Five paths of repentance from St. John Chrysostom

In a homily quoted in this morning’s Office of the Readings, St. John Chryostom lists five paths of repentance.

They are:

1. Condemnation of our own sins
2. Forgiveness of our neighbor’s sins against us
3. Prayer
4. Almsgiving
5. Humility

He expounds on each, with what I highlighted here:

1. “A man who condemns his own sin is slower to commit them again.”
2. “To put out of our mind the harm done by our enemies, in order to master our anger and to forgive our fellow servants’ sins against us. Then our own sins against the Lord will be forgiven us.”
3. “Prayer that is fervent and careful and comes from the heart.”
4. “Power is great and far-reaching.”
5. “Modest humble life takes sin away.” He then mentions “the tax collector who had no good deeds to mention, but offered his humility instead and was relieved of a heavy burden of sins.”

The first two sound familiar from the Lord’s Prayer, don’t they? The third also is reminiscent of James 5:16: “The fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful.”  The fifth, while not reminiscent of anything in particular — at least to me– just seems to make sense. The fourth, though, almsgiving?

I admit I stumbled a bit here. First, I had to give myself a refresher from Merriam Webster online as to the definition of almsgiving, which referred back to the word alms:

Main Entry:
alms Listen to the pronunciation of alms
Pronunciation:
\ˈä(l)mz\
Function:
noun
Inflected Form(s):
plural alms
Etymology:
Middle English almesse, almes, from Old English ælmesse, ælmes, from Late Latin eleemosyna alms, from Greek eleēmosynē pity, alms, from eleēmōn merciful, from eleos pity
Date:
before 12th century

1archaic : charity2: something (as money or food) given freely to relieve the poor
- alms·giv·er \-ˌgi-vər\ noun
- alms·giv·ing \-ˌgi-viŋ\ noun

“Poverty is not an obstacle to our carrying out the Lord’s bidding, even when it comes to that path of repentance which involves giving money (almsgiving, I mean). The widow proved that when she put her two mites in the box!” St. John Chrysosthom writes.

And Jesus Himself says in his introduction to the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:1-4:

(But) take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father. When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.

But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your almsgiving may be secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

The most generous people, both in terms of money and often of love, are those who don’t wish to be recognized. I think it is a model to which we all should seek to live: to live like a Christian, not with a blaring trumpet, but with our daily lives, quietly, to paraphrase Max Ehrmann, “going placidly amid the noise and haste.”

Lord, let me walk these five paths of repentances daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, all the rest of my years to “attain the eternal blessings through the gracy, mercy and kindness of Jesus Christ, our Lord,” as St. John Chrysosthom writes. Amen.