37. Then wilt the righteous answer him. Christ represents the righteous as doubting—what they know well—his willingness to form a just estimate of what is done to men. (174) But as this was not so deeply impressed on their minds as it ought to have been, he holds out to them this lively representation. (175) For how comes it that we are so slow and reluctant to acts of beneficence, but because that promise is not truly engraven on our hearts, that God will one day repay with usury what we bestow on the poor? The admiration which Christ here expresses is intended to instruct us to rise above the apprehension of our flesh, whenever afflicted brethren ask our confidence and aid, that the aspect of a despised man may not hinder us from treating him with kindness.
(174) “ La charit, qu’on exerce envers les hommes;” — “the charity which is exercised towards men.”
(175) “ Il leur represente au vif, tout ainsi que si la chose se faisoit devant lcurs yeux;” — “he represents it to them in a lively manner, quite as if the thing were done before their eyes.”