Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews

But they perform needful services for you. What are these? Do they serve you well? Suppose then I show that this [poor man] too performs needful services for you far greater than they do. For he will stand by you in the Day of judgment, and will deliver you from the fire. What do all your slaves do like this? When Tabitha died, who raised her up? The slaves who stood around or the poor? But you are not even willing to put the free-man on an equality with your slaves. The frost is hard, and the poor man is cast out in rags, nearly dead, with his teeth chattering, both by his looks and his air fitted to move you: and thou passes by, warm and full of drink; and how do you expect that God should deliver you when in misfortune?

And oftentimes you say this too: 'If it had been myself, and I had found one that had done many wrong things, I would have forgiven him; and does not God forgive?' Say not this. Him that has done you no wrong, whom you are able to deliver, him you neglect. How shall He forgive you, who art sinning against Him? Is not this deserving of hell?

And how amazing! Oftentimes you adorn with vestments innumerable, of varied colors and wrought with gold, a dead body, insensible, no longer perceiving the honor; while that which is in pain, and lamenting, and tormented, and racked by hunger and frost, you neglect, and givest more to vainglory, than to the fear of God.

8. And would that it stopped here; but immediately accusations are brought against the applicant. For why does he not work (you say)? And why is he to be maintained in idleness? But (tell me) is it by working that you have what you have, did you not receive it as an inheritance from your fathers? And even if you dost work, is this a reason why you should reproach another? Do you not hear what Paul says? For after saying, “He that works not, neither let him eat”, he says, “But ye be not weary in well doing.”

But what say they? He is an impostor. What do you say, O man? Callest thou him an impostor, for the sake of a single loaf or of a garment? But (you say) he will sell it immediately. And do you manage all your affairs well? But what? Are all poor through idleness? Is no one so from shipwreck? None from lawsuits? None from being robbed? None from dangers? None from illness? None from any other difficulties? If however we hear any one bewailing such evils, and crying out aloud, and looking up naked toward heaven, and with long hair, and clad in rags, at once we call him, The impostor! The deceiver! The swindler! Are you not ashamed? Whom do you call impostor? Give nothing, and do not accuse the man.

But (you say) he has means, and pretends. This is a charge against yourself, not against him. He knows that he has to deal with the cruel, with wild beasts rather than with men, and that, even if he utter a pitiable story, he attracts no one's attention: and on this account he is forced to assume also a more miserable guise, that he may melt your soul. If we see a person coming to beg in a respectable dress, This is an impostor (you say), and he comes in this way that he may be supposed to be of good birth. If we see one in the contrary guise, him too we reproach. What then are they to do? O the cruelty, O the inhumanity!

And why (you say) do they expose their maimed limbs? Because of you. If we were compassionate, they would have no need of these artifices: if they persuaded us at the first application, they would not have contrived these devices. Who is there so wretched, as to be willing to cry out so much, as to be willing to behave in an unseemly way, as to be willing to make public lamentations, with his wife destitute of clothing, with his children, to sprinkle ashes on [himself]. How much worse than poverty are these things? Yet on account of them not only are they not pitied, but are even accused by us.

9. Shall we then still be indignant, because when we pray to God, we are not heard? Shall we then still be vexed, because when we entreat we do not persuade? Do we not tremble for fear, my beloved?

But (you say) I have often given. But do you not always eat? And do you drive away your children often begging of you? O the shamelessness! Do you call a poor man shameless? And thou indeed art not shameless when plundering, but he is shameless when begging for bread! Considerest thou not how great are the necessities of the belly? Do you not do all things for this? Do you not for this neglect things spiritual? Is not heaven set before you and the kingdom of heaven? And thou fearing the tyranny of that [appetite] endurest all things, and thinkest lightly of that [kingdom]. This is shamelessness.

Do you see not old men maimed? But O what trifling! 'Such an one' (you say) 'lends out so many pieces of gold, and such an one so many, and yet begs.' You repeat the stories and trifles of children; for they too are always hearing such stories from their nurses. I am not persuaded of it. I do not believe this. Far from it. Does a man lend money, and beg when he has abundance? For what purpose, tell me? And what is more disgraceful than begging? It were better to die than to beg. Where does our inhumanity stop? What then? Do all lend money? Are all impostors? Is there no one really poor? “Yea” (you say) “and many.” Why then do you not assist those persons, seeing you are a strict enquirer into their lives? This is an excuse and a pretense.

“Give to every one that asks of you, and from him that would borrow of you turn not thou away.” Stretch out your hand, let it not be closed up. We have not been constituted examiners into men's lives, since so we should have compassion on no one. When you call upon God why do you say, Remember not my sins? So then, if that person even be a great sinner, make this allowance in his case also, and do not remember his sins. It is the season of kindness, not of strict enquiry; of mercy, not of account. He wishes to be maintained: if you are willing, give; but if not willing, send him away without raising doubts. Why are you wretched and miserable? Why do you not even yourself pity him, and also turnest away those who would? For when such an one hears from you, This [fellow] is a cheat; that a hypocrite; and the other lends out money; he neither gives to the one nor to the other; for he suspects all to be such. For you know that we easily suspect evil, but good, not [so easily].

10. Let us “be merciful,” not simply so, but “as our heavenly Father is.” He feeds even adulterers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and what shall I say? Those having every kind of wickedness. For in so large a world there must needs be many such. But nevertheless He feeds all; He clothes all. No one ever perished of hunger, unless one did so of his own choice. So let us be merciful. If one be in want and in necessity, help him.

But now we have come to such a degree of unreasonableness, as to act thus not only in regard to the poor who walk up and down the alleys, but even in the case of men that live in [religious] solitude. Such an one is an impostor, you say. Did I not say this at first, that if we give to all indiscriminately, we shall always be compassionate; but if we begin to make over-curious enquiries, we shall never be compassionate? What do you mean? Is a man an impostor in order to get a loaf? If indeed he asks for talents of gold and silver, or costly clothes, or slaves, or anything else of this sort, one might with good reason call him a swindler. But if he ask none of these things, but only food and shelter, things which are suited to a philosophic life, tell me, is this the part of a swindler? Cease we from this unseasonable fondness for meddling, which is Satanic, which is destructive.