In John’s Gospel the Lord says: By this love you have for one another, everyone will know you are my disciples. And in a Letter by John we read: Dearly beloved, let us love one another, since love comes from God, and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Anyone who fails to love has not known God, because God is love.
So the faithful should look into themselves and carefully examine their minds and the their hearts' impulses. If they find some of the fruits of love stored in their hearts, then they must not doubt God’s presence within them. Yet, to make themselves more and more able to receive so great a guest, they should do more and more works of enduring mercy and kindness. After all, if God is love, charity should know no limit, for God himself cannot be kept within limits.
What is the appropriate time for performing works of charity? Dearly beloved, any time is the right time, but these days of Lent provide a special encouragement. Those who want to be present at the Lord’s Passover with holiness of mind and body should seek above all to win this grace, for charity contains all other virtues and covers a multitude of sins.
As we prepare to celebrate that greatest of all mysteries by which the blood of Jesus Christ destroyed our sins, let us first of all make ready the sacrificial offerings — that is, our works of mercy. What God in his goodness has already given to us, let us give to those who have sinned against us. And to the poor also, and to those who are afflicted in various ways, let us show a more open-handed generosity, so that God may be thanked through many voices, and the needy may be fed as a result of our fasting. No act of devotion on the part of the faithful gives God more pleasure than the support that is lavished on his poor. Where God finds charity with loving concern, there he recognizes the reflection of his own fatherly care.
Do not be put off giving by a lack of resources. A generous spirit is itself great wealth, and there can be no shortage of material for generosity where it is Christ who feeds and Christ who is fed. His hand is present in all this activity: that hand of his that multiplies the bread by breaking it and increases it by giving it away.
When you give alms, do not be anxious but full of happiness. The greatest treasure will go to the one who has kept the least for himself. The holy apostle Paul tells us: He who provides seed for the sower will both give bread for food and will multiply your seed, and he will increase the harvest of the fruits of your justice, in Christ Jesus our Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.