John Chrysostom, On Almsgiving

to be diminished by giving to the poor; for you do not become poor from sharing with the poor. If the poor man has mercy on a poor man, he does not become poorer, but is praiseworthy, and secures his poverty the more. Have you heard the Prophet saying: I was young; and indeed I have grown old; and I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging for bread? and again, All the day long the righteous shows mercy and lends, and his seed will be for a blessing? For a blessing, why? Because he who sows bountifully, will also reap bountifully; for he who will take care of your garments, will also take care of your soul. For nothing so clothes the soul as the covering of the widow and orphan and poor man. For it does not permit the soul to be seen naked by God on that fearful and terrible day; but clothed in a robe of light through almsgiving, it appears with all glory to God. For God says through the prophet: Break your bread for the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; and then your light shall break forth as the morning, and your healing shall spring up speedily, and your righteousness shall go before you. Do you see how great a reward is laid up for you for a little bread or a single obol? Do you know how much light the fruit of almsgiving brings you? Do you want to learn how great a treasure the small gift to the poor has procured for us? Do you wish to see which poor people, offering poor things, inherited the land of great treasures? Listen. For we inform you not only from the New Testament, but also from the Old, so that through love for the poor you may gain the heavenly treasure. A famine once grazed upon the people over all the land, and so great a famine, that each day a river of men and animals was delivered over to death, not in a short time, but in three and a half whole years, so that all the land was destroyed. And the cause of the evil was the idolatry of the Israelites, and the lawlessness of Ahab and of Jezebel, for which Elijah, being a man, was able to cast locks upon the heavens, saying: As the Lord lives, there shall be no rain, except by my word. And it did not rain upon the earth for three years and six months. Then, at last, the lawless king, perceiving that the prophet Elijah had become the minister of this decree, went about seeking to kill him. Therefore, fleeing because of this to the land of the foreigners, the prophet found a widow woman, a remnant of the famine, having a little flour and a little 60.749 oil, in which she had all the hope of her own life and that of her children hanging. And the prophet Elijah says to her: Bring me a little bread in your hand. And the woman said to him: As the Lord your God lives, I have no cake, but only a handful of flour in the house, and a little oil in the cruse; and behold, I am gathering two sticks, and I will go in to prepare it for myself and my children, and we will eat and we will die. Does any of us today drive into such poverty? May it not be so. But from this remnant of death, the widow first made a cake for the prophet, and brought it out to him, despising herself and her children. And what reward did she receive for this poor almsgiving? Hear clearly what the prophet says: Thus says the Lord: The jar of flour shall not fail, and the cruse of oil shall not be diminished. Until when, prophet? Until the Lord gives rain and dew upon the earth. For this reason the prophet says: Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord; and his hope will be in a time of drought, and he will not be diminished nor will he fail. And the word of the prophet became deed, and neither did the jar fail, nor was the cruse diminished. Are you poorer than this woman, O man? is there such a famine

ἐλαττοῦσθαι τῇ τῶν πενήτων δόσει· οὐ γὰρ γίνῃ πένης ἐκ τῆς τῶν πενήτων μεταδόσεως. Ἐὰν ὁ πένης ἐλεῇ πένητα, πενέστερος οὐ γίνεται, ἀλλ' ἐπαινετέος, καὶ τὴν πενίαν μᾶλλον ἀσφαλίζεται. Ἤκουσας τοῦ Προφήτου λέγοντος· Νεώτερος ἐγενόμην· καὶ γὰρ ἐγήρασα· καὶ οὐκ εἶδον δίκαιον ἐγκαταλελειμμένον, οὐδὲ τὸ σπέρμα αὐτοῦ ζητοῦν ἄρτους; καὶ πάλιν, Ὅλην τὴν ἡμέραν ἐλεεῖ καὶ δανείζει ὁ δίκαιος, καὶ τὸ σπέρμα αὐτοῦ εἰς εὐλογίαν ἔσται; Εἰς εὐλογίαν, διὰ τί; Ὅτι ὁ σπείρων ἐπ' εὐλογίας, ἐπ' εὐλογίας καὶ θερίζει· ὃς γὰρ ἐπιμελήσῃ τῶν ἀμφιεσμάτων σου, ἐπιμελήσει καὶ τῆς ψυχῆς σου. Οὐδὲν γὰρ οὕτως ἀμφιέννυσι τὴν ψυχὴν, ὡς τὸ τῆς χήρας καὶ ὀρφανοῦ καὶ πένητος σκέπασμα. Οὐκ ἀφίησι γὰρ τὴν ψυχὴν γυμνὴν ὀφθῆναι τῷ Θεῷ κατ' ἐκείνην τὴν ἡμέραν τὴν φοβερὰν καὶ φρικτήν· ἀλλὰ στολὴν φωτὸς περιβεβλημένη διὰ τῆς ἐλεημοσύνης μετὰ πάσης δόξης φαίνεται τῷ Θεῷ. Λέγει γὰρ ὁ Θεὸς διὰ τοῦ προφήτου· ∆ιάθρυπτε πεινῶντι τὸν ἄρτον σου, καὶ πτωχοὺς ἀστέγους εἰσάγαγε εἰς τὸν οἶκόν σου· καὶ τότε ἔσται πρώϊμον τὸ φῶς σου, καὶ τὰ ἰάματά σου ταχὺ ἀνατελεῖ, καὶ προπορεύσεται ἔμπροσθέν σου ἡ δικαιοσύνη σου. Εἶδες πόσος μισθὸς διὰ μικρὸν ἄρτον ἢ ἕνα ὀβολὸν ἀπόκειταί σοι; ἔγνως πόσον σοι προσάγει φῶς ὁ τῆς ἐλεημοσύνης καρπός; Θέλεις μαθεῖν πόσον θησαυρὸν προεξένησεν ἡμῖν ἡ μικρὰ τῶν πτωχῶν δόσις; βούλει ἰδεῖν τίνες πτωχοὶ πτωχὰ προσάγοντες μεγάλων θησαυρῶν χώραν ἐκληρονόμησαν; Ἄκουσον. Οὐ γὰρ ἀπὸ τῆς Καινῆς ∆ιαθήκης πληροφοροῦμέν σε μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς Παλαιᾶς, ἵνα σὺ διὰ τῆς φιλοπτωχίας κερδάνῃς τὸν οὐράνιον θησαυρόν. Λιμός ποτε κατὰ πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἐπεβόσκετο, καὶ τοσοῦτος λιμὸς, ὥστε καθ' ἑκάστην ἡμέραν ποταμὸν ἀνθρώπων καὶ ζώων παραδίδοσθαι εἰς θάνατον, οὐκ ἐν ὀλίγῳ χρόνῳ, ἀλλ' ἐν τρισὶν ἥμισιν ὅλοις ἐνιαυτοῖς, ὡς καὶ τὴν γῆν ἅπασαν καταφθαρῆναι. Αἰτία δὲ γέγονε τοῦ κακοῦ ἡ τῶν Ἰσραηλιτῶν εἰδωλολατρεία, καὶ τοῦ Ἀχαὰβ καὶ τῆς Ἰεζάβελ ἡ παρανομία, δι' ἣν ὁ Ἠλίας, ἄνθρωπος ὢν, ἐδυνήθη κλεῖθρα τοῖς οὐρανοῖς ἐπιβαλεῖν, εἰπών· Ζῇ Κύριος, εἰ ἔσται ὑετὸς, εἰ μὴ διὰ στόματός μου. Καὶ οὐκ ἔβρεξεν ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν ἐπὶ ἔτη τρία καὶ μῆνας ἕξ. Εἶτα λοιπὸν αἰσθόμενος ὁ παράνομος βασιλεὺς, ὅτι ὁ προφήτης Ἠλίας γέγονε διάκονος τῆς ἀποφάσεως ταύτης, περιήρχετο ζητῶν ἀποκτεῖναι αὐτόν. Ὥστε διὰ τοῦτο ἀποφυγὼν εἰς τὴν γῆν τῶν ἀλλοφύλων ὁ προφήτης εὗρε γυναῖκα χήραν, λείψανον τοῦ λιμοῦ, ὀλίγον ἄλευρον ἔχουσαν καὶ ὀλίγον 60.749 ἔλαιον, ἐν οἷς πᾶσαν τὴν ἐλπίδα τῆς ἑαυτῆς ζωῆς καὶ τῶν τέκνων αὐτῆς εἶχε κρεμαμένην. Καὶ λέγει αὐτῇ ὁ προφήτης Ἠλίας· Ἔνεγκέ μοι μικρὸν ἄρτον ἐν τῇ χειρί σου. Καὶ εἶπεν ἡ γυνὴ πρὸς αὐτόν· Ζῇ Κύριος ὁ Θεός σου, εἰ ἔστι μοι ἐγκρυφίας, ἀλλ' ἢ ὅσον δρὰξ ἀλεύρου ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ, καὶ ὀλίγον ἔλαιον ἐν τῷ καμψάκῃ· καὶ ἰδοὺ συλλέγω δύο ξυλάρια, καὶ εἰσέρχομαι τοῦ ποιῆσαι αὐτὸ ἐμοὶ καὶ τοῖς τέκνοις μου, καὶ φαγόμεθα καὶ ἀποθανούμεθα. Μή τις ἡμῶν σήμερον εἰς τοσαύτην πενίαν ἐλαύνει; Μὴ γένοιτο. Ἀλλ' ἐκ τοῦ λειψάνου τούτου τοῦ θανάτου ἐποίησεν ἡ χήρα τῷ προφήτῃ πρῶτον ἐγκρυφίαν, καὶ ἐξήνεγκεν αὐτῷ, καταφρονήσασα ἑαυτῆς καὶ τῶν τέκνων αὐτῆς. Καὶ ποίαν ἔλαβεν ἀντιμισθίαν τῆς πενιχρᾶς ταύτης ἐλεημοσύνης; Ἄκουε φανερῶς τί φησιν ὁ προφήτης· Τάδε λέγει Κύριος· Ἡ ὑδρία τοῦ ἀλεύρου οὐκ ἐκλείψει, καὶ ὁ καμψάκης τοῦ ἐλαίου οὐκ ἐλαττονήσει. Ἕως πότε, προφῆτα; Ἕως τοῦ δοῦναι Κύριον ὑετὸν καὶ δρόσον ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο λέγει ὁ προφήτης· Εὐλογημένος ὁ ἄνθρωπος, ὃς πέποιθεν ἐπὶ τῷ Κυρίῳ· καὶ ἔσται ἐλπὶς αὐτοῦ ἐν καιρῷ ἀβροχίας, καὶ οὐκ ἐλαττωθήσεται οὐδὲ διαλείψει. Καὶ ἐγένετο τὸ ῥῆμα τοῦ προφήτου ἔργον, καὶ οὔτε ἡ ὑδρία ἔλειψεν, οὔτε ὁ καμψάκης ἠλαττόνησε. Μὴ ταύτης πενέστερος εἶ, ὦ ἄνθρωπε; μὴ τοσοῦτος λιμὸς