The Point of Giving to the Poor, According to Thomas Aquinas
AVERY WEST
Member Engagement Director
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Everyone agrees we should give to the poor. But the compelling question is why?
A satisfactory answer requires more than the simple, “We should give because Christ tells us to.” While true, that stops short of prescribing how to give, leaving us with no further information about wise, effective giving. We must instead press deeper and ask, “For what purpose should I give to the poor?”
The world provides a broad range of answers. For example, Effective Altruists say the purpose of giving is:
the “prevention or alleviation of suffering and premature death resulting from poverty and disease that affect the greatest number of people.”
Others, such as liberation theologian Gustavo Guitierrez, claim Christians should desire:
“not only better living conditions, a radical change of structures, a social revolution; it is much more: the continuous creation, never-ending, of a new way to be a man…”
These modern definitions tend to emphasize the social end-product–that is, the type of world we’ll live in once charity is done correctly. Our Christian forefathers, on the other hand, focused on the spiritual benefit for the giver and the receiver in their discussions on almsgiving.
Saint Thomas Aquinas was a seminal voice in that discussion. Known for concise but complete summaries of other theologians’ positions combined with convincing arguments for his own, his Summa Theologica (“Summary of Theology,” written in the 13th century) is a worthy place to find insights that can inform our understanding of true charity.
In it, he parses complex ideas into smaller units that enable us to understand the whole. Drawing from my work with nonprofit and church leaders around the United States who work with the poor (the True Charity Network), I will suggest practical ways givers and ministry leaders can integrate Aquinas’ insights into their work.
In his section on charity, Aquinas summarizes the three purposes (or ends) of almsgiving:
The first (and most similar to many Americans’ instincts) is the alleviation of our neighbors’ needs. It’s important to note Aquinas understood such “works of mercy” as not only meeting physical needs such as food, drink, clothing, and shelter but spiritual needs for instruction, counsel, comfort, reproof, bearing with, and pardoning (ST II-II.32.2. corp.). That broader, more holistic understanding means poverty alleviation is complex and requires discernment, relationship, and time.
Thus, from the high-capacity giver to the weekly tither, each individual should prayerfully discern which ministries will steward our gifts well. Extending our focus beyond outputs (i.e., how many pounds of food we give away) to outcomes (how many people maintained a job for six months) is a helpful way to determine whether our money is being used to achieve the impact God desires. True Charity’s free “Giving Guide” provides seven questions to think through as you determine how to best meet the needs of the poor.
Charity leaders, on the other hand, can facilitate impactful giving by honestly evaluating their programs’ ability to help people thrive–and share those evaluations with donors.
Aquinas’s second end of giving is the spiritual fruit it produces in the giver. That said, he makes clear the amount given is no measure of one’s love for God or their neighbor, as evidenced by the widow who gave two coins, yet “more than all” (Mark 12:41-44). One’s motive is the measure of value, for it is only “insofar as a man gives corporal alms out of love for God and his neighbor” (ST II.II.32.4. corp.) that his actions actually bear fruit.
For Aquinas, almsgiving is a way of practicing the virtue of charity, or “the friendship of man for God” (ST II.II.23.1. corp.) This love of God actually “attains God,” meaning every act of love is an expression of the great truth that “it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me …” (Gal. 2:20). Thus we participate, however imperfectly, in the One who is Love”
Practically, this is a high bar for the giver: to allow God to love through him, and therefore participate in the very life of God with his act of giving. It requires abiding in Him (John 15:5) and denying ourselves (Phil. 2:1-8). As a start, we could consider how we interact with our neighbors when giving. Christ calls us to go beyond check-writing or even food-box packing. He calls us to deeply love our neighbors, which requires that we first know them. We should seek out opportunities to walk alongside them over time, share in their joys and sorrows, and in turn, allow them to share in ours.
Organizations are desperate for volunteers willing to invest that amount of time and emotional energy. The Cornerstone Initiative in Huntsville, AL and Innermission in Hammond, IN offer six-month mentoring programs which facilitate real charity between participants and volunteers. Adding a mentoring component to an existing program (for example, a soup kitchen or church benevolence ministry) can be a great first step toward the development of organic, loving friendships among people in your community.
Finally, Aquinas draws our attention to a third purpose in giving—one many modern poverty-alleviation groups overlook: spiritual fruit in the life of the receiver. He writes that almsgiving has this effect “inasmuch as our neighbor, who is succored [given relief] by a corporal alms, is moved to pray for his benefactor” (ST II.II.32.4. corp.). Put simply, receivers will be moved to pray for us when we give. (Aquinas mentions this effect in passing in another treatise, almost assuming that praying for the almsgiver is the norm). The best kind of charity will draw our neighbors in poverty toward the Lord as they go to Him in thanksgiving. For Aquinas, these prayers shouldn’t be a motivating factor for the giver, but rather are a final cause, an end, that should ideally occur.
How can we create a culture in which our poor neighbors are moved to pray for those who help? Mentoring creates friendships that can lend themselves to mutual prayer—though sometimes givers find it challenging to admit their struggles and ask for it. But this vulnerability is part of the true friendship God desires us to have with the poor.
Ministries in which donors are separated from their recipients can create opportunities for recipients’ gratitude and prayers. Good Samaritan Health Centers in Gwinnett, GA, lets any client who receives a scholarship know who provided it. They’re given a card and encouraged to “take this postcard and write a thank you note so that we can send it to the donor.” Personalizing gifts in this way fosters gratitude and, hopefully, an overflow of prayer. In this way, receivers become true givers of prayers to our Lord who “hears the cry of the poor” (Psalm 34:28).
As we discern which ministries to support with our time and money, we should keep Aquinas’ insights in mind and ponder these questions: (1) Does my giving alleviate the physical and spiritual needs of those I seek to serve? (2) Does it allow me to practice charity (i.e. the deepest form of love) toward God and neighbor? And finally, (3) Does it facilitate spiritual fruit (especially prayer) in the life of the receiver?
The organizations mentioned have built programs that not only meet the complex needs of the poor but facilitate the dignified receiving and giving relationship God wants for His people. As givers, we should carefully pray about our own purposes for giving, and choose to support ministries that accomplish them. In this way, our giving ceases to be transactional and instead becomes caritas—that is, graciousness empowered by the love of God and for others, without which our words would be nothing more than a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal (1 Corinthians 13:1).
This article is just the tip of the iceberg for practical resources available through the True Charity Network. Check out all the ways it can help you learn, connect, and influence here.
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