Pints With Aquinas - Should I Give Money to Poor People? | Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P.

Episode Date: December 2, 2023

You're walking through the city when a disheveled looking man stops you and asks for money. What should you do? 🟣 Join Us on Locals (before we get banned on YT): https://mattfradd.locals.com/ 📖 Fr. Pine's Book: https://bit.ly/3lEsP8F 🖥️ Website: https://pintswithaquinas.com/ 🟢 Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/pintswithaquinas 👕 Merch: https://shop.pintswithaquinas.com 🚫 FREE 21 Day Detox From Porn Course: https://www.strive21.com/ 🔵 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mattfradd 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattfradd We get a small kick back from affiliate links

Hello, my name is Fr. Gregory Pine and I'm a Dominican friar in the province of St. Joseph. I teach at the Dominican House of Studies and I work as an assistant director for the Thomistic Institute. And this is Pines with Aquinas. I suspect that all of us have had the experience of walking through a town or a city and being approached and asked for money or for something else. And then you have to make a decision. Okay so maybe you do the same thing every time like you give five dollars or

you give a granola bar or whatever or maybe it's circumstance dependent like you know if the person has an iPhone 15 then I will not give anything but if the person doesn't have an iPhone 15 then I will give something. I have known people who act in this way. Or it might be that you're just totally bewildered by the experience and you're like, ah, and then you act out of haste or embarrassment or whatever else.

So this video is for you because it's worthwhile to think about the virtues which inform our practice and then the different ways in which we are responsible or encouraged to go beyond our ordinary responsibility, and then ultimately, you know, like we want to grow in sanctity, and this is an integral feature of that transformation. So let's think about it together. Here we go. All right, so let's start first by talking about mercy because mercy is the virtue which is at work here With the backing of charity, but we'll talk first about mercy

So mercy is one of these cool things where it's a divine attribute Which is to say God is merciful and a human virtue which is to say we can be merciful should we so choose? So it has different expressions in God and in man. We'll talk about the expression it takes in man. So there are two features to mercy. So first, one perceives the misery of another and it cuts him to the quick. And he says, oh, that's brutal, right? So the word for mercy in Latin misericordia, you've probably heard this before, a little Latin word trick, just means miserable of heart. So the first kind of feature of first dimension is pity in effect. So you, from a kind of superior position, see the other in a kind of inferior position

in the midst of their difficulty and you feel sad. But then there's a second feature or a second dimension whereby from your position of relative superiority, that doesn't mean that you're like a better human being, it just might mean that you're not experiencing this misery at present and you have the resources to help. So the second feature or dimension of mercy is that you would use those resources to help. So you would exercise power to help alleviate the misery that the other is experiencing at present. Alright, so these dimensions are at work in human mercy. The first dimension isn't in divine mercy, because God doesn't have emotions, and God

doesn't change, but we're not going to let that trouble us for the present. Okay, so mercy is expressed in certain deeds, okay, which you may have heard called alms deeds in oldie timey speech, which you've probably heard described as spiritual and corporal works of mercy. That'd be more normal. So we'll gloss over the spiritual works of mercy because we're gonna talk about the corporal works of mercy here and I don't want this to be too long. So you've heard them in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 25, verses like 31 through 46, check my math there, where the Lord separates

the sheep and the goats. And the standard upon which they are judged is the corporal works of mercy. And so he lists feeding the hungry and giving drink to the thirsty, and clothing the naked and, you know, welcoming the stranger and visiting the ill and those who are in prison.

And then the tradition adds bearing the dead. So you have seven, seven corporal and seven spiritual. And like I said, mercy here is, is backed by charity. So charity is just the love of God poured into our hearts. Okay? So it's God's own love with which we are then blessed to love and we love both God and neighbor. Not as like separate categories or separate things, but in so far as like we love God and we love our neighbor in God and we love our neighbor unto God. So by that I mean like when you love God and we love our neighbor in God and we love our neighbor unto God.

So by that I mean like when you love God you love everything that God loves. Like when you love a person a lot you take up his or her interests and you follow his or her pursuits, etc. So too with God. When you love God you love all that God loves and that would include our neighbors. But you also love our neighbor unto God. In the sense that like you love your neighbor, you come before your neighbor, you see him, you know him, you love him, and you conduct him by that love unto God who is the highest

good, who is the ultimate end, who is most beloved friend. So charity is a virtue which issues in various acts like joy, like peace, and like mercy, which is itself a virtue. Okay? So when we talk about charity, it's something that's required of us, right? So it's a matter of precept or a matter of command. It's not an optional feature of Christianity. It's just Christianity. So like when our Lord is asked by a scholar of the law, what is the greatest commandment? He responds with Deuteronomy 6 and Leviticus 19, you shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, mind, soul, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself. So on this rests the whole of the law and the prophets.

So what we're talking about here is mercy as an expression of charity, which is required of us by command or by precept. So we're responsible for loving God and loving our neighbor in God and unto God. So then, how should I comport myself when it comes to those who approach me and ask for money? Well, like we said, love of neighbor is a matter of precept. So it's an expression of love of God. It's also meant to end or to end up in the love of God. But it's also called for by the embodied

logic of love. So if I say I love God but don't love my neighbor, then I'm a liar and the truth is not in me, says the first letter of John. So love, if it's true love, it will come to full embodied expression. All right? So we typically identify two features that work in love, benevolence, which is willing the good, and beneficence, which is doing the good. And it's not like benevolence is enough and if you have extra time then beneficence will do. No.

On account of the fact that we're body-soul composites, we're just one thing, body and soul, then love is always going to take on body-soul dimensions. It's always going to have a spiritual and a corporal element. So this is just how love works itself out in human life. So we don't just wish the good to another, we also bring it about. And this is of necessity for salvation. So I've quoted this line before and I love this line, I go back to it with some frequency. But Archbishop Charles Chaput is quoted as saying, you know, God has given the rich to

the poor to supply for their, that is the poor's, needs. God has given the poor to the rich to keep them, that is the rich, from going to hell." Okay, so what then are we responsible for when it concerns those who ask us for money? Well, St. Thomas actually, he poses this question and he answers it in very sober fashion. He says, you're responsible for giving your excess or your superfluum in his cool Latin language, right? Forgiving what goes beyond your need, right? Once you've taken care of yourself and those who are dependent upon you. Now that introduces the question of like how much should I save for their college education

and things like that. Okay, we're not going to get into those weeds. That's further conversation so we can follow up. But you're responsible for giving from your excess, your superfluities, your superfluum, once you've taken care of yourself and of your dependence. And he'll say, okay so that's from your side of things, but then on the other side of things, it's necessary that the other have some genuine need, okay? So on your side superfluity, that word is so hard for me to say. Moving on Gregory.

And on the other side, genuine need. So here's the thing too, you're not bound by every need. You're bound by the need of those that are closest to you, those who present themselves to you, those for whom you are in some way, shape or form responsible. Whether because they pertain to your community or they pertain to your church or they live on your block or whatever else. So this then is a matter of precept. This is required of us. We have to give what is extra, what is superfluous, and we have to tend to their need. Now the things that go beyond that, they don't fall under precept they fall under counsel which is to say

They're not necessary strictly speaking for our salvation, but they can help promote or advance our salvation They can facilitate our salvation so like an example of the differentiation between precept and counsel would be you know love You're you know you're required to love bycept, counsel would be like the evangelical counsels, the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience that religious people make. They don't have to make those things, but they do those so that they can progress in charity. So St. Thomas will add that it's probably not smart to give out of what you need to live. So this would be like going beyond superfluity and getting into necessity.

Because in a certain sense that would be to kind of kill yourself. Now that's dramatic to put it in those terms, but you get where I'm going. Now he'll admit the possibility that something like that might happen, right? Or that you might do so heroically. Like if you pertain to a body politic or to a church and there's somebody of greater something like that might happen, right? Or that you might do so heroically. Like, if you pertain to a body politic or to a church and there is somebody of greater importance, not in that they have a greater human dignity than you, but that they occupy a status or they exercise a role which pertains more immediately and urgently to the common good, you might

give of your necessity so as to promote the good of that particular individual as a way by which to promote the common good of the whole polity or of the whole church. Okay? And there's also a sense in which, like, you know, there can be moments of evangelical madness. I think here of some of the stories of the early Franciscans. One that I love, and this might be apocryphal, so check me if I'm wrong, but there was a particular friar, one of the early brethren, who was known for giving all of his possessions away and doing so gleefully, joyfully.

And at one point he was charged with the care of the convent to which he was assigned, and the other brothers left whether to beg or to preach, I forget. And they're like, please, don't give everything away. And he's like, so they came back and he had given everything away. You know, all the furnishings, right? All their possessions. And he was seated in the middle of the floor, naked. Right, so is that required of you by precept?

No, is it kind of fun by way of counsel? I mean, I don't know. In certain circumstances, it might be imprudent. But if like Franciscan perfect joy isn't bridging on imprudence. It's not Franciscan perfect Joy, it's just just that awesome. I have great respect for it So I think that there can be a kind of evangelical madness which informs The love of those who dispossessed themselves in radical fashion and you think here for instance of st Francis of Assisi who dispossessed himself of everything of his fathers in the sight of God and men when he first endeavored to live this evangelical

life. So yeah, you can also, St. Thomas draws this cool distinction between what you need to live and what you need to live well. So there's certain things he says that are good good for your state, right, or for your office. They're part of the dignity of your state or office and you need to be able to have X, Y, and Z things in order to live your state or office well. And he says, yeah, I mean, probably good

to give these things away in certain cases. Like when you had a religious life, give them all away. Or when you can easily recover the goods that you give, give them all away. Or in extreme need of a, you know, whether it be a private person or the common good, yeah, go for it, give them all away. So here, you know, he's thinking of his medieval world and he's thinking about those who occupy states or offices which require the possession and the disposition of worldly goods, of temporal goods, because they're required to provide for a variety of people in their court, perhaps, or otherwise.

And so he's thinking in those terms. And so here it just helps us to suss out further the distinction between kind of precept and counsel and that what we're required to do and then what we can do, what we might be called to do. But I think it's genuinely a call. I think it's genuinely a call. So we shouldn't just assume that God will support us in our need and we should give away all of our possessions at the slightest provocation, because it could be a way of

actually tempting God, of not taking sufficient responsibility in prudence for our own temporal care with an eye to our eternal salvation, which God wants us to do because he's given us a mind with which to know and a heart with which to love and he wants us to progress in our use of both. All right? So we can't just hide behind a kind of recklessness which is in fact an empty-headedness, okay? So, but I do think that these instances of evangelical madness are a good check on a kind of overly scrupulous worldly prudence which doesn't look towards heaven and doesn't have an eye towards kind of God's thoughts on the matter, which we need to have always before us.

So, St. Thomas will ask some further questions when it comes to alms deeds and they help us to think about these issues still yet more so he'll say for instance, okay Like I mean if the thing that you're about to give away is something that you stole you can't give it away You have to make restitution first because it belongs to somebody else or if you know like the money that you're gonna give away you actually got by ill means or Unsavory means he talks about prostitution, but like let's say that you have a business where you sell pirated, I don't know, movies and like you're going to give that away. Yeah, okay, go for it, right? Because in that case it's really hard to make restitution.

Maybe you've tried to make restitution by giving an appropriate amount of money to a charity but there's still so much that you have. Okay, yeah, give it away. That could be a good way to do it because there's not a clear person to whom the money ought to be restored. Or like, you know, if you're in charge of somebody else's possessions or somebody else's currency, somebody else's money, you can't give that because it's not yours. So St. Thomas is just asking these kind of occasional questions to further clarify what it is for which we're responsible and how to go about it.

And he says in the end, you know, be abundant in your generosity, spread the love to many people because you don't want to just like make it such that you were once rich and now like there's one other person who was formerly poor, who is now rich. No, you want to tend to the need of those whom you can serve from your superfluity. Wow. Terrible. All right. So then concretely speaking, what do you do with a poor person? I think there are a variety of things that you can do

as genuine expressions of a prudent mercy in love. So you might give $5 to the person. You might just have a stockeage of $5 bills that you set aside at the beginning of the month. Maybe you have 10 of them from the beginning of the month, and then the first ten people who ask you You give them a five dollar bill and then the remainder you say I have exhausted my store for the month But I will restock at the beginning and I'll be on the lookout for you or you might get you know food

You know you might get cliff bars or granola bars and say like I typically don't give money But does this help you in any way shape or form? What I do is I have a little bit of money at my disposition each month, and when people ask me I'll say, I don't, yeah, I can't give money, but I'll buy you something, you know, with a credit card at the convenience store, and I do up to $10, and I can usually do that

a couple of times a month. And yeah, but like in all of these settings, it's not just transactional, okay? It's also an opportunity to humanize the situation because like, what are we talking about here? You have feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, but also like clothing the naked, welcoming the stranger. I mean, these things are humanizing acts, right?

So you're looking to know the person's name, to greet them by name, maybe to have a conversation, maybe to engage beyond that. All right. Now you're not going to be able to at every opportunity. Sometimes you got to get to a meeting. But I think that if the determining factor as to whether or not we give or don't is haste or embarrassment or the fact that we have AirPods in and we just don't care

to take them out, it's not good, you know, because I think that Christ calls us to deeper relationship with him, right? And with all those who are in him and unto him. So yeah, we're trying to devise means given what is commanded and given what is counseled so as best to seek the face of God, to seek his kingdom and his righteousness such that all these things might be added to us besides and that we could ultimately love well because yeah in the evening of life we will be judged on love alone says Saint John of the Cross. Okay that is what I wanted to share so I hope that is

helpful to you as I move around in my chair and cause my autofocus to freak out and but this is Pines with the Quinas if you haven't yet, please do subscribe to the channel, push the bell, and get sweet email updates when other things come out. I also contribute to a podcast called God Splitting with Four of the Dominican Friars, which I think is pretty darn good. So you can check that out for all kinds of interesting 30-minute conversations on Thursdays and guest episodes and some special Alexia Davina episodes in Advent. And I wrote a book, it's called Prudence.

Choose confidently, live boldly. It's all about practical wisdom, so it's about thinking through things and making decisions and trying to do so with a monocle of certainty and confidence. So helpful for this theme and many others besides. So yeah, I look forward to future conversations. Know of my prayers for you, please pray for me, and we'll chat again on Pines with Aquinas.