? Not in the case of all, but in theirs. For such a merchant often falls among robbers; and he who gapes after wealth and has insatiably put on the passion of love of money, immediately strips off that disease and becomes lavish in giving.

For he sees the sword which the robber brandishes, and he flees from the danger; the robber approaches, and that man is found, like a generous person, offering his own possessions with entreaty. What then does he say to the robber at that moment? "Take everything, and only spare my soul." Let this man also hear: "Now you have learned what a man will give in exchange for his own soul." To a robber who wishes to take everything you give with every supplication, to one who harms you in every way; but to God, who wishes to take a portion, you do not lend, to the one who abundantly provides you with all good things, both earthly and heavenly. Do you not fear God as much as you fear the robber? Do you fear a drawn sword, but despise the threatened fire of Gehenna? No, I beg you, let none of you become such; for you are not, especially since you are lovers of Christ; for you know all that will befall men. Secure your souls before your departure from here, and recognize the one who said in the holy Gospels: "Blessed are the merciful, for they themselves will be shown mercy." Therefore let us send up glory to the God who shows mercy, who nourishes, and who does not reproach, together with the Father and the all-holy and life-giving Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.