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| There are Many Kinds of Alms, the Giving of Which Assists to Procure Pardon for Our Sins.
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Chapter 72.—There are Many Kinds of Alms, the Giving
of Which Assists to Procure Pardon for Our Sins.
And on this principle of
interpretation, our Lord’s saying, “Give alms of such things as
ye have, and, behold, all things are clean unto you,”1232
applies to
every useful act that a man does in mercy. Not only, then, the man
who gives food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothing to the
naked, hospitality to the stranger, shelter to the fugitive, who
visits the sick and the imprisoned, ransoms the captive, assists
the weak, leads the blind, comforts the sorrowful, heals the sick,
puts the wanderer on the right path, gives advice to the perplexed,
and supplies the wants of the needy,—not this man only, but the
man who pardons the sinner also gives alms; and the man who
corrects with blows, or restrains by any kind of discipline one
over whom he has power, and who at the same time forgives from the
heart the sin by which he was injured, or prays that it may be
forgiven, is also a giver of alms, not only in that he forgives, or
prays for forgiveness for the sin, but also in that he rebukes and
corrects the sinner: for in this, too, he shows mercy. Now much
good is bestowed upon unwilling recipients, when their advantage
and not their pleasure is consulted; and they themselves
frequently prove to be their own enemies, while their
true friends are those whom they take for their enemies, and to
whom in their blindness they return evil for good. (A Christian,
indeed, is not permitted to return evil even for evil.1233
) And thus
there are many kinds of alms, by giving of which we assist to
procure the pardon of our sins.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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