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Good intentions to the poor


Sat­ur­day. [Rom. 12:1-3; Matt. 10:37-11:1] He that re­ceiv­eth a proph­et in the name of a proph­et shall re­ceive a proph­et’s re­ward; and he that re­ceiv­eth a righ­teous man in the name of a righ­teous man shall re­ceive a righ­teous man’s re­ward. With this all un­cer­tain­ties con­cern­ing the giv­ing of alms are re­solved. Good in­ten­tions for the poor are al­most al­ways if not sup­press­ed, then sig­nif­i­cant­ly di­min­ished by the ques­tions, “Who is beg­ging,” and, “Where are the alms go­ing?” The Lord says to those who ask these ques­tions: Your re­ward is de­ter­mined ac­cord­ing to how you re­ceive the beg­gar and help him. Do not look at the one who is ask­ing, but at your thoughts. The val­ue of your deed will be com­men­su­rate to your thoughts. The right thoughts to have a­bout a poor per­son can be de­fined this way: He who has mer­cy on the poor is lend­ing to God; or Inasmuch as ye have done it un­to one of the least of these my breth­ren, ye have done it un­to me (Mt. 25:40). Thus, re­ceive ev­ery­one in need as you would the Lord, do what you can for Him with the thought that you are do­ing it for God, and you will re­ceive the re­ward not on­ly of a proph­et and a righ­teous man, but of the Lord.


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