Give from your last loaf and God will repay
Basil is addressing his congregation directly, urging them to give even from extreme scarcity, and then describes the physical horror of famine to shame those who pass by the starving.
Do not hesitate to give from the little you have. Do not put your own advantage ahead of the common danger. Even if your food is reduced to a single loaf, and a beggar stands at your door, bring out that one loaf from the storeroom, place it in your hands, raise them toward heaven, and say a prayer that is both pitiful and gracious: “One loaf, Lord, as you see, and the danger is plain. But I set your commandment before my own need, and from the little I have I give to my starving brother. Give, then, to your servant in danger. I know your goodness; I trust also in your power. You do not postpone your favors to a later time, but you scatter your gifts whenever you will.” If you speak and act in this way, the loaf you give from your straitened circumstances becomes seed for a harvest; it brings forth abundant fruit, a pledge of food, a means of obtaining mercy. Say also the words of the widow of Zarephath in similar circumstances, remembering the story at the right moment: “As the Lord lives, this is all I have in my house for food for myself and my children” (1 Kings 17:12). If you give from what is lacking, you too will have the oil jar overflowing by grace, and the flour jar never empty. For toward the faithful, God’s grace is generous and imitates wells that are always being emptied and never drawn dry, bringing back double in return. Lend, you who are poor, to the rich God. Trust the one who always receives on his own account on behalf of the afflicted, and who repays the favor from his own resources. He is a trustworthy guarantor, with hoarded wealth spread out over every land and sea. Even if you demand repayment while sailing, you will receive the principal with interest in the middle of the ocean. For he is generous in his additions.
The sickness of the starving is famine, a pitiful suffering. Famine is the chief of human disasters; it is an end more wretched than every death. In other dangers, either the edge of a sword brings death swiftly, or the rush of fire quickly extinguishes life, or wild beasts tear apart the vital members with their teeth and do not let their victim be tormented by lingering pain. But famine holds its evil inert, with lingering agony, a disease that sits within and nests there, a death always present and always slowing. It consumes the natural moisture; it chills the heat; it shrinks the body’s bulk; it gradually withers the strength. The flesh lies around the bones like a spider’s web. The skin has no bloom. The redness flees as the blood wastes away; the whiteness is gone, since the surface darkens with leanness. The body is livid, pitifully mixed from the suffering with pallor and blackness. The knees cannot bear weight but are dragged along by force. The voice is thin and weak. The eyes grow feeble in their hollows, lying uselessly in their sockets like acorns dried in their husks. The belly is empty, collapsed, and shapeless, with no bulk, no natural tension of the inward parts, plastered to the bones of the back. The one who passes by such a body—how many punishments does he deserve? What excess of cruelty will he leave undone? How is he not worthy to be numbered among the savage beasts, and to be seen as accursed and a murderer? For the one who has the cure for the evil in his power, but willingly postpones it out of greed, would rightly be condemned on the same terms as those who kill with their own hands.
Greek
Μὴ ὀκνήσῃς ἐκ τοῦ ὀλίγου δοῦναι· μὴ προτιμήσῃς τὸ σὸν συμφέρον ἐκ τοῦ κοινοῦ κινδύνου. Κἂν εἰς ἕνα ἄρτον περιστῇ ἡ τροφὴ, ἐπιστῇ δὲ ταῖς θύραις ὁ ζητῶν, προκόμισον ἐκ τοῦ ταμιείου τὸν ἕνα, καὶ ἐπιθεὶς ταῖς χερσὶ πρὸς οὐρανὸν ἀνατείνας, εἰπὲ λόγον ἐλεεινὸν ὁμοῦ καὶ εὐγνώμονα· Εἷς ἄρτος, ὃν ὁρᾷς, Κύριε, καὶ ὁ κίνδυ νος προφανὴς, ἀλλ' ἐγὼ τὴν σὴν ἐντολὴν ἐμοῦ προ τίθημι, καὶ ἐκ τοῦ ὀλίγου δίδωμι τῷ λιμώττοντι ἀδελφῷ· δὸς δὴ καὶ σὺ τῷ κινδυνεύοντι δούλῳ. Οἶδά σου τὴν ἀγαθότητα, θαῤῥῶ καὶ τῇ δυνάμει· οὐχ ὑπερτίθεσαι εἰς χρόνον τὰς χάριτας, ἀλλὰ σκεδαννύεις, ὅταν ἐθέλῃς, τὰς δωρεάς. Κἂν οὕτως εἴπῃς καὶ πράξῃς, ὃν δίδως ἐκ τῆς στενώσεως ἄρτον, σπέρμα γίνεται γεωργίας, πολύχουν ἀπογεννᾷ τὸν καρπὸν, ἀῤῥαβὼν τῆς τροφῆς, ἐλέου πρόξενος. Εἰπὲ καὶ σὺ τῆς χήρας τῆς Σιδωνίας ῥῆμα ἐν τοῖς ὁμοίοις, εὐκαίρως τῆς ἱστορίας μνημόνευσον· Ζῇ Κύριος, ὅτι τοῦτον ἔχω ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ μου μόνον εἰς διατροφὴν ἐμοὶ καὶ τοῖς παιδίοις. Κἂν δῷς ἐκ τοῦ λείπον τος, ἕξεις καὶ σὺ τὸν καμψάκην τοῦ ἐλαίου τῇ χάριτι βρύοντα· τὴν ὑδρίαν τῶν ἀλεύρων ἀκένωτον. Ἐπὶ γὰρ τῶν πιστῶν φιλότιμος ἡ τοῦ Θεοῦ χάρις μιμεῖται τὰ φρέατα, τὰ ἀεὶ κενούμενα, καὶ μὴ ἐξαντλούμενα, τὸ διπλοῦν ἀντεισάγουσα. Δάνεισον, ὁ ἄπορος, τῷ πλουσίῳ Θεῷ. Πίστευσον τῷ ἀεὶ εἰς πρόσωπον ἴδιον ὑπὲρ τοῦ θλιβομένου λαμβάνοντι, καὶ οἴκοθεν ἀποδιδόντι τὴν χάριν. Ἀξιόπιστος ἐγγυητὴς, παν ταχοῦ γῆς καὶ θαλάττης ἡπλωμένους ἔχων τοὺς θη σαυρούς. Καὶ πλέων ἐὰν ἀπαιτήσῃς τὸ δάνεισμα, λήψῃ ἐπὶ μέσου πελάγους σὺν τόκοις τὸ κεφάλαιον. Φιλοτιμεῖται γὰρ ἐν ταῖς προσθήκαις. Τὸ τοῦ λιμώττοντος νόσημα, λιμὸς, οἰκτρὸν πά θος ἐστί. Λιμὸς ἀνθρωπίνων συμφορῶν ὑπάρχει τὸ κεφάλαιον, πάντων θανάτων μοχθηρότερον τέλος οὗ τος. Ἐπὶ μὲν γὰρ τῶν ἄλλων κινδύνων, ἢ ξίφους ἀκμὴ τὴν τελευτὴν ὀξέως ἐφίστησιν, ἢ πυρὸς ὁρμὴ συντόμως τὸ ζῇν ἀποσβέννυσιν, ἢ θηρία, τοῖς ὀδοῦσι διασπαράξαντα ὅσα καίρια τῶν μελῶν, οὐ συγχωρεῖ τῇ παρολκῇ τῆς ὀδύνης τιμωρηθῆναι. Λιμὸς δὲ ἀργὸν ἔχει τὸ κακὸν, παρέλκουσαν τὴν ἀλγηδόνα, ἐγκαθημένην τὴν νόσον καὶ ἐμφωλεύουσαν, θάνατον ἀεὶ παρόντα, καὶ ἀεὶ βραδύνοντα. Τὸ γὰρ κατὰ φύσιν ὑγρὸν ἐκδαπανᾷ· τὸ θερμὸν καταψύχει· τὸν ὄγκον συστέλλει· τὴν δύναμιν κατ' ὀλίγον ἀπομαραίνει. Ἡ σὰρξ ὡς ἀράχνιον τοῖς ὀστέοις περίκειται. Ὁ χροῦς ἄνθος οὐκ ἔχει. Τὸ μὲν γὰρ ἐρυθρὸν φεύγει, ἐκτηκομένου τοῦ αἵματος· τὸ λευκὸν οὐκ ἔστι, τῇ ἰσχνότητι τῆς ἐπιφανείας μελαινομένης· πελιδνὸν δὲ τὸ σῶμα, ὠχρότητι καὶ τῷ μέλανι ἐλεεινῶς ἐκ τοῦ πάθους κιρνώμενον· γόνατα οὐ βαστάζοντα, ἀλλὰ πρὸς βίαν ἑλκόμενα. Φωνὴ λεπτὴ καὶ ἀδρανής· ὀφθαλμοὶ ἐνασθενοῦντες ταῖς κοιλότησιν, εἰκῆ ταῖς θήκαις ἐναποκείμενοι, ὡς τὰ τοῖς ἐλύτροις ἐμψυγέντα τῶν ἀκροδρύων. Γαστὴρ κενὴ καὶ συμπεπτωκυῖα, καὶ ἄμορφος, οὐκ ὄγκον, οὐ φυσικὴν τῶν σπλάγχνων ἐπίτασιν ἔχουσα, τοῖς ὀστέοις δὲ τοῦ νώτου προσπεπλασμένη. Ὁ οὖν τοιοῦτον σῶμα παρατρέχων πόσων κολάσεων ἄξιος; τίνα δὲ ὠμότητος ὑπερβολὴν κατα λείψει; πῶς δὲ οὐκ ἄξιος τοῖς ἀνημέροις τῶν θηρίων συναριθμεῖσθαι, ὁρᾶσθαι δὲ ἐναγὴς καὶ ἀνδροφόνος; Ὁ γὰρ ἔχων ἐν ἐξουσίᾳ τὴν τοῦ κακοῦ θεραπείαν, ἑκὼν δὲ καὶ πρὸς πλεονεξίαν ὑπερτιθέμενος, εἰκότως ἂν ἐν τῷ ἴσῳ τῶν αὐτοχείρων καταδικάζοιτο.