О том, что душам пристрастных к богатству,как животолюбивым, при смерти трудно расставаться с жизнию

Therefore, the souls of those addicted to wealth, being separated from the body, suffer a lot, and leave and return, being removed from the body, they hide in it again; as proof of the struggle with which they resist being torn away from the body, they imagine the sweat they shed, and how great their attachment to the present is, they clearly show, constantly turning to what they are leaving behind and, out of attachment to what is here, with difficulty moving away from here. But if the desire for acquisitions visible there had called them there, then, without a doubt, they would hasten to rush towards it, seeing that the future is more attractive than what they are leaving behind, despising what remains here due to the splendor of what is there. Such was another rich man, in whom the fruitfulness of the field increased the disease of gluttony: he constantly destroyed the granaries and built larger ones, because there was no place where to put the fruits of agriculture; the former storerooms were overflowing with old harvests, but for the sake of safety, he fenced off what was needed for those in need with tightly built covers for the guards and, not sharing his meal with anyone, spoke to the soul, predicting it not deceptive pleasure for many years, but, as the Divine decree showed, not foreseeing what would happen the next day (see Luke 12:16-21). For it was truly fair that the one who planned not to accept anyone as participants in the pleasure and did not taste the dreamed pleasure himself, but was forcibly taken and dragged to trial for inhumanity. What then? Were there not then beggars, exhausted by hunger, and therefore it became necessary to gather the fruits of the earth into granaries with such recklessness? Weren't there people in need of necessities who could be trusted more than aphids, allowed to precede their ungrateful companions - worms - in eating bread, and with greater right to spend what the worms would soon without gratitude destroy - these kind of cruel and ferocious matricides, for lack of other food, devouring those who gave birth to them, after a lawless feast crawling out of the granaries and publicly being uncalled witnesses to the madness of the one who stored his wheat, because the Righteous Judge so determined that what was poorly collected would perish, and the one who collected would not have a plausible excuse to blame Providence. Since one appropriated to himself the common surplus of all, carefully securing the gift sent from above with locks and bolts, presuming for himself long-term and many-year enjoyment of all this, then God justly took away from the granaries what He had given, without in the least damaging what the rich man had done with his own labors, because he left intact to him the granaries that he himself had built. And having used so much care, he was preparing to release this wheat into the world, carrying it through the streets for everyone to see, this one, to his ridicule and shame, had devised thousands of means so that for a long time without damage he would preserve what he enjoyed for a long time, lining the floor with hewn slabs, covering the walls with thick lime and bringing in outside air through the windows, so that what was stored in the granaries would be ventilated and, with the constant movement of air, would not suffer damage from rotting! But no skillful enterprise will outwit God’s will, and human imagination will not defeat the immutable judgment that turns into nothing the efforts of those who think they can succeed in something with the diligence of their own strength. So the madman left nothing undone for safety and was deceived in his hope: the granaries are intact, but what was put in them is not there; the locks and seals are intact, but the wheat is gone; the wall has not been undermined, the roof has not been removed, and the granaries are empty. Everything that served for safety was intact and suffered no damage in any way, and the reserves were dispersed outside, arousing surprise in those who see and causing great shame to the one who collected, who cannot in any way hide his conviction of foolishness, having such numerous denouncers of inhumanity as grains of wheat, by God's will, in an extraordinary way, clearly scattered in the form of a small amount of dust and leaving inside monuments of insensibility for an everlasting reminder to the one who collected about his madness, so that, looking at the remaining dust, he would recognize that human industry is not far-sighted, and would no longer say what was said to him before: “O your soul, have many good things that lie ahead for many years: eat, drink and be merry” (cf. Luke 12:19), but by the very outcome of the matter, found true what the inspired and God-bearing Isaiah said: “As in a dream he thirsts as if he were drinking, but having risen up he still thirsts, but his soul hopes in vain: this will be the wealth” (Is. 29:8) of the wicked, heaped up and scattered like dust, even if the thought of preservation was laid in the most inaccessible places. For to those who care about this, God Himself says this: “I looked upon much, and there was little, and I carried it into the church, and I breathed” (Hag. 1:9). It is better to say that he who assumed himself to be durable did not recognize whether this happened or not, because, having been defrauded prematurely, he preceded the loss of what he had collected; He barely thought about long-term fun, when that same night his soul was demanded without delay, and before he had time to say who he wanted to recognize as the master of the one he was leaving behind. For in the absence of a master, it was finally necessary to become common, which one held with full authority, without sharing with others, although it was equally offered to everyone for their use. And since he did not of his own free will assume to have this in common with those in need and was not disposed to voluntarily give up a gift that he had to lose involuntarily, then, having sobered up from the dreamy intoxication, he is of necessity subjected to eternal torment. If those who love the poor receive what is given to the poor a hundredfold, and in addition inherit endless life, then, without a doubt, those who pass by the mourner without comforting him, firstly, suffer damage in that the unbeneficent never thanks these unjust ones, and then they indulge in torment, tormented by their conscience even more than the suffering they experience, that this is the very property that, through charity to the needy, should have served to atone their souls, stinginess is turned into the cause of condemnation, and rightly, according to their deeds, they will hear this menacing and terrible sentence: “Go... into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angel: for you are hungry, and you will not give Me food: you are thirsty, and you will not give Me a drink” (Matthew 25:41-42). And it seems to me that they are not so much pitiful as those who were subjected to punishment, but rather ridiculous in their foolishness, because, regretting spending something of little importance, they preferred such severe torment to this; and they did not use what they had prepared for enjoyment as much as they had dreamed of, and for what they left here they suffered a terrible and formidable condemnation, because they did not turn their property into their own consolation, sending everything along with burden-bearing beggars to where they would not suffer, but enjoy it, and because by their labors they gave others the opportunity to live indecently, which is why they are justly punished for them. You might be interested in: