What is our special orientation to almsgiving in the Christian life?

 This gospel passage from Saint Luke reminds us about the importance of almsgiving in our everyday Christian life. Actually, a very important facet of our inheritance from Judaism is the special orientation to works of almsgiving, which does not exist in other traditions and religions. In the Christian life, the donor receives profit from giving alms to the poor, and the poor show kindness to the donors by allowing them to expiate their sins. According to this interpretation, the poor person is a benefactor of the rich man, because, according to the teaching of the Lord Jesus, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” We see examples throughout Sacred Scripture of the very great rewards, which come from the practice of almsgiving, and we should study a few of the passages to better understand the biblical teaching regarding this very important virtue.

Where do we find examples of this attitude in Holy Scripture? What do the Scriptures teach us about almsgiving?

First, in agriculture, the Lord God commanded a double protection for the poor persons in the community. God commanded that, in each seventh year, the Israelites ought to give the fields a rest, neither sowing, nor reaping, but allowing to the poor that, which grew without cultivation. Further, each year, God also commanded the people not to gather the harvest all the way to the limits of their fields, but to leave the edges for the poor. These commandments of God form the context of the dramatic story of the Book of Ruth, because Ruth, the great-grandmother of King David, was a poor woman, who gathered a small harvest from the edges of Boaz’s field.

According to the moral sense of Holy Scripture, a field is the symbol of all livelihoods.  So, the meaning of these passages of Scripture is that God challenges each of us to distribute something from our livelihood for the support of the poor. But, further He says to us that our almsgiving becomes a blessing for us, just as Boaz was blessed because his kindness to poor Ruth. The blessing is proportionate to the gift. If the gift to the poor is great, the blessing is also great. In a similar way, the Lord Jesus tells us about love. Forgiveness of sins is abundant to those, who love greatly. Remembering this, we put almsgiving in the right perspective: almsgiving is an expression of love for Christ.

How great should my almsgiving be?

In a certain sense, to ask how great our almsgiving should be is a nonsensical question, since we do not ask how much we should love. Nevertheless, our almsgiving has to be governed by the virtue of prudence. Through the practice of this virtue, each of us determines the measure of his almsgiving. That measure should be such that it does not harm our obligations according to our state of life. Nevertheless, it should be sacrificial. Almsgiving should be a gift, but not a thoughtless gift, since an act of love can never be thoughtless.