User:Balenceinall/sandbox

--Balenceinall (talk) 20:31, 8 July 2014 (UTC)

Giving to the Poor

Ambrose held that giving to the poor should be based on a strong sense of human solidarity. The poor should not be seen as outsiders. He went out of his way to make sure that Christians did not see almsgiving as a condescending gesture. Instead they were to see it as a gracious repayment to their fellow humans of an ancient debt. Ambrose wrote the following in De Nabuthae: It is not anything of yours that you are bestowing on the poor; rather you are giving back something of theirs. For you alone are usurping what was given in common for the use of all. The earth belongs to everyone, not to the rich…. Hence Scripture say to you: Incline your soul to the poor, give back what is owed, And answer him with peaceable words in gentleness (Sirach / Ecclesiasticus 4:8) . Ambrose was referring back to a time of innocence, when the earth was the possession of all, and God had provided food for everyone in common, and before usurping greed had established private rights. <ref>{{Citation | S. Ambrosii | De officiis | translator | first = Ivor J. | last = Davidson | publisher = Oxford University Press year = 2001 | at 1.28.132, page 194.

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