If you help a poor person in the name of the Lord...
If you help a poor person in the name of the Lord, you are making a gift and at the same time granting a loan. You are making a gift because you have no expectation of being reimbursed by that poor person.
You are granting a loan because the Lord will settle the account. It is not much that the Lord receives by means of the poor, but He will pay a great deal on their behalf. "They who are kind to the poor lend to the Lord.
St Basil the Great
