What is our motive for giving?

The answer

We give to the needy neither out of justice nor the human sense of compassion, but because the believer sees the person of the Lord Christ in the poor. St. Gregory of Nazianzus says, “Do not belittle such people by rejecting them, and do not think that they are without value. Think about them. Consider again their lives, and you will see that they are people who deserve dignity, for most of them bear in themselves the person of the Savior.”

“If, then, you place any credence in what I say, servants of Christ and brothers and fellow heirs (Rom. 8:17; Eph. 3:6), while we may, let us visit Christ, let us heal Christ, let us feed Christ, let us clothe Christ, let us welcome Christ (Matt. 25:35), let us honor Christ, not with food alone, like some (Luke 7:36), nor with ointments, like Mary (John 12:3); nor with tomb alone, like Joseph of Arimathea; nor with obsequies, like Nicodemus (John 19:38–39), who loved Christ in half measure; nor with gold and frankincense and myrrh as the Magi (Matt. 2:11) did before these others. Rather, since the Lord of all will have mercy, and not sacrifice (Matt. 9:13) and since a kind heart is worth more than myriads of fat sheep (Deut. 3:39 LXX), this let us offer to him through the poor who are today downtrodden, so that when we depart this world they may receive us into the eternal habitations (Luke 16:9) in Christ himself, our Lord, to whom be the glory forever. Amen.”¹¹²⁸

St. John Chrysostom says, “Because he is a poor man, feed him; because so Christ is fed.”¹¹²⁹ St. Cyprian of Carthage says, “Wherefore now also the captivity of our brethren must be reckoned as our captivity … Christ is to be contemplated in our captive brethren.”¹¹³⁰ And St. Augustine says, “Christ is hungered, here He is thirsty, is naked, is a stranger, is sick, is in prison. For whatsoever His Body suffers here, He has said that Himself suffers.”¹¹³¹

Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty