Come, you, blessed of my Father, receive a kingdom

Come, you, blessed of my Father, receive a kingdom


 

What are we to receive? A kingdom. For doing what? 'I was hungry and you fed me.' What is more ordinary, more of this world, than to feed the hungry, and yet it rates the Kingdom of Heaven!

'Feed the hungry, take the homeless into your house, clothe the naked.' But what if you can't afford bread for the hungry, or have no house nor spare clothes? Give a cup of cold water, put two pence in the alms box. The poor widow gave as much with her two pennies as Zacchaeus did with half his fortune.

What you have is the measure of your gift. Yet many give alms to a beggar to show off, and not because they love their brother.

You stand before God: ask your own heart, look at what you did and why you did it: was it for the empty praise of men? Look at your heart, because you cannot judge what you do not see.


So, beloved, let us search our hearts in God's presence: you can hide from man, but not from God.
 

Flee to God himself if you want to run away from him; flee by confessing, not by hiding; say to him, 'You are my refuge', and so let the love which alone brings life grow within you.

DAILY READING WITH
St Augustine --- The Heart at Rest