On almsgiving
We all rejoice at the birthday of one we love.
And when that day draws near, we begin to think, to care, to worry about how to please him. If it is a member of the family, we want our house to look especially beautiful on that day, and ourselves too... We prepare a table, we invite those people who will gladden him. Or, if we are going to someone else, we choose a gift, and so on.
In short, we begin to think about that person and about what he himself loves.
Now, when the Nativity of the Lord is coming, we should probably think how to prepare for the feast. And in this case too, as at ordinary birthdays, we must first of all think about Him — what He Himself will be glad of. But as soon as we think about this, at that very moment we shall understand that our preparing must be altogether different, that we must care for an altogether different beauty, for He is the Lord and the Knower of hearts. And therefore our most beautiful festal garment and our most precious gift for Him will probably be our heart. Our Saviour Jesus Christ Himself tells us in the Gospel what He wishes us to be. And one such wish is that we should be merciful. “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy,” says the Lord. From these words it is plain that to the merciful God promises mercy in the hour of judgement.
Now let us consider: what is mercy? In the explanatory dictionaries of the Georgian language mercy is explained as kindness, help, a good deed, compassion, alms to be given to a beggar. A wondrous explanation of this word we find in the dictionary of Sulkhan-Saba. It is “grief over another's evil”. And when a man grieves over another's evil, naturally he grieves that it weighs upon and destroys that man's own soul. That is, he grieves for his soul and for his body. From this the Church distinguishes the kinds of spiritual and bodily mercy.
The seven works of bodily mercy are: 1) to feed the hungry, 2) to give drink to the thirsty, 3) to clothe the naked, 4) to take in strangers, 5) to visit the sick, 6) to visit prisoners, 7) to bury the dead.
And the kinds of spiritual mercy are: 1) to convert sinners, 2) to teach the ignorant (there is meant the teaching of the truth), 3) to set right those who stumble (this means to give a person good and timely counsel in a time of trial or of some danger which he does not himself notice), 4) to comfort the sorrowing, 5) to bear injustice with patience, 6) to forgive those who have sinned (that is, to forgive an offence), 7) to pray to God for one's neighbour.
Along with this we must remember that the Lord does not love that mercy which is done hypocritically, out of self-interest, whose aim is to earn praise or to get something in return. Equally unacceptable is that mercy which has been gained by unjust means. Of such mercy John Chrysostom says: “If with one and the same hand we rob one man and clothe another, we shall not escape punishment... It is better to give no alms at all than such alms.” Therefore, it seems, even the doing of mercy requires worthiness — or rather cleansing, which again is possible with the Lord's help, through the life of the Church.
Our contemporary, Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, holds it very dangerous for us to turn the words of God into merely outward laws. “I knew a man,” he says, “who counted himself a true Christian. He never passed a poor man without calling to him and giving him some food or small change; but he never let a poor man into his house. He would stop him on the threshold and say to him: ‘Do not dare to come into my clean hallway in your dirty boots!’ And when the beggar had finished eating and had received his coins, he would say to him: ‘Now go and do not come back here; I have given you everything you need!’ He thought that he was doing a work of mercy — but in his heart he had no mercy at all.”
In the Gospel the Lord tells us the parable of the merciful Samaritan, to show us what a neighbour means and how in general we must deal with a person.
A certain man was going from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way robbers fell upon him, took off his clothing, wounded him and left him half dead. By chance a certain priest was going along that road; he looked at him and passed by. The Levite did the same: he looked and went his way. Along the same road there came a certain Samaritan. He saw the wounded man, had compassion on him, bound up his wounds, poured in oil and wine, set him on his own ass, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day, when he had to go on his way, he gave the innkeeper two denarii and said to him: “Take care of him; and if thou spendest more, when I return I shall repay thee.” The neighbour to this wounded man proved to be only this Samaritan; but by God's calling every man should be a neighbour.
And finally, if we have thought about all this, it cannot remain merely a Christmas gift to the Lord, of which we shall not think again until the next Christmas. If we wish God Himself to have mercy on us, then we must not do a work of mercy once, but must be merciful, must have a merciful heart; and this must be attained.
Marina Khositashvili
