De arte praedicatoria

Break your bread to the hungry, and bring the needy and the wanderer into your house.¹ And elsewhere: Give alms, and all things are clean to you.² Likewise: Give to everyone who asks of you.³ Likewise: Blessed is he who anticipates the hand of the perishing. Likewise: If you see someone perishing from hunger and do not help him, you have killed him.

O man, almsgiving is the seasoning of fasting, the ornament of prayer, the honor of vigils, the mark of generosity, a special remedy for sin. Christ invites you to this, giving away everything by the example of the poor, and preaching works of mercy by his word. Do not excuse yourself from this by any poverty. If you cannot give money, give a piece of bread; if you cannot manage even that, at least a drink of cold water. If you cannot help your neighbor by deed, help by word, either by interceding for him, or by instructing him. For almsgiving is manifold: by hand, giving generously to the poor; by office, ministering to the one giving; by tongue, instructing one's neighbor, or interceding for him; by soul, sympathizing with the sinner, or forgiving injuries. There are certain almsgivings that are ordered, and certain that are disordered. The ordered are those shaped by their proper circumstances; the disordered are those deprived of them. These are the circumstances of almsgiving: Who, what, how much, to whom, where, when, why. Who: whether he be rich or poor, for the alms of the poor man is more pleasing than that of the rich. Hence the Lord says in the Gospel⁴ that the poor woman who put two small coins into the treasury gave more than the rich who had put in large sums. By who, it is also understood whether the giver is righteous or unrighteous. For if a righteous man gives alms, it avails for both punishment and reward; but if an unrighteous man gives alms, it avails him for the avoidance of punishment, not for the merit of glory. By what, it is suggested that alms ought to be given from one's own property, not from another's. For alms are not rightly given from theft or plunder; for as the authority says: "To give alms from the substance of the poor is to slay a son before his father's eyes."⁵ By how much, it is shown that not everything should be given to one person, but that several things should be distributed in portions to several people. By to whom, it is suggested that alms should be given rather to the poor than to the rich, rather to a relative or kinsman than to a stranger, rather to those of the household of the faith than to the perverse. Hence, to indicate how much and to whom, it is said: He has scattered abroad, he has given to the poor,⁶ namely, in the open, for the instruction of others, yet far removed from all human praise. Hence the Lord says: Let your works so shine before men, that they may glorify your Father who is in heaven.⁷ When: in a time of need. Why: with regard to God, not for earthly gain, or human favor. Almsgiving is the heavenly dew, extinguishing the furnace of sin; it alone pleads before God, it alone will plead for you before the strict judge. For what will the blessed be praised by Christ in the judgment? That they kept silence? No. That they were continent? By no means. That they devoted themselves to vigils? Not at all, but because they applied themselves to almsgiving.

Almsgiving bears a resemblance to oil, fasting to light. For just as light is extinguished when oil is withdrawn, so fasting without almsgiving is deprived of the power of merit. Whoever denies alms to one in need goes against that special and natural precept by which it is said, that whatever you wish men to do to you, do also to them.⁸

There is a threefold almsgiving: cold, lukewarm, and hot. Cold is that which is not done from the instinct of natural piety or the fervor of charity, but only from human favor; lukewarm is that which is done from the instinct of natural piety, as that which is done for unbelievers, from a natural feeling; hot is that which is done from the heat of charity. The first deserves punishment, the second avoids it, the third obtains glory. Alms ought to be given not only from what is superfluous, but also from what is necessary. Hence it is said: He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none.⁹ He names a tunic, not a cloak, because a tunic is more necessary; to suggest that we are bound to give not only what is superfluous, but also what is necessary. This was clear in the blessed confessor Martin, who, in the harshness of the season, gave to a poor man part of the cloak with which he alone was clothed. There are some who give to the poor what would scarcely be fit for pigs, thinking to redeem their sins by it; and this is like a blasphemy against God, to honor the unworthy as saints, and to offer to heavenly pearls what should be trampled by pigs.