Fasting And The Poor

Misericordia et pietas jejunii sunt alae, per quas tollitur et portatur ad coelum, sine quibus jacet et volutatur in terra. Jejunium sine misercordia simulacrum famis est, imago nulla est sanctitatis; sine pietate jejunium occasio est avaritiae, non est propositum parcitatis: quia parcitas ista, quantum siccatur in corpore, tantum tumescit in sacculo. Jejunium sine misercordia non est veritas, sed figura: ubi autem misericordia, ibi est veritas: probant propheta, cum dicit: Misericordia et veritas obviaverunt sibi. Jejunium sine misericordia non est virtus sed hypocrisis, dicente Domino: Vos autem cum jejunatis, nolite fieri sicut hypocritae tristes; exterminantenim facies suas, ut videantur ab hominibus jejunantes. Qui non jejunat pauperi, Deo fingit; qui jejunans prandium suum non erogat, sed reponit, cupiditati probatur jejunare, non Christo. Jejunantes ergo fratres prandium nostrum reponamus in manu pauperis, ut servet nobis manus pauperis, quod venter nobis fuerat perditurus. Manus pauperis Abrahae sinus est; ubi quidquid pauper acceperit, mox reponit. Thesaurus coeli est manus pauperis, quod suscipit ne in terra pereat, reponit in coelum. Thesaurizate, inquit, vobis thesauros in caelo. Manus pauperis est gazophylacium Christi, quia quidquid pauper accipit, Christus acceptat. Da ergo, homo, pauperi terram, ut accipias coelum. Da nummum ut accipias regnum. Da micam, ut accipias totum. Da pauperi, ut des tibi: quia quidquid pauperi dederis, tu habebis; quod pauperi non dederis, habebit alter. Sanctus Petrus Chrysologus, Sermo VIII Source: Migne PL 52.209-210

Mercy and piety are the wings of fasting by which it is borne aloft and arrives at heaven and without which it falls and sprawls on the earth. Fasting without mercy is but an idol set up for hunger; it is no holy image. Without piety fasting is an occasion for avarice not an assertion of moderation; for this is moderation: that as much as one withers in the body so one grows in wealth. Fasting without mercy is not truth but a figure. When there is mercy, there is truth. The prophet concurs when he says, 'Mercy and truth have met together'. 1 Fasting without mercy is not a virtue but hypocrisy. The Lord says, 'You when you fast, do not be like the mournful hypocrites who disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting.' 2 He who does not fast for the poor dissembles before God; he who fasts and having not spent on a meal keeps his coin, fasts for the sake of cupidity, not Christ. When we fast, then, brothers, let us place our meals in the hands of the poor that the hands of the poor may save us, that our stomach's not condemn us. The hand of the poor is in the lap of Abraham; whatever the poor man receives, soon it is repaid. The treasure of heaven is the hand of the poor which takes things of earth that would otherwise perish and puts them in the heavens. 'Heap up,' He says, 'your treasure in heaven.' 3 The hand of the poor is the treasury of Christ because whatever the poor man receives, Christ receives. Give, therefore, the earth to the poor that you may receive heaven. Give your money that you may receive a kingdom. Give a little that you may receive all. Give to the poor that you may give to yourself; because whatever you have given to the poor you shall have; what you do not give to the poor, another shall have. Saint Peter Chrysologus, from Sermon 8 1 Ps 84.11  2 Mt 6.16  3 Mt 6.20