The seventh is that it gives confidence of attaining glory: Tobit chapter four: "Great confidence shall there be before the Most High God for those who give alms."
These seven effects belong to almsgiving itself, which is exercised both corporally and spiritually.
84. The works of corporal mercy are designated by this verse:
I visit, I give drink, I feed, I ransom, I clothe, I shelter, I bury.
Concerning these, except the last, the dispute at the judgment is treated in Matthew twenty-five; concerning the last, however, it is spoken of in Tobit two. - Now for almsgiving to have these efficacies, there is needed first simplicity in the heart: whence Matthew six: "But when you give alms, let not your left hand know, etc."
Second, discretion in choosing, according to that saying of Ecclesiasticus twelve: "If you do good, know to whom you do good."
Third, compassion in affection: Isaiah fifty-eight: "When you pour out your soul to the hungry, then shall your light rise in the darkness"; and Job thirty: "I wept for him who was afflicted, and my soul had compassion on the poor." - Fourth, sweetness in speech: Ecclesiasticus eighteen: "Does not the dew cool the heat? So a word is better than a gift."
- Fifth, cheerfulness in countenance: Ecclesiasticus thirty-five: "In every gift make your countenance cheerful"; the Psalm: "The man who shows mercy is joyful," etc.
Sixth, due measure in the gift: Tobit four: "As you are able, be merciful: if you have much," etc. - Seventh, swiftness in the work and its performance: Proverbs three: "Do not say to your friend: Go and come back," etc.
And then the almsgiving proceeds from the whole person, and thereby is acceptable and pleasing to God.
85. But woe to you, Pharisees, etc.
After the rebuke of duplicity, there is here subjoined against the double-minded and hypocrites a threatening of calamity: whence in Matthew twenty-three this determination is as it were added: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" And since these two classes of persons, namely the Pharisees and the scribes, especially feigned religiousness, therefore against these two classes he directs his invective — but in Matthew jointly, here however distinctly. Therefore this section has two parts. In the first he threatens woe upon the Pharisees themselves; in the second, upon the scribes or lawyers, at that place: And one of the lawyers answering, etc.
The threatening of eternal damnation is repeated three times against the Pharisees on account of a threefold cause, namely on account of negligence, on account of arrogance, and on account of fraudulence, so that negligence consists in the omission of good, arrogance in the commission of evil, and fraudulence in the concealment of evil and the display of good.
86. (Vers. 42.). First, therefore, he threatens the Pharisees with eternal punishment on account of negligence, by which, intent upon the least things, they omitted the greatest. And this, when he says: But woe to you Pharisees: who tithe mint and rue and every herb, as though you were greatly intent upon the fulfillment of the divine commandments: whence below in the eighteenth chapter the Pharisee boasted: "I give tithes of all that I possess." But nevertheless they were not justified by this on account of their omission of the best things; whence he adds: And you pass over every judgment and the charity of God, that is, justice and mercy. And this is what God most requires, according to that passage of Micah 6: "I will show you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: namely, to do judgment and to love mercy." And this he calls charity: Zechariah 7: "Judge true judgment and show mercy and compassion, each one with his neighbor"; so that there is judgment with respect to oneself, and charity or mercy with respect to one's neighbor.
Or, by judgment may be understood the divine precept, according to that passage of the Psalm: "The judgments of the Lord are true, justified in themselves" etc.; charity however is called the end of the precept and its fulfillment; First Timothy 1: "The end of the precept is charity" etc.
Or, by judgment may be understood the judicial precepts, according to that passage of Exodus 21: "These are the judgments which you shall set before them: If you buy a servant" etc.; by charity, the moral precepts: whence Romans 13: "He who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the Law. For You shall not kill" etc. He reproves them, therefore, because on account of the ceremonial precepts they were neglecting the judicial and moral precepts, which were to be observed with greater solicitude.
And therefore he adds: But these things it was necessary to do, namely judgment and charity first and principally; whence Hosea 6: "I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offering." And not to omit those things, because, Sirach 19, "he who despises small things shall fall little by little"; and Ecclesiastes 7: "He who fears God neglects nothing."
87. (Vers. 43.). Second, he repeats this threatening on account of arrogance, when he adds: Woe to you Pharisees: because " you love the first seats in the synagogues, with regard to the ambition for dignities. Whence the Gloss: "He reproves arrogance, because they sought primacies." But this is not to be sought: whence Sirach 7: "Do not seek leadership from man nor the seat of honor from the king." For such a seat is not one of true excellence, but rather of pestilence, according to that passage of the Psalm: "Blessed is the man who has not sat in the seat of pestilence"; upon which nevertheless the scribes and Pharisees sat: yet as unworthy, because they had words but not fitting deeds. Whence it is said in Matthew 23: "The scribes and Pharisees have sat upon the seat of Moses; do what they say, but do not act according to their works."
And because the appetite for praise follows upon the ambition for dignity, He therefore adds: And greetings in the marketplace, that is, praises in the sight of many, so that they might appear more honorable than the rest: whence Matthew twenty-three: "They love greetings in the marketplace and to be called rabbi by men." Whence here they are reproved, because they sought vain glory, on account of which they did not even dare to confess the truth they knew, according to that passage in John twelve: "Yet many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess it, lest they be cast out of the synagogue. For they loved the glory of men more than the glory of God."
From which it is clear that we ought entirely to despise praises and honors according to the divine pattern, not to seek them after the manner of the Pharisees. For he who loves these things, as Jerome says, is not a disciple of Christ, but a scribe and Pharisee. For Christ, when He was sought for kingship, "fled to the mountain," John six; when He was praised, He withdrew into the desert to pray, above in chapter five.
88. (Verse 44). Thirdly, He repeats this denunciation on account of fraudulence, when He adds: Woe to you!, who are as monuments that do not appear, namely as to what they are within, because they are fetid and unclean within, but outwardly they are beautiful: whence He adds: And men walking over them know it not. Such are hypocrites, who though they are evil within, outwardly appear perfect: whence they are rightly called sepulchres, according to that passage of the Psalm: "Their throat is an open sepulchre, with their tongues" etc. And therefore they are not children of the Bridegroom, nay rather entirely the opposite. For in Song of Songs one: "I am black, but beautiful"; these, however, are white, yet fetid: therefore they are rightly called monuments: whence Matthew twenty-three: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you are like whitewashed sepulchres, which outwardly appear beautiful to men, but within are full of the bones of the dead and all uncleanness." Whence Chrysostom: "The bodies of the just are called temples, but the bodies of sinners are called sepulchres, because within is a dead soul: for that soul is not to be considered alive which has done nothing living, that is, nothing spiritual, in the body." And afterwards: "Tell me, hypocrite, if it is good to be good, why do you not wish to be what you wish to appear? Moreover, what is shameful to appear is more shameful to be. Therefore either be what you appear, or appear as what you are."
From these words of the Lord it can be gathered who those are who ought to be judged hypocrites, namely those in whom negligence, arrogance, and fraudulence reign. These moreover are those who prefer the least things to the greatest, the transitory to the eternal, appearances to realities. But to judge concerning these things belongs not to any man whatsoever, but to Christ, who looks upon the heart, according to that passage in First Corinthians four: "Judge not before the time, until the Lord comes, who will illuminate the hidden things of darkness" etc. For the Lord does not reprove goodness that is apparent and evident, but goodness that is sophistical and non-existent.
89. But a certain one of the lawyers answering etc. After He threatened woe to the Pharisees, here secondly He threatens the lawyers, and this for three reasons: first, on account of sloth against the truth of life; second, on account of perfidy against the truth of justice, at: Woe to you who build the monuments: third, on account of deceit against the truth of doctrine, at: Woe to you lawyers, who have taken away the key etc. For this threefold truth ought especially to be found in doctors of the Law, but in the lawyers there was nothing but hypocrisy.
In threatening Gehenna, therefore, on account of sloth, first there is set forth the display of authority, second there is joined the threat of calamity.
90. (Verse 45.). First, therefore, as regards the display of authority on the part of the lawyer, it is said: But a certain one of the lawyers answering, who, namely, seemed to himself to be expert, according to that saying of Isaiah 5: "Woe to you who are wise in your own eyes and prudent before yourselves." And because such men seem to themselves learned and great, they therefore consider it an insult to be reproved by anyone. On account of which he adds: He said to him: Master, in saying these things you insult us also, which he would not say unless from conscience he felt that he similarly transgressed, and from pride was unwilling to be reproved; whence it could be said to him, from Romans 2: "You are confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light of those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants." "You therefore who teach another, do you not teach yourself?" They consider sound doctrine an insult, because, as is said in Proverbs 18, "the fool does not receive words of prudence, unless you say those things which revolve in his heart." And truly such a one was a fool, who reckoned himself learned, since Proverbs 26: "Have you seen a man who seems wise to himself? A fool will have more hope than he."