In the quoted words of the Gospel, the Lord establishes an exclusively religious meaning of almsgiving. It has to do only with God; it must be made only before Him, before His eyes, as a sacrifice for His glory. We now have the usual view that charity is a matter of humanity, that it should have an intrinsic relation only to man or to society. When we give alms, we look at it in such a way that we are doing good to a person, doing good to him. When we donate to some public cause, we think that we are doing good to society... At the same time, the thought of God, if we have one, occupies a secondary place. That is why it is natural that we look at how our good is reflected in the consciousness of those for whom we have done it. We put a coin in the hands of the beggar — and see if he is grateful to us; We have donated money to the Society – and we expect its gratitude. Talk about our generosity, articles in the newspapers about it — all this, quite understandably, is required by us, as a necessary consequence of our good deed, if we do it only for the sake of man. We have thrown grain into the field of people and, naturally, we are waiting for the sprout on it, which would show us that we did not abandon in vain, that the soil is favorable...

This is not how the Lord commands us to look at it. Me and God — that's just who should be at charity. I give alms – it's like I offer a sacrifice to God. The person to whom I give is only a living altar. I should be grateful to him that he exists, that he is near me, and I can express my love for God with a feasible sacrifice. His appreciation or ingratitude is an extraneous matter for me, like the quality of the material from which the altar is made. It must be made of good material, but the actual thought of it has nothing to do with my sacrifice. There is one consequence I must desire: that my sacrifice should be pleasing to God, that He should accept it. And this is all the more likely it to be, the purer it is, i.e., the fewer extraneous motives and thoughts about glory and human considerations of gratitude it has, the more ardently it aspires to God and Him alone. In sacred history, there are paintings depicting the sacrifices of Cain and Abel. In Cain, the smoke spreads and spreads on the earth, but in Abel, it rises straight to heaven. Perhaps this was indeed the sign by which they knew that God had rejected the sacrifice of the one and accepted the sacrifice of the other. In any case, among the ancient peoples it was a means of finding out whether a sacrifice was pleasing to God or not. The same can be applied to our benefactions. It is bad if the rumor about them spreads on the ground, carried by the wind of newspapers to all cities and villages. It is good if, like Abel's sacrifice, they ascend directly to God, in the pure, azure silence of our hearts.

If we look at alms and all charity in this way, then it goes without saying that we will not only not trumpet it in all directions, but, on the contrary, we will try to hide it from the eyes of people, as we hide everything that is most precious and inner, as we do this in relation to the prayer of the heart itself, as we generally avoid extraneous entertaining eyes of people. when we want to remain alone before God.

It is also understandable, then, that our left hand will not know what the right hand has done, i.e., that we will not stop complacently in thought at what we have done and attach to it an external meaning. Whatever we did, we offered only a sacrifice to God and gave Him praise at this moment.

Whatever the sacrifice is, it is insignificant before God and is only dear to Him to the extent of our faith in Him, our love for Him. You put a piece of incense in the censer, you lit a wax candle before the image: a moment passed, and everything burned down. Whether you put a large or small piece of incense, whether you light a candle with or without gold, is it not all the same for God, is not your faith valuable before Him, is not your love for Him alone? And will you stop in thought and boast to yourself that you have lit a large candle? Does it have any significance in itself for Him before Whom millions of suns shine? Wouldn't it burn just like the little one? The same is true of beneficence. Whoever offers sacrifice to God with them knows that whether he has offered much or little, it is equally insignificant for God: heaven and earth and all the riches of the universe belong to Him. And therefore such a philanthropist will never dwell on the thought of the importance of what he has done and will only thank God that at this moment he was able to express his love to Him and glorify Him... And the next moment he is already concerned about the new glorification of God and does not think about the old one, which has already passed, like the fragrance of incense, about which there is no point in thinking for a long time.

Whoever gives his benevolence only a human, personal or social character, who puts his good deeds into the circulation of human relations, advertising himself, seeking gratitude, seeking glory, boasting of his usefulness, must know that he is doing the work of man, and not of God, that he is acting, as perhaps a good pagan, but not as a Christian, that the fruits of his deeds will leave no trace in eternity and will perish with all the noise and vanity of this world. that they do not reach God and have nothing in common with the fulfillment of Christ's commandment... Various newspaper reports and reports of benefactions are as appropriate in the essence of the matter as an account of how fervently someone prays to God in church, how he sighed, and when he crossed himself. All this is a purely internal, intimate matter, a matter that should be kept away from prying eyes, and whoever climbs here with unbidden curiosity commits a moral crime. So it is with any good deed: it should be only a form of our prayer to God, our glorification of His name, our gratitude to Him.

VII. "And Jesus sat down against the treasury, and watched the people put money into the treasury. Many rich people put a lot. And when a poor widow came, she put in two mites, which constitutes a codrant. And Jesus called his disciples and said to them, "Verily I say unto you, that the poor widow hath put in more than all that put into the treasury. For all have put in out of their abundance; but she, out of her poverty, laid in all that she had, all her sustenance" Mark 12:41-44; Luke 21:1-4

This is how the Lord evaluates our charity. He does not look at whether a thousand rubles or one kopeck are put into the treasury; but only looks at the degree of self-denial and devotion to Him with which this is done. The widow laid down all that she had; it means that her love for God was stronger than that of a rich man who put in a hundredth or thousandth part of what he had. Therefore, the Lord valued her two mites more expensive than all rich contributions. For Him, only the inner side of charity is important, for Him only the feeling known to Him, which gave rise to it, is dear to Him, and not the external quality of the sacrifice. From this it can be seen that our usual view of charity from a purely external point of view cannot be called Christian.

Nowadays everyone is talking only about the growth of public charity in Christian countries, about the large donations that have been made in England, America and France. Of course, all this is a good thing; But we must always remember that this external evaluation has a purely pagan character and has nothing in common with the Christian evaluation. After all, the pagans also distributed money to the poor, made donations, built public buildings, etc. And, of course, from the outside it was not a bad thing, even if they thought only about their own glory or only skillfully threw away their extra money... Paganism had nothing to do with the inner man, who stands before God and only before Him... Christianity, on the other hand, knows only this inner man, and for him the external in itself has no value. Only the indestructible soul of man is dear to Christ; Only that feeling of selfless love that blossoms and smells fragrant before God alone in the innermost depths of our spirit is dear to him, and not that external feeling that will pass and perish when the hour comes...

Не с тем все это говорится, чтоб осуждать внешнюю благотворительность: ведь и Христос не осудил тех богачей, которые приносили от своего избытка в сокровищницу храма…

Кто так оценивает добро, пусть тот знает, что он оценивает по-язычески. Христос взвешивает только ту силу любви к Нему и пламенной ревности по Боге, которая двигает твоею благотворящею рукою и которая ведома только Ему одному, смотрящему прямо в твое сердце.

Чтобы бoгатому, пожертвовавшему тысячи или миллионы, сравниться с бедной вдовой, отдавшей Богу свою последнюю копейку и выразившей тем свою пламенную и всецелую любовь и преданность Ему, он должен отдать также, как и она, все, что имеет, и с такой же, как и у нее, беззаветной любовью к Богу и верой в то, что Он позаботится о нашей жизни и нашем пропитании.

VIII. "И когда выходил Он из храма, говорит Ему один из учеников Его: Учитель! Посмотри, какие камни и какие здания! Иисус сказал ему в ответ: видишь сии великие здания? все это будет разрушено так что не останется здесь камня на камне" Мк.13:1–2; Лк.21:5–6

А ученики сейчас же указывают на богатство храма и говорят "Как же так? А посмотри, что сделали богатые приношения! Посмотри, какая красота храма и сколько в нем драгоценностей! Разве это могли сделать бедные вдовы, вносившие по лепте? Это — заслуги бoгатых…"