14. О милостыне, – что она сеятва, и что чем больше кто посевает ее, тем больше пожнет

“If you sow with poverty, you will also reap with poverty; and if you sow with a blessing, you will also reap with a blessing” (2 Cor. 9:6). So says St. The Apostle speaks of alms, by comparing it with sowing, wanting to incline us to willing and abundant generosity, so that about each of us one could say in the words of the psalm about the righteous: “spread, give to the poor” (ibid., v. 9). Not much higher than these words, the Apostle wrote to the Corinthians: about service to the saints - i.e. It is unnecessary to write to you about alms to help poor Christians; for I know your zeal (ibid., vv. 1-2). The same can be said to everyone: there is nothing to say about the duty to help the poor. Everyone is aware of it, and everyone within himself is an intercessor for the poor, in the compassion for the needy that is akin to ours. And the poor know about this duty of all and this need of the heart: that is why they boldly turn to everyone, in the confidence that those who have wealth will not refuse to help them with their excesses. What is often missing? – There is often a lack of good disposition with which almsgiving and non-giving should be surrounded and protected. They serve, but not as much as they should; they give, but sometimes not quite willingly, with a compressed heart, as if from sorrow and need, they give, that is, not generously and not cordially. Why does the hand contract and the heart shrink? - From wrong thoughts that lead our heart astray from the right path in a moment of alms-giving. The minute they ask for alms, the heart rushes to alms and immediately prescribes the measure and method of charity. But at the same time, the enemy also comes, instills unkind thoughts and upsets the whole thing, so that not everyone gives what they want in their hearts. “You have many needs, and the enemy suggests whether alms will be of any use.” We believe, and the alms given are already meager, and not with pleasure. In order to direct our hearts to what is proper and give us the strength to prevent the attacks of evil thoughts during almsgiving, the Apostle urges us to look at almsgiving as nothing other than sowing: for as he who sows generously and willingly scatters seeds; We too will give alms so generously and willingly if we are convinced that in giving it we are doing nothing more than sowing. The sower, by wasting seeds on sowing, does not think that by doing so he is depleting himself, undermining his wealth and depriving himself of the opportunity to satisfy his needs. On the contrary, by sowing, he hopes to get rich, expand his methods and stop his needs. So - this alms, without giving in to the thought that by letting go of a coin from your hands or giving away an item, you are depriving yourself of something. You do not spend, but you acquire; you do not diminish, but you multiply; you do not give, but you receive. When a sower throws seeds into the ground, it does not even occur to him that he is throwing them in vain, to no avail, to no use. On the contrary, I am confident that the earth will not only preserve the seeds entrusted to it, but will also bear fruit from them in the amount of 100, 60 or 30. So, give generously to this alms, believing that the hands of the poor are the most faithful guardians of your surplus and the richest and richest soils, on which the small sowing of your goodness will bear abundant fruit in its time. He who sows, no matter how much he sows, does not grieve or grieve; on the contrary, the more he sows, the more trustworthy and cheerful he is: so, the more you rejoice and rejoice, the more abundant your almsgiving and the wider the circle of your beneficence. One day the Rewarder will lead you to the field of your life fertilized, sown and fertilized by charity and will rejoice your heart with the testimony of the multiplied life of your righteousness! Of course, it is difficult for us to come to terms with the idea, and even more so to reach the heartfelt conviction that in giving alms, we, by spending, multiply and, by spending, we gain; but it is so, if not always in relation to the temporal, then always in relation to the eternal. The Lord, condescending to our weakness, repeatedly demonstrated this very deed in the lives of various benefactors. Remember the life of St. righteous Philaret the merciful. How diligently, generously and with what patience he sowed alms! And what abundant fruit did his sowing bear when his grandson Mary became the king’s wife. It was as if the words of the Apostle had come true here: sow a blessing, and a blessing you will reap. Here's another example! A certain youth, Clement, generously distributed bread to the needy, despite the poor means of his teacher, and pure wheat flour never ran out in her house. Monastery of St. During times of famine and drought, Theodosius of Palestine fed all the surrounding residents and all those who came, and the granaries were always full, even when they did not expect to find grain in them. What multiplied a handful of flour and a swagger of oil from the widow who received the Prophet Elijah? - Her Grace. Why did the methods of Abraham, Job, and Tobiah not deplete, but grow? Because they were gracious. Why are there families today that have not stopped since time immemorial and live in contentment, passing it on from generation to generation? - Because they do not live for themselves alone, but consider it their duty to always share their excesses with all those in need. This is how it should be. For only those who are gracious fall into the path of God’s Providence, which, while providing for some and leaving others in poverty, wants the abundance of some to reward the deprivation of others, “so that there may be equality,” as the Apostle teaches (2 Cor. 8:14). But these fruits of alms are not always revealed by the Lord in time, and one should not cling to them with hope; for “if in this life we ​​put our trust in Christ, we are the most wretched of all men” (1 Cor. 15:19), teaches the Apostle. As for the future, there is no more reliable way to prepare for yourself a peaceful abode in heaven than alms. Sow here and you will certainly reap there. “Make for yourselves friends from mammon of unrighteousness, so that when you become poor, you will be received into eternal shelters” (Luke 16:9), says the Lord, i.e. when you give alms, you will undoubtedly find eternal shelter for yourself. And this relationship between the temporal and the eternal in alms is so quick and direct that every merciful act immediately responds in the structure of the eternal order of things. “So a certain Peter the baker, a hard-hearted man, never gave alms. One day one of the poor people bothered him very much. Wanting to get rid of the pester, he threw bread at him with displeasure, and that same night he had a dream: as if he was standing in court, where his cases were being weighed; on one side of the scales there were all his wrong deeds, and on the other there was only bread, which pulled, but could not overcome the burden of Peter’s sins. - And a voice came to him: Go Peter and through the hands of the poor more bread came here, so that they will be strong to overcome all your bad deeds. “Do you see how quickly the baker’s work resonated in heaven? – Another similar case was in Alexandria. There lived a certain alms-giver. He had an acquaintance who was rich, but unyielding to the requests of the poor, and he was very sorry for him. And this is what he intended to make him a partaker of the blessings brought by charity. He comes to him and says: on occasion, precious things are sold very cheaply. I would buy it, but I have no money. Lend it to me and I'll buy it. When I buy them, I’ll show you, and if you like them, you can take them for yourself, and if you don’t like them, I’ll take them for myself and pay you the money. He happily agreed and gave a large amount of money. Having received the money, the alms-giver began to rely on the poor, gathered the sick, crippled, orphans and calmed everyone down. Some time passed, his friend began to ask him about the purchase. He, having made an excuse two or three times that he had not yet settled everything about the purchase, or had not brought the things to him, or had not laid them out, finally said: go, I’ll show you, and brought him to his establishment. He takes him to the rooms of various people in his sights, and calls them precious stones: here are margaritas, here are emeralds, here are yachts, and so on. When everything has been examined, he turns to his stingy friend and says: well, do you like it? He, in annoyance and embarrassment, did not want to say a word and could not even utter it. “Why be angry and annoyed,” the merciful man says to him? Didn’t I tell you that if you don’t like the jewelry, I’ll take it for myself and give you the money? - Here's your receipt! Just give me a receipt that you are handing over to me everything that the Lord prepared for you if you took it upon yourself. He willingly took the receipt and gave his own, just to keep the money, and hurried home. - At night he sees a dream: they take him through the heavenly abodes and say: this is the abode of so-and-so, this is so-and-so; They finally led him into one - so bright and bright that he didn’t want to leave. Someone said: this is the abode of so-and-so, calling him by name. Hearing this, he forgot himself with joy. But immediately another voice was heard: no, now it’s not his. He sold this monastery to so and so, calling the alms seller. - Here is the receipt; but this one is not even worth looking at. Throw him out. “The servants came and kicked me out.” - Having woken up, he immediately sent for his friend the merciful man, told him everything and, having ascertained from him that the Lord would again return the monastery shown to him, destroyed the receipt and indulged in charity work together with the one who brought him to his senses. You see how quickly deeds of beneficence or non-benefit are reflected in heaven, precisely in the order of the eternal arrangement of our fate. Therefore it is so that almsgiving is the greatest virtue, the most valuable to God and closest to His throne. – St. Gregory the Theologian, listing many virtues and highly appreciating each one, adds that the highest of them all is love, and of the works of love, the highest of all is active compassion and help to those in need. Why, in the description of the Last Judgment, the Lord remembers only the fulfillment or non-fulfillment of this one virtue, not so that others have no value, but because as soon as it exists, then all the others exist, and as soon as it does not exist, it is difficult for other virtues to have a place in the heart. She is the queen of all, the true vicegerent and representative of the Divine on earth. “And that is why all good works are responded to in heaven so quickly, that the Lord is pleased to appropriate all alms, as if they were going straight into His hands.” “Because,” he says, “you have created one and the same for me, the least of these brothers of mine, that is, the poor” (Matthew 25:40). You fed the hungry, and the Lord says that it was you who fed Him Himself; You clothed the naked, but the Lord says that it was you who clothed Him; you visited a sick person, and the Lord says that it was you who visited Him; and the Lord considers every benefit to those in need to be a benefit to Himself. This is how He certifies with His Divine word, and this is how He will declare it before the whole world at His judgment! But He repeatedly showed this here to His faithful ones, as, for example: to the young man who saw the Savior from behind the shoulders of the poor man accepting alms, or to that good worker who, having met a poor man on the way, shaking from the cold, gave him his outer clothing, which the Lord later showed on Himself as light and shiny. - May your zeal, alms-givers, be revived by this! The same hand that receives will also reward. But this is a hand that cannot be scanty in reward, unless your hands are scanty in distribution. I am going to prepare a place for you, said the Lord. Place in His hands more generously what to prepare from, and the more generously you offer, the brighter, more spacious and more decorated your monastery will be. With all that I have said, I wanted to bring to you the idea that by giving alms, we sow; - You will learn a lesson from here for yourself. Sow generously so that you may reap a generous harvest; For if you sow sparingly, you will also reap a scanty harvest. May the Lord help us all to set our hearts in such a way and to arrange our deeds in such a way that the great promises of God, given to generous and willing givers of alms, will not pass us by - both in this century, and even more so in the future. Amen. On the 18th week after Pentecost. You might be interested in: