Sermon 107

SERMO 107

CONCERNING THE WORDS OF THE GOSPEL LUKE 12:13-21
"I tell you, abstain from all greed."

Commandment about guarding against all greed.

You who fear God, I do not doubt that you hear His word with fear, and do it with joy; so that you might hope now for what He promised, and later receive it. We have just heard the Lord giving us commandments, Christ Jesus the Son of God. The Truth commanded us, which neither deceives, nor is deceived: let us listen, fear, and beware. What then did He command? He said, "I tell you, abstain from all greed." What is meant by "from all greed"? What is meant by "from all"? Why did He add "from all"? For He could indeed say, "Beware of greed." It mattered to Him to add "from all," and say, "Beware of all greed."

On which occasion the commandment was given by Christ.

Why he said this, as the occasion itself from which the speech arose, appears to us in the holy Gospel. For a certain man entreated him against his brother, who had taken away the whole inheritance and did not give his brother his part. Therefore, you observe what a good cause this petitioner had. He was not seeking to seize what belonged to another, but was seeking his own property that had been left to him by his parents: he sought it after appealing to the Lord and with the Lord judging. He had an unjust brother: but he had found a just judge against an unjust brother. Should he therefore lose that opportunity in such a good cause? Or who would say to his brother, "Give your brother his part," if Christ were not to say it? Would that judge say this, whom perhaps the wealthier and rapacious brother might bribe with a reward? Therefore the wretched man, deprived of his paternal wealth, having come upon such a distinguished judge, approached, entreated, pleaded, and very briefly stated his case. For what need was there to argue the case, when he was speaking to one who could see the heart? "Lord," he said, "tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." The Lord did not say to him, "Let your brother come." Nor did he send for him to be present, or when he was present, say to the petitioner, "Prove what you said." He asked for half of the inheritance, he asked for half of it on earth: in heaven the Lord was offering the whole. The Lord gave more than he was asking for.

Christ, not willing to be the divider of inheritance, what does he teach.

Tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. A just cause, a brief cause. But let us hear both the judge and the teacher. Man, he said: Man: for you who regard that inheritance as great, what are you but a man? He wanted to make him something more than a man. What more did he want to make him, from whom he wanted to take away greed? What more did he want to make him? I tell you: I said, you are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High. Behold, what he wanted to make him, to number him among the gods who do not possess greed. Man, who made me a divider over you? And the Apostle Paul, his servant, when he said: I beseech you, brethren, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, he did not want to be a divider. Finally, he admonished those who ran to his name and divided Christ: Every one of you says: I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Cephas, I am of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? Therefore, see how bad are the men who want to be divided, who did not want to be a divider. Who, he says, made me a divider over you?

Condemned to greed is he who jealously guards what is his.

You asked for a benefit: hear advice. I say to you, beware of all greed. Perhaps, he says, you would call someone greedy and covetous if he sought what belonged to another; but I say, do not greedily and avariciously crave even your own. That is, avoid all greed. He says, beware of all avarice. A grave burden. If perhaps this burden is placed on the weak; let him who places it be asked to deign to give strength. For it should not be taken lightly, my brothers, when our Lord, our Redeemer, our Savior, who died for us, who gave his blood as a price to redeem us, our advocate and judge; it is not a light thing when he says: Beware. He knows how much evil it is: we do not know; let us believe him. He says, beware. Of what? From where? Of all avarice. I keep what is mine, I do not take what belongs to another. Beware of all avarice. Not only is the one who seizes what belongs to another greedy; but he is also greedy who voraciously keeps his own. But if he who voraciously keeps his own is thus blamed; how is he condemned who seizes what belongs to another? He says, beware of all greed: because a man's life is not in the abundance of what he possesses. Who hoards much, how much of that does he take to live? When he has taken from it, and in a way has thoughtfully separated what is sufficient to live, let him see to whom the rest remains: lest perhaps while you are keeping from which you live, you are gathering from which you die. Behold Christ, behold the truth, behold severity. Truth says beware: severity says beware. If you do not love the truth, fear severity. A man's life is not in the abundance of what he possesses. Believe him, he does not deceive you. Do you say otherwise? Indeed, a man's life is in the abundance of what he possesses. He does not deceive you: you deceive yourself.

The imprudent rich man who intends to reserve, not to distribute.

From this occasion, therefore, because that interloper was seeking his own share, not desiring to invade another's, this statement of the Lord was born, so that He did not say: Beware of greed, but added, of all greed. This was not enough: He gives another example of a certain rich man, to whom the land had yielded plentifully. He said, there was a rich man, to whom the land had yielded plentifully. What does it mean, yielded plentifully? The land he possessed had brought forth great crops. How great were the crops? So much that he did not find where to store them: suddenly he became narrow through abundance, an ancient miser. For how many years had already passed and yet those storehouses had sufficed? So this alone was born, that the places which used to be sufficient were now not enough. And the poor man sought counsel, not how to dispense what had grown too much, but how to reserve it: and by thinking he found counsel. He seemed to himself as if wise, by finding counsel. He thought prudently, he saw wisely. What did he see wisely? I will tear down, he says, the old storehouses, and I will build larger ones, and fill them: and I will say to my soul. What do you say to your soul? Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years, rest, eat, drink, enjoy yourself. This said the wise inventor of counsel to his soul.

The soul is to be cared for, not in order for it to have goods, but in order for it to be good itself.

And God said to him: for He does not disdain to speak even with fools. One of you may perhaps say: And how did God speak with a fool? O my brothers, with how many fools does He speak here, when the Gospel is read? When it is read, those who hear and do not act, are they not fools? What then does the Lord say? Because that man, seeming wise to himself in seeking counsel again: Fool, He said; Fool, who seem wise to yourself: Fool, who said to your soul: You have many goods laid up for many years: today your soul is required of you. To whom you said: You have many goods; today it is required, and it has not one good. Let it despise these goods and be itself good; so that when it is required, it may leave secure. For what is more unjust than a man who wants to have many goods, yet does not want to be good himself? You are unworthy to have, who do not want to be what you want to have. Do you perhaps want to have a bad estate? Surely not, but a good one. Do you want a bad wife? No, but a good one. Do you want finally a bad little house, or even a bad shoe? Why then only a bad soul? He did not say here to this fool, thinking vain things, building barns, and not seeing the bellies of the poor; He did not say to him: Today your soul will be snatched to hell: He said none of these things; but, it is required of you. I do not tell you where your soul will go: but at the place where you are keeping so many things, whether you will or not, it is migrating. Behold, fool, you thought to fill new larger barns, as if nothing were to come of it.

Those bearing the sign of Christ on their foreheads within are secure among the wicked.

But perhaps he was not yet a Christian. Let us listen, brothers, to those who, being believers, the Gospel is recited, by whom He who said those things is worshiped, whose sign is carried by us on the forehead, and is held in the heart. For it matters greatly where a man bears the sign of Christ, whether on the forehead only, or on both the forehead and in the heart. You have heard what the holy prophet Ezekiel spoke today, how before God sent the destroyer to the wicked people, He first sent the signer and said to him: "Go and put a sign on the foreheads of those who sigh and mourn over the sins of my people which are committed in their midst." He did not say, "which are committed outside them," but, "in their midst." Yet they sigh and mourn: and therefore they are signed on the forehead; on the forehead of the inner man, not the outer. For there is a forehead on the face, and there is a forehead in the conscience. Indeed, sometimes when the inner forehead is struck, the outer one blushes: it either blushes out of shame, or turns pale out of fear. Therefore, there is a forehead of the inner man. They are signed there, so that they are not destroyed: because although they did not correct the sins that were committed in their midst, nevertheless they grieved, and by that very grief they were set apart; and being set apart for God, they were mixed in the sight of men. They are secretly signed, they are not openly harmed. Then the destroyer is sent, and it is said to him: "Go, destroy, do not spare the young, the old, the males, the females: but do not approach those who have the sign on their forehead." How great security has been given to you, my brothers, who are in this people sighing and mourning over the iniquities that are committed in your midst, and not committing them?

In order that sin may not occur, all greed must be cut off.

But so that you may not commit iniquities: Be wary of all greed. I tell you more extensively, what it means to guard against all greed. In lust, a man is greedy, for whom his own wife is not enough. And greed itself is said to be idolatry; because in this very idolatry, a man is greedy, for whom one true God is not enough. What soul makes many gods for itself, unless it is a greedy soul? What soul makes false martyrs for itself, unless it is a greedy soul? Beware of all greed. Behold, you love your own things, and you boast yourself, because you do not seek what belongs to others: see what evil you do by not listening to Christ saying: Beware of all greed. Behold, you love your own things, you do not take what belongs to others: you have from labor, you have from justice: you have inherited, someone you merited has given to you: you have sailed, you have been endangered, you have not committed fraud, you have not sworn falsely, what God willed you have acquired: and you keep it covetously as if with a good conscience, because you have not obtained from evil, and you are not seeking what belongs to others. If you do not listen to Him who said: Beware of all greed, hear how much evil you will do because of your own possession. Behold, it happened, for the sake of argument, that you became a judge. You are not corrupt, because you do not seek what belongs to others: no one gives you a reward, and says: Judge against my adversary. Far be it; a man who does not seek what belongs to others, when can this be persuaded to you? See what evil you will commit because of your own possession. That man who wants you to judge unjustly, and pass a sentence against his adversary for him, perhaps he is a powerful man, and can bring a false accusation against you, so that you lose what belongs to you. You consider his power, you think of it, you think of your own possessions which you keep, which you love: not those you have possessed, but to which you have wickedly clung. You consider your snare, because of which you do not have the wings of free virtue: and you say to yourself, I offend this man, he has much power for a time; he will suggest evil of me, and I will be proscribed, and I will lose what I have. You will judge unjustly, not when you seek what belongs to others, but when you keep your own.

Again about the danger to the greedy or those eagerly keeping their own.

Give me a man who has heard Christ, give me a man who has listened with fear: Beware of all covetousness: and do not say to me, I am a poor man, a commoner, of middling status, an ordinary soldier; when do I hope to be a judge? I do not fear that temptation, the danger of which you have set before my eyes. Behold, I also say what the poor should fear. A rich and powerful person calls you to bear false witness for him. What will you do now? Tell me. You have a good amount of money: you have worked, acquired, and saved. He demands: Bear false witness for me, and I will give you this and that. You who do not seek what belongs to others: Far be it from me, you say: I do not seek what God did not want to give me, I do not accept it; leave me. Do you not want to accept what I give? I will take away what you have. Now test yourself, now question yourself. Why do you pay attention to me? Pay attention to yourself inwardly, see yourself inwardly, examine yourself inwardly; sit down with yourself, and place yourself before yourself, and extend yourself on the rack of God's commandment, and torture yourself with fear, and do not caress yourself: answer yourself. Behold, if anyone should threaten this, what will you do? I will take away from you what you acquired with so much labor, unless you bear false witness for me. Give him this: Beware of all avarice. O my servant, he will say to you, whom I have redeemed and made free, whom I have adopted as a brother from being a slave, whom I have placed as a member in my body, listen to me: Let him take away what you have acquired, but he will not take me away from you. Why do you perish, preserving your own possessions? Did I not say to you: Beware of all covetousness?

Avarice itself must also be avoided in life.

Behold you are troubled, behold you are tossed: your heart is shaken like a ship in storms. Christ sleeps: awaken the sleeping one, and you will not suffer the raging storm. Awaken Him who willed to have nothing here, and you will have everything, He who reached even to the cross for you, whose bones could be counted by those who insulted Him as He hung naked: and beware of all avarice. It is not only avarice for money: beware the avarice for life. A horrendous avarice, a fearful avarice. Sometimes a man despises what he has and says: I do not bear false witness. I do not say, you tell me? I take what you have. Take what I have: you do not take what I have inside. For he who said: The Lord gave, the Lord took away; as it pleased the Lord, so it was done; therefore let the name of the Lord be blessed, did not remain poor. Naked I came from my mother's womb, naked shall I return to the earth. Naked outside, clothed inside. Naked outside by rags, and perishable rags; clothed inside. Whence? Let your priests be clothed with righteousness. But what if he says, when you have scorned what you possess, what if he says: I kill you? Answer him, if you have listened to Christ: You kill me? Better you kill my flesh, than I kill my soul with a false tongue. What will you do to me? You will kill the flesh: the soul departs free, in the end of the age to receive again the very flesh it despised. What then will you do to me? But if I bear false witness for you, I kill myself with my tongue; and I do not kill myself in the flesh: For the mouth that lies, kills the soul. Perhaps you do not say this. Why do you not say it? You want to live: do you want to live more than God has appointed? Surely you beware of all avarice? This far God willed you to live, until this one came to you. Perhaps he will kill you, to make you a martyr. Do not have a desire to live; and do you not have the eternity of dying? Do you see how that avarice, when we desire more than is needed, makes us sin? Let us beware of all avarice, if we wish to enjoy eternal wisdom.