Lent 2025 – Sharing Hope - Alms

In the past weeks, I have written on fasting and on prayer – self-denial and our conversation with God, speaking and listening to the Lord as our Friend, Guide, and Healer. The third element of the classic Lenten trilogy is of course alms-giving.

First, a little catechesis. These three aspects of Lenten penitence come from Matthew’s Gospel heard each Ash Wednesday. Giving alms or donations to those in need will always be a form of self-denial in order to be attentive to and concretely help alleviate the needs of others. This comes from and strengthens compassion – to feel with another. But almsgiving also stands for a whole range of doing good, summarized as the works of mercy.

The Corporal Works of Mercy are taken largely from the scene of the Last Judgment in Matthew 25:31-46. They are things we do to help meet the physical, “bodily” (thus “corporal”) needs of others – for whatever we do for the least, we do for Christ. The Spiritual Works of Mercy are drawn from various texts, pointing us to other aspects of personal help we can offer to others in forming their minds and spirits.

The Corporal Works of Mercy

1) Feed the hungry.

2) Give drink to the thirsty.

3) Clothe the naked.

4) Visit those in prison.

5) Shelter the homeless.

6) Visit the sick.

7) Bury the dead.

The Spiritual Works of Mercy

1) Help sinners.

2) Teach the ignorant.

3) Give advice to the doubtful.

4) Comfort those who suffer.

5) Be patient with others.

6) Forgive injuries.

7) Pray for the living and the dead.

These broad categories sound abstract, but they come alive with our everyday opportunities for kindness. What matters most is not accumulating the number of these gestures of service, charity, and help, but what attitude we bring to them. They are intended to be acts of charity – and charity by definition in our theological tradition involves a relationship, a link between two persons.

Strictly speaking, then, charity is incomplete if we just drop a check in the mail or put in some time at the Food Shelf and feel satisfied with our own goodness. Of course such actions are good in themselves. But true charity gets us involved and engaged with the life and person of another, even if briefly. Pope Francis has described it simply but powerfully: when you give alms, do you look into the eyes of the other? Do you know his or her name? Do you pause to listen and understand? Do you offer not just some resources or platitudes, but time, compassion, a human gesture of care and concern?

Where justice gives to another what is due, mercy gives more good than is strictly due. The virtue of justice makes us fair, honest, and responsible persons. But mercy makes us like God.

This week, choose a work of mercy, do it, and make eye contact, and “heart” contact, with another person. Even a small act of mercy done sincerely will make the world a better place, and make you more like God.