15. Неосновательность отговорок от подаяния милостыни, и добрые мысли, побуждающие творить ее

“Give to everyone who asks you” (Luke 6:30), the Lord commands, as you have heard in today’s Gospel. This is one of the very first commandments in Christianity. Both the Lord and the holy Apostles often remind us of it and, in order to incite us to fulfill it more zealously, they protected it with the most touching promptings and the most amazing threats. - Everyone knows this, and everyone in his conscience considers it necessary to help everyone in need. Meanwhile, if we reconsider our affairs more strictly, we will not find, perhaps, a single task that we would carry out with less attention, as it is obligatory for us to help those in need, we help somehow, just to get rid of the annoying petitioner, and sometimes we completely refuse, and for the most part, our conscience remains calm, silent and does not accuse us of not helping. We don’t help as much as we should. - Yes, this happens! - The question arises, what would be the reason for this? The reason, I believe, is that our sinful soul internalizes prejudiced concepts about poverty and the poor, which come to mind when it is necessary to provide help, and upset our good intentions to the point that not only does our conscience not accuse us of refusal or weak assistance, but on the contrary, we think that we did better by getting rid of the applicant with nothing or so easily. What did stinginess and self-interest not come up with to justify their coldness and cruelty towards those in need! - The falsity of petitions, the idleness of petitioners, their own shortcomings, difficult times, the need to stock up for a rainy day, and so on. – All these thoughts circulate among those who are not attentive to their duty in speeches and sayings, and also come to those who are attentive and are often led astray from the right path of action. Do you want to give freedom and scope to compassion and not allow it to be clouded by lies, let’s destroy these prejudiced thoughts and restore sound Christian concepts about giving to the needy. By establishing them in our minds and clearly contemplating them, especially during the very act of helping, we will raise the replenishment of this debt to such perfection, for the sake of which everyone can once hear: good servant and faithful! “Let us do this now, so that one day we will forever establish ourselves in the right, rejecting the wrong.” The thought comes to mind when it comes to helping, first of all: does the person asking need it? – who knows? - He’s used to it, and asks: but perhaps he has no need. The following thought comes: we believe it, and we refuse or help weakly. – But is it fair to do this? – It happens, of course, just as it comes to our minds. But do we know for sure that the person before us definitely belongs to this class of pretending beggars? And if we don’t know, why suspect and, especially, refuse based on suspicion alone? In fact, it may be a mother who left hungry children at home, or a father of a family whose wife is sick and whose children are naked, or orphans - the eldest of the homeless and helpless orphans, and the like. – Of course, you won’t refuse such people. Look at everyone this way the first time, and do not offend unknown people with suspicion. What if someone in need, whose heart is already heavy, reads our suspicion in our eyes? This, of course, will increase his sorrow and burden, and instead of consolation, he will leave us with greater sorrow. Is this good? The fact that his eyes are not cloudy, his face is not distorted, his step is firm and his clothes are not in patches - these are the last remnants of both his patience and prosperity. Do you want to be the reason for him to go to the last extreme, which will begin, perhaps, immediately after your refusal? And does the Savior’s commandment only want to cover those who have nowhere to go, who have neither shelter, nor food, nor clothing, nor strength? No. – There is no need for a special commandment to help this kind of people. - He says: “Give to everyone who asks you” (Matthew 5:42). - You will give, just make it a law for yourself not to suspect the person asking, not to paint behind him a picture of supposed contentment, but rather a picture of extreme need and sorrow that really oppresses him. Then the heart itself will not give you peace until you ease his fate. - Nowadays there is a lot of suspicion spread to the poor. But for all these presentations one can make one decision: make sure who exactly is asking not out of need or not for need, and do not let such a person refuse everyone just because there are false petitioners, it is a sin. – Saint John the Merciful did not do that. He did not refuse even those about whom it was known that they were not poor, and when they informed him of this in advance, he answered: it is true that at this time they are in extreme need. Sometimes we turn to ourselves from the petitioner and say, where can I get it? “It’s barely enough for my needs.” We're having a hard time making ends meet! - When there is nothing to give from, who obliges? One must give from excess, just as the Apostle explains the law of giving, saying: “Diligence is due, it is good for someone to eat according to what he has, and not because he does not have. For it is not joy for others, but for you sorrow” (2 Cor. 8:12-13). – But is it true that we have nothing left to satisfy our needs? - Besides, is it reasonable for us to determine what we should consider our needs? – Need is something that can be reduced and expanded. – Eliminate spending on what is considered necessary by habit, whim, vanity, the empty demands of the world and all passions: how much will be left for the benefit of those in need?! – Even if these unnecessary needs do not exist; once you want, and from the most essential need - from food and clothing and other needs, prudence will always be able to separate a part of Christ - as indeed it can: for needs dissuade them from giving alms only to the almost stingy and wasteful peace-loving people. They also sometimes say: Why are they wandering around idly? - they would work and get their daily bread. - The most fair demand! – And the Apostle commands us to work, working with our own hands, so that we not only satisfy our own needs, but also have something to give to those who need them (Eph. 4:28). But, dissuading ourselves from giving alms with this pretext, are we convinced that the person asking can work? – Where should the old, the small and the weak work? - But even if someone else can work, does he have a job? Some people would be ready to work, but there is nothing to put their hands to. In the parable of the workers, one part of them is up to the 11th hour, i.e. almost until nightfall, I had no work because no one was hiring. But even if someone has a job, is it such that it will provide for all needs? How often they work day and night, and everyone is tormented by needs, especially when one works for many! - So, the point is to say: work, - and who will agree to feed on idleness? But arrange in advance so that the one who asks through labor feeds himself and others whom he is obliged to feed, and then refuse him, and without this, refusing means the same as leaving him to die of hunger. What else don’t they say to apologize for their inflexibility and hardness of heart?! – One says: difficult times, why think about others, at least feed yourself. Other: you need it; you need to save money for a rainy day. Third: Am I alone? there is more than me, they will serve it. Fourth: I give whatever falls into the hands of anyone who asks, and so on. – But think carefully about how much truth there is in all this?! These are difficult times, he says, and he refuses. - But if they are difficult for those who are sufficient, how much more difficult are they for the poor?! Therefore, on this pretext, alms should not be stopped, but rather increased. It is necessary, he says, to save for a rainy day. Let it be; but surely there should be a measure for this? Otherwise, our imagined future needs will never allow us to help the poor with their actual present needs. Moreover, does the future depend on our foresight, or on the arrangement of God’s Providence? Of course, from Providence. So attract the mercy of God to yourself by your mercy towards those in need, and you will have a sure guarantee of prosperity in the future. It seems that we will not find an example of any house going bankrupt from generosity to the poor, and empty extravagance has sent many around the world. “Another one, he says, will give it,” and sends the requester away. - Will someone else give it to me? And if he also says: another will give, and then a third, and a fourth, etc., it will be the same as leaving the poor man to his fate. No. The Lord sent you this poor man, you help him. Don’t miss an opportunity that may not happen again - after all, I give, you say what will happen and who will have to. - It’s good at least that. – But does this mean filing across the entire breadth of the debt and to the fullest extent possible? – Does this mean turning all your attention and zeal to this holy cause? – And isn’t this negligence the reason that alms fall into the wrong hands and are not used properly?! - You give it to whoever has to. Who will help those whom shame keeps at home and who in silence, perhaps, endure more than their crying need? - No, true Christian compassion cannot be satisfied with this. “It itself hurries to places of poverty in order to touch its wounds with its own hands and immediately apply the necessary healing plaster. That's how many evil thoughts the enemy has come up with to distract good people from giving alms. – We admit that, to a greater or lesser extent, we have all been carried away by them at times. But together let us decide in our hearts not to succumb to them anymore. For if they are so weak before our simple reasoning, how can they withstand the judgment of God’s truth, which sees everything - both in deeds and in the feelings of the heart to its last secrets. – This is not how the Christian meaning and the Christian heart should look at poverty and the poor. True Christians accept the mind of Christ to judge everything and carry the law of their God in their hearts as a guide for their actions. The poor and all those in need - for them it is the lesser brethren of Christ, or Christ Himself, approaching us through them and appropriating to Himself everything shown to them - these are the mercy and blessing of God walking among us! By making them participants in our property with a small alms, we sanctify everything else through this and retain for ourselves the title of one worthy, according to God’s intention, of possessing it - the Lord is the Lord of us and of all ours. - Blessing us with abundance, He gives it to us, like the grapes to the laborers in the parable, with the condition that we deliver its fruits to him in due time. The poor are the servants of the Lord the Householder, whom He sends to us to receive the fruits of our property. What is given through their hands ascends to the Lord; but in such a way that, according to the law of His mercy, it will be returned to us again in the form of eternal rest, created from it by the righteousness of God. - Therefore, the poor are the workers of the monastery for us in heaven - our trustees, who are trusted to establish everything there in such completeness that it would be enough for all eternity! - Blessed are you! – Let us be confirmed, brothers, in these good thoughts; and we will reject those who are corrupt. Then our heart will in no way allow us to violate God’s commandment: give to everyone who asks you, and will always urge us to be merciful, brotherly lovers, compassionate (1 Pet. 3:8), clothed with compassion and goodness (Col. 3:12), and zealous to be merciful, as our heavenly Father is merciful. Amen. On the 19th week after Pentecost. You might be interested in: