Sermon 113

SERMO 113

OF THE WORDS OF THE GOSPEL, LUKE 16:9
"Make friends for yourselves with unrighteous mammon" and so forth

Friends about to welcome their benefactors into heaven: Christ's smallest.

What we are admonished, we ought to admonish others. The recent Gospel lesson admonished us to make friends from the mammon of iniquity, so that they who do so may receive themselves into eternal tabernacles. Who are they who will have eternal tabernacles but the saints of God? And who are they who are to be received by them into the eternal tabernacles, but those who serve their need, and cheerfully supply what they require? Therefore, let us remember that at the last judgment the Lord will say to those who stand at His right hand: I was hungry, and you gave Me food: and the rest which you know. And when they asked when they had done these services to Him, He replied: When you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to Me. These "least ones" are those who are received into eternal tabernacles. This He said to those on the right because they did it, and He also said this to those on the left because they refused to do it. But what did those on the right who did it receive, or rather what will they receive? Come, He says, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me food. When you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to Me. Therefore, who are the least of Christ? They are those who left all their possessions and followed Him, and distributed whatever they had to the poor, so that they might serve God unencumbered by worldly chains, and be lifted up, free from world’s burdens, like those who have wings carrying them upwards, for they are the least. Why the least? Because humble, because not exalted, not proud. Weigh these least, and you will find a heavy weight.

Mammon of iniquity.

But what is it that he says they are friends of the mammon of iniquity? What is mammon of iniquity? First, what is mammon? For it is a word that is not Latin. It is a Hebrew word, related to the Punic language. For these languages are associated with each other by a certain proximity of meaning. What the Punics call "mammon", in Latin is called "gain". What the Hebrews call mammon, in Latin is called riches. So, to say the whole thing in Latin, this is what our Lord Jesus Christ says: Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon. Some, by a misunderstanding, seize others' possessions, and from that give something to the poor, and think they are fulfilling this command. For they say: Seizing others' possessions is unrighteous mammon; distributing from that, especially to the needy saints, this is making friends by means of unrighteous mammon. This understanding must be corrected, or rather completely erased from the tablets of your hearts. I do not want you to understand it this way. Make alms from just labor: give from what you rightly possess. For you will not corrupt Christ the judge, so that he would not hear you with the poor, from whom you take. For if you were to plunder someone weak, you stronger and more powerful, and he came with you to any human judge on this earth, having some power of judgment, and he wished to plead the case with you, if you gave something to the judge from that plunder and spoil of the poor, so that he would judge for you, would that judge be pleasing to you? Surely he judged for you, and yet such is the power of justice, that it would displease even you. Do not imagine such a God for yourself, do not place such an idol in the temple of your heart. Your God is not such, nor should you be such. If you should not judge thus, but judge justly; even so better than you is your God: he is not inferior; he is more just, the source of justice. Whatever good you have done, you have derived from there; and whatever good you have poured out, you have drunk from there. Do you praise the vessel because it contains something from there, and reproach the fountain? Do not want to make alms from gain and usury. I say to the faithful, to those to whom we distribute the Body of Christ. Fear, correct yourselves: lest I later say, You do this and you do that. And I think, if I do this, you should not be angry with me, but with yourselves, to correct yourselves. For this is worth what is said in the Psalm: Be angry, and sin not. I want you to be angry, but not to sin. But so that you do not sin, to whom should you be angry, if not to yourselves? For what is a repentant man, but a man angry with himself? So that he may receive pardon, he exacts punishment from himself; and rightly says to God: Turn your eyes away from my sins, because I recognize my sin. If you recognize, he forgives. Those who did, do not do it: it is not allowed.

Zacchaeus to be imitated.

But now, if you have done this, and have such wealth, and your bags are filled with it, and you have stored it up: what you have is of evil, do not add more evil, and make friends for yourselves with the mammon of iniquity. Did Zacchaeus have it from good? Read and see. He was the chief of the publicans, that is, to whom public taxes were entrusted: from there he had wealth. He had oppressed many, taken from many, accumulated much. Christ entered his house, and salvation came to his house: for thus said the Lord himself: "Today salvation has come to this house." But look at that salvation. First, he desired to see the Lord because he was short in stature: but, hindered by the crowd, he climbed a sycamore tree and saw Him passing by. But He looked up at him and said: "Zacchaeus, come down; for today I must stay at your house." You hang, but I do not suspend you, that is, I do not delay you. You wanted to see me passing by, today you will find me living with you. The Lord entered his house: filled with joy, he said: "I give half of my goods to the poor." See how he runs, who runs to make friends with the mammon of iniquity. And so that he might not be held guilty from any other cause: "If I have taken anything from anyone, I will repay it fourfold." He inflicted condemnation on himself, so that he might not incur damnation. Therefore, those of you who have from evil, make good from it. Those of you who do not have from evil, do not acquire from evil. Be good, you who make good from evil: and when you begin to do some good from evil, do not remain in evil yourself. Your money is turned to good, and you remain evil?

Mammon of iniquity: why are riches called so?

There is indeed another interpretation; I will not keep it silent. The mammon of unrighteousness includes all the riches of the world, from wherever they come. For wherever they are gathered, it is the mammon of unrighteousness, that is to say, they are the riches of unrighteousness. What does it mean, they are the riches of unrighteousness? It is money, which unrighteousness calls by the name of riches. For if you seek true riches, they are something else. Job abounded with such riches while he was naked, when he had a heart full of God and offered praises to God for all lost things as if they were most precious gems. From which treasure, if he had nothing? Those are the true riches. However, these are called riches by unrighteousness. You have them, I do not criticize you: an inheritance has come, your father was wealthy, and he left it to you. You acquired them honestly: from just labors, you have a full house, I do not criticize you. Yet even so, do not call them riches. For if you call them riches, you will love them: and if you love them, you will perish with them. Lose them, lest you perish: give them, that you may acquire: sow, that you may reap. Do not call these riches; for they are not true. They are full of poverty and always subject to accidents. What kind of riches are those, on account of which you fear a robber, on account of which you fear your servant, lest he kills you and steals them and flees? If they were true riches, they would give you security.

Riches that are true and those that are false.

Therefore, those are the true riches, which, once we have them, we cannot lose. And lest perhaps you fear a thief because of them, they will be there where no one may take them away. Listen to your Lord: "Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where no thief approaches." They will be riches then, when you have departed. As long as they are on earth, they are not riches. But the world calls those riches, iniquity calls them. Therefore, God calls them the mammon of iniquity, because iniquity calls those riches. Listen to the Psalm: "Lord, deliver me from the hand of foreign children, whose mouth has spoken vanity, and their right hand is the right hand of iniquity. Their sons are like new plants established from their youth. Their daughters are composed, adorned like the likeness of a temple. Their storehouses are full, overflowing from one to another. Their cattle are fat, their sheep fertile, multiplied in their paths. There is no breach of wall, nor passing, nor crying out in their streets." You have seen the Psalm, what kind of happiness it describes: but listen to what it means, whom it set forth as sons of iniquity. "Whose mouth has spoken vanity, and their right hand is the right hand of iniquity." It set forth them, and described their happiness only on earth. And what did it add? "They called the people blessed who have these things." But who said this? Foreign children, foreigners, and not pertaining to the seed of Abraham: they called the people blessed who have these things. Who said it? "Whose mouth has spoken vanity." Therefore it is vain to say those are blessed who have these things. And yet it is said by those whose mouth has spoken vanity. By them are called those riches which are termed the mammon of iniquity.

But what do you say? Because those foreign children, whose mouth spoke vanity, said that the people who have these things are blessed; what do you say? These riches are false, give me true ones. You criticize these, show what you praise. You want me to disdain this, show what I should prefer. Let the Psalm itself speak. For he who said: They said the people who have these things are blessed; gives us such an answer, as if we were saying to him, that is, to the Psalm itself, Behold, you have taken this from us, and given us nothing: behold these things, we despise these things, from whence shall we live? from whence shall we be blessed? Because those who spoke, they themselves will receive from themselves. For men having riches said they are blessed. What do you say?

True riches.

He responds as if thus questioned, and says: They call the rich blessed: I say: Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord. You have heard of true riches, make friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, and you will be a blessed people, whose God is the Lord. Sometimes we pass along the way, and we see the most delightful and fertile lands, and we say: Whose land is that? It is asserted that it is his: and we say, Blessed is the man: we speak vanity. Blessed is he whose house that is, blessed is he whose land that is, blessed is he whose livestock that is, blessed is he whose servant that is, blessed is he whose family that is. Remove vanity if you wish to hear the truth. Blessed is he whose God is the Lord. For it is not the one whose land this is who is blessed: but the one whose God is that. But to declare the blessedness of things most plainly, you say that your land has made you blessed. Why? Because you live from it. For when you praise your land greatly, you say this: It feeds me, I live from it. Consider from what you live. That is from what you live, to whom you say: With you is the fountain of life. Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord. O Lord my God, O Lord our God, that we may come to you, make us blessed from you. We do not want from gold, nor from silver, nor from lands: we do not want from these earthly, most vain, and transitory matters of fleeting life. Let not our mouth speak vanity. Make us blessed from you, for we will not lose you. When we have held you, neither will we lose you, nor will we perish. Make us blessed from you, because Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord. Nor does he get angry if we say of God, our Land. For we read that the Lord is the portion of my inheritance. A great thing, brothers, both we are his inheritance, and he is ours: because both we worship him, and he cultivates us. There is no injury to him because he cultivates us. For if we worship him as our God, he cultivates us as his field. And to know that he cultivates us, listen to him whom he sent to us: I am, he says, the vine, you are the branches, my Father is the vinedresser. Therefore, he cultivates us. But if we yield fruit, he prepares the granary. But if under such a great cultivator we choose to be barren, and instead of wheat bring forth thorns: I do not wish to say what follows, let us end on joy. Turning to the Lord, etc.