whoever is in want.'
And Ambrose repeats the same thing."

Here it will be noticed that we find the real meaning of those words
about a man's duty of portioning out readily to another's use what
belongs to himself. It is the correlative to the right to private
property.

But a second quotation must be made from another passage closely
following on the preceding:

"There is a time when to withhold alms is to commit mortal sin. Namely,
when on the part of the receiver there is evident and urgent necessity,
and he does not seem likely to be provided for otherwise, and when on
the part of the giver he has superfluities of which he has not any
probable immediate need. Nor should the future be in question, for this
would be looking to the morrow, which the Master has forbidden (Matt.
6)."

(_Ibid._, 32, 6.) "But 'superfluous' and 'necessity' are to be
interpreted according to their most probable and generally accepted
meaning. 'Necessary' has two meanings. First, it implies something
without which a thing cannot exist. Interpreted in this sense, a man has
no business to give alms out of what is necessary to him; for example,
if a man has only enough wherewith to feed himself and his sons or
others dependent on him. For to give alms out of this would be to
deprive himself and his of very life, unless it were indeed for the sake
of prolonging the life of someone of extreme importance to Church and
State. In that case it might be praiseworthy to expose his life and the
lives of others to grave risk, for the common good is to be preferred to
our own private interests. Secondly, 'necessary' may mean that without
which a person cannot be considered to uphold becomingly his proper
station, and that of those dependent on him. The exact measure of this
necessity cannot be very precisely determined, as to how far things
added may be beyond the necessity of his station, or things taken away
be below it. To give alms, therefore, out of these is a matter not of
precept, but of counsel. For it would not be right to give alms out of
these, so as to help others, and thereby be rendered unable to fulfil
the obligations of his state of life. For no one should live
unbecomingly. Three exceptions, however, should be made. First, when a
man wishes to change his state of life. Thus it would be an act of
perfect virtue if a man, for the purpose of entering a religious order,
distributed to the poor for Christ's sake all that he possessed.
Sec