Greed as the Root of Evil

The word demonstrates the sins, which to the one known for his approach toward the righteous, held him back. And for me, the interpretation of the prophet Isaiah is sealed regarding a foolish people, heavily reproving and saying: 'Is not the hand of the Lord too short to save? Or has his ear become heavy so as not to hear?' (Isa 59:1). But your sins divide among yourselves and between God. If God knows sins to separate men, nothing would be more grasping than that which, even by the truthful voice of Paul, the herald of truth, is called idolatry and is the root and mother of all evils.

For where did those who were once of the Christian party and partakers of the mysteries get drawn toward the worship of demons? Was it not by a love of possessing much and becoming masters of others' things? Having received promises from the atheists and the ungodly, either of a royal life or of wealth from the royal treasuries, they quickly changed their religion like a garment. And the memory and hearing of the former days of our life saved and taught.

But there is that which even our own life has delivered to trial. For when that king, having cast off the mask of the Christian continuously, and having stripped the comic drama which he had played for a long time, himself shamelessly offered sacrifices to demons and for those wishing to do this, he set many fees before them, how many, having left the church, ran to the altars? And how many, having accepted the bait of offices, followed after him with the hook of transgression? And accusers go about the cities, hated; being pointed out, traitors...

These men are Christ's for a little silver; they are outcasts from the Christian discourse, just as Judas was among the apostles. They are known by the sign of the runaway, like horses from their stalls, having been drawn only into the most difficult of all sins and having immediately followed the initiator of unholy and impure impiety.

Thus then, according to the apostle, greed and idolatry occur and are the root of all evils, having produced unsearchable wickedness from themselves (1 Timothy 6:10). For just as those searching for gold from the depths of the earth say that gold lies hidden safely in the earth at its beginning and its sovereign generation, but from there it flows out like certain veins here and there for a long distance and extends in many directions, like the roots of trees that pass through the soil, so also here I find many natures bound together by a single root, by greed.

And indeed, the word found no difficulty in using the example of gold for greed. From this I see the man daring to strike the head of the mother who gave birth, feeling no shame for either the closeness or the paternal dignity, but being weighed down by the desire for a longer life for the old man. For seeing everything abundant in the house and not having authority over what is seen, but desiring to be master of them and of the property, he is constricted by paternal authority.

And first he keeps silent and holds the disease in the depths; but with time, the desire increasing and the soul having been filled, he bursts forth with wickedness without restraint, like water through pipes. And so it is incomprehensible to the elder, only not...