"Give alms, and behold, everything will be clean for you"
We shouldn't be satisfied by giving money. Money isn't enough because it can always be found. It's our hands the poor need if they are to be helped; it's our hearts they need to be loved. Christ's religion is a religion of love, contagious love.
People who propose a comfortable life for themselves undoubtedly have their reasons. Perhaps they have acquired it by their work. I'm not upset by it; only by waste, by those who throw in the garbage what could be useful to us. The difficulty is that very often the rich – or even those who are comfortably off – don't really know what being poor means. That's why we can forgive them because knowledge can only lead to love and love to service. It's because they don't know them that they aren't moved by them.
I try to give the poor through love what the wealthy are able to acquire by money. True, I would not touch a leper for a million, but I willingly care for him for love of God.
St. Cyprian of Carthage