Sermon 50

The Manichaeans slander the prophet Haggai, enviously accusing him of speaking from the person's voice of God: "The gold is mine, and the silver is mine," and because they diligently strive to compare the Gospel with the Old Law, so that both Scriptures seem to them as if adversarial and contradictory, they propose the question in this way: "In Haggai, they say, the prophet has written: 'The gold is mine, and the silver is mine'; however, in the Gospel, our Savior has called this kind of mammon an iniquitous type, of whose use the blessed Apostle, writing to Timothy, says: 'For the love of money is the root of all evils, which some coveting have erred from the faith and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.'" This is their proposition of the question, or rather the accusation of the old Scriptures, through which the Gospel was foretold, from the very Gospel which was foretold through them. For if they proposed a question, perhaps they would ask; if, however, they asked, perhaps they would find.

Why do the wretched not understand that the Lord, speaking through Haggai, said: "The silver is mine, and the gold is mine," so that even he who does not wish to share what he has with the needy, when he hears the commandments to perform acts of mercy, might understand that God commands to give not from the giver’s possessions but from His own, and he who gives something to the poor might realize he is not giving from his own, lest he be puffed up with the vanity of pride rather than confirmed in the name of mercy? "The silver is mine," He says, "and the gold is mine," not yours, O wealthy of the earth. Why then do you hesitate to give the poor what is mine, or why do you exalt yourselves when you give what is mine?

God wisely distributes wealth.

And do you wish to see how the matter of gold and silver belongs to the just judge? The greedy are tormented by it, the merciful are helped by it. By divine justice distributing its own matter, good deeds are manifested by it, and sins are punished by it. For gold and silver and all earthly possessions are both the exercise of humanity and the punishment of greed. When God grants such things to us humans, He shows in them how much the soul, whose riches are the very one who grants them, disdains them. For no one can appear as a despiser unless he becomes the possessor of that thing. For even those who do not have them can disdain these things. But whether they pretend or truly disdain, God sees, who is the inspector of the heart. For to men to imitate him, the thought of the despiser is only seen in the hands of the distributor. But when God grants these things to evil men, He shows in them how even in the good things that God bestows, the soul is tormented, to whom the one who bestows such things has become worthless. For He supplies good men with opportunities for benefits; He torments the evil with the fear of losses. And therefore, if both lose gold and silver, the former will retain heavenly riches with a joyful heart, but the latter will remain with an empty house of temporal goods and an emptier conscience of eternal goods.

Gold and silver must be rightly used.

Therefore, the gold and silver belong to him who knows how to use gold and silver. For even among men, one is considered to possess something only when he uses it well. For what is not justly handled is not rightfully held. But if he claims to own what he does not rightfully hold, it is not the voice of a just owner, but the audacity of an impudent squatter. Therefore, if a person claims something as his own, not because he has seized it with unjust and foolish greed, but because he has handled it with the most prudent power and most just moderation, how much more does God rightfully and truly call gold and silver His own, which He created with supreme goodness and governs with the most just authority, so that without His nod and command, neither the wicked can have gold and silver for the punishment of their avarice, nor the good for the use of their mercy! Yet they cannot establish its existence, nor distribute and arrange it so that some have it and others do not.

But if gold and silver were given only to the power of the wicked, it would rightly be thought evil. If only to the good, it would rightly be considered some great good. Again, if only the wicked were lacking, poverty would seem a great punishment. But if only the good were lacking, poverty would seem the greatest happiness. Now if you wish to know that gold can be well held, good people also possess it. If you wish to know that they are not made good by gold, wicked people also possess it. Likewise, if you wish to know how poverty is not misery, there are certain blessed poor. If you wish to know how poverty is not happiness, there are certain miserable poor. Thus, therefore, the Creator and administrator God distributes gold and silver to humans, so that it in itself, by nature and kind, is good, although not the highest and greatest good, and shows the praiseworthy Creator of the universe by the degree of its order, yet its abundance does not exalt the good nor does lack of it crush them, but with the wicked, it blinds when offered and torments when taken away.

There is a saying about the mammon of unrighteousness in the Gospel.

Therefore, created things cannot in any way be rightly blamed for the praise of the Creator, the testing of the good, and the punishment of the wicked. And God very truly calls them His own, not only because He created them with overflowing goodness, but also because He dispenses them with most provident moderation. However, when the Lord in the Gospel calls this kind of thing the mammon of unrighteousness, He signifies that there is another mammon, that is, other riches, which only the just and good can possess, and that the mammon of unrighteousness is called such because unrighteousness calls them riches. But justice knows that there are other riches by which a person is adorned inwardly, as blessed Peter says: "Who is rich before God." Those are called righteous riches because they are granted for good and just merits. Those are called true riches because whoever has them will not lack anything. But these are unrighteous riches, not because gold and silver are unrighteous, but because it is unrighteous to consider them riches, which do not remove poverty. For the more one burns with poverty, the more he will want them the greater he has. So how are they riches, by which, as they increase, poverty increases, which bring not satisfaction to their lovers but inflame desire the more they grow? Do you think someone is rich who would suffer less from poverty if he had less? For we see some who, having had little money, were content with small gains. But after their stock of real gold and silver began to increase, but yet false riches, when you offer a small amount, they now refuse it. Do you believe they are now satisfied? But it is false. For greater wealth does not close the jaws of greed, but extends them; it does not irrigate but inflames. They spurn a cup because they thirst for a river. Therefore, is he to be called richer or poorer, who, while wanting to have something to avoid need, has more so as to need less?

No creature is to be called evil in itself.

But this is not the fault of gold and silver. Suppose a merciful person finds a treasure. Surely, through the operation of mercy, hospitality is provided to strangers, the hungry are fed, the naked clothed, the needy helped, captives redeemed, churches built, the weary refreshed, litigants pacified, shipwrecked sailors restored, the sick cured; earthly wealth is distributed, and spiritual wealth is stored in heaven. Who does this? The merciful and good. From what do they do this? From gold and silver. For whom do they perform these acts? For Him who says: "Mine is the gold and mine is the silver." You see now, brothers, as I believe, how great and foolish an error it is to transfer the guilt of those who misuse to the things themselves which are used poorly. For if gold and silver are to be blamed because men corrupted by greed, neglecting the commands of the Almighty Creator, are seized by detestable desire for what He made, then let all of God's creations be blamed. For as the Apostle says, some perverse men worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Let even this sun be blamed, for the same Manicheans, since they do not understand it to be a creature, do not cease to worship and adore it, as though it were the Creator himself or some part of him. Why then do they not blame it, since men often provoke most unjust disputes over the use of sunlight in their buildings, and frequently attempt to tear down other people's homes so that the rays can freely and abundantly flow into their windows, and pursue with the most bitter animosity those who contradict them, even if they contradict with the most rightful justice? If then some more powerful person oppresses an innocent one unjustly and wickedly over the use of the sun, takes away their belongings, forces them into exile or even death, is it the fault of the sun, which that person wishes to use more abundantly, or rather the injustice of the one who improperly uses it, who, while desiring to acquire more of the temporal light for the eyes of the body, does not open the room of the heart to the light of justice?

On True and False Riches.

From this, let them understand, if they can, that they ought not to accuse gold and silver, even though men often quarrel greedily over gold and silver; or that their accusations should be transferred from earth to heaven and from glittering metals to the stars and the sun itself, when unrighteous men often clash with irreconcilable discord over the possession of sunlight. At the same time, let them learn what the difference is between this visible light and the light of justice. For it may happen that the more one desires to enjoy this light, the more he may be blinded and deprived of the light of justice. For no human creature can justify himself, but to use all creatures justly, he must be justified by the Creator. Thus the Lord Himself, although He condemns greed everywhere as a just judge, shows the use of earthly wealth as a true teacher in the very place which they wish to oppose to the prophet. For He says: "Make friends for yourselves from the mammon of iniquity." This means to say, what is mammon of iniquity should not be your mammon. Then you can justly use the abundance of earthly things and make friends who will receive you into eternal tabernacles, if this mammon is not yours, that is, if you do not think yourselves rich from it. For your riches, which are true riches and will free you from all want, are not to be compared with earthly wealth. But to be worthy to enjoy those, you must first use well these things, which are not true riches, nor yours, because they are called riches unjustly. These do not take away poverty, and the unrighteous consider them riches. For they think they will be freed from want by them. But you ought to desire other riches, that is, true and yours. But if you have not been faithful in unjust mammon, who will give you the true thing? And if you have not been faithful in what is another's, who will give you what is yours?

A certain greedy man is praised in the Gospel.

Although it is evident that the Manichaeans, according to their custom, slander prophetic sayings. For anyone who has even modestly examined the context of the same Scripture will find that the Prophet did not speak of this silver or gold, with which imprudent greed madly raves, but rather of that gold and silver which the Apostle also mentions, saying: If anyone builds upon the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones. With which gold and silver, that rich treasure, which the Lord himself testified to be found in a field and marvelously and laudably purchased by a certain avaricious person after selling all his possessions. For predicting the Lord himself and figuratively designating, as usual, the times of the new age, that is, the Church, the Prophet says thus: "Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the Desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory," says the Lord of hosts. "The silver is mine, and the gold is mine," says the Lord of hosts. "The glory of this later house will be greater than that of the former," says the Lord of hosts. "And in this place, I will give peace," says the Lord of hosts.

The Desired One will come to all nations.

If they wish not to be dogs and swine, to whom we are prohibited from giving the holy and casting pearls, but to ask to receive and to seek to find and to knock that it may be opened to them, then perhaps they could, even without any interpreter, with the Holy Spirit Himself as their guide, understand what has been said, certainly pertaining without any obscurity to the new people, that is, the Christian people, whose great priest is Jesus, the Son of God, especially in that passage where it is said: "Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land, and I will shake all nations. And the desired one of all nations shall come." For this verse is proclaimed concerning the last of the Lord's, that is, the second coming, in which He will come in glory, as the Prophet says: "And the desired one of all nations shall come." For when He first came in mortal flesh through the Virgin Mary, He was not yet desired by all nations, because they had not yet believed. But with the dissemination of the Gospel among all nations, His desire is kindled in all nations. For among all nations, His elect are and will be, who say with all their heart in prayer: "Your kingdom come." But the first coming spread mercy before judgment, in which judgment the glory of the second coming will shine forth. Therefore first, it had to shake the heaven when the angel announced to the Virgin who was to conceive Him, when the star led the Magi to worship Him, when again the angels announced His birth to the shepherds; shake the earth when it was disturbed by His miracles; shake the sea when this world raged with persecutions; shake the dry land when the believers in Him hungered and thirsted for righteousness; finally, shake all nations when His Gospel spread everywhere. Then, thereafter, the desired one would come to all nations, as prophesied. And this house, that is, the Church, shall be filled with glory.

The house of God's glory will shine in the end.

Consequently, he then added: "Mine is the silver and the gold." For all wisdom, which is figuratively signified by the name of gold, and the words of the Lord, pure words, silver tried by fire from the earth, purified sevenfold, all such silver and gold are not human but the Lord's, so that since the house will be filled with glory, he who glories, let him glory in the Lord. For that great priest, the inhabitant of this house, our Lord Jesus Christ, for the sake of the return of man who had left paradise out of pride, deigned to present himself as an example of humility, which he testifies in the Gospel, crying: "Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart," lest anyone, in his house, that is, in the Church, should be puffed up desiring to seem his own whatever he can think or say wisely, see what a great remedy is said to him by the Lord God: "Mine is the gold and mine is the silver." Thus follows that the glory of this latter house will be greater than that of the former. For the first house, that is, the citizens of earthly Jerusalem, as the Apostle says, being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. See if these, while saying that their gold and silver are theirs, were not able to attain the eternal glory of the latter house. Nevertheless, when the prophet says: "The glory of this latter house will be greater than that of the former," he shows that the first was not without some glory. For the Apostle spoke of that one too, when he said: "For if what is being annulled came through glory, much more will that which remains be in glory."

But the last verse, with which this speech of the Prophet is concluded: And in this place, he says, I will give peace, says the Lord of hosts. What is: In this place, unless he is perhaps pointing to some earthly thing with his finger? For what can be contained in a place, if not a body? Therefore, it is not absurd to understand the ultimate resurrection of the body by which the most perfect beatitude is brought to an end, when the flesh no longer desires against the spirit, nor the spirit against the flesh. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. There will not be another law in the members waging war against the law of the mind, because in this place I will give peace, says the Lord of hosts.

The Manicheans deceive the unskilled with their doctrines.

For who is so deaf to divine voices as to be ignorant of what the Prophets say about the disdain for earthly gold and silver? For they bring forth from the Apostle, in order to deceive men, what he says: "The love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows," as if you could easily find some book of the ancient Scriptures where avarice is not blamed and condemned as worthy of execration. But since the question now is about gold and silver, why do they not listen to the Prophet saying: "Their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord"? If only someone would hear this eagerly and infuse it into the marrow of their soul, would they not, distancing themselves entirely from the enticements of false happiness, call upon God in embrace, having stripped off the old man to be clothed in immortality? But why should we treat this question any longer? I believe it is clear to your Charity that the sect of the Manichaeans does not operate with truth but with fraud when dealing with the unlearned, so that they prefer the new scriptures to the old, not in their entirety but by excerpting certain sentences, which they try to show as being contrary to themselves in order to deceive the unlearned. However, there is no new Testament or epistle of the Apostles or even a book of the Gospel from which such things cannot be done, so that by certain sentences one book might seem to be contrary to itself, unless its entire context is examined with the most diligent intention of the reader.