Chapter II. On Acts of Helping One's Neighbor Specifically

The things which regard acts of helping one's neighbor cannot be set forth properly unless certain things are first noted.

I. First Preliminary Note. The necessity by which one's neighbor can need our help is distinguished as temporal and spiritual; each is threefold, namely extreme or quasi-extreme, grave, and common.

1. Extreme or quasi-extreme necessity is when the greatest evil threatens or has befallen someone, and it can scarcely, or scarcely at all, be averted without another's help. By the greatest evil are understood: damnation, death, grave mutilation, perpetual imprisonment. To the extreme necessity of an individual there is equated the grave necessity of a community (St. Alphonsus, II, 27, 31).

2. Grave necessity is when only grave evil threatens or has befallen someone, and it cannot be averted by him without grave difficulty. Grave evil is constituted by: loss of a justly acquired state or of a lucrative or honorable office, or grave loss of goods (St. Alphonsus, ibid.).

3. Common necessity is when the greatest or a great evil indeed threatens someone, but one which can be averted by him without grave difficulty; likewise when an evil threatens or has befallen someone which is not so great, or which, considering his condition, does not render life so very miserable (St. Alphonsus, II, 31; III, 520).

Poor persons commonly are in common temporal necessity; sinners in common spiritual necessity; since commonly they can be freed from sin and abstain from it without so grave a difficulty; yet compare n. 575^†.

II. Second Preliminary Note. Temporal goods by which others can be helped can be distinguished into goods necessary for life, goods necessary for state, and superfluous goods.

1. Goods necessary for life are those which are required for preserving one's own life and the life of one's own people.

2. Goods necessary for state are those which are required according to each one's condition, both for the decent preservation of one's state and for providing for future necessities which commonly are wont to occur, for example those which are reserved for the time of old age, illness, and for educating and endowing children; likewise those things which look to moderately increasing one's state (St. Alphonsus, II, 31).

3. Superfluous goods are those which are necessary neither for life nor for state, in a word, those which can be left without serious inconvenience.

III. Third Preliminary Note. The act by which help is furnished to a neighbor is called beneficence; but insofar as it specifically averts evil from one's neighbor, it is usually called a work of mercy or almsgiving in the broader sense.

Beneficence and mercy are divided into corporal and spiritual. But works of mercy are enumerated as seven corporal and seven spiritual. "For seven corporal alms are set down," says St. Thomas, "namely: to feed the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty, to clothe the naked, to gather in the guest, to visit the sick, to ransom the captive, and to bury the dead.... Other seven spiritual alms are also set down; namely: to teach the ignorant, to counsel the doubtful, to console the sorrowful, to correct the sinner, to forgive the offender, to bear the burdensome and troublesome, and to pray for all" (II-II, q. 32, a. 2).

IV. Fourth Preliminary Note. The general rule regarding help to be furnished to one's neighbor is this: In order that there be an obligation of helping one's neighbor, there are required:

1. The known necessity of the neighbor. An obligation of inquiring into necessity does not exist of itself; however, it can arise from a special connection or from an office, for example that of a superior (St. Alphonsus, II, 31; III, 491, question 1).

2. The faculty of helping, and this without relatively grave inconvenience. That is, the graver the necessity is, the graver must be the inconvenience by which you are immune from the obligation of furnishing help.

These things having been noted, omitting works which have no difficulty, we shall treat distinctly of one temporal work of mercy, namely almsgiving taken more strictly, and of one spiritual work, namely fraternal correction, and finally we shall add a few things about some other works of spiritual mercy.

¹ Cf. Capellmann-Bergmann, Pastoral-Medizin, p. 74 sq.; Antonelli, Medicina Pastoralis, I, n. 354 sq.