Cyprian & Lactantius · a new plain-English translation from the original language
But you who are like this cannot do good works in the church: eyes that are overspread with blackness, covered in shadow and night, do not see the needy and the poor. Do you believe yourself, rich and wealthy, to be keeping the Lord's day, when you have no regard at all for the offering-box, when you come to the Lord's assembly without any sacrifice, when you take a share of the sacrifice that a poor person has offered? Look in the gospel at the widow mindful of the heavenly commandments, working in the very pinch and narrowness of her want, casting into the treasury the two small coins that were all she had. When the Lord took notice of her and observed her, weighing and considering her deed by spirit rather than by estate — gauging not the sum given but the portion it came from — he replied, saying: truly I tell you that this widow has put in more than all the rest among the gifts to God. For all these have given out of what was surplus to them, but she out of her want has given all the living she had. This woman, greatly blessed and glorious, earned praise from the judge's own voice while the day of judgment still lay ahead. May the wealthy blush at how barren and unfortunate they are. A widow, and a needy one, is found at work, and though everything given is meant for orphans and widows, she gives what she ought rather to receive — so that we may know what punishment awaits the barren rich, when even the poor, by this example, are bound to work. And that we may understand that these works are given to God, and that whoever does them earns God's favor, Christ calls it a gift to God, and shows that the widow put her two small coins among the gifts of God, so that it might be all the plainer that whoever has mercy on the poor lends to God.
But neither, dearest brothers, should this thing hold a Christian back and turn him from good and righteous works — that someone should think himself excused by the claim of his children — since in spiritual expenditures we ought to keep Christ in mind, who has professed himself the recipient, and we should set the Lord above our fellow-servants, even our own children, as he himself instructs and warns: whoever loves father or mother above me, he says, is unworthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter above me is unworthy of me. Likewise in Deuteronomy matching words are written to strengthen faith and love of God: those who say to father and mother, he says, I do not know you, and who do not acknowledge their own children — these have kept your commandments and observed your covenant. For if we love God with the whole heart, we ought to set neither parents nor children above God. This too John states in his letter, that the love of God is not present in those whom we see unwilling to act toward the poor: whoever has the goods of this world, he says, and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart, how does the love of God abide in him? For if God is repaid through alms for the poor, and what is given to the very least is given to Christ, there is no reason for anyone to set earthly things above heavenly ones, or human concerns before divine ones.
A parallel case is the widow of the third book of Kings: caught in drought and famine after everything else ran out, she had baked from her last scrap of flour and oil a thin ashen cake, and once that was gone she expected to perish with her children — until Elijah appeared and asked to be fed first, with only what remained afterward going to her and her sons. She obeyed without hesitation; hunger and want did not lead this mother to put her own sons ahead of Elijah. What God approves and delights in was granted at once and freely: rather than sparing a portion from plenty, she surrendered everything from almost nothing, and though her own children hungered, the guest ate first — in famine and scarcity mercy came even before food, so that in this saving act the body's claims yielded in the flesh while the soul was kept safe in spirit. Elijah, standing here as a figure of Christ and showing that he repays mercy in kind, answered and said: thus says the Lord: the flour-jar shall not run empty, nor the oil-jug run dry, until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth. True to that divine promise, what she gave was multiplied and increased for the widow, and through her just deeds and merciful acts the vessels of flour and oil kept filling for her as she went on giving. The mother took nothing from her sons by giving to Elijah — she gave them more, through this kind and devout act. And this though she did not yet know Christ, had not heard his commands, was not yet redeemed by his cross and suffering, and repaid food and drink for no shed blood of his — which reveals just how gravely one sins within the church who places self and children ahead of Christ, hoards his own wealth, and refuses to share his abundant means with the poverty of those in need.
But, someone says, there are many children in the household, and the number of your sons holds you back from being generous in good works. Yet for this very reason you ought to do more, in that you are the father of many dependents. There are more for whom you should entreat the Lord; the sins of many must be redeemed, the consciences of many cleansed, the souls of many set free. In this present, worldly existence, a bigger household of dependents means bigger costs to sustain them; in the same way, within our spiritual and heavenly existence, more dependents should mean a greater outlay of good works. This is why Job offered so many sacrifices on his children's behalf — his victims to God matched, in number, the children under his roof. And because sin before God cannot help but occur every day, daily sacrifice was needed to wipe such sins away. Scripture confirms this: Job, upright and righteous, was father to seven sons and three daughters, and he purified them by offering God sacrifices in proportion to their number, plus a single calf for their sins. So if your love for your children is genuine, if you truly show them a father's full tenderness, you owe it all the more to act, and so commend them to God through righteous deeds.
Do not think of yourself as father to your children in the sense of one who is temporary and weak, but set before them the one who is the eternal and unshakable father of spiritual children. Assign to him the resources you are keeping for your heirs: let him be guardian to your children, let him be their protector, let him, by divine majesty, be their defender against all worldly wrongs. An estate entrusted to God is not seized by the state, not invaded by the treasury, not overturned by any legal chicanery. The inheritance is placed in safety when it is kept under God's guardianship. This is providing for beloved dependents into the future; this is looking after future heirs with a father's devotion, according to the faith of holy scripture, which says: I was younger, and then grew old, yet never did I see a righteous man abandoned, nor his children begging for bread; all day he lends generously in mercy, and his line will be blessed. And again: whoever conducts himself blamelessly in righteousness will leave blessed children behind. You are, then, a father who betrays and abandons, unless you look after your children faithfully, unless you provide for their keeping with true and devoted piety. Why do you care more for an earthly inheritance than a heavenly one? Would you rather hand your children over to the devil instead of Christ? You sin twice over and commit a double, twofold crime: both in that you do not prepare for your children the help of God the Father, and in that you teach your children to love their inheritance more than Christ.
Instead, become for your children the kind of father Tobit was. Pass down to your dependents useful, wholesome teaching, just as he did for his son; give your children instructions the way he gave his, saying: 'Now then, my son, I command you — serve the Lord faithfully and do what pleases him, and instruct your children to practice justice and give alms, to remember God, and to bless his name at every moment.' And again: 'Throughout your whole life, my son, hold God in your thoughts, and never stray from his commandments. Practice righteousness all the days of your life and do not walk the way of iniquity, for if you act out of truth there will be a regard for your deeds. Give alms out of your substance, and do not turn your face away from any poor person, so that God's face may not be turned away from you either. As you have, my son, so act: if your substance is abundant, give more alms out of it; if you have little, share even out of that little. And do not be afraid when you give alms: you lay up for yourself a good reward for the day of need, because almsgiving delivers from death and does not let one go into darkness. Almsgiving is a good gift for all who practice it before the Most High God.
What a gift this is, dearest brothers, whose staging is celebrated with God himself looking on! If in a pagan show it counts as splendid and impressive when proconsuls or even emperors turn out to watch, and sponsors spend and prepare all the more lavishly to win favor with their superiors, how much brighter and greater is the glory of a spectacle watched by God and Christ themselves; how much fuller the preparation, how much more generous the expense that should be offered here, where the powers of the heavens gather for the show, where all the angels gather, where the sponsor seeks not a chariot-team or a consulship, but is granted eternal life, and where he does not chase after the empty, fleeting favor of the crowd, but receives the everlasting reward of the heavenly kingdom.
And so that the idle and barren — those who, loving money, do nothing at all to reap salvation — feel a keener shame, and the blush of their own disgrace bites their sordid conscience all the harder, let each set before his own eyes the devil leaping forward into the midst together with his own seed-band — that is, with the people doomed to ruin and death — challenging the people of Christ, with Christ himself present and judging the contest, and saying: 'I have not taken blows for these people you see with me, nor endured the lash, nor borne the cross, nor shed blood, nor bought back my household at the price of suffering and bloodshed; nor do I promise them a heavenly kingdom, nor do I call them back again, restored to immortality, into paradise. Yet the gifts they procure for me — how costly, how grand, how won by excessive and prolonged labor, arranged in the most lavish displays, out of their own goods either mortgaged or sold to pay for the show! And unless a decent performance follows, they are driven out with jeers and hisses, and are sometimes all but stoned by the fury of the crowd. Show me such sponsors of yours, Christ — those rich men, those overflowing with abundant wealth — whether, with you presiding and watching in the church, they put on a show of that kind by pledging or selling off their goods, or rather by transferring their possessions, changed for the better, to heavenly treasuries. In these passing, earthly spectacles of mine, nobody eats, nobody wears clothing, nobody finds sustenance in the comfort of food or drink. Everything is squandered, amid the frenzy of the performer and the delusion of the spectator, in the vanity of wasteful and foolish pleasures that come to nothing. There, in your poor, you are clothed and fed; you promise eternal life to those who do these works — and your people, honored by you with divine wages and heavenly rewards, are scarcely a match for mine, who waste themselves for me.'
What can we answer to this, dearest brothers? By what reasoning do we excuse this sacrilegious barrenness, this covering of the rich in a night of darkness — how do we clear ourselves? We rank beneath the devil's own servants, since we fail to repay Christ even in small part for the cost of his suffering and blood. He gave us commandments; he taught us what his servants were bound to do; he promised reward to those who labor and threatened punishment to the barren, declaring his judgment and foretelling beforehand what he would decide. What excuse remains for one who does nothing, what defense for the barren, except this — that where the servant fails to act as instructed, the Lord will carry out what he warned? For he says this: when the Son of Man arrives in his splendor, with every angel accompanying him, he will take his seat upon his radiant throne, and every nation will be gathered before him; he will divide them from one another the way a shepherd parts sheep from goats, placing the sheep at his right and the goats at his left. Then the king will tell those at his right: come, you who are blessed by my Father — take possession of the kingdom made ready for you since the founding of the world. For when I hungered you fed me, when I thirsted you gave me drink, when I was a stranger you welcomed me, when naked you covered me, when ill you visited me, when imprisoned you came to me. Then the righteous will reply: Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you in, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill, or in prison, and come to you? And the king will answer them: truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of these, the least of my brothers, you did for me. Then he will tell those at his left: get away from me, you who are cursed, into the everlasting fire set aside for the devil and his angels. Because when I hungered you gave me nothing to eat, when I thirsted you gave me no drink, when I was a stranger you did not welcome me, when naked you left me uncovered, when ill and imprisoned you did not come to me. Then these too will answer: Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, a stranger, naked, ill, or imprisoned, and fail to serve you? And he will answer them: truly I tell you, whatever you failed to do for one of these least ones, you failed to do for me. And these will depart into everlasting fire, but the righteous into everlasting life. Could Christ have declared anything greater to us? Could he more powerfully summon us toward acts of justice and mercy than by teaching that whatever is granted to the needy and the poor is granted to him, and that he counts himself wronged whenever it is withheld from the needy and the poor — so that whoever feels no pull in the church out of regard for a brother might at least be moved by regard for Christ, and whoever gives no thought to a fellow-servant's toil and want might at least think of the Lord, who stands there in the very person he scorns?
And therefore, dearest brothers, we for whom fear of God has bent us low, and who, having already spurned and trodden down the world, have raised our minds to things above and divine, let us render obedient service to the Lord, with full faith, devoted mind, and unceasing action, so as to earn his favor. Let us give Christ earthly garments, to receive heavenly clothing in return. Let us give worldly food and drink, so as to come to the heavenly banquet with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Let us not reap little by sowing much. Let us look to our security and eternal salvation while there is time, just as the apostle Paul warns, saying: so then, as long as we have opportunity, let us work what is good toward everyone, and especially toward those who belong to the household of faith. And let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season we shall reap.
Let us consider, most beloved brothers, what the believing people did in the days of the apostles, when in those very beginnings the mind was vigorous with greater virtues, when the believers' faith still burned with the fresh warmth of belief. They sold their houses and estates then and gladly and generously offered to the apostles the sum to be distributed to the poor, having sold and disposed of their earthly inheritance, transferring their funds to where they might reap the fruit of an eternal possession, purchasing there the homes where they would begin to dwell forever. Their works showed as much abundance as their love showed unity — a fact set down in the Acts of the Apostles, where the whole multitude of believers is described as having one soul and one mind, with no distinctions among them, and no one calling any of his goods his own, since everything was held in common. Becoming, through birth in the Spirit, a true child of God amounts to nothing less than this; following, under heaven's own law, the fairness of God the Father amounts to nothing less than this either. For whatever belongs to God is, in our common use, held in common, and no one is barred from his benefits and gifts, so that the whole human race may share equally in divine goodness and generosity. So equally the day gives light, the sun shines, the rain waters, the wind blows; sleep is one and the same for all who sleep, and the splendor of the stars and moon is shared by all. By this example of equality, whoever, being a possessor of goods on earth, shares his income and produce with the brotherhood, being fair and generous in free-handed giving, is an imitator of God the Father.
What glory will that be, dearest brothers, for those who do these works — how great and how supreme the joy — when the Lord begins to take account of his own people, and, bestowing on our merits and works the promised rewards, giving heavenly things for earthly, everlasting for temporal, great things for small, presents us back to the Father — the one who, through his own consecrating act, has restored us to him — and grants us eternity and deathlessness, restoring us to it by the quickening force of his blood, leading us home again to paradise, and unlocking heaven's kingdoms through the faithfulness and truth of his own pledge! May these truths take firm hold in our thoughts; may we grasp them with unwavering trust; may we cherish them with our whole heart; may we win them through works pursued without pause. This work of salvation, dearest brothers, is a splendid and divine thing. It is a mighty comfort for believers, a wholesome guard over our safety, a stronghold of hope, a shield of faith, a cure for sin — something within reach of anyone willing to do it, something at once weighty and simple, a peaceable crown untouched by persecution's danger, a genuine and supreme gift from God, indispensable to the weak and glorious for the strong — through which a Christian, so aided, gains spiritual grace, wins Christ as judge, and counts God his debtor. Let us press eagerly and swiftly toward this prize of saving deeds; let us all run the race of righteousness under the gaze of God and Christ, and let those among us who have already outgrown this age and its world not let any worldly craving slow our pace. If the day of our departure or of persecution finds us unencumbered, swift, running in this contest of work, the Lord will nowhere fail our merits in giving the reward: in peace he will give the white crown to the victors for their works; in persecution he will double it with the purple crown for their suffering.