3. The entire law given by God to people is combined in love, which has two stages, since the law is twofold - the old and the new. He who ascended to the first step left the earth to the valley, and he who ascended to the second step also reached heaven. The Old Law says: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (Lev. 19:18), and the New Law says: "Thou shalt love thy enemy also" (Matt. 5:44); He also says, "And lay down your life for your friend." Therefore, whoever loves his enemy has ascended to the second step or ascended to heaven. On the contrary, he who not only pursues his enemy, but also hates his neighbor and does evil to him who loves him, such a one has descended to the very depths of the earth.

Let us take care, brethren, to acquire perfect love, that we may also attain the kingdom of heaven in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

Homily Twenty-One. 1. About almsgiving: who satisfies God when He hungers, and gives drink when He thirsts, and how can such works be done? 2. He does not receive real benefit who has mercy only on the poor, and does not have mercy on himself, leaving himself in negligence, naked from every good work and from the grace of God.

It is the duty of all of us, both faithful and unfaithful, small and great, to have great attention and diligence in this life: the unfaithful - in order to know the truth and believe in the Creator and Organizer of all things, God, the faithful - in order to live well and please God in every good deed and good word, the small - in order to obey the great, for the Lord's sake, the great - in order to have the least as their own children, according to the commandment of the Lord, Who says: "Wherefore ye have made one of these my least brethren, ye have created me" (Matt. 25:40). For the Lord did not say this only about the poor and those who do not have bodily food (as some think), but He also said this about all our other brethren, who do not hunger for bread, but for hunger to hear the words of the Lord and to do His commandments, since His commandment is eternal life. As much as the soul is more honest than the body, so much is the food of the soul more necessary than the food of the body. And I think that the Lord said more about the food of the soul: "Hunger, and thou shalt not give Me food: thou shalt be thirsty, and thou shalt not give Me drink" (Matt. 25:42), than of bodily and perishable food, since He Himself said before: "Mine is my bread, that I may do the will of Him who sent Me" (John 4:34). And the will of the Father who sent Him is the salvation of men. And truly Christ hungers and thirsts, that is, with an extreme and irrepressible desire desires the one salvation of all men. The salvation of men is the removal from all sin, which cannot be accomplished without the practice of virtues and the fulfillment of all the commandments. Therefore, when we fulfill the commandments of Christ, then we nourish and satisfy Christ, the Lord of all creation. And our holy fathers say that just as the demons feed on our evil deeds and gain the strength to fight against us, but by our separation from evil they are exhausted by hunger and weakened; so Christ, Who became poor for our salvation, is nourished by us when we do His commandments, and is left in hunger when we do not do His will. We can learn this and be convinced of this from the very life and deeds of the saints.

I will leave the rest, for there are many of them, more than the sand of the sea, - by the tale of one person, of one saint, I will try to satisfy your love. Without a doubt, you have heard about the life of St. Mary of Egypt, about whom it is not someone else who has spoken, but she herself, equal to the angels. In her confession she said: I was extremely poor, and although many times others gave me a reward for sin, I did not take it, not because I was rich - I had nothing - but in order to attract more lovers to myself. When she boarded the ship to sail to Jerusalem, she had nothing with which to pay for a place on it, and with what to eat during the voyage. When in Jerusalem, having made a vow to the Most-Pure Mother of God to turn to the Lord, she decided to withdraw into the wilderness, then, having received two coins from a certain Christ-lover, she bought three loaves of bread with them, with which she crossed the Jordan River, and from that time she remained in the wilderness until the end of her life, not seeing a single person, except one Zosima. And so she did not feed the hungry, nor drink the thirsty, nor clothe the naked, nor give rest to the strange, but rather did all the contrary, and threw many into the pit of perdition, dragging them to sin.

But that's not how it is, not like that.

All the things that exist in this world were created by God in common to all people, such as: the sun, from which we receive light, the air, which we breathe, pastures for cattle in meadows and mountains, and so on, all common to all, so that everyone would use them for his own needs, and not take possession of them like a master. But covetousness has come into our life like a tyrant, and that which the Lord God has given in common to all, it has divided to some of His servants who are in his power, some in this way, and to others in this way, fencing off the plots with fences and towers, with gates and bars, and depriving the rest of all of the enjoyment of the blessings which God has given in common to all. And it says, perversely, "I am the mistress of all things, and I possess all things, all that is mine, and not common," and argues that it does not justify anyone. And the servants and saints of this tyranny, that is, lust, are usually not the masters and masters of those things and money, but their slaves and guardians.

But, as I often say, they must repent until the end of their lives, weep and groan, and do other works of repentance, for all the things which they have kept in their power for so long, not allowing their brethren to use them in their needs.

2. How then can those who have become poor for Christ's sake, as Christ, who is rich as God, have become poor for our sake, how can they, not having anything to give to the poor, be esteemed as having mercy on Christ, Who was made man for our sake, hearken unto the good, that thou mayest understand. God has become a poor man for us; thou also, who believe in Him, must be like Him, poor. Christ became poor in order to make you rich, or in order to give you the necessary part of the riches of His grace. For this reason He took flesh, that you might become a partaker of His Divinity. And so, when you, having worthily prepared, receive His grace, then it is said that Christ has been received by you. Why, when you hunger and thirst for love for Christ the Lord, then He accepts this hunger and thirst of yours, as a drink for Himself. For through this and through similar deeds you purify your soul and free yourself from corruption and the filth of the passions. But God, Who has received you and appropriated to Himself all that is yours, that is, all that is human, considers every good that you do for yourself, to be done for Him, as if He Himself were eating of its fruit. In this sense, His words to those who have mercy on the poor can be translated in relation to you as follows: "As you have done to your poor soul, you have done to Me." Otherwise, by what deeds did those who withdrew into the mountains and dwelt in caves please God? None, except for works of repentance with faith and love. Leaving the whole world, they followed Christ and, having received Him into themselves, gave Him rest, fed and drunk Him within themselves, through repentance and tears.

And in another way (I will explain this). All those who are made sons of God by grace through holy Baptism are of course the last and poorest in this world, for they want nothing of this world. Having come to know by the feeling of their souls that they have become sons of God, they can no longer endure any temporal riches, nor adorn themselves with any perishable and temporal garments, as having put on Christ and having treasure in heaven.

Those who do neither one nor the other (that is, they do not put on Christ either through Baptism or then through repentance), even if they have clothed all the naked in the world, what good would they do for themselves when they leave themselves naked from Divine grace?

Then again (that is, another new explanation) - we, who have been baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, are called brethren of Christ, and we are still members of Him. And so, if thou wilt honour, give rest, and in every way console all others, and thou shalt leave thyself, the brother of Christ and a member of Christ, in neglect, and thou shalt not accept labor and podvig by the way of all virtues, ascend to the height of the perfection of life in Christ, but leave thy soul darkened and defiled, let it wallow as if dead, in the deepest darkness of sin, let it hunger and thirst because of thy slothfulness and negligence, let her remain imprisoned in the narrowest prison of a defiled body because of your gluttony and voluptuousness, - tell me, I beseech you, will you not despise the brother of Christ in this way? Wilt thou not leave him hungry and thirsty, and lying in prison unattended? And so, and for this reason thou hast no time to hear: thou hast not had mercy on thyself, and thou shalt not be merciful.

If anyone then says, "Since this is the case, and we will have no reward for what we give to the poor," then what need is there to give? - Let such a person hear Christ Himself, Who has to judge him, and to reward each one according to his deeds, as if He were saying to him: O foolish one! What have you brought into this world? And have you created any of the things that you see in him? Did you not come out of your mother's womb naked? Naked shalt thou come out of this present life, and shalt stand naked from all things before my judgment seat. For what property do you demand a reward from Me? And by what things of thyself hast thou shown mercy to thy brethren, and through the intermediary of the brethren to Me, Who hath created all things, not for thee alone, but in common for all? Or do you think that I Myself desire any of these things, or that I accept gifts like the unrighteous and covetous judges of men? (In your foolishness it may be expected that you will think this too.) All these things (that is, works of mercy to the poor) I command and command, not because I desire to have any things from you, but because I desire to have you yourselves, not to take anything from your possessions, but to deliver you from the condemnation to which you are to be subjected because of it. "Do not think, my brother, that God is poor and has need of our possessions in order to feed the poor, and therefore commands us to be merciful to them and to fulfill this commandment as much as we can." Not so, my brother, not so. But the loving Lord, who loves mankind, wants to turn into our lives that which the devil has brought into our lives through covetousness for our destruction, and by means of almsgiving he wants to turn it into salvation for us. The devil advised us to assimilate to ourselves, to consider as our own property, and to treasure for ourselves that which God has created for the common use of all people, so that through such covetousness he may inculcate two sins in us and make us guilty of eternal torment: the first is the sin of heartlessness and lack of mercy, and the second is the sin of trusting in our possessions, and not in Christ. For whoever has hidden money cannot believe and hope in God. This is evident from what Christ and our God said: "Where your treasure is, your heart will also be there" (Matthew 6:21). Therefore let a man distribute to the poor the money which he has hidden in his possession, he has nothing to be rewarded for, but on the contrary, he is responsible for having unjustly caused them to suffer privation hitherto, and not only for this he has an account, but also for those who died during his life from hunger and thirst, whom he could have fed and did not nourish. he hid the wealth of the poor, and left them to die of cold and hunger, wherefore he would be considered the murderer of all those whom he could and did not nourish.

This goodwill demands that we should not consider our possessions to be our own, but think that God has given it into our hands for the care of our fellow servants of God, the Christians, so that we may provide them with what they need with joy and readiness, and not with sorrow, and as if with a certain need and violence.