To the parable of the unrighteous steward, and that nothing is ours (Luke 16:1-9)

Often during the conversation I told you that some false thought, having taken possession of people, multiplies sins and reduces the benefits that each of us should increase in our own lives. This thought is that we own everything that we have for the benefit of life as lords and rulers; and as a result of this assumption, we strongly struggle, fight and go to court, and inappropriately become attached to this as to our own acquisitions. The truth is not like that and even quite the opposite. Everything that we enjoy in this life is not ours, and we do not own it, like autocrats and masters, but like settlers and strangers; we are led where we do not want and when we do not expect, we are deprived of what exists when the Lord pleases the creation. Therefore, what belongs to this mortal life represents some impermanent thing. Today in glory - the next morning pitiful, worthy of sorrow and help; now he is rich and abundant in material wealth, and a little later he is poor, and there is not even bread in the house to support life. In this, God is especially superior to us mortals: in that He is always the same, and with Him the same, inalienably possesses life, glory and power. Where does this word begin? Perhaps this is known to intelligent people and lovers of words. Luke has just offered us a figurative parable, in which he describes how the steward of a stranger is in difficulty and sorrow, when, as a passionate and wasteful person, he heard from the master of property and money: “Give an account of the management and withdraw; I will not allow you to luxury mine as if it were your own.” This is not a story about a real event, but a figurative parable, covertly instructing in moral virtue. So, let everyone realize: you are the ruler of someone else; and having thrown off autocracy and arrogance, let him take advantage of the humility and caution of a responsible housekeeper, while constantly waiting for the Lord to come to him, and while timidly writing down his protective report. You are an alien who has received permission for short-term use. If in doubt, learn from what is known, be guided by experience, by a true teacher. You own the estate, either by receiving it from your father, or by becoming a master by agreement. Recall in your memory and count all, if you can, who owned it before you; turn your mind to the future time, and notice those who will rule over it after you; Tell me, whose dominion is this, and to whom in particular does it apply: to those who owned, those who own, or those who have to own? If someone could gather everyone, it would turn out that there were more rulers than obols. Even better: if you want to see exactly what our life is like, then remember, have you ever seen, in the summer, while traveling, a huge tree, stretching its branches and top far, satisfying the need of a home with its ample shade? You gladly fit under it and stayed there as long as necessary. But when you needed to rise again for the further journey undertaken, another took your place. And you picked up your belongings, and he took off and immediately accepted everything that was yours: the bed, the fire, the shadow of a tree, the passing water. He rests, and you go. And he enjoyed it, then left it. And the tree one day accidentally became a short-term refuge for ten wanderers; belonging to everyone, belonged to one real master. Likewise, the surplus of this stay delights and nourishes many, but sovereignty belongs to God alone, Who has imperishable and immortal life. You also saw the hotel where you stopped to rest during your journey; There you used a lot, without taking anything with you: the bed, the table, the bowls, the dish, and other various utensils. When you had not yet taken full advantage of it, another came; tired and dusty, he hurries you, pushes you out of the hotel and demands someone else’s things as if they were his own. This is our life, brother, and it is also more fleeting than what has been said. I am amazed at those who say: “This is my estate; this is my home." Oh, how in vain the things that do not belong are assimilated, and the foreign things are embraced by three deceptive letters! Just as no one considers the masks of magicians to be theirs, but all the performers are covered with them, so they own the earth and the things on it: as if they put on clothes one after another. Tell me: you are not more powerful than the king, are you? However, examine the royal clothes, take apart the royal outer garments. You will find enough things that the bodies of many kings were clothed with, such as: crowns, clasps, belts; (you will find) the entire inheritance impermanent, the use empty, passing from the present to the future. What is the dignity of a boss? In a silver carriage? In a golden cane? You see that the boss does not always own it, and not always the same one, but each for a short time. Just as funeral stretchers receive bodies one after another, so these leadership signs of those using them are replaced. From here the apostle, instructing in this thought, often exclaimed to us: “for the image of this world is passing away” (“for the image of this world passes away”) (1 Cor. 7:31); “we have nothing, but we possess everything” (“as we have nothing, but contain everything”) (2 Cor. 6:10); using, as if not using. All this is aimed at one goal - that we need to live like day-olds, constantly waiting for a sign to exit. And so that you know exactly that you are subject to laws, and how carefully you need to live, first notice to yourself that even your soul is subject to the commandments of virtue everywhere, and you are not the master of yourself, but you need to control both word and deed and every movement of your life. You received a body from your creator, you dispose of the five senses for the needs of life. And they are not free and not independent, but each is a slave under the law. And the eye sees first: look and contemplate what is beautiful to look at: the sun, which illuminates the entire universe, the moon, which drives away the gloom and darkness of the night with its radiance, the rest of the stars, although they bring us a little light from themselves, still shine with their share of beauty; contemplate the earth, strewn with various flowers and herbs, the sea, wide as a plain, when it is numb into a clear expanse. Use it, viewer, in relation to this and the like; and run and pass by other sights that bring harm to the soul when they are looked at, and close your eyes so as not to look. It is better to overshadow your feeling when it gives you a reason for the deeds of darkness. Therefore, yesterday the Lord told us through Matthew: “Everyone who looks at a woman with lustful desire has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28); and it is better to lose (an eye) when he looks at the disorderly and harmful. And for the ear there are commands that prevent bad hearing. When he hears something good, he needs to expand, listen and through himself transmit the meaning of useful words; and if, near the ulcer of wickedness and corruption, he is ready to draw up the dirt of sin, then he must be run from him like a poisoned beast. Let your tongue be chaste with your lips, let you speak the truth, abstain from what is forbidden: backbiting, sneaking, unjust accusations, slandering your brothers, slandering God; let him pronounce what is good, what is pious, instruct in good deeds; and let every person say according to the sacred psalmist: “I will watch my ways, so that I do not sin with my tongue” (“I will keep my ways, so that I do not sin with my tongue”) (Ps. 39:2); “He is like a cunning razor with you, the treacherous one” (“For you have made flattery like a cunning razor”) (Ps. 51:4); “They flatter with their tongues” (“They flatter the flatterers with their tongues”) (Ps. 5:10); “Why do you boast in your wickedness, O mighty one? The mercy of God is always with me; your tongue dreams up destruction” (“that boasting in wickedness all the day long, let thy tongue devise iniquity” (Ps. 51:3-4); Let your nose also be chaste, so as not to bask in the constant sense of smell; no expensive ointments, no fragrances - for this Isaiah greatly blames. And let the hand remember its commandments, so as not to touch everything without hindrance: let it extend for alms, not for theft, let it guard its own, not collect the property of others, let it touch, through a good visit, the bodies of the weak and dejected, not flourishing and given over to fornication. The Word showed us that even over ourselves we are not masters, but rulers. Everything is subject to laws and commandments; (man) is a slave of the Lawgiver and a subject. If the parts of our body are not free from power (over them), but in their actions are guided by the will of the Lord, then what can we say about those who think that they unaccountably own gold, silver, earth and other substances? Nothing is yours, man! You are a slave, and what is yours belongs to the Lord; A slave has no free property. You are brought naked into this light; You, according to the law of your Lord, received what you have: either by inheriting from your father, when God so established (it is said that parents divide the spoils among their children), or by acquiring wealth through marriage (marriage and everything related to it was established by God), or by trade, agriculture and other means, when God assisted you in this. So, here it is shown that what you got is not yours. Let us finally see what you have been commanded and how you should dispose of it. Give to the hungry, clothe the naked, serve the dejected, do not despise the insufficient, abandoned at the crossroads; don’t worry about yourself, don’t think about how you will live to the end. And if, they say, you do this, you will be honored by the Lord, and if you disobey the commandment, you will be bitterly punished. I do not see that this belongs to an autocratic, or living on his own (man), but, on the contrary, these many and constant commands show me that a person is under a strong king, responsible before the law of the Master, and is required, as a duty, to live according to the guidance of the rule. We lead a life that is definitely not accountable: we despise the unfortunate and needy, those who end in misfortune; out of ambition we spend money on trifles, feeding a crowd of dissolute flatterers, attracting to ourselves many unfortunate parasites; we scatter our wealth to fight the beasts and to kill the beasts; We do not spare anything of our own for the maintenance of horses, for magicians, and we spend our wealth on death after death. And we experience something new and almost crazy. Where the cost brings countless benefits and eternal salvation, there we hold our silver tightly so that even a few obols do not fall out of our hands; and where there is sinful waste and is subject to countless punishments and fiery vengeance, there ambition precedes the request: having opened all the doors, we allow our wealth to go to outsiders. This is not the consideration of slaves waiting for their Lord, but of dissolute youths and unbridled revelers. If you want, listener, to see the fear of a ruler who, with prudent caution, disposes of what is entrusted to him, then open the book of David, find the words where the husband speaks to God, curious about his destined death: “Tell me, O Lord, my death and the number of my days” (Ps. 38:5)... (Here it is completely interrupted). Creations attributed to St. John Chrysostom and in the Patrology of Min, classified as Spuria.