consolation. Woe to you that are filled: for you shall hunger. Woe to you that laugh now: for you shall mourn and weep. [1] Certainly, these words of God should cause the wealthy votaries of this world to tremble: but if they wished, their wealth itself could become for them a great means of salvation; they might redeem their sins and pay their terrible debt by abundant alms. Let my counsel, O king, be acceptable to thee, said Daniel to the proud Nabuchodonosor, and redeem thy sins with alms, and thy iniquities with works of mercy to the poor. [2] For alms deliver from all sin and from death, and will not suffer the soul to go into darkness. Alms shall be a great confidence before the Most High God to all them that give it, said Tobias to his son. [3] Our Saviour confirms all this, and goes even further when He says to the Pharisees, But yet that which remaineth, give alms; and behold all things are clean unto you. How great, then, is the folly of the rich, who have in hand so easy a means of ensuring their future spiritual welfare, and yet neglect to employ it! What folly not to make a good use of that fortune of which they shall have to render an account to God! What folly to go and bum in Hell or Purgatory, and leave a fortune to avaricious and ungrateful heirs, who will not bestow upon the departed so much as a prayer, a tear, or even a passing thought! But, on the contrary, how happy are those Christians who understand that they are but the dispensers, before God, of the goods which they have received from Him, who think only of disposing of them according to the designs of Jesus Christ, to whom they must render an account, and, in fine, who make use of them only to procure friends, defenders, and protectors in eternity!
St. Peter Damian, in one of his treatises, relates the following. [4] A Roman lord, named John Patrizzi, died. His life, although Christian, had been like that of the
