The generous will themselves be blessed, for they share their food with the poor. Proverbs 22:9
“For whereas usury is a crime practiced by the heathen, with God it is praiseworthy. Will you not give to the poor? Consider who it is that begs of you through the poor man and attend to the dignity of the one who receives. Yes, the poor man receives, but it is God who is the borrower.
Understand to what depths the Master descended to accomplish this, so that he might turn you back from cruelty and hatred: For you saw me hungry, and you did not feed me; thirsty, and you did not give me to drink; a stranger, and you did not welcome me; naked, and you did not clothe me. Will you not therefore give to Christ in his hunger?
Both you and the poor man together partake of his body from the altar table. You both likewise partake of his holy cup. Christ grants you to commune in his great and fearful mysteries, and yet you do not share your small and paltry things with him? Will you not give him thine own?”
John Chrysostom (347-407) in On Fasting and Almsgiving.
As I read through this ancient treatise on fasting and almsgiving, it moves me that the incarnation, God becoming flesh, aimed to turn us back from cruelty and hatred by showing us what giving generously to the undeserving looks like.
May God, this Lent, turn us back. May He change our minds and break our hearts to see that when we share, we will be both be blessed and be turned back from cruelty and hatred that aims to destroy us. Our very lives depend on whether or not we get this.