Sermon 177

SERMO 177

For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. But having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a trap, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing, which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen. Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.
"We brought nothing into this world,"
BUT NEITHER CAN WE TAKE ANYTHING AWAY.
TREATISE ON GREED

Greed is placed before our eyes.

Our discourse is about the apostolic teaching. He says, we brought nothing into this world, and we can take nothing out: but having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. For those who want to become rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evils, and some, in their craving for it, have wandered away from the faith and have pierced themselves with many sorrows. This matter is worthy to make you attentive listeners, and us ready speakers. These words place avarice before our eyes: it is accused, not defended; rather, being accused, it is condemned, lest its defender be condemned with it. I do not know in what way, but avarice acts in the hearts of men so that all, or to speak more truly and cautiously, almost all, denounce it with words but wish to embrace it with their deeds. Many have spoken many great and grave and true things against it, poets, historians, orators, and philosophers, and every kind of literature and profession has said much against avarice. It is great not to have it, and it is much greater not to have it than not to be silent about its vices.

Do not become a slave to greed, for which the blood of Christ became the price.

What is the difference between philosophers, for example, reproaching greed, and the Apostles reproaching the same? What is the difference? If we consider it, we learn something that is unique only to the school of Christ. Behold what I just mentioned: We brought nothing into this world, and we can take nothing out of it; if we have food and clothing, we shall be content with these, many have said. Also this: The love of money is the root of all evil, some have said. No one among them said what follows: But you, man of God, flee these things; pursue righteousness, faith, love, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. None of them said such things. How far from the clattering mouths is the solidity of piety. Therefore, dearly beloved, since there are those outside our community who have reproached and despised greed; let them not seem great to us or to the men of God, because: But you, man of God. In no way let them be compared, this first we must discern and hold that we do what we do for the sake of God. For if the true worship of God is taken away, any lover of greed is condemned. Nevertheless, a more true rule of piety ought to instill in us greater care. For it is disgraceful, and exceedingly shameful and grievous if idol worshipers have been found to be masters over greed, while the worshiper of the one God is subdued by greed and becomes a slave to greed, for whom the blood of Christ has become the price. The Apostle added, and said to Timothy: I charge you before God who gives life to all things, and Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate (how far distant this is from them, you see) that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will manifest in his own time, he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. We have been made members of this household, we have been adopted into this family; we are his sons, not by our merits, but by his grace. It is too grave, and too horrible, that greed should hold us on earth; when we say to him: Our Father, who art in heaven. In desire for him, let all things become worthless; neither let those things be born to us among which we were born, because we have been reborn because of him. Let these be for the use of necessity, not for the affection of love: let them be as the inn of a traveler, not as the estate of a possessor. Recover yourself and pass on. You are making a journey, pay attention to whom you are going, for great is the one who comes to you. By departing from this path, you make room for the one coming; this is the condition of inns; you vacate so that another may succeed. But if you want to reach the safest place, let God not depart from you, to whom we say: You have led me in the paths of your righteousness, for your name's sake: not for my merit.

The journey of mortality.

There is a difference, therefore, between the path of mortality and the path of piety. The path of mortality is common to all who are born, while the path of piety is not common to all; for all the born travel the former path; only the reborn travel the latter. To the former pertains birth, growth, aging, and death. For this, nourishment and clothing are necessary. Let the expenses of this journey be sufficient. Why do you burden yourself? Why do you carry so much on a short journey, not to help you at the end of this path, but rather to burden you more heavily after this path is finished? It is indeed exceedingly miserable, what you wish to happen to you: you burden yourself, you carry much, money weighs you down on this path, and after this path, avarice weighs you down. For avarice is the impurity of the heart. You carry nothing from this world which you loved; but you carry the vice which you loved. If you love the world persistently, the one who made the world will not find you pure. Therefore, let money be moderate for its temporal use, let it be the provision for the intended end which is written: "Without love," he says, "of money is a sufficient measure for the present." See before all what was prefixed: "Without love," he says; thus stretch out your hand, so that you release your heart from there. For if you wish to bind your heart with love of money, you will insert yourself into many sorrows; and where will it be: "But you, man of God, flee these things"? He does not say: "Leave, and abandon"; but: "Flee, as if from an enemy." You were seeking to flee with gold, flee gold: let your heart flee, and then there is secure use. Let there be no greed, yet let there not be a lack of piety; there is something you can do with gold if you are the master of gold, not its servant. If you are the master of gold, you do good with it: if you are its servant, it does evil with you. If you are the master of gold, you clothe the Lord with it and praise Him: if you are its servant, you being stripped of it curse God. It is greed that makes you a servant, charity makes you free. Hence you are a servant if you do not flee. But you, man of God, flee these things. In this matter, if you do not want to be a servant, be a fugitive.

Riches are within.

You have heard what you should avoid, and you also have what you should pursue. For you do not flee in vain, nor do you leave something behind without seizing something else. Therefore, pursue righteousness, faith, piety, charity. These will make you rich. These riches are within: a thief does not approach them unless an evil will gives him room. Fortify your inner chest, that is, your conscience. A thief will not steal these riches from you, nor will any most powerful enemy, nor an invading host or barbarian, nor finally a shipwreck be able to take them away; hence if you leave naked, you leave full. For he was not truly empty, even though he appeared to have nothing outwardly, who said: “The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it has pleased the Lord, so it has been done: blessed be the name of the Lord.” This fullness is praiseworthy, immense wealth; empty of gold, full of God; empty of all transitory possessions, full of the will of his Lord. Why do you seek gold with such great labors and travelings? Love these riches, and now be filled; their source is not hidden, if the heart is open; the key of faith opens the heart, both opens and cleanses where you may place (them). Do not think yourself narrow: your riches, your God, when He enters, He will enlarge (you) Himself.

You discern him who is rich from him who wishes to be rich.

Therefore, without the love of money, there is sufficient provision in the present. Why in the present? Because we brought nothing into this world, nor can we take anything out: for this reason, provision is made for the present, not the future. But what deceives a man into the reckoning of avarice? What if I live for a long time? He who gives life, does he not also provide means to sustain that life? After all, there are returns: why then is a treasure sought? Some returns come from business, some from trade, some from price: let it suffice, let it not be hoarded; lest where you place your treasure, there your heart also remains, and though it ought to be above, you vainly hear and falsely respond. For when you respond to that most sacred word and subscribe with your voice, are you not accused from within, from your very heart? Although your heart is pressed down and oppressed, does it not say to you inwardly: "You place me under the earth, why do you lie?" Therefore, does it not say to you: "Am I not where your treasure is?" Thus, you lie. Or does he lie who said: "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also"? You say: "It will not be there." Truth says: "It will be there." But it will not be there, because you do not love. Prove it by your deeds. You do not love, but you are rich. Certainly, you observe well and discern yourself; from him who is rich, you distinguish him who wants to be rich. For there is a great difference between being rich and wanting to be rich. It is a just distinction, it cannot be denied. There is wealth in the former, desire in the latter.

Greed is indeed insatiable.

For even the Apostle himself does not say: Those who are rich, but: Those who want to become rich, who want to become so, fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful desires: wanting to become, not being. Therefore he says, desires. For desire is in a person who wants to attain what he does not have. For no one desires what he has. Indeed, greed is insatiable; and yet even in those who have much, the desire is to be of that thing not which they have, but which they want to have. He has this estate, he desires to have another which he does not have; but when he has this too, he will desire another; however, he will not desire what he has had, but what he has not had. Therefore, wanting to be rich, he desires, he burns, he thirsts, and like the disease of dropsy, the more he drinks, the more he thirsts. This is a remarkable similarity in the disease of the body; indeed, the greedy man in his heart is altogether dropsical. For dropsy in the flesh is full of moisture, perishes by moisture, and is not satisfied by moisture: so dropsy in the heart, the more it has, the more it needs. When he had less, he wanted smaller things, rejoiced in fewer, was delighted with small places: indeed, because he was filled, he was stretched, he was made abundant (inheritances come daily), he drinks and thirsts. If I have this, I will be able to have that; I can little, because I have little. When you have this too, you have more wanting: poverty has increased, not power.

If you do not love riches, your heart can be lifted up.

But I do not love, he says, what I have, so that I have a heart set on high. Certainly, I agree; if you do not love, your heart can be set on high. Why then should your heart not be set on high and be free? But see if you do not love; faithfully report to yourself, not being accused by me, but questioned by yourself. Certainly, he says, I do not love: indeed, I am rich, but because I am already rich, I do not want to be, so that I may fall into temptation and a trap, and many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge men into ruin and destruction: a grave evil, dreadful, dangerous, destructive, I am already, he says, rich, and I do not want to be. Are you already rich? Already, he says. Do you not want to be? No, he says. If you were not, would you want not to be? I would not, he says. Therefore, since you are already rich, and the word of God found you rich outwardly, made you rich inwardly, accept what has been said to the rich. For what was said in these words: We brought nothing into this world, and we can take nothing out of it: having food and clothing, we will be content with these. For those who want to be rich fall into temptation, etc.; those who want to be, he says, rich, as if it were said to the poor. Have these words of the Apostle found you poor? Say them, and you are rich; say in your heart, from the heart: I brought nothing into this world, and I can take nothing out of it; having food and clothing, I am content with these. For if I want to be rich, I will fall into temptation and a trap. Say it, and remain where you have been found. Do not insert yourself into many sorrows; lest when you want to strip yourself, you tear yourself apart. But have you been found rich? There are other words for us to recite: let not the one found rich think nothing has been said to him. The Apostle says to the same Timothy, but he says it to a poor man. For Timothy was poor, like Paul. What then will he say to Timothy about this matter, a poor man, that pertains to those found rich? Hear what: Command, he says, those who are rich in this present world: for there are also the rich of God; and true riches belong only to the rich of God, like Paul himself, who said: I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. Give me a rich man of the world who will say this: I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am: but it does not suffice for the greedy. Therefore: command, he says, those who are rich in this present world. What should I say to them? Do not wish to be rich? They are already found rich: let them hear what is said to them, where the head of it is, do not be high-minded. Hence, wealth is held and loved greatly. A nest of pride is gathered where it may be nurtured and grow; and what is worse, it does not want to fly away but remains. Therefore, before all else, do not be high-minded. Let him understand, be wise, consider himself mortal, and equal to a poor mortal. For both the earth took them naked, both death awaits, neither fever fears: the poor man has it on his ground bed, but neither does the rich man frighten it coming on his silver bed. Therefore, Command those who are rich in this world not to be high-minded. Let them recognize their poor equals: the poor are human and human; different clothing, but similar skin: and if the rich man is buried embalmed, putrefaction will not be absent, but delayed; it rots later, but does it not rot? But let us suppose, they both do not rot: yet both feel nothing. Command those who are rich in this world not to be high-minded. Let them not be high-minded, and they will truly be as they wish to appear: they will possess without love, not be possessed.

To use is one thing, to enjoy is another.

But see what follows: Do not think highly of yourself, nor hope in the uncertainty of riches. You love gold; if you can, make it certain, so that you do not fear to lose it. You have gathered wealth; give yourself, if you can, security. Nor hope in the uncertainty of riches. It comes, it goes; now it was here, now it perishes, now it is feared that it may perish. Therefore do not hope in the uncertainty of riches. He took hope away from them. Where did he fix it? But in the living God. Fix your hope there, place the anchor of your heart there, so that the storm of the age does not break and destroy you: in the living God, who provides everything for us abundantly to enjoy. If everything, how much more himself? And truly he himself will be everything for us to enjoy. For it does not seem to me to have been said: Who gave us everything abundantly to enjoy, unless he meant himself. For it seems that using is one thing, enjoying is another. For we use out of necessity, we enjoy for pleasure. Therefore, he gave these temporal things for use, but himself for enjoyment. If therefore himself, why was it said everything, unless because it is written: That God may be all in all? Therefore, place your heart there to enjoy, so that it may be lifted up. Untie yourself from here, but bind yourself there: it is perilous for you to remain without a bond in these storms.

Lift up the heart, not on the earth.

Do not hope in the uncertainty of riches: not, however, nowhere, but in the living God, who provides us all things abundantly for enjoyment. What is as much as everything, than He who made everything? For these all things would not be made by Him, unless He knew them. Who would dare to say: God made this, which He did not know? He made what He knew. Therefore, He had it before He made it: but He had it in wondrous ways, not as He made, temporal and passing, but as an artisan makes. He has inside what He works outside. Therefore, there are all things chiefly, immortal, enduring, remaining, and God Himself all in all things: but to His saints, to His righteous people, He Himself will be all in all things. Therefore, He alone suffices, He alone suffices, of whom it was said: Show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us; but, so long, He says, have I been with you, and you have not known Me? He who has seen Me has seen the Father. All things God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Rightly He alone suffices. If we are greedy, let us love Him. If we desire wealth, let us desire Him. He alone will be able to satisfy us, of whom it was said: Who satisfies your desire with good things. Does this not suffice for the sinner? Is this great good alone not enough for the sinner? By wanting to have more, he lost everything: for the root of all evils is greed. Properly, through the Prophet, He reproaches the sinful soul and fornicating from Him, and says: You thought, if you departed from Me, you would have more. But like the prodigal son, behold you fed pigs; behold you lost everything; behold you remained in need, and returned late weary. Now understand that what the Father gave you, He kept safer: You thought, if you departed from Me, you would have more. O sinful soul and filled with fornications, made filthy, made discolored, made unclean, and loved thus! Return, therefore, to beauty, so that you may return to beauty: return, and say to Him who alone suffices for you: You have destroyed all who go astray from You. What then suffices, except what follows? But for me, it is good to cling to God. Therefore, lift up your heart, not on earth, not in the poorest treasure, not in a place of decay. For the root of all evils is greed. And in Adam himself, the root of all evils was greed. For he wanted more than he received, because God was not sufficient for him.

The Lord our God wants us to be merchants.

Therefore, what are you going to do with what you have, O rich man, pay attention. You no longer think arrogantly: rightly. You do not place hope in the uncertainty of riches: very good. But you hope in the living God, who provides us with all things abundantly to enjoy: praiseworthy. Do not, therefore, be lazy in what follows: let the rich be rich in good works. Let us see these things, and believe what we do not see. You used to say: I have gold, but I do not love it; but it's not loving, it's within you; if I deserve anything from you, prove it to me; what you do not hide from your God, prove to your brother. Where, he says, will I prove it? From what follows: let the rich be rich in good works, let them be generous. For this be rich, that you may easily give. The poor indeed want to give, but cannot: with him there is difficulty, with you there is ease. Let it benefit you that you are rich, because when you want to do it, you can do it immediately. Let them be generous, ready to share. Do they lose anything? They treasure up a good foundation for the future. And lest we love that gold and silver and properties, and those things which seem beautiful in human possessions, even in that age, and desire similar things there, when it is said to us: Migrate there, place your treasure there: he warned us against carnal thoughts, and said: That they may lay hold of the true life; not gold, which remains on earth, not perishable goods, not transient goods, but true life. How then do we migrate, when this does not go there, nor will we have there what we carry from here? In a way, the Lord our God wants us to be merchants, he trades with us: we give what abounds here, we receive what abounds there; just as many make overseas trades: they give one thing somewhere else, and where they come they receive something else. For example, he says to his friend: Take gold from me here, and give me oil in Africa; and he migrates and does not migrate: what he gave he has already transferred, but he did not receive this. He receives what he desires. Such is this exchange, such, my brethren, is our trading. What do we give, and what do we receive? We give what we cannot carry with us, even if we wish to, so why then does it perish. Here, let what is less be given, that what is greater may be found there. We give earth, and we receive heaven; we give temporal things, and we receive eternal things; we give perishable things, and we receive immortal things; finally, we give what God has given, and we receive God himself. Therefore, let us not be lazy in this exchange of things, in this rich and ineffable trade. Let it benefit because we are here, let it benefit because we are born, let it benefit because we are sojourning. Let us not return empty-handed.

You hold the caution of God, you have held the debtor himself.

Let not the moth of evil thoughts enter the ark of the heart. Let it not be said: I will not give, lest I have nothing for tomorrow. Do not think much about the future: rather, think much about the future, but about the far future: He says, "Let them lay up for themselves a good foundation for the future, that they may lay hold on eternal life." Not in such a way, as the Apostle said: that there should be a supply for others, and for you an affliction, but from what each one has. Only do not love, preserve, hoard, lean on stored-up things, that is to hope for things uncertain. How many rich have slept and woken up poor. For because of these thoughts, when it was said: "A sufficient amount of money without love is enough for the present," because of evil thoughts, which say: If I do not have a treasure, who will give to me, when I begin to need? Then: I have an abundance to live on, it suffices for living; but what if some slander comes to me: how will I redeem myself? What if I need to litigate: where will I get the expenses? (as long as you can recount and reckon all the evils which may happen to the human race, often one disaster disturbs the reckoning of the counter, and all that was being counted is not only lost, but does not even remain on the fingers) Therefore, against this worm of thoughts, against the malignant moth, God has placed in His Scripture, as certain fragrances are placed on garments, lest they be moth-eaten. What? Were you thinking that you might lack this or that, and were counting many calamities. Were you not afraid of one great one? Observe what follows: "A sufficient amount of money without love is enough for the present," for He Himself has said: "I will never leave you, I will never abandon you"; you were fearing some unknown evils, therefore you were reserving money: keep me as your surety. This God says to you. Not a man, not your peer, nor yourself, but God says to you: "I will never leave you, I will never abandon you." If a man were promising, you would believe; God promises, and you doubt? He promised, wrote it down, made a covenant: be secure. Read what you hold, you hold God's covenant, you have held the very debtor, from whom you have asked your debts to be forgiven. Amen.