Mercy Toward the Poor

Main Idea of the Lecture

The lecture focuses on the importance of mercy toward the poor as an essential part of the spiritual life, especially connected with fasting, since true fasting cannot be separated from acts of mercy and giving.

Spiritual and Educational Dimension

His Holiness Pope Shenouda III explains that loving and helping the poor is not a secondary matter, but a fundamental commandment, because the Lord Christ considered the poor as His brethren, and even considered whatever is offered to them as if it were offered to Him personally.
Giving to the poor carries eternal weight, as the Holy Bible links mercy with a person’s eternal destiny, as stated in Matthew chapter 25.
Withholding giving, or holding back God’s rights such as tithes, is considered stealing from God, while mercy is regarded as lending to the Lord, who repays both on earth and in heaven.
The teaching emphasizes that giving should be from the best, with joy, and from the heart, not from what is useless or leftover.
It calls for daily training of the soul to give, and for raising children to practice generosity from an early age.
It also connects giving with hospitality to strangers and caring for orphans and widows, considering this the essence of pure religion.
The lecture concludes by affirming that true fasting is for a person to deprive himself in order to feed others, and that mercy is the practical path to loving God.

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