Why should I Give Alms?

Almsgiving is necessary to let go of the lust of the eyes, the desire for possessions. Lent is the time of year where the Church calls us back to what we should already be busy about doing, the three principles of Lent are the three principles of progessing in the Spiritual Life. They all three have purpose and function. The fruit of Almsgiving is that we can let go more perfectly of the worldly pleasure to which we have become addicted. If I cannot control my lust for stuff, I should be charitable.

Not a suggestion, but a commandment: Deut 15:11. The practice of

giving is not simply a good thing that we who want to be holy and know God should do, rather, it is something that God has commanded us to do.

Whoever gives to the poor, lends to God. Prov 19:17. God promises us that when we are generous, we will be paid back, and to overflowing.

To be clear we are repaid for our generosity of earthly goods with the treasures of heaven, with the stuff that truly leads us to the happiness we desperately crave.

Secret (Sermon on the Mount). Jesus says to give in secret, to give so that others see how generous I am, well that is its own reward, the admiration of others.

The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats (Matthew 25). Jesus does make it abundantly clear that it is by our generosity by which He will judge us. The Chritian life is about forgeting the self in favor of God and God's people.

Faith without Almsgiving is dead (James 2). When St James says that Faith without works is dead, what are the works? They are almsgiving.

As a remedy for the lust of the eyes. How beautiful it would be to have little because I gave away what I have to someone who actually need it.