What a good word!

This is an excerpt from Chrysostom’s homily on Acts 11:19-30. After explaining each verse he dwelt on the statement, Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judaea. You do not hear such an emphasis on alms today. I am ashamed to admit I did not grasp this when I was pastoring. This is such a good word; direct and practical! 

But alms may be done not only by money, but by acts. For example: one may kindly stand by a person to succor and defend him, one may reach to him a helping hand: the service rendered by acts has often done more good even than money. Let us set to work all the different kinds of almsgiving. Can you do alms by money? Be not slack. Can you by good offices? Say not, Because I have no money, this is nothing. This is a very great point: look upon it as if you had given gold. Can you do it by kind attentions? Do this also. For instance, if you are a physician, give your skill: for this also is a great matter. Can you by counsel? This is much greater than all: this is better than all. For in so doing you put away not starvation, but a grievous death. With such alms the Apostles above measure abounded, exhibiting the (mercy) shown by words. Or is it, think you, a small alms, to a lost, castaway soul, a soul in uttermost jeopardy, possessed by a burning fever, to be able to rid it of its disease? For example, do you see one possessed by love of money? Pity the man. Is he in danger of suffocation? Quench his fire. “What if he will not be persuaded?” Do your part, and be not remiss. Have you seen him in bonds?—for wealth is indeed bonds. Go to him, visit him, console him, try to release him of his bonds. If he refuse, he shall bear the blame himself. Have you seen him naked, and a stranger?—for he is indeed naked, and a stranger to heaven. Bring him to your own inn, clothe him with the garment of virtue, give him the city which is in heaven. What numbers of women now wear silken apparel but are indeed naked of the garments of virtue! Let their husbands clothe these women. “But they will not admit those garments [virtue]; they choose to have these [apparel].” Then do this also first: induce them to have a longing for those garments: show them that they are naked: speak to them of judgment to come: answer me, what is the clothing we shall need there? If then I shall prove to you that your rich men, and rich women, the more they put on, the more naked they are, do not take it amiss.

Now indeed, after all that we can say, the nakedness is not yet apparent: but it will be plain enough there. How, and in what way? When these silken garments and precious stones shall have perished, and it shall be only by the garments of virtue and of vice that all men are shown, when the poor shall be clad with exceeding glory, but the rich, naked and in disgraceful sort, shall be hauled away to their punishments. What more naked than that rich man who arrayed himself in purple? What poorer than Lazarus? Then which of them uttered the words of beggars? which of them was in abundance? Say, if one should deck his house with abundance of tapestry hangings, and himself sit naked within, what were the benefit? So it is in the case of these women. Truly, the house of the soul, the body I mean, they hang round with plenty of garments: but the mistress of the house sits naked within. Lend me the eyes of the soul, and I will show you the soul’s nakedness. For what is the garment of the soul? Virtue, of course. And what its nakedness? Vice. For just as, if one were to strip any decent person, that person would be ashamed, and would shrink and cower out of sight; just so the soul, if we wish to see it, the soul which has not these garments, blushes for shame. What is the gain of your costly garments? how long shall we continue agape for this attire? Let us put on the glory of Christ: let us array ourselves with that beauty, that both here we may be praised, and there attain unto the eternal good things, by the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, with Whom, to the Father and the Holy Ghost together, be glory, dominion, honor, now and ever, world without end. Amen.

John Chrysostom c. 349 – 407, Archbishop of Constantinople, was an important Early Church Father. He is known for his preaching, his denunciation of abuse of authority by both ecclesiastical and political leaders and the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. Chrysostom means "golden-mouthed" in Greek and denotes his celebrated eloquence.