Homily to the Rich

1We spoke before about this young man, and the diligent hearer certainly remembers what we examined then. First, he is not the same as the lawyer in Luke. That man was a tester, asking questions ironically; this one asks soundly but does not receive the answers obediently. For he would not have gone away grieving at such answers from the Lord if he had brought his questions contemptuously. So his character appeared to us as mixed: the account showed him partly praiseworthy, partly most wretched and utterly despaired of. For recognizing the true teacher, passing by the arrogance of the Pharisees, the conceit of the lawyers, and the crowd of scribes, and giving this title to the only true and good teacher—this was what was praised. And indeed, appearing to make it a matter of concern how he might inherit eternal life—this too was acceptable. But the rest convicts his whole purpose, which did not look toward what is truly good but seeking what pleases the crowd: having learned saving lessons from the true teacher, he did not write them on his own heart, nor bring the teachings to deed, but went away disheartened, darkened by the passion of love of wealth. This convicts the unevenness of his ways and his discord with himself. You call him Teacher, and you do not do what students do? You confess him good, and you pass by what he gives? Yet surely the good one is a provider of good things. And you ask about eternal life, but you are convicted of being wholly bound to the enjoyment of the present life. What harsh, heavy, or excessive word did the teacher set before you? Sell your possessions and give to the poor (Matthew 19:21). If he had set before you agricultural labors, or the dangers of trade, or all the other toils that come to those who make money, you would have had reason to grieve, distressed at the command. But if by so easy a road, holding no labor or sweat, he promises to make you an heir of eternal life, do you not rejoice at the ease of salvation, but go away pained in soul and mourning, and make useless for yourself everything you labored at beforehand? For if you did not murder, as you say, nor commit adultery, nor steal, nor bear false witness against anyone, you make your zeal about these things unprofitable for yourself by not adding what is lacking, through which alone you will be able to enter the kingdom of God. If a physician promised to correct the mutilations of limbs that were yours by nature or from illness, you would not be disheartened to hear it. But when the great physician of souls wishes to make you complete, though you are lacking in the most critical things, you do not receive the grace, but mourn and are gloomy. For you are clearly far from that commandment, and you bore witness to yourself falsely, that you loved your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 19:19). For see, what the Lord set before you convicts you of falling far short of true love. For if what you asserted were true, that from youth you kept the commandment of love (Matthew 19:20), and you gave back to each as much as to yourself, where did this surplus of possessions come from? For the care of those in need is costly to wealth: each one receives little for his necessary care, but all together divide up what exists and spend it on themselves. So the one who loves his neighbor as himself possesses nothing more than his neighbor. But you clearly have many possessions. Where did these come from? It is clear that you make your own enjoyment more important than the relief of the many. So as much as you abound in wealth, so much you fall short in love. For long ago you would have practiced the giving away of your possessions, if you had loved your neighbor. But now possessions cling to you more than the limbs of your body, and separation from them grieves you like the amputation of your vital parts. For if you had clothed the naked, if you had given your bread to the hungry, if your door had been open to every stranger, if you had become a father to orphans, if you had suffered with every powerless person, over what possessions would you have grieved? Where would you have been distressed at putting away what remained, having long practiced distributing them to those in need? Then, at a festival no one grieves at giving up what he has and acquiring what he lacks; but the cheaper he buys what is costly, the more he rejoices, as though the exchange had turned out brilliantly for him. But you grieve at giving gold and silver and possessions—that is, at providing stones and dust—in order to acquire the blessed life.

2“But what will you do with your wealth? Will you wrap yourself in costly clothing? A little tunic of two cubits will be enough for you, and the covering of a single cloak will fulfill the entire need for garments. Will you use your wealth for food? One loaf is enough to fill a stomach. Why then do you grieve? As one deprived of what? Of the glory that comes from wealth? But if you do not seek glory on the ground, you will find that true and radiant glory going before you in the kingdom of heaven. But the very having of wealth is lovable, even if no benefit comes from it.” That the zeal for useless things is unprofitable is known to everyone. Yet what I am about to say will perhaps seem strange to you, but it is truer than anything. Wealth, when scattered in the way the Lord prescribes, naturally remains; when held together, it is alienated. If you guard it, you do not have it; if you scatter it, you will not lose it. For he scattered, he gave to the poor; his righteousness endures forever (Psalm 112:9, LXX 111:9). But wealth is not eagerly sought by most people for the sake of clothing or food. Rather, the devil has devised a scheme that suggests to the rich a thousand occasions for expense, so that what is superfluous and useless is pursued as necessary, and nothing is ever enough for them in their devising of expenditures. For they divide their wealth between present need and future need, and they set aside one portion for themselves and another for their children. Then they divide the same wealth again into occasions for varied spending. Listen to what their arrangements are like. “Let one part of the wealth be in use,” he says, “and another in reserve. Let the part that serves needs go beyond the limit of what is necessary: let this one be ready for the extravagances of the household, and let that one serve for outward display. Let one supply extravagance for the traveler, and let the other make the life of the one who stays at home brilliant and admired.” So I am moved to marvel at the devising of superfluities. There are countless vehicles, some carrying baggage, others carrying the rich themselves, covered with bronze and silver. There are horses in great abundance, and these are traced in lineage from noble fathers, just like human beings. Some carry the rich as they live luxuriously through the city; others join in the hunt; others are trained for travel. Bridles and belts and collars, all silver, all inlaid with gold. Purple-dyed tapestries adorn the horses like bridegrooms. There is a multitude of mules, divided by color; their drivers succeed one another, some running ahead, some following alongside. Of the other household servants the number is boundless, sufficient for every extravagance: stewards, treasurers, farmers, skilled in every kind of craft, both the necessary and the one invented for enjoyment and luxury; cooks, bakers, cupbearers, hunters, sculptors, painters, craftsmen of every kind of pleasure. There are herds of camels, some for carrying burdens, some for pasturage; herds of horses, herds of cattle, flocks of sheep, herds of swine, and their keepers; land sufficient to feed all these, and still increasing the wealth by its revenues; baths in the city; baths in the country; houses gleaming with all kinds of marble, one with Phrygian stone, another with Laconian or Thessalian slabs; and of these, some warming in winter, others cooling in summer. The floor is adorned with mosaic stones, gold overlays the roof. And as much of the walls as escapes the stone facing is beautified with the flowers of painting.

3But when wealth is split into a thousand uses and still remains over, it is pushed down into the earth and kept in hidden places. For the future is uncertain, they say, in case some unforeseen need should overtake us. It is uncertain whether you will ever come to need that buried gold, but the loss of your humanity is not uncertain. When you could not spend your wealth completely even with a thousand devices, then you hid it in the ground. A terrible madness: while the gold was still in the mines, you searched the earth for it; once it was brought to light, you made it disappear into the earth again. And then, I think, when you bury your wealth, you bury your heart along with it. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matthew 6:21). That is why the commandments grieve you; such people count life not worth living, unless they are busy with useless expenses. It seems to me that the young man's passion, and of those like him, is like a traveler who eagerly desires some city and presses hard along the road to reach it, but then stops at an inn just outside the walls. By shrinking from one small movement, he wastes all his previous labor and shuts himself out from seeing the city's beauties. Such are those who agree to do everything else but resist giving up their possessions. I know many who fast, pray, groan, and display every kind of piety that costs nothing, but do not let go one obol for the afflicted. What good is the rest of their virtue to them? The kingdom of heaven does not receive them, because it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 19:24). The verdict is that clear, and the one who spoke it does not lie; but those who obey are rare. "And how will we live," someone says, "if we dispose of everything? What will the shape of life be, if everyone sells and everyone disposes of their possessions?" Do not ask me for the reasoning behind the Master's commands. The one who gave the law knows how to join what is possible to the law. Your heart is being tested as on a balance, to see whether it inclines toward true life or toward present enjoyment. Those who reason soundly ought to regard the use of wealth as a stewardship, not as a means of enjoyment; and when they give it away, they should rejoice as people parting with what belongs to others, not grieve as people losing what is their own. Why then are you grieved? Why do you mourn in your soul when you hear, "Sell your possessions" (Matthew 19:21)? If they could follow you into the age to come, they would not even then be worth clinging to, since they would be eclipsed by the precious things there. But if they must remain here, why not sell them and carry away the profit from them? You are not troubled when you give gold and acquire a horse; but when you give up perishable things and receive the kingdom of heaven in return, you weep, refuse the one who asks, and turn away from the gift, inventing a thousand excuses for spending.

4What will you answer the judge, you who clothe your walls and do not clothe a human being? You who adorn your horses and overlook your brother in his unseemly state? You who let your grain rot and do not feed the hungry? You who bury your gold and despise the one being strangled? And if a wife who loves wealth lives with you, the disease is doubled. For she kindles your luxuries and increases your love of pleasure, and she sends goads into her fussy desires, devising certain stones—pearls, emeralds, and hyacinths—and gold, working gold in one way, weaving it in another, and through every lack of taste she increases the disease. For the zeal for these things is not a side matter, but nights and days hold the cares about them. And countless flatterers, catering to their desires, gather the dyers of bright colors, the goldsmiths, the perfumers, the weavers, the embroiderers. She gives the man no time to breathe because of her continuous commands. No wealth suffices when it serves women's desires, not even if it flows in from rivers—when they eagerly seek barbarian perfume as if it were oil from the market, and the dyes from the sea, the murex, the pinna, above the wool from sheep. And gold, binding the precious stones, becomes for them one ornament for the forehead, another for the neck; and another is in belts, and another binds their hands and feet. For women who love gold rejoice to be bound with manacles, if only the thing binding them is gold. When then will the man who serves women's desires care for his soul? For just as storms and squalls sink the rotten ships, so the wicked dispositions of women sink the weak souls of those who live with them. Wealth, then, being dragged in so many directions by man and wife, who outdo each other in the inventions of vain things, naturally has no opportunity to look out toward those outside. But if you hear, 'Sell your possessions and give to the poor' (Matthew 19:21), so that you may have provisions for eternal enjoyment, you go away grieving. But if you hear, 'Give money to women who live in luxury, give to stonecutters, carpenters, mosaicists, painters,' you rejoice as if you were acquiring something more precious than money. Do you not see these walls, worn down by time, whose remains stand up through the whole city like crags? How many poor people were in the city when these were being built, who were overlooked by the rich of that time because of their zeal for these things? Where then is the splendid construction of the works? Where is the man admired for the magnificence of these things? Have not the works been thrown into confusion and obliterated, like things crafted in sand by children at play, while the man lies in Hades, regretting his zeal for vain things? What a great soul you have; walls both small and larger fulfill the same need. When I enter the house of a man of no taste and newly acquired wealth, and I see it decked out with all kinds of colors, I know that this man has acquired nothing more precious than the things seen, but he beautifies lifeless things and keeps his soul unadorned. Tell me, what greater need do silver couches and silver tables provide, ivory beds and ivory chairs, so that wealth should not pass over to the poor because of these things—even though countless poor stand at the door, sending forth every pitiable cry? But you refuse the gift, saying it is impossible to help those who ask. And with your tongue you swear falsely, but by your hand you are refuted; for your silent hand proclaims your falsehood, flashing with the ring on your finger. How many debtors can one ring of yours release? How many falling houses can it raise up? One chest of your garments can clothe a whole people shivering with cold; but you endure sending the poor man away empty-handed, not fearing the justice of the judge's recompense. You did not show mercy; you will not be shown mercy. You did not open your house; you will be sent away from the kingdom. You did not give bread; you will not receive eternal life.

5But you say you are poor, and I agree. For a poor man is one who lacks many things, and the insatiable nature of desire makes you lack many things. You are eager to add ten more talents to your ten; when they become twenty, you seek another twenty, and what is added never stops your impulse but kindles your appetite. Just as for drunkards the addition of wine becomes an occasion for more drinking, so the newly rich, after acquiring much, desire more, feeding the disease with each addition, and their eagerness turns to the opposite. For what they have, great as it is, does not gladden them as much as what they lack grieves them, whatever they imagine is missing; so their soul is always wasting away with cares, as they carry their rivalry beyond all measure. They ought to rejoice and give thanks for being wealthier than so many, but they are distressed and tormented because they fall short of one or two of the super-rich. When they overtake this rich man, they immediately contend to equal the richer one; and if they reach him, they transfer their eagerness to the next. Just as those climbing ladders always lift their foot to the step above and do not stop until they reach the top, so these people do not cease their rush for power until, raised high, they hurl themselves down from a great height. The Creator of all things devised the seleucis bird to be insatiable for the benefit of human beings; but you have devised your own soul to be insatiable for the harm of many. Whatever the eye sees, the greedy person desires. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the money-lover with taking (Ecclesiastes 5:10 [4:8 LXX]). Hades never said, “Enough,” and the greedy person never said, “Enough.” When will you use what you have? When will you enjoy it, always gripped by the labors of acquisition? Woe to those who join house to house and bring field near field, so that they may take something from their neighbor (Isaiah 5:8). And what do you do? Do you not make countless pretexts to take your neighbor’s property? “My neighbor’s house blocks my light,” he says, “it causes disturbances,” or “it shelters runaways,” or whatever charge he happens to make, driving out, pushing out, always dragging and tearing, he does not stop until he brings upon them the necessity of moving away. What killed Naboth the Jezreelite? Was it not Ahab’s desire for the vineyard? A wicked fellow citizen in the city, wicked in the fields, is the greedy person. The sea knows its boundaries; the night does not overstep its ancient limits. But the greedy person does not respect time, does not recognize a boundary, does not allow the order of succession, but imitates the force of fire: it seizes everything, it devours everything. And just as rivers, rushing from a small first beginning, then with gradual additions taking on irresistible growth, sweep away whatever stands in their path by the violence of their current, so those who have advanced to great power, taking from those already oppressed the ability to wrong more people, enslave the remaining ones through those already wronged, and their abundance of wickedness becomes for them an increase of power. For those who have already suffered evil, providing forced assistance, join in carrying out the harms and injustices against others. For what neighbor, what fellow citizen, what business partner is not swept away? Nothing withstands the violence of wealth. Everything bows to its tyranny, everything cowers before its power, since each of the wronged has more reason not to suffer again than to get justice for what has already happened. He drives his teams of oxen, plows, sows, and harvests what does not belong to him. If you speak against it, there are beatings; if you lament, charges of insult; you are hauled away, you will live in prison, the sycophants are ready, as they put you in danger of your life. You will be glad, by giving something more, to be rid of troubles.

6I wish you would take a brief breather from your works of injustice and give your own thoughts some leisure, so that you might consider toward what end the pursuit of all these things is stretched. You have so many plethra of arable land, so many more of planted land, mountains, plains, wooded valleys, rivers, meadows. What comes after all this? Do not three cubits await you, like all the rest? Will not the weight of a few stones be enough to guard your wretched flesh? For whom do you labor? For whom do you act lawlessly? Why do you gather unfruitfulness with your hands? If only it were unfruitfulness and not fuel for the eternal fire. Will you never sober up from this drunkenness? Will you not make your thoughts healthy? Will you not come to yourself? Will you not set the judgment seat of Christ before your eyes? What will you say in your defense when those you have wronged stand around you in a circle and cry out against you before the righteous judge? What will you do then? What advocates will you hire? What witnesses will you produce? How will you persuade the judge who cannot be reasoned with? There is no orator there; there is no persuasiveness of words able to steal the truth from the judge. No flatterers follow you, no wealth, no bulk of dignity. Bereft of friends, bereft of helpers, without an advocate, without a defense, covered in shame you will be taken away—gloomy, downcast, alone, without boldness. For wherever you turn your eye, you will see vivid images of your evils: here the tears of the orphan, there the groaning of the widow, elsewhere the poor you beat with your fists, the servants you wore out, the neighbors you provoked to anger. Everything will rise up against you. A wicked chorus of your evil deeds will surround you. For just as a shadow follows the body, so sins follow souls, vividly imaging the deeds. Therefore there is no denial there, but the mouth is stopped, and shamelessness with it. For each person's own deeds testify against him, uttering no voice but appearing exactly as they were prepared by us. How can I bring the dreadful things before your eyes? If you will listen, if you will yield, remember that day on which wrath is revealed from heaven. Remember the glorious coming of Christ, when those who have done good will rise to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment (John 5:29). Then there will be eternal shame for sinners, and the zeal of fire about to devour the adversaries (Isaiah 26:11 LXX). Let those things grieve you, and do not let the commandment grieve you. How shall I move you to shame? What shall I say? Do you not desire the kingdom? Do you not fear hell? From where will healing be found for your soul? For if the dreadful things do not terrify you, and the bright things do not urge you on, we are speaking to a stony heart.

7Look hard, man, at the nature of wealth. Why have you been so agitated about gold? A stone is gold, a stone is silver, a stone is the pearl, a stone is each of the stones: chrysolite, and beryl, and agate, and hyacinth, and amethyst, and jasper. These are the flowers of wealth. Some of them you store away, hiding them, and you cover the transparent stones with darkness; others you carry around, taking pride in the gleam of the costly ones. Tell me, what good is it to you to turn your hand around glittering with stones? Are you not ashamed of craving pebbles, like women when they are pregnant? For those women nibble on little stones, and you greedily desire the flowers of stones, seeking sardonyxes, and jaspers, and amethysts. What jeweler has ever been able to add a single day to life? Whom has death spared because of wealth? From whom has sickness kept away because of riches? How long will gold be the noose of souls, the hook of death, the bait of sin? How long will wealth be the cause of war, for which weapons are forged, for which swords are sharpened? Because of it relatives ignore nature, brothers look murderously at one another. Because of wealth the deserts feed murderers, the sea feeds pirates, the cities feed false accusers. Who is the father of lying? Who is the craftsman of forgery? Who gave birth to perjury? Is it not wealth? Is it not the eagerness for it? What is wrong with you, people? Who has turned your own possessions into a plot against you? “A partner for living.” For were riches given as supplies for evils? “A ransom for the soul.” For were they given as an occasion for destruction? “But wealth is necessary because of the children.” This is a fine-looking excuse for greed. For you put forward the children, but you fill up your own heart. Do not blame the blameless one. The child has his own master, his own steward. From another he received his life, from him he awaits the resources of life. Were the Gospels not written for those who have married? “If you wish to be perfect, sell your possessions, and give to the poor” (Matthew 19:21). When you asked the Lord for children, when you thought it right to become a father of children, did you add this: “Give me children, so that I may disobey your commandments? Give me children, so that I may not reach the kingdom of heaven?” And who will be the guarantor of the child’s choice, that he will use what is given to him as he ought? For to many people wealth has become a servant of licentiousness. Or do you not hear Ecclesiastes saying: “I saw a grievous sickness, wealth kept by its owner to his own harm” (Ecclesiastes 5:13)? And again: “I am leaving it to the man who comes after me” (Ecclesiastes 2:18). “And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool?” (Ecclesiastes 2:19). See to it, then, that after gathering wealth with countless labors, you do not prepare material of sins for others, and then be found punished doubly: for the wrongs you yourself committed, and for the wrongs you supplied to another. Is not your soul more closely related to you than every child? Does it not draw nearer to you in kinship than all others? Give to it first the privileges of the inheritance; provide for it rich resources for life. And then you will divide your livelihood among your children. Children who do not inherit from their parents have often made houses for themselves. But the soul, abandoned by you, by whom will it be shown mercy?

8What has been said to fathers has been said. But what plausible excuse for stinginess do the childless put forward to us? "I am not selling my possessions, and I am not giving to the poor, because of the necessary needs of life." So then the Lord is not your teacher, and the Gospel does not order your life—you make laws for yourself. But see what danger you fall into by thinking this way. For if the Lord commanded these things as necessary for us, and you write them off as impossible, you are saying nothing other than that you are wiser than the lawgiver.

"But after enjoying them all my life long, after the end of my life I will make the poor heirs of what belongs to me, proving them owners of my property by documents and wills." When you are no longer among human beings, then you will become a lover of humanity; when I see you a corpse, then I will call you a lover of your brother. Many thanks to you for your generosity—that lying in the tomb and dissolved into earth, you have become lavish in your spending and great-souled.

Tell me, for which season will you demand the rewards—those in life, or those after death? But during the time you lived, luxuriating in life and flowing with softness, you could not bear even to look at the poor. And once you are dead, what action is there? What wage is owed for work? Show the deeds, and demand the returns. No one does business after the festival has broken up; no one is crowned after arriving when the contests are over; no one plays the hero after the wars are done. So clearly no one practices piety after life either.

In ink and letters you promise your good deeds. Who then will announce to you the hour of your departure? Who will guarantee the manner of your death? How many have been snatched away by violent misfortunes, not even permitted by their suffering to utter a sound? How many has fever driven out of their minds? Why then do you wait for a time when you will often not even be master of your own thoughts?

Deep night, and heavy sickness, and no one anywhere to help; and the one lying in wait for the inheritance is ready, arranging everything for his own advantage and making your plans useless. Then, looking around this way and that and seeing the desolation surrounding you, you will at last perceive your folly; then you will groan at your foolishness—at what a time you stored up the commandment, when your tongue is paralyzed and your hand is already trembling, shaken by convulsions, so that neither by voice nor by writing can you make your intention known.

And yet even if everything had been written clearly and every word had been proclaimed aloud, one inserted letter was enough to alter the whole intention; one forged seal, two or three unjust witnesses, could have transferred the entire inheritance to others.

9Why then do you deceive yourself, spending your wealth badly now on the enjoyment of flesh, while promising for later what you will no longer be master of? As the word has shown, the plan is wicked: While I live, I will enjoy pleasures; when I die, I will do what has been commanded. Abraham will also say to you: "You received your good things in your life" (Luke 16:25). The narrow and afflicted way does not receive you, since you have not put off the bulk of wealth. You went out carrying it; for you did not throw it away, as you were commanded. While you lived, you put yourself before the commandment; after death and dissolution, then you preferred the commandment of your enemies. "So that so-and-so does not get it," he says, "let the Lord take it." And what shall we call this—revenge on enemies, or love of neighbor? Read your wills. "I wanted to live and enjoy my own things." Thanks belong to death, not to you. For if you were immortal, you would never have remembered the commandments. Do not be deceived; God is not mocked (Galatians 6:7). A dead thing is not brought to the altar; bring a living sacrifice. The one who offers from surplus is unacceptable. But you offer to your benefactor what was left over after your whole life. If you do not dare to welcome honored guests with the leftovers from your table, how then do you dare to appease God with leftovers? See the end of love of wealth, you rich, and stop being so passionately disposed toward possessions. The more you love wealth, the more you should leave nothing of what belongs to you behind. Make everything your own; carry everything with you; do not leave your wealth to strangers. Perhaps your servants will not even wrap you in your final adornment, but will perform the burial as a mere formality, having already shifted their loyalty to the heirs. Indeed, they will then lecture you: "It is vulgar," they say, "to beautify a corpse and to carry out with great expense one who no longer feels anything." Is it not better for the living to be adorned with costly and glorious clothing than for the precious garments to rot together with the corpse? What good is a conspicuous tomb, an expensive burial, and profitless expenditure? One ought to use what remains for the necessities of life for the living. Such things they will say, avenging themselves on your harshness and gratifying those who inherit what is yours. So act first, and bury yourself. Piety is a fine burial garment. Wrap yourself in everything and depart; make your wealth your own adornment; keep it with you. Be persuaded by the good counselor, by Christ who loved you, who became poor for our sake so that we might become rich through his poverty (2 Corinthians 8:9), who gave himself as a ransom for us (1 Timothy 2:6). Let us be persuaded by him as one wise who sees what benefits us, or let us endure him as one who loves us, or let us repay him as our benefactor. In every way let us do what has been commanded us, so that we may become heirs of eternal life in Christ himself; to him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.