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To whom then has he done these things? Or surely to the one who said, and is always saying, and is about to say, “As you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me”?

93. He who gave alms to a hundred, but being able to give to others as well, to give them drink and to feed them, sent away many who were begging him and crying out, will be judged by Him as not having fed Christ, since He Himself is in all of them, who is fed by us in each one of the least.

94. The one who today provided for all everything necessary, but tomorrow, being able to do this, neglects some of the brothers and allows them to perish from hunger and thirst and cold, has overlooked Him to die and has despised Him who said: “As you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me.”

95. From these things it is possible to know one thing, how the Lord makes His own all the things of the poor and of our brothers, saying to the righteous: “You did it to me,” but to those on the left: “You did not do it to me.” For He sees not only those who received mercy from us, nor those who were wronged or taken advantage of and suffered countless other terrible things, but also those who were overlooked, as this is sufficient for our condemnation; for we do not overlook them but Him, Jesus Christ, who makes all their things His own.

96. In this He deigned to take on the person of each poor man and likened Himself to every poor man, so that none of those who believe in Him might boast against his brother, but each one, seeing his brother and neighbor as his God, might reckon himself least (452) not of his brother but of the one who made him, and might receive and honor him as Himself, just as Christ and God poured out His own blood for our salvation.

97. He who was commanded to have his neighbor as himself ought to have him so not for one day, surely, but for his whole life; and he who is ordered to give to everyone who asks, is ordered to do this throughout his whole life, and he who wishes that others do for him the good things he wants, will himself be required to do these things for others.

98. Just as, then, the one who has his neighbor as himself does not endure having anything more than his neighbor, and if he has something and does not share it abundantly, until he himself becomes poor and is made like his neighbors, he is not found to be a fulfiller of the Lord's commandment; nor the one who wishes to give to all who ask, if, possessing as little as an obol or a fragment of bread, he turns away any of those who ask him; nor the one who does not do for his neighbor whatever he wishes another to do for him; so also the one who has fed, given drink to, clothed every poor and least person and done all other things for them, but has despised and overlooked only one, will himself also be reckoned as having overlooked Christ the God when He was hungry and thirsty.

99. These things will perhaps seem burdensome to all, for which reason they will seem to speak reasonably to themselves: “Who then is able to do all these things, so as to care for and feed all, and to overlook none of them at all?”. But let them hear Paul crying out plainly: “For the love of Christ compels us, having judged this, that if one died for all, then all have died.”

100. Just as the comprehensive commandments contain in themselves all the particular commandments, so also the comprehensive virtues include in themselves the particular virtues. For the one who sells his possessions or even scatters them to the poor and becomes poor once for all has fulfilled all the particular commandments at once; for he no longer has need to give to the one who asks or not to turn away from the one who wants to borrow from him. So also the one who prays without ceasing has in this enclosed everything and no longer to praise the seven times a day

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τίνι ἆρα ταῦτα πεποιήκεν ἤ πάντως τῷ εἰπόντι καί ἀεί λέγοντι καί εἰπεῖν μέλλοντι, «Ἐφ᾿ ὅσον ἐποιήσατε ἑνί τούτων τῶν ἐλαχίστων, ἐμοί ἐποιήσατε»;

93. Ὁ τοῖς ἑκατόν δούς ἐλεημοσύνην, δυνάμενος δέ καί ἑτέροις δοῦναι, ποτίσαι τε καί θρέψαι, πολλούς παρακαλοῦντας αὐτόν καί βοῶντας ἀποπεμψάμενος, ὡς μή θρέψας Χριστόν κριθήσεται πρός αὐτοῦ, ἐπειδή καί ἐν ἐκείνοις πᾶσιν αὐτός ἐστιν ὁ καί ἐφ᾿ ἑνί ἑκάστῳ τῶν ἐλαχίστων τρεφόμενος πρός ἡμῶν.

94. Ὁ πᾶσι μέν πάντα τά πρός χρείαν σήμερον παρασχών, αὔριον δέ δυνάμενος τοῦτο ποιῆσαι, ἀμελήσει τινῶν ἀδελφῶν καί λιμῷ καί δίψῃ καί ψύχει ἐάσει διαφθαρῆναι αὐτούς, αὐτόν παρεῖδεν ἀποθανεῖν καί αὐτοῦ κατεφρόνησε τοῦ εἰπόντος˙ «Ἐφ᾿ ὅσον ἐποιήσατε ἑνί τούτων τῶν ἐλαχίστων ἐμοί ἐποιήσατε».

95. Ἐκ τούτων ἕν ἔστι γνῶναι, ὅπως ἰδιοποιεῖται ὁ Κύριος πάντα τά τῶν πενήτων καί ἀδελφῶν ἡμῶν, πρός μέν τούς δικαίους λέγων˙ «Ἐμοί ἐποιήσατε», πρός δέ τούς ἐξ ἀριστερῶν˙ «Ἐμοί οὐκ ἐποιήσατε». Οὐ γάρ τούς ἐλεηθέντας μόνον παρ᾿ ἡμῶν ὁρᾷ οὐδέ τούς ἀδικηθέντας ἤ πλεονεκτηθέντας καί μυρία ἕτερα παθόντας δεινά, ἀλλά καί τούς παροφθέντας, ὡς ἀρκοῦν τοῦτο εἰς καταδίκην ἡμῶν˙ οὐ γάρ ἐκείνους ἀλλ᾿ αὐτόν παρορῶμεν τόν τά ἐκείνων ἅπαντα ἰδιοποιούμενον Ἰησοῦν τόν Χριστόν.

96. Ἐν τούτῳ ἑκάστου πένητος πρόσωπον ἀναλαβεῖν κατεδέξατο καί παντί πένητι ἑαυτόν ἐξωμοίωσεν ἵνα μηδείς τῶν εἰς αὐτόν πιστευόντων τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ αὐτοῦ κατεπαίρηται, ἀλλ᾿ ἕκαστος, βλέπων τόν ἀδελφόν αὐτοῦ καί τόν πλησίον ὡς τόν Θεόν αὐτοῦ, ἐλάχιστον ἑαυτόν (452) οὐχί τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ ἀλλά τοῦ πεποιηκότος αὐτόν λογίζοιτο καί ὡς αὐτόν ὑποδέχοιτο καί τιμᾷ, ὡς ὁ Χριστός καί Θεός ἐκένωσε τό ἴδιον αἷμα διά τήν σωτηρίαν ἡμῶν.

97. Ὁ τόν πλησίον ἔχειν ὡς ἑαυτόν κελευσθείς οὐ μίαν πάντως ἡμέραν ἀλλά διά βίου παντός τοῦτον ἔχειν οὕτως ὀφείλει˙ καί ὁ παντί τῷ αἰτοῦντι διδόναι προσταττόμενος, τοῦτο ποιεῖν προστάσσεται ἐν πάσῃ τῇ ζωῇ αὐτοῦ, καί ὁ θέλων ἵνα ποιῶσιν εἰς αὐτόν ἄλλοι ἅ βούλεται ἀγαθά, ταῦτα καί αὐτός ποιεῖν ἄλλοις ἀπαιτηθήσεται.

98. Ὥσπερ οὖν ὁ ἔχων τόν πλησίον ὡς ἑαυτόν οὐδέν πλέον ἔχειν τοῦ πλησίον ἀνέχεται, ἐάν δέ ἔχῃ καί μή μεταδίδωσιν ἀφθόνως, ἕως ἄν καί αὐτός πτωχός γένηται καί τοῖς πλησίον αὐτοῦ ἐξομοιωθῇ, τῆς ἐντολῆς τοῦ ∆εσπότου ἐκπληρωτής οὐκ εὑρίσκεται, οὐδέ ὁ τοῖς αἰτοῦσι πᾶσι διδόναι θέλων, ἐάν μέχρις ὀβολοῦ ἤ κλάσματος ἄρτου κεκτημένος, ἀποστρέψῃ τινά τῶν αἰτούντων αὐτόν, οὐδέ ὁ μή ποιῶν τῷ πλησίον ὅσα θέλει ἵνα ἕτερος ποιῇ πρός αὐτόν, οὕτω καί ὁ πάντα μέν πένητα καί ἐλάχιστον θρέψας, ποτίσας, ἐνδύσας καί τά ἄλλα πάντα εἰς αὐτούς ἐργασάμενος, ἑνός δέ μόνου καταφρονήσας καί αὐτόν παριδών, ὡς Χριστόν τόν Θεόν πεινῶντα καίδιψῶντα παριδών καί αὐτός λογισθήσεται.

99. Φορτικά ταῦτα τοῖς πᾶσιν ἴσως φανήσεται, διό καί δόξουσιν εὔλογα λέγειν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς˙ «Τίς ἆρα ταῦτα πάντα ποιῆσαι δύναται, ὥστε πάντας θεραπεῦσαι καί θρέψαι καί μηδόλως τούτων τινά παριδεῖν;». Ἀλλ᾿ ἀκουέτωσαν Παύλου διαρρήδην βοῶντος˙ «Ἡ γάρ ἀγάπη τοῦ Χριστοῦ συνέχει ἡμᾶς, κρίναντας τοῦτο, ὅτι εἰ εἷς ὑπέρ πάντων ἀπέθανεν, ἄρα οἱ πάντες ἀπέθανον».

ρ'. Καθάπερ αἱ περιεκτικαί ἐντολαί συμπεριέχουσι πάσας ἐν ἑαυταῖς τάς μερικάς ἐντολάς, οὕτω καί αἱ περιεκτικαί ἀρεταί τάς μερικάς ἐν ἑαυταῖς συμπεριλαμβάνουσιν ἀρετάς. Ὁ γάρ πωλῶν τά ὑπάρχοντα αὐτοῦ ἤ καί διασκορπίζων αὐτά τοῖς πτωχοῖς καί πένης ἐφ᾿ ἅπαξ γενόμενος πάντα ὑφ᾿ ἕν τά τῶν μερικῶν ἐντολῶν ἐξεπλήρωσεν˙ οὐκέτι γάρ χρείαν ἔχει τῷ αἰτοῦντι διδόναι ἤ μή ἀποστραφῆναι τόν θέλοντα δανείσασθαι ἀπ᾿ αὐτοῦ. Οὕτω καί ὁ ἀδιαλείπτως εὐχόμενος ἐν τούτῳ πάντα συνέκλεισε καί οὐκέτι ἑπτάκις αἰνεῖν τῆς ἡμέρας τόν