John Chrysostom, On "Let a widow be chosen"

Be zealous; for not only giving money, but also serving those in need has a great reward. For this reason the apostles also appointed those seven around Stephen to such a ministry. And yet they provided nothing of their own to the poor, but managed well what was given by others; but nevertheless they carried away a great reward, because they managed well and with all exactness what was given by others. 15. Become, therefore, you also a good steward of your own things, so that you may receive a double fruit, both for giving, and for managing well. Do not be ashamed to serve the poor person with your own hand. Christ is not ashamed to extend His hand and receive through the poor person, and are you ashamed to extend your hand and give money? And how is this not the utmost folly? One thing only is a shame, wickedness and cruelty and inhumanity; but kindness and almsgiving and love for mankind and serving those in need make us more glorious. For however rich and wealthy you may be, so much will all praise you, when you condescend to the poor and humble, and not only men, but also angels, and the Lord of angels; and He will not only praise you, but will also reward you with double gifts. For not only for the almsgiving, but also for the humility He will prepare many rewards for you. Let us not then be ashamed of serving the poor, nor let us refuse to wash the feet of strangers; for our hands are sanctified through such a ministry; and if you lift them up in prayer after that service, God, seeing them, is more moved, and grants the request. For giving money may be something many would do; but to serve those in need with one's own hands and to do this with readiness and love and brotherly affection, requires a great and noble and philosophic soul. And this is what Paul seeks most of all, commanding us to feel with those in affliction and poverty and distress, so to suffer with them, as being in the same terrible circumstances. For to the prisoners, he says, as fellow prisoners. Wherefore he did not stop his discourse here only, but also added another: If she has relieved the afflicted, if she has followed every good work. What is it: if she has followed every good work? That is, to enter into prison, and visit the bound, and look after the sick, and console the afflicted, and comfort those in pain, and in every way to contribute all things according to her ability, and to refuse nothing at all of those things done for the salvation and rest of our brothers. But if he requires so many good deeds of a widow woman, what defense will we men be worthy of, if we do not do these things, which Paul legislated for widows to do? But perhaps someone might say: And how does he require such exactness from a widow woman, when he wrote about virginity, he discussed nothing of the sort? He required of them a greater philosophy than these things. For when he says: The wife and the virgin are divided; and: The unmarried woman is anxious about 51.336 the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord; and again: And this I say for what is honorable and for your devoted service to the Lord without distraction; by these words he intimates nothing else but that the virgin, having completely detached herself from all the affairs of this life, must dedicate her whole soul to God and have nothing in common with the earth, nor be occupied sometimes with these things, sometimes with those, but having renounced these entirely, to spend all her leisure on spiritual matters. And the parable of the ten virgins has shown us this very thing. For this reason, then, they were shut out of the bridal chamber, because they had no oil; and oil is nothing other than love for mankind and almsgiving and kindness and protection of the wronged and comfort for those in pain; which those women did not have and so went away, and fell from the bridal chamber. 6. Knowing all these things, therefore, both women, and men, and virgins, and married women, and widows, much of almsgiving

ζήλωσον· οὐ γὰρ τὸ δοῦναι χρήματα μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ διακονῆσαι τοῖς δεομένοις πολὺν ἔχει τὸν μισθόν. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο καὶ οἱ ἀπόστολοι τοὺς ἑπτὰ ἐκείνους τοὺς περὶ Στέφανον ἐπέστησαν τῇ τοιαύτῃ διακονίᾳ. Καίτοι γε οὐδὲν οἴκοθεν ἐκεῖνοι παρεῖχον τοῖς πένησιν, ἀλλὰ τὰ παρ' ἑτέρων διδόμενα ᾠκονόμουν καλῶς· ἀλλ' ὅμως μέγαν ἀπηνέγκαντο τὸν μισθὸν, ὅτι τὰ παρ' ἑτέρων διδόμενα καλῶς καὶ μετὰ ἀκριβείας ᾠκονόμουν ἁπάσης. ιεʹ. Γενοῦ τοίνυν καὶ σὺ τῶν σαυτοῦ καλὸς οἰκονόμος, ἵνα διπλοῦν λάβῃς τὸν καρπὸν, καὶ τοῦ δοῦναι, καὶ τοῦ καλῶς οἰκονομῆσαι. Μὴ ἐπαισχυνθῇς διὰ τῆς σαυτοῦ χειρὸς θεραπεῦσαι τὸν πένητα. Ὁ Χριστὸς οὐκ ἐπαισχύνεται χεῖρα ἐκτεῖναι καὶ λαβεῖν διὰ τοῦ πένητος, καὶ σὺ χεῖρα ἐκτεῖναι καὶ δοῦναι ἀργύριον ἐπαισχύνῃ; Καὶ πῶς τοῦτο οὐκ ἐσχάτης ἀνοίας; Ἓν μόνον ἐστὶν αἰσχύνη, πονηρία καὶ ὠμότης καὶ ἀπανθρωπία· φιλοφροσύνη δὲ καὶ ἐλεημοσύνη καὶ φιλανθρωπία καὶ τὸ διακονεῖσθαι τοῖς δεομένοις λαμπροτέρους ἡμᾶς ἐργάζεται. Ὅσον γὰρ ἂν ᾖς πλουσία καὶ εὔπορος, τοσοῦτον ἐπαινέσονταί σε πάντες, ὅταν πρὸς τοὺς πτωχοὺς καὶ εὐτελεῖς καταβαίνῃς, οὐκ ἄνθρωποι δὲ μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἄγγελοι, καὶ ὁ τῶν ἀγγέλων ∆εσπότης· οὐκ ἐπαινέσεται δὲ μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀμείψεται διπλαῖς δωρεαῖς. Οὐ γὰρ τῆς ἐλεημοσύνης μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῆς ταπεινοφροσύνης πολλούς σοι παρασκευάσει τοὺς μισθούς. Μὴ τοίνυν ἐπαισχυνώμεθα ταῖς τῶν πενήτων θεραπείαις, μηδὲ παραιτώμεθα νίπτειν τῶν ξένων τοὺς πόδας· ἁγιάζονται γὰρ ἡμῶν αἱ χεῖρες διὰ τῆς τοιαύτης διακονίας· κἂν εἰς εὐχὴν αὐτὰς ἀνατείνῃς ἀπὸ τῆς θεραπείας ἐκείνης, ὁρῶν αὐτὰς ὁ Θεὸς δυσωπεῖται μᾶλλον, καὶ τὴν αἴτησιν δίδωσι. Τὸ μὲν γὰρ χρήματα δοῦναι, πολλῶν ἂν εἴη· τὸ δὲ δι' ἑαυτῶν θεραπεῦσαι τοὺς δεομένους καὶ μετὰ προθυμίας τοῦτο ποιῆσαι καὶ ἀγάπης καὶ φιλαδελφίας, πολλῆς καὶ μεγάλης δεῖται ψυχῆς καὶ φιλοσόφου. Καὶ τοῦτό ἐστιν, ὃ μάλιστα πάντων ὁ Παῦλος ἐπιζητεῖ, τοῖς ἐν θλίψει καὶ πενίᾳ καὶ περιστάσεσιν οὕτω κελεύων συναλγεῖν, ὡς ἐν τοῖς αὐτοῖς ὄντας δεινοῖς. Τοῖς γὰρ δεσμίοις, φησὶν, ὡς συνδεδεμένοι. ∆ιόπερ οὐδὲ ἐνταῦθα τὸν λόγον ἔστησε μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἕτερον ἐπήγαγεν· Εἰ θλιβομένοις ἐπήρκεσεν, εἰ παντὶ ἔργῳ ἀγαθῷ ἐπηκολούθησε. Τί ἐστιν· Εἰ παντὶ ἔργῳ ἀγαθῷ ἐπηκολούθησεν; Ὥστε καὶ εἰς δεσμωτήριον εἰσιέναι, καὶ τοὺς δεδεμένους ἐπισκέπτεσθαι, καὶ ἀῤῥωστοῦντας ἐπισκοπεῖν, καὶ θλιβομένους παραμυθεῖσθαι, καὶ ὀδυνωμένους παρακαλεῖν, καὶ πάντα τρόπον τὰ κατὰ δύναμιν εἰσφέρειν ἅπαντα, καὶ μηδὲν ὅλως παραιτεῖσθαι τῶν εἰς σωτηρίαν καὶ ἀνάπαυσιν τῶν ἀδελφῶν γινομένων τῶν ἡμετέρων. Εἰ δὲ χήραν γυναῖκα τοσαῦτα ἀπαιτεῖ κατορθώματα, τίνος ἂν εἴημεν ἀπολογίας ἄξιοι οἱ ἄνδρες ἡμεῖς ταῦτα μὴ ποιοῦντες, ἃ γυναῖκας χήρας ποιεῖν ἐνομοθέτησεν ὁ Παῦλος; Ἀλλ' ἴσως ἂν εἴποι τις· Καὶ πῶς χήραν γυναῖκα τοσαύτην ἀπαιτεῖ ἀκρίβειαν, ὅτε δὲ περὶ παρθενίας ἐπέστελλεν, οὐδὲν διελέχθη τοιοῦτον; Πλείονα μὲν τούτων φιλοσοφίαν αὐτὰς ἀπῄτησεν. Ὅταν γὰρ εἴπῃ· Μεμέρισται ἡ γυνὴ καὶ ἡ παρθένος· καί· Ἡ ἄγαμος μεριμνᾷ 51.336 τὰ τοῦ Κυρίου, πῶς ἀρέσει τῷ Κυρίῳ· καὶ πάλιν· Τοῦτο δὲ λέγω διὰ τὸ εὔσχημον καὶ εὐπρόσεδρον τῷ Κυρίῳ ἀπερισπάστως· οὐδὲν ἄλλο διὰ τούτων αἰνίττεται τῶν ῥημάτων ἀλλ' ἢ ὅτι τῶν βιωτικῶν ἁπάντων πραγμάτων καθάπαξ ἑαυτὴν ἀποῤῥήξασαν τὴν παρθένον ὁλόκληρον ἀναθεῖναι δεῖ τῷ Θεῷ τὴν ψυχὴν καὶ μηδὲν πρὸς τὴν γῆν ἔχειν κοινὸν, μηδὲ ποτὲ μὲν τούτοις, ποτὲ δὲ ἐκείνοις σχολάζειν, ἀλλὰ καθόλου τούτοις ἀποταξαμένην, ὅλην εἰς τὰ πνευμα-τικὰ πράγματα ἀναλίσκειν τὴν σχολήν. Καὶ ἡ παρα-βολὴ δὲ τῶν δέκα παρθένων αὐτὸ τοῦτο ἐδήλωσεν ἡμῖν. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο γοῦν ἀπεκλείσθησαν τοῦ νυμφῶνος, ὅτι ἔλαιον οὐκ εἶχον· ἔλαιον δὲ οὐδὲν ἕτερόν ἐστιν, ἀλλ' ἢ φιλανθρωπία καὶ ἐλεημοσύνη καὶ φιλοφροσύνη καὶ προστασία τῶν ἀδικουμένων καὶ παράκλησις τῶν ὀδυνωμένων· ὅπερ οὐκ ἔχουσαι ἀπῆλθον ἐκεῖναι, καὶ τοῦ νυμφῶνος ἐξέπεσον. ϛʹ. Ταῦτ' οὖν εἰδότες ἅπαντα, καὶ γυναῖκες, καὶ ἄν-δρες, καὶ παρθένοι, καὶ γεγαμημέναι, καὶ χῆραι, πολλὴν τῆς ἐλεημοσύνης