De paenitentia et compunctione

A discourse on repentance and compunction, and that God is swift to save and slow to punish; in which there is also a remarkable story about Rahab. Homily 7 The divine apostle always employs a divine and heavenly tongue, and with great skill weaves the evangelical word; he does not speak simply from his own opinion, but sets forth the doctrines from his royal authority. He makes use of this skill especially when he introduces the word of repentance to those who sin. I will remind you all about this very subject. You have heard, then, so that I may touch in part upon what has been said, how recently, when discoursing to the Corinthians, that noble and wonderful man said: "Lest I come and mourn many of those who have previously sinned and not repented." This great teacher was a man by nature, but a servant of God in purpose; therefore he employs a tongue as if from heaven, and as if speaking from the heavens themselves, he both threatens those who sin and promises propitiation to those who repent. When I say these things, I do not ascribe the authority to Paul's tongue, but refer everything to the grace of God, concerning which he himself now said: "Do you seek proof of the Christ speaking in me?" He therefore prescribes for those who sin a remedy of beneficence, and repentance for salvation. Today the apostolic reading was joined by the evangelical authority of the Savior, generously granting remission of sins. For the Savior, healing the paralytic, said, as you have just heard: "Child, your many sins are forgiven you.

Remission of sins is a source of salvation and a reward for repentance; for repentance is a clinic that destroys sin. It is a heavenly gift, a wondrous power, conquering the sequence of laws by grace. For this reason it does not reject a fornicator, does not drive away an adulterer, does not turn away a drunkard, does not abhor an idolater, does not expel a slanderer, does not pursue a blasphemer, does not reject a boaster, but transforms all. For repentance is a smelting furnace of sin. It is necessary first to recognize the purpose of God, not applying to this contemplation from our own notions, but demonstrating the truth as attested by the divine scriptures themselves. The purpose of God is to be patient with those who sin; he is doubly merciful for salvation: wooing for them the salvation that comes from repentance, and storing up the benefit for their descendants who are about to apply themselves to virtue. And to take up the argument again, God is patient so that both the sinner may repent and that he may not close off salvation for those born from him. For even if the sinner himself errs without repenting, he often spares the root in order to preserve the fruits; often, indeed, he also transforms the root itself, as I said earlier. But when that root falls into complete wickedness, God usefully postpones punishment, awaiting the salvation of those who repent. And hear how: Terah, the father of Abraham, was a worshiper of idols, but he did not pay the penalty for his impiety here. And reasonably so. For if God had cut off the root beforehand, from where would such great fruit of faith have been produced? What is more wicked than Esau?

Consider with me another instance of this philanthropy. What is more shameless than that wickedness? Is it not the fornicator and the profane, as the apostle says? Is it not the matricide and the patricide? Is it not the brother-killer, at least in intention? Is he not hated by God? The scripture bears witness, saying: I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau. If, then, he is a fornicator, a fratricide, a profane man, and hated, why is he not destroyed? Why is he not cut off? Why does he not receive the fitting punishment immediately? Why? It is good, truly, to state the reason also. If he had been cut off, the world would have lost a very great fruit of righteousness. And what kind, listen. Esau begot Reuel, Reuel begot Zara, Zara begot Jobab. Do you see what a great flower of endurance would have been destroyed, if God had anticipated and exacted punishment from the root? Therefore, take this perspective for all matters. For this reason he is patient with the Egyptians, who blaspheme unbearably, because of the churches now flourishing in Egypt, because of the monasteries and those who have taken up the angelic life. For, as those experienced in the common laws say, and as the Roman laws decree, a pregnant woman, if she ever falls into a crime punishable by death, is not to be put to death before she gives birth to the child she carries; and this is quite reasonable, for those who have well established the laws did not deem it just that the innocent be destroyed together with the guilty. But if human laws spare those who have done no wrong, will not God, much more reasonably, preserve the root, storing up for the fruits the benefit that comes from repentance?

Consider with me, then, the benefaction that comes from repentance even in the case of those who sin. For in these instances as well the same principle of philanthropy is displayed. If punishment had anticipated correction, the world would have been utterly destroyed and corrupted. If God had been swift to punish, the church would not have acquired Paul, it would not have received such a man and so great a one. Therefore he deferred the blasphemer, in order to reveal the penitent. God’s forbearance made the persecutor a herald; God’s forbearance transformed the wolf into a shepherd; God’s forbearance made the tax collector an evangelist; God’s forbearance has taken pity on us all, transformed us all, converted us all. If you see the former drunkard now fasting, if you see the former blasphemer now a theologian, if you see the one who once defiled his mouth with shameful songs now purifying his soul with divine hymns, marvel at God’s forbearance and praise repentance, and from the change say, taking it up: This is the change of the right hand of the Most High. God is good to all, but he displays his forbearance especially toward those who sin. And if you wish to hear a strange saying—strange as regards custom, but true as regards piety—listen.

God appears severe everywhere to the righteous, but kind to sinners, and swift to philanthropy. He raises up the one who sins and falls, and says to him: Does not the one who fall not rise? Or does not the one who turn away not return? And why did the senseless daughter of Judah turn away a shameless turning away? And again: Turn to me, and I will turn to you. And elsewhere he confirms by oath the salvation that comes from repentance, because of great philanthropy. For I live, says the Lord; I do not desire the death of the sinner, as much as that he should return and live. But to the righteous he says: If a man does all righteousness and all truth, and then turns and sins, I will not remember his righteousness, but he will die in his sin. O great exactness toward the righteous; O great abundance toward the sinner. Thus he contrives in varied and diverse ways, not himself changing, but usefully distributing the economies of his goodness. And how, listen. If he frightens the sinner who persists in sins, he brings him to despair and abandonment of hope; but if he blesses the righteous, he slackens the tension of his virtue, and as one already blessed, he prepares him to be negligent of his zeal. For this reason he pities the sinner, but frightens the righteous. For he is terrible to all those around him; and the Lord is kind to all. He is terrible, it says, to all those around him. And who would these be but the saints?

For God, says David, who is glorified in the council of the holy, is great and fearful to all those around him. If he sees one who has fallen, he extends a hand of philanthropy; if he sees one standing, he brings fear; and this is of justice and right judgment. For the righteous man he supports with fear, and the sinner he rouses with philanthropy. And do you wish to know his timely goodness and his useful and fitting severity? Pay close attention, lest the magnitude of the contemplation escape you. That sinful woman, testified against for every sin and lawlessness, who sinned so much and was involved in so many sinful deeds, thirsting for salvation through repentance, slipped into the banquet of the holy; and I call it a banquet of the holy, since the holy of holies was present. For when the Savior was reclining in the house of Simon the Pharisee, that sinful woman slipped in, and she touched the feet of the Savior, and with her tears she washed his feet, and with her hair she wiped them; and the philanthropist raises up the one buried under so many sins, saying: Her sins are forgiven. For it is not my purpose now to examine the whole story, but only to bring forward the testimony. So see the abundance: For what reason do I say to you, her many sins are forgiven, because she loved greatly. So that sinful woman obtained amnesty for so many sins. And Mary, the sister of Moses, is condemned to leprosy for a small murmur. To those who sin he says: If your sins are like scarlet, I will whiten them like snow.

and he changes darkness into light by the change of repentance, and dissolves such an abundance of evils with the voice of goodness. To the one who walks in righteousness he says: Whoever calls his brother a fool is liable to the gehenna of fire. With a single word he imposed such precision, and for so many sins he measures out such abundance. And consider another remarkable thing. Since sins are recorded as debts, for sinners he forgives even the principal when they repent, but from the righteous he demands even interest. A debtor of many talents came to him, and by repentance and much supplication he appeased justice, and said: Lord, be patient with me, and I will repay everything. The philanthropist did not wait for repayment, but made confession a release from the debt. To the debtor of ten thousand talents he forgave everything, even the principal itself. But from the righteous he promises to demand even interest: Why did you not deposit my money with the money-changers, so that when I came I could demand it with interest? I say these things not because God is hostile to the righteous—for nothing is more desirable to God than the righteous—but, as I said earlier, he comforts the sinner to rouse him, and he frightens the righteous to strengthen him. To the former he forgives many transgressions as to enemies who are puffed up, but with the latter he is precise even about trivial matters, wanting nothing to be lacking in them for perfection. For what the rich man is in this world, that the righteous man is to God; and what the poor man is in this world, that the sinner is to God.

There is nothing poorer than the one who sins, and nothing richer than the one who does right. Therefore, concerning those who live in piety and abundance, Paul says: I give thanks to God that you have been enriched in everything in him, in every word and all knowledge. But concerning the impious, the blessed Jeremiah says: Perhaps they are poor, for this reason they were unable to hear the word of the Lord. Do you see how he calls those who are cut off from piety poor? So he pities those who sin as poor, and he demands from those who do right as rich, granting to the former on account of their poverty, and exacting accounts with great precision from the latter on account of their wealth of piety. What he does in the case of the righteous and sinners, he does also in the case of the rich and poor; and just as he raises up the one who sins through philanthropy, and frightens the righteous through severity, so also in worldly matters he arranges his own economy. If he sees potentates shining with offices, kings, rulers, all those who excel in wealth, he converses with them with fear, and usefully imposes fear upon their power: And now, kings, understand, be instructed, all you who judge the earth; serve the Lord in fear, and rejoice in him with trembling, for he is King of kings, and Lord of lords. Where there is the beginning of power, he imposes the fear of his own kingship; where there is the lowliness of poverty, he offers the remedy of his own philanthropy. For this God is the great King of kings, and Lord of lords.

This same man, again descending from his own rank, is found according to holy Scripture to be father of orphans and judge of widows, king of kings, ruler of rulers, lord of lords. Do you see the great abundance of philanthropy? Do you see the usefulness of the fear of piety and of authority? For where he saw that authority was sufficient for consolation, he added fear for benefit; but where he saw orphanhood enfeebled by lowliness, and poverty by the weakness of widowhood, he brought philanthropy for consolation. I am father of orphans. He does two things: he displays philanthropy and restrains tyranny. He calls himself father of orphans in order both to console those in misfortune and to intimidate those in power, so that they do not oppress orphans and widows. Since death has stripped one of a father and deprived the other of a husband, and those whom the law of nature destroyed, the decree of philanthropy has renewed; and the same grace has given to the one a judge, to the orphan a father, the king of the saints. So, he says, O unjust one, if you oppress widows, you provoke the overseer of widows; if you wrong orphans, you wrong sons of God. I am the father of orphans and judge of widows. And who is so bold in impiety as to wrong sons of God and to oppress widows who are under God’s care? Do you see how usefully he prepares the remedies of piety, and frightens some while pitying others, not being divided himself, but adapting to the dispositions of men? Let us therefore apply to ourselves, brothers, repentance as a remedy for salvation.

Rather let us accept from God the repentance that heals us. For we do not offer this to him, but he himself has granted it to us. Do you see his precision in the law? Do you see his philanthropy in grace? When I speak of precision in the law, I do not disparage judgment; when I speak of precision in the law, I do not disparage judgment, but I proclaim the philanthropy of evangelical grace: that the law inexorably punished those who sinned, while grace, with great forbearance, postpones punishment in order to bring about correction. Let us therefore accept repentance, brothers, a medicine for salvation; let us accept a medicine that erases our faults. Repentance is not that proclaimed in word, but that confirmed in deeds; repentance that from the heart itself erases the filth of impiety. For it says, "Wash yourselves, become clean; remove the wickedness from your hearts, before my eyes." What is the purpose of the superfluous expression? For "Remove the wickedness from your hearts" is not sufficient to convey the whole? Why then "Before my eyes"? Because the eyes of men see one way, and the eye of God sees another. For man looks to the face, but God looks to the heart. Do not, it says, adulterate repentance with outward forms, but before my eyes, which search out hidden things, show the fruits of repentance.

We must, while being cleansed from our sins, keep those very sins before our eyes. Even if God, out of philanthropy, grants you forgiveness for the sin, you, for the security of your own soul, keep the sin before your eyes. For the memory of past sins becomes a check on future ones; and one who is stung by former sins shows a more secure resolve concerning later ones. For this reason David also says, "And my sin is before me always," so that, having past sins before his eyes, he may not fall into future ones. That God demands this state from us, hear him saying, "I am the one who wipes out your sins, and I will not remember them; but you remember, and let us be judged," says the Lord. "You first speak your sins, so that you may be justified." God does not wait for time from repentance: you spoke your sin, you were justified; you repented, you were pitied. It is not time that pleads, but the manner of the one repenting that extinguishes the sin. It is possible for one who has spent much time in attendance not to attain salvation, and for one who has sincerely confessed in a short time to cast off the sin. The blessed Samuel spent much time pleading concerning Saul, and passed many nights sleepless over the salvation of the one who had sinned. But God, dismissing the time—for the repentance of the one who had sinned did not concur with the prophet's supplication—says to his own prophet, "How long will you mourn for Saul while I reject him?" The "How long" shows the time and the persistence of the one supplicating; and God dismissed the time of the prophet's supplication.

For the king’s repentance did not coincide with the righteous man’s intercession. But in the case of the blessed David, who received the reproof of his sin through the holy prophet Nathan, and immediately at the threat displayed genuine conversion, and said, “I have sinned against the Lord,” one word uttered in a single moment, sincerely, brought complete salvation to the penitent. For the correction immediately overtook the sentence. So Nathan says to him, “And the Lord has forgiven your sin.” Now observe for me how God is slow to punish and swift to save. And first consider how the benevolent one brought the reproof after many years. David sinned, the woman conceived, and no reproof followed the sin; but after the child born of the sin was delivered, the physician of the sin was sent. Why did he not correct the sinner immediately? Because he knows that at the height of sins the soul of sinners is blinded, since the ears of those immersed in the depth of sin are deafened. So he postpones bringing help to the inflamed passion, and after such a time the reproof arrives; and in a single moment of time come repentance and forgiveness. “And the Lord has forgiven your sin.” O the economy of the one who threatened! Do you see that he is swift to save? He does this also in other cases, delaying in destruction but hastening to assistance. I mean something like this: among us humans, buildings are constructed over many years, and we build a house over a long time.

and the time for building is long, but for demolition it is short. With God, it is the opposite: when he builds, he builds quickly; when he destroys, he destroys slowly. God is quick in building, slow in destroying, because both are fitting for God: the one is a matter of power, the other of goodness. He is quick through an excess of power, slow through abundant goodness. The proof of these words is the experience of events. In six days God made the heaven and the earth, the great mountains, the plains, the ravines, the glens, the forests, the plants, the springs, the rivers, the paradise, all the visible variety, this great and spacious sea, the islands, the coastal regions and the inland ones—all this visible world and its beauty God made in six days. The rational and irrational animals in it, and all the visible order, he makes in six days. So this one, who is quick in building, when he resolved to destroy a single city, was found slow out of goodness. He wants to destroy Jericho and says to Israel: "Surround it for seven days, and on the seventh day the wall will fall." You construct the whole world in six days, and you dismantle one city in seven days? What hinders your power? Why do you not destroy it all at once? Does not the prophet cry out concerning you, saying: "If you open the heaven, trembling will seize the mountains from you, and they will melt like wax before fire"? Does not David, recounting the works of your power, say:

We shall not be afraid when the earth is shaken and mountains are moved into the hearts of seas. You can move mountains and cast them into the sea, yet you are unwilling to demolish a single city that resists you, but you give seven days for its demolition? Why? It is not, he says, that my power is weak, but that my philanthropy is patient. I give seven days, as to Nineveh I gave three days. Perhaps it will receive the proclamation of repentance and be saved. And who proclaims repentance to them? The enemy has surrounded the city; the general has encircled the walls; there is great fear, great uproar. What way of repentance, then, have you opened for them? Did you not send a prophet? Did you not dispatch an evangelist? Was there no one suggesting to them what was beneficial? Yes, he says, they had within them that teacher of repentance, the admirable Rahab, whom I saved through repentance. She was of the same dough. But since she was not of the same mind, she did not share in the sin, she who did not share in the unbelief. And observe the strange proclamation of philanthropy: the one who says in the law, "You shall not commit adultery, you shall not fornicate," changing the word out of philanthropy, cries out through the blessed Jesus, "Let Rahab the prostitute live." That Jesus, the son of Nun, who says, "Let the prostitute live," was an image of the Lord Jesus who says, "Prostitutes and tax collectors will lead you into the kingdom of heaven." If she ought to live, why "prostitute"? If "prostitute," why "let her live"? I speak, he says, of her former state, so that you may marvel at her later transformation. And what did Rahab do, he says, that brought about salvation? That she received the spies in peace? That even an innkeeper does.

But it is not from the word alone that she reaps salvation, but primarily from faith and from her disposition toward God. And that you may learn the extraordinary degree of her faith, listen to the Scripture itself as it recounts the achievements attested to her. She was in a brothel, like a pearl befouled in mud, gold scattered in clay, a flower of piety buried among thorns, a pious soul imprisoned in a place of impiety. And pay close attention to my meaning. She received the spies, and the one whom Israel betrayed in the wilderness—this one Rahab proclaimed in the brothel. What do I mean by "Israel in the wilderness"? When the mountain was filled with cloud, and darkness, and trumpets, and lightning, and other terrors, she heard from God from the midst of the fire: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord your God, the Lord is one; you shall have no other gods; I am in heaven above and on earth below, and besides me there is no god." Hearing these things, Israel cast a calf and denied God; he ignored the master, rejected the benefactor, and says to Aaron: "Make us gods." If they are gods, why "make"? How can things that come into being be gods? Thus does wickedness, blinded, fight against itself and destroy itself.

These are your gods, O Israel, who led you out of the land of Egypt. These are the gods." She sees one calf, one single idol that was made. Why then "These are the gods"? In order to show that she does not worship only what she sees, but she imagines polytheism; she interprets the intention, she does not judge the appearance. But to return again to the matter at hand: what Israel heard, who was surrounded by so many wonders and educated by such a law, and yet denied—these things Rahab, shut up in the brothel, proclaims. For she says to the spies: "We know all that your God did to the Egyptians." The Jew says: "These are your gods who led you out of the land of Egypt," and the prostitute ascribes salvation not to gods, but to God. "We know all that your God did to the Egyptians in the desert, and we heard, and our heart melted, and there is no strength in us. We know all that your God did." Do you see how she takes up the word of the lawgiver through faith? And I know that your God is above in heaven and below on earth, and besides him there is no God.

An image of the Church is Rahab, once defiled by the fornication of demons, but now receiving the spies of Christ, not those from Joshua son of Nun, but the apostles sent by Jesus the true Savior. "I know," she says, "that your God is above in heaven and below on earth, and besides him there is no God." The Jews received these things and did not keep them; the Church heard them and preserved them. Rahab, then, is worthy of all praise, the image of the Church. For this reason the noble Paul, having understood the dignity of her faith, and not deeming her unworthy because of her former state, but worthy because of her divine transformation, numbers her among all the saints, and having said: "By faith Abel offered a sacrifice; by faith Abraham did this and that; by faith Noah built the ark; by faith Moses did these things and accomplished them." And after mentioning many saints in succession, he finally added: "By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with the disobedient, having received the spies and sent them out by another way." And see how with great wisdom she blended her own good judgment. For when men were sent by the king seeking the spies, they said to her: "Did men come in to you?" And she said to them: "Yes, they came in." First she establishes the truth, and then she introduces the falsehood. For falsehood is never believed on its own unless it first demonstrates the truth; for this reason those who lie persuasively first speak the truth, which is acknowledged by all, and then introduce the false and disputed things. "Did spies come in to you?" She says, "Yes.

For if she had said no from the beginning, she would have provoked the attackers to an investigation. But, it says, they both entered and departed by this road; pursue them, and you will catch them. O beautiful lie! O beautiful deceit, which does not betray divine things but preserves piety. If then that Rahab was deemed worthy of such salvation by repentance and is proclaimed through the mouths of saints—Joshua son of Nun crying out in the wilderness, "Let Rahab the harlot live," and Paul saying, "By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish together with the disobedient"—how much more shall we, if we bring forward repentance, receive salvation? Now is the time for repentance, for the fear of the sins pressing upon us is great, unless repentance anticipates punishment. Let us forestall his face in confession. Let us extinguish the conflagration of sins, not with many waters, but with small tears. The fire of sin is great, and it is extinguished by a small tear; for the tear extinguishes the conflagration of sins and washes away the foulness of sin. The blessed David bears witness, speaking and showing the power of tears, how great it is: "For I will wash," he says, "my bed each night; I will drench my bedding with my tears." And indeed, if he wished to show the abundance of tears, it would have been enough to say, "I will drench my bedding with my tears." Why then did he first say "I will wash"? To show that tears are a bath and a cleansing of sins.

Sins are the cause of all evils. Because of sins come griefs, because of sins come disturbances, because of sins come wars, because of sins come diseases, and all the grievous afflictions that befall us. Just as the best physicians do not examine the visible symptoms but seek the cause of the visible symptoms, so also the Savior, wishing to show that sin is the cause of all evils among men, says to the man who is paralyzed in body: since the physician of souls saw that he was first paralyzed in soul, and then in body, he says to him: "See, you have become healthy; sin no more, lest something worse happen to you." Therefore, sin is also the cause of the preceding illness; it is the cause of loss; it becomes the cause of grief and the basis of every misfortune. But I marvel at this: how God, having given grief to man from the beginning on account of sin, dissolves the sentence by the sentence, and expels the condemnation by the condemnation. Grief was given on account of sin, and through grief sin is dissolved. Pay close attention: God, threatening the woman and inflicting punishment for the transgression, says to her: "In griefs you will bear children," and he showed grief as the fruit of sin. But, O the great giver! What he gave as punishment, he transformed into salvation. Sin gave birth to grief; grief consumed sin, and just as a worm born from wood consumes the wood itself, so also grief, born from sin, consumes sin when it is brought forward through repentance. For this reason Paul says: "Grief according to God produces repentance for salvation that is not to be repented of.

Grief is good for those who genuinely repent; mourning over sin befits those who sin. For blessed are those who mourn, because they will be comforted. Mourn over sin, so that you may not lament punishment; plead with the judge before you come to the tribunal. Or do you not know that all who wish to appease the judge do not cultivate him at the very examination of the case, but before entering the court, either through friends, or through patrons, or through some other means, they win over the judge? So also in the case of God, at the time of the tribunal it is not possible to persuade the judge; but before the time of judgment it is possible to appease the judge. For this reason David said: Let us anticipate his face with confession. There, before the great judge, the art of rhetoricians does not deceive; power does not appease; he is not persuaded by rank; he is not ashamed before a person; he is not corrupted by money, but his righteous judgment is fearsome and inexorable. Here, then, let us appease and entreat the judge; here let us supplicate with all our might, but not with money. Or rather, to speak the truth, the lover of humanity is also persuaded by money, not by receiving it himself, but through the poor. Give money to the needy, and you have appeased the judge. I say these things, claiming you as my own, because repentance without almsgiving is dead and wingless; repentance cannot take wing if it does not have the wing of almsgiving. For this reason, almsgiving became the wing of piety for Cornelius, who repented well: For your almsgivings, it says, and your prayers ascended to heaven.

As if repentance had no wing of almsgiving, it would not have ascended to heaven. So today a marketplace of almsgiving has been opened. For we see the captives and the poor; we see those carried about in the marketplace; we see those crying out; we see those weeping; we see those groaning. A wonderful fair lies before us, and the business of a fair is nothing other, and the intention of the merchant is nothing other, than to buy cheap and sell dear. Is not this the aim of each of the merchants? Does anyone enter into trade for any other reason than to sell at a high price what was bought cheap, and to gain for himself a multiplied profit from his trade? Such then is the fair that God has set before us: buy righteousness cheap, so that you may resell it dear in the future—if indeed one may call the requital a resale. Here righteousness is bought for a small price: for a cheap morsel of bread, for a cheap garment, for a cup of cold water. "He who gives a cup of cold water," says the teacher of spiritual commerce, "truly I tell you, will not lose his reward." A cup of cold water is rewarded; are garments and money given for beneficence not rewarded? On the contrary, they are even greatly rewarded. Why then did he mention a cup of cold water? He spoke of costless almsgiving; for with cold water you expend neither wood nor anything else. If where the giving is costless the grace of the beneficence is so great, where there is an abundance of garments, a supply of money, a wealth of other goods, how great a reward must one expect from the just judge?

While, then, the virtues are on sale at a low price, let us take from the great giver, let us snatch, let us buy. "Those who are thirsty," he says, "go to the water, and those who have no money, go and buy." While the marketplace is open, let us buy almsgivings, or rather, through almsgiving, let us buy salvation. You clothe Christ when you clothe a poor person. "These things," he says, "I know well and accurately; I have learned these things before; you are not the first to teach me; I have not heard this first from you; you are not proclaiming strange things, but things which many of those present have often taught us. I know it myself, I know that you have often learned these and similar things, but even if we have learned them often, would that we might at least do a little good. He who pities a poor person lends to God. Let us lend our almsgiving to God, so that we may receive from him a return of philanthropy. But oh, what a most wise saying! 'He who pities a poor person lends to God.' Why, then, did it not say, 'He who pities a poor person gives to God,' but 'lends'? Scripture knows our greed. It has observed that our insatiability, looking toward greed, seeks increase. And for this reason it did not simply say, 'He who pities a poor person gives to God,' lest you think the reward is simple; but, 'He who pities a poor person lends to God.' If God borrows from us, then he is our debtor. What, then, do you want him to be, a judge or a debtor? The debtor respects the lender; the judge is not ashamed before the borrower.

It is necessary also to consider in another way why God said that he who gives to a poor man lends to me. Since he saw our greed inclining toward excess, as I said earlier, and that no one who has money is willing to lend without security—for the lender demands either a mortgage or pledges or a guarantor, and through these three securities he entrusts his money, accepting either guarantees, as I said earlier, or a mortgage on property, or pledges—since, then, God saw that apart from these no one lends, nor looks to philanthropy, but looks only to profit, and the poor man is destitute of all these, having no mortgage (for he possesses nothing), bringing no pledges (for he is stripped bare), providing no guarantor (for he is distrusted because of his poverty), so when he saw him endangered by his poverty, and the man who has money endangered by his inhumanity, he placed himself in the middle, as a surety to the poor man and as a pledge to the lender. "You distrust this man," he says, "because of his poverty; trust me because of my abundance." He saw the poor man and took pity; he saw the poor man and did not overlook him, but gave himself as a pledge to the one who has nothing, and stood by the needy man out of great goodness, the blessed David confirming this philanthropy and saying, "That he stood at the right hand of the poor man." He who pities a poor man lends to God. "Take courage," he says, "you lend to me." "And what do I gain so much by lending to you?" "Most certainly it is most unlawful to demand an account from God; but in order to condescend to your lawlessness, and to soften severity with philanthropy, let us compare these things.

When you lend to others, what do you gain? What do you seek from them in excess? Is it not a hundredth, if you seek the lawful rate? But if you increase your greed, you reap double and triple injustice. I, however, overcome your covetousness; I surpass your appetite for greed; I cover your lack of measure with my abundance. You seek a hundredth, but I give you a hundredfold. So you lend, Lord; and you lend through me here the alms to the poor, so that you may repay me these things when? I demand the terms, wishing to confirm the contract. Give me the time of repayment; set the deadline for reimbursement. For the most part, this is unnecessary, for the Lord is faithful in all his words. But since it is the custom and purpose of the borrower to measure times graciously and set days, listen to when and where the one who borrowed through the poor repays you the debt. When the Son of Man sits on the throne of his glory and places the sheep on his right and the goats on his left, and says to those on the right—here pay attention to how the debtor is grateful to the lender, how the borrower repays with great grace: "Come, the blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." For what? Because I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was naked, and you clothed me; I was in prison, and you came to me; I was sick, and you visited me; I was a stranger, and you gathered me in.

Then those who have served well in time, looking to their own weakness and to the worth of the borrower, say: Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you drink?—you on whom the eyes of all hope, and you give their food in abundance. Oh, such great goodness! He hides his worth through love for humanity: "For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat." Oh, such great goodness, oh, such immeasurable kindness! He who gives food to every flesh, and opens his hands, and fills every creature with satisfaction. "I was hungry," he says, "and you gave me to eat," not because his worth is diminished, but because his love for humanity guarantees the poor. "I was thirsty, and you gave me drink." Who says this? He who pours forth the nature of waters in lakes and rivers and springs; he who declares through the Gospels that "He who believes in me, as the Scripture says, rivers of living water will flow from his belly"; he who said, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink." But, "I was naked," he says, "and you clothed me." We clothed him who clothes the sky with clouds, who clothes the whole church and the inhabited world. For all of you who were baptized into Christ, you put on Christ. "I was in prison"—you, who lead the fettered out, in prison? Explain what you say; for your worth denies what is said. When did we see you in such need? When did we do these things? "Insofar as," he says, "you have done this to one of these least ones, you have done it to me." Is the saying not true, that he who pities a poor man lends to God? And see the wonder: he recalled no other work of virtue but this; yet he could have said:

Come, you blessed ones, because you have been prudent, because you have lived in virginity, because you have taken up an angelic polity. But this is passed over in silence, not because it is unworthy of remembrance, but as secondary to philanthropy. But just as to those on the right he showed the kingdom granted on account of philanthropy, so to those on the left he threatened punishment on account of fruitlessness. Go, you accursed ones, into the outer darkness, prepared for the devil and his angels. Why? For what reason? Because I was hungry, and you did not give me food. He did not say: Because you fornicated, because you committed adultery, because you stole, because you bore false witness, because you perjured yourself. These are admittedly evils as well, but they are inferior to inhumanity and lack of compassion. And why, Lord, do you not mention other ways? I do not judge sin, he says, but inhumanity; I do not judge those who have sinned, but those who have not repented. I condemn you for inhumanity, because, having so great and so powerful a remedy for salvation as almsgiving, by which all sins are wiped away, you neglected so great a benefaction. Therefore I reproach inhumanity as the root of evil and of all impiety; I praise philanthropy as the root of all good things, and I threaten the former with eternal fire, to the latter I promise the kingdom of heaven. Your promises are good, O Lord; both the expected kingdom and the threatened Gehenna are good; the one encourages, the other frightens. For the kingdom encourages well, and Gehenna frightens usefully. For God threatens Gehenna, not in order to cast into Gehenna, but to deliver from Gehenna.

For if He had wished to punish, He would not have threatened beforehand, so that we might take precautions and flee the threatened things. He threatens punishment so that we may flee the experience of punishment; He frightens with words so that He may not punish with deeds. Let us therefore lend philanthropy to God, let us lend it, so that we may find Him a debtor, as I said earlier, and not a judge. For the debtor is ashamed before the lender, he is ashamed and abashed before him. If a lender goes to the door of a debtor, if the debtor is poor, he flees; if he is well-off, he receives him with confidence. Now observe for me another marvel of the just judge, set forth from human affairs: if you lend to someone in a state of poverty, and the borrower later advances to prosperity, and is then able to repay you the debt, he conceals it from most people and repays, so that he may not be ashamed of his former condition; and he acknowledges gratitude, but hides the benefaction, being ashamed of his former need. But God does not act thus; rather, borrowing in secret, He repays the debt openly. For when He receives, He does so through hidden almsgiving; when He repays, He repays in the sight of all creation. But perhaps someone will say: Why then did He give to me, the rich man, as He did, and not give similarly to the poor man? He could have given alike to you and to the poor man, but He did not wish either your wealth to be fruitless or that one's poverty to be without reward. To you who are wealthy, He has given the means to be rich in almsgiving and to scatter in righteousness; for He scattered, He gave to the poor; His righteousness endures forever.

Do you see that the rich man, through almsgiving, stores up eternal righteousness? Look again also at the poor man: since he has no wealth with which to work righteousness, he has poverty, from which he reaps eternal patience. For the patience of the poor will not perish for eternity in Christ our Lord, to whom is glory for ever and ever. Amen.