If giving alms is something like making a bank
deposit to an account in heaven, then one might wonder how to maximize one’s
capital. One option is to follow the example of Tobit and make regular
contributions so that a generous nest egg might accumulate. For if one’s
treasure is a hedge against an uncertain future, then there are very good
reasons to keep your bottom line growing. And there is another advantage to
regular donations to this account: the more regularly one contributes, the
easier and more natural each donation will become. In this way one will be able
to fulfill the commandment: “Do not let your eye begrudge the gift when
you make it” (Tobit 4:7; cf. Deut 15:7b–8, 10a). It may be that St. Paul
recalled this advice when he wrote, in his famous address on love, “If I give
away all my possessions . . . but do not have love, I am nothing” (1 Cor 13:3).
(Gary A. Anderson, Charity: The Place of the Poor in the Bible Tradition
[New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013], 149, italics in original)
