CCC 2446

St. John Chrysostom vigorously recalls this: "Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. the goods we possess are not ours, but theirs."²³⁸ St. John Chrysostom, Hom. in Lazaro 2, 5: PG 48, 992PG — Patrologia Graeca (Migne). "The demands of justice must be satisfied first of all; that which is already due in justice is not to be offered as a gift of charity":²³⁹ AA 8 # 5. When we attend to the needs of those in want, we give them what is theirs, not ours. More than performing works of mercy, we are paying a debt of justice.²⁴⁰ St. Gregory the Great, Regula Pastoralis. 3, 21: PL 77, 87PL — Patrologia Latina (Migne).