I have hidden your words in my heart, so as not to sin against you.^[1] Recall that something similar is often read, where it says, It is good to hide the mystery of the king. Recall that Paul also hid some divine words from the Corinthians, who were still young in the faith, saying, I have given you milk to drink, not solid food. In fact, you were not yet ready, and neither are you now.^[2] We also read in the Gospel of the treasure found in a fertile, fruitful field and that was hidden in the field once it was purchased.^[3] We know also that pearls should not be thrown before swine, and what is sacred should not be given to dogs.^[4] We thus understand that some things are enclosed in the secret of our hearts. If they were to be divulged, it would imply the guilt of an unpardonable sin.

It is written that fasting with almsgiving is a good thing. It was necessary to do both, to mitigate the Lord’s indignation. Perhaps you cannot fast, and you cannot because you do not want to—at least give food to someone who is hungry. You who cannot stand to fast for three hours past the usual hour can certainly understand what someone would suffer who unwillingly goes hungry because of his poverty. Your cruelty forces him to fast, you who, fattened by sumptuous banquets, do not think to relieve the poor person’s hunger with even a little food. You point to the possibility of famine, you pretend to be in need, you complain of unfavorable circumstances. You beg more shamefully than that poor person—indeed, you behave toward God like an ingrate with your false complaining. But what if there was a famine? Would you perhaps be the only one to feel it, and not that poor person? How is it that every day you lay out new silver, beautify your houses with marble, buy silk garments, trade necklaces adorned with gold and gems? It is shameful to mention and painful even to think of the number of peasants who, living on the lands of people who live in the luxury we have described, have died of hunger or been supported by the alms of the church.

Perhaps some rich person might object, Therefore it must have been with malice that God gave us wealth, if because of it the rich are tormented.^[1] Such people, in fact, advance the wrong-headed idea that God wants to see human beings make mistakes and therefore provides not only the mode of sin but also the reason for it. Not out of malice but out of providence has God made you rich. He intended that through your works of mercy you would again find medicine to treat the wounds of your sins. Certainly alms freely given preserve one from death and purify from every sin. The rich man was not tormented because he was rich but because Lazarus suffered hunger while he banqueted.^[2] Although holy Abraham had been a rich man, he was a servant of the poor and indigent. Also, holy Job possessed the kingdom of Arabia,^[3] but, as it is written, no one was deprived, no poor person left his house empty-handed.^[4] And then, when he came to find himself in pain, he was excoriated by his wife for his works of mercy that she implied he had kept working at in vain. And now, she says, here you are suffering.^[5] Whew! See how astutely this poisonous snake offers her venom! Since she could not make him recede from the good works he was doing as a servant of God, she was given to make him repent of the good he had accomplished because he lost the fruit of his goodness. The rich, therefore, should beware of the terrible example of those who enrich themselves at the expense of mercy so that they do not undergo similar tortures. Rather, they should practice almsgiving with generosity, frequency and joy; God in fact loves one who gives with joy.^[6] They distribute their wealth to the poor, acquiring treasures in heaven where neither rust nor moth destroy or thieves dig and steal.^[7] Thus, leaving this world, they will be able to find rest in the truly rich bosom of Abraham.^[8]

If some human being, but also if any angel, seemingly, should wish to tempt you, either through some kind of apparition or through a dream, and say, Do this for me, celebrate this rite for me, because I am, for example, the angel Gabriel, don’t believe him.^[1] As for you, stick safely to worshiping the one God who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. If it is really an angel, he will rejoice at your worshiping like that; but if he gets angry because you haven’t given him something extra, then you must now understand him to be the one about whom the apostle says that he transfigures himself into an angel of light.^[2] He wants to block your way; he is intruding himself with evil intent; he is not the mediator who reconciles but rather the one who separates. I mean, that angel in the Apocalypse and others like him do not want themselves, but God, to be adored.^[3] They are messengers, announcing whatever message they have been given to announce; they are attendants,^[4] doing whatever they have been ordered to do, presenting our prayers to God, not demanding them for themselves in God’s stead. The angel says to the man, I offered your petition in the presence of the glory of God, and yet the man was not pleading with the angel but with God; the attendant offered his prayer.

By the latter, quite appropriately, the divinity of our Savior is signified, just as his humanity is by Tobias. And the fact that we say that by two persons, that is, an angel and a man, the one person of the mediator between God and people is denoted in a figure,^[1] will be no surprise to the one who reads in the commentaries of the venerable Fathers that in Isaac who was offered up by his father on an altar, and in the ram that was immolated, was denoted in figure as the one person of him who suffered for the world’s salvation.^[2] He in his humanity was slaughtered like a sheep, but in his divinity he remains with God the Father incapable of suffering, just as Isaac came back home alive with his father.^[3] For if the ram aptly represents the humanity of Christ and the man his godhead, why should not a man much more aptly signify his humanity and an angel his divinity?

The angels see God to such extent as is possible for them, and this is their food. Although, because they are incorporeal, they are superior to us and free of all bodily passion, they are certainly not passionless, because only the Divinity is passionless. They take whatever form the Lord may command, and thus they appear to people and reveal the divine mysteries to them. They live in heaven and have as their one work to sing the praises of God and minister to his sacred will.

Stand fast, therefore, in these things, and follow the example of the Lord, being firm and unchangeable in the faith, loving the brotherhood [1 Pt 2:17]. . . . When you can do good, do not defer it, because “alms delivers from death” [Tb 4:10; 12:9]. Be all of you subject to one another [1 Pt 5:5], having your conduct blameless among the Gentiles [1 Pt 2:12], and the Lord may not be blasphemed through you. But woe to him who blasphemes the name of the Lord [Is 52:5]!