Almsgiving atones for sins?

[chosunhoon]

Can someone explain this to me?

Sirach 3:30 says:

Water extinguishes a blazing fire: so almsgiving atones for sin.

Tobit 4:10 also says:

Because that alms do deliver from death, and suffereth not to come into darkness.

Doesn’t all this go against the Church’s teaching about salvation via grace?

 

[Timidity]

chosunhoon:

Doesn’t all this go against the Church’s teaching about salvation via grace?

Um, those are Old Testament quotes, of course, written for people in the pre-Messianic era.

But even in the modern Church almsgiving is a preferred act of penance.

Think of almsgiving as the obvious reply to “the love of money is the root of all evil.” It’s a discipline that shows a greater love of one’s neighbor than one’s money.

 

[Fidelis]

Here is the commentary in the Catechism of the Catholic Church which references Tobit 4:5-11:

2447 The works of mercy are charitable actions by which we come to the aid of our neighbor in his spiritual and bodily necessities.242 Instructing, advising, consoling, comforting are spiritual works of mercy, as are forgiving and bearing wrongs patiently. The corporal works of mercy consist especially in feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, and burying the dead.243 Among all these, giving alms to the poor is one of the chief witnesses to fraternal charity: it is also a work of justice pleasing to God:244

He who has two coats, let him share with him who has none and he who has food must do likewise.245 But give for alms those things which are within; and behold, everything is clean for you.246 If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit?247

242 Cf. Isa 58:6-7; Heb 13:3.
243 Cf. Mt 25:31-46.
244 Cf. Tob 4:5-11; Sir 17:22; Mt 6:2-4.
245 Lk 3:11.
246 Lk 11:41.
247 Jas 2:15-16; cf. 1 Jn 3:17.

 

[Sir_Knight]

Charity toward others atones for a multitude of sins. Jesus said that whoever gives even so much as a cup of water to someone for His sake, will not go unrewarded.

 

[Salmon]

chosunhoon:

Doesn’t all this go against the Church’s teaching about salvation via grace?

Since grace is a sharing in God’s love, it is emphasized in the New Testament as well (Even in the KJV):

Matthew 6:4
That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.

Luke 12:33
Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.

Acts 10:4
And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.

Acts 10:31
And said, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard, and thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God.

Think of almsgiving as the fruit of a saving faith.

Peace in Christ…Salmon

 

[chosunhoon]

Ok… I’m a bit confused…

While I do understand that almsgiving is not only God’s will, was almsgiving really considered the means to salvation prior to jesus’s day? In other words, was almsgiving in itself acceptable for salvation??

I thought that jews had to go through the entire feast of atonement (yom kippur) to deal with their sin… (?)

-Jason

 

[puzzleannie]

prayer, fasting and almsgiving, the traditional and preferred modes of penance, attack the roots of sin, the vices that lead to sin-pride, disobedience, greed, gluttony, envy, jealously, sloth, anger and so forth. That is why they are penitential in character and effect. “Create in me a clean heart, O Lord” says the penitential psalm 51, and these are the best means to purify heart, minds, will, habits, inclinations.

 

[John_Henry]

And also Proverbs 16:6, lest anyone think it were merely a “Catholic Bible” issue:

“Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for” (NIV)

Catholic teaching, I believe, is that such verses apply not to the eternal punishments due to sin, but rather to their temporal punishments. In other words, we don’t get forgiveness from such works (of penance), but increase our fellowship with God, which had been damaged by sin.