Jesus proposed that giving alms would clean the inside as well as the outside of the person, for it is easy just to wash the outside of a cup, while leaving the tea stains or coffee grounds on the inside.
Giving alms can be done superficially or out of guilt, but not with the love that purifies the act and cleanses the heart. To be effective, almsgiving or any good deed needs the foundation of a pure heart, the right reason for the act. As Fr. Richard Gula wrote: "Almsgiving corrects greed when we start from within to reach out beyond self-interest. Connecting hearts and hands in doing corporal works or mercy brings us to the deepest dimension of God's law of love." (Give Us This Day, October 15, 2019, p. 161). When we see our hands as the instruments through which God blesses the world, as St. Teresa of Avila said, we are working out of God's love, which alone gives worth to all things."
Bro. Rene
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