But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother have need, and shuts up his heart of compassion from him, how dwells the love of God in him?
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
Whence begins charity, brethren? Attend a little: to what it is perfected, you have heard; the very end of it, and the very measure of it is what the Lord has put before us in the Gospel: Greater love has no man, says He, than that one lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13) Its perfection, therefore, He has put before us in the Gospel, and here also it is its perfection that is put before us: but you ask yourselves, and say to yourselves, When shall it be possible for us to have this charity? Do not too soon despair of yourself. Haply, it is born and is not yet perfect; nourish it, that it be not choked. But you will say to me, And by what am I to know it?
But whoso hath this world"s goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? He deduces this as a consequence from the former verse. It is an argument from the less to the greater. If the love of Christ obliges us to lay down our lives for the brethren (which is most difficult), much more does it oblige us to give alms to the needy, which is most easy. And again, our laying down our lives for the brethren is a case which seldom happens, the duty of relieving the needy frequently occurs. So Å’cumenius and S. Augustine.
Many doctors argue from this passage that the precept of alms-giving is binding not only in extreme but even in grave cases of necessity, so that a rich man is obliged to give up, not only superfluities, but even things necessary for his station, if he can avert in this way a grave loss to his neighbour. (See Gregory, de Valent. Tom. iii. Disput. iii.; and Bellarmine, de bonis Oper. lib. iii. ...
"Whoso "says he, "hath this world's goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? ".
Of this same matter in the Epistle of John: "Whoso hath this world's substance, and seeth his brother desiring, and shutteth up his bowels from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? "
