Almsgiving: Imitate the Earth

Here is a thought as we enter Lent, the season of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving:

Imitate the earth: bear fruit as it does, and do not be inferior to what is less than human. The earth bears fruit not for itself but for you. But when you do good, you gather for yourselves, since good works reward their doers. Give to the hungry; what you give becomes yours and returns to you with interest. As wheat thrown to the ground profits the sower, so bread given to the poor yields you a reward. "Sow uprightness for yourselves."

Like it or not, you must leave your wealth behind you, but the glory dervied from good works you take with you to the Lord. Before our common Judge, the multitude you have fed will call you their benefactor and praise you for humaneness and kindness. Just look at how people throw fortunes away on sports and on the theater in order to win the ephemeral praise and applause of the mob! Are you going to stingy, then, when such genuine glory is your reward?

—St. Basil the Great, Sermon on Charity (as printed in Benedictine Daily Prayer)