The Judge's Questions and the Futility of Luxury

What 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.