Thursday, February 22, 2024

Meritorious Good Works in 2 Clement

  

Efficacy of good works for salvation

 

The sermon is very clear on the necessity of good works. Almsgiving is the principal means by which sins are remitted. It is better than fasting and prayer:

 

Almsgiving is therefore good even as penance. Fasting is better than prayer but almsgiving is better than both. Love covers a multitude of sins, but prayer from a good conscience delivers from death. Blessed is every man that is found full of these things, for almsgiving removes the burden of sin (16, 4). (Johannes Quasten, Patrology, 4 vols. [Westminster, Md.: Christian Classics, Inc., 1992], 1:57)