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

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 which was left, a cake upon the ashes, and, having used this, was about to die with her children, Elias came and asked that something should first be given him to eat, and then of what remained that she and her children should eat. Nor did she hesitate to obey; nor did the mother prefer her children to Elias in her hunger and poverty. Yea, there is done in God’s sight a thing that pleases God: promptly and liberally is presented what is asked for. Neither is it a portion out of abundance, but the whole out of a little, that is given, and another is fed before her hungry children; nor in penury and want is food thought of before mercy; so that while in a saving work the life according to the flesh is contemned, the soul according to the spirit is preserved. Therefore Elias, being the type of Christ, and showing that according to His mercy He returns to each their reward, answered and said: “Thus saith the Lord, The vessel of meal shall not fail, and the cruse of oil shall not be diminished, until the day that the Lord giveth rain upon the earth.”50    1 Kings xvii. 14.  According to her faith in the divine promise, those things which she gave were multiplied and heaped up to the widow; and her righteous works and deserts of mercy taking augmentations and increase, the vessels of meal and oil were filled. Nor did the mother take away from her children what she gave to Elias, but rather she conferred upon her children what she did kindly and piously.51    [See p. 479, supra, note 7. [Prov. xi. 24.] And she did not as yet know Christ; she had not yet heard His precepts; she did not, as redeemed by His cross and passion, repay meat and drink for His blood. So that from this it may appear how much he sins in the Church, who, preferring himself and his children to Christ, preserves his wealth, and does not share an abundant estate with the poverty of the needy.

XVII. Sic vidua illa, in tertio Regnorum libro, cum, in siccitate et fame consumptis omnibus, de modico farre et oleo quod superfuerat fecisset subcinericium panem , quo absumpto moritura cum liberis esset, supervenit Helias, et petiit sibi prius ad edendum dari; tunc quod superfuisset, inde illam cum filiis suis vesci. Nec obtemperare illa dubitavit, aut Heliae filios mater in fame et egestate praeposuit. Fit immo in conspectu 0615A Dei quod Deo placeat; prompte ac libenter quod petebatur offertur; nec de abundantia portio, sed de modico totum datur, et esurientibus liberis alter prius pascitur, neque in penuria et fame cibus ante quam misericordia cogitatur; ut, dum in opere salutari carnaliter vita contemnitur, spiritaliter anima servetur. Helias itaque typum Christi gerens, et quod ille pro misericordia vicem singulis reddat ostendens, respondit et dixit: Haec dicit Dominus: Fidelia farrisnon deficiet, et capsaces olei non minuetur usque in diem quo dabit Dominus imbrem super terram (I Reg. XVII, 14). Secundum divinae pollicitationis fidem multiplicata sunt viduae et cumulata quae praestitit, et operibus justis , ac misericordiae meritis augmenta et incrementa sumentibus, farris et olei 0615B vasa completa sunt. Nec filiis abstulit mater quod Heliae dedit, sed magis contulit filiis quod benigne et pie fecit. Et illa nondum Christum sciebat, nondum praecepta ejus audierat, non cruce et passione ejus redempta, cibum et potum pro sanguine rependebat; ut ex hoc appareat quantum in Ecclesia peccet qui, se et filios Christo anteponens, divitias suas servat, nec patrimonium copiosum cum indigentium paupertate communicat.