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He who desires the Kingdom of Heaven laughs at greed. The servant of Christ will not be the slave of wealth, but its master. Wealth usually itself seeks the one who runs from it, and runs away from the one who seeks it; He does not so much honor the one who seeks him as the one who despises him; He mocks no one more than his seekers - and not only mocks them, but also entangles them in countless bonds. So, let us at least now free ourselves from these destructive chains. Why enslave the rational soul to irrational matter, the mother of countless evils? But isn't it funny? We argue against it with words, and it argues against us with deeds; takes us everywhere and, to our disgrace, argues with us as with slaves and indecent slaves. What is more shameful and dishonest than this? If we do not overcome insensible substances, then how will we overcome incorporeal forces? If we do not despise base matter and despicable stones, then how can we subjugate principles and powers? How will we practice chastity? If the shine of silver amazes us, then how can we despise the beauty of a face? There are people who are so devoted to this tyrannical power that the very sight of gold produces a special effect on them, and they say as a joke that looking at a gold coin is good for the eyes. But don't joke like that, man! Truly, nothing harms both the physical and mental eyes as much as this passion. This destructive love extinguished the lamps of the foolish virgins and deprived them of the bridal chamber. Looking at gold, which, according to you, is good for the eyes, did not allow the unfortunate Judas to heed the voice of the Lord and even brought him to the point where he hanged himself, split open in the middle and finally fell into Gehenna. So, what could be more wicked than this look? What's worse? I am not talking about the substance of money, but about the immense and unbridled passion for it. She sheds human blood drop by drop, has a murderous appearance, fiercer than any beast, since she torments the fallen, and, even worse, does not allow them to feel these torments. Those possessed by this passion should stretch out their hands to those passing by and cry out for help, but they still give thanks for this torment. What could be more unfortunate? So, thinking about this, let us run away from this incurable disease, let us heal its remorse and avoid such an ulcer, so that we can lead our life here safely and calmly, and inherit future treasures (6). Just as monks living in the mountains do not know what greed is, so do warriors - only for the opposite reasons. The former do not know this passion because they are too far from this disease; and the latter do not feel what a great evil this passion is, for the reason that they revel in it too much. This passion has so completely eradicated good dispositions in them and has dominated them so much that even these frantic people do not consider it a grave crime. But would you not like to leave the warriors and look at others, more meek? Let us turn, for example, to artists and craftsmen. It seems that these people, above others, earn food through fair labor and their own sweat; but even with all their labors they are subject to many vices when they are inattentive to themselves. To their righteous labors they often add unrighteous sales and purchases; out of greed they lie, swear and break oaths. They care only about real life, they are chained to the earth: they do everything for selfish reasons and, wanting to increase their property, they care little about giving help to those in need. Who can depict the slander, insults, profits, interest, contracts, and dishonest trade deals that are cunningly concluded? However, if you wish, let’s leave these and move on to others - more, apparently, fair. Who is this? These are those who own estates and gather wealth from the fruits of the earth. But is it possible to find anyone more unjust than them? If you look at how they treat the poor, unfortunate farmers, you will see that their ferocity exceeds the hard-heartedness of the barbarians. While farmers are starving, exhausting themselves with labor all their lives, they constantly impose new heavy taxes on them, assign them to the most difficult work and use them instead of donkeys and mules - and even instead of stones. Without giving them the slightest rest, both during times of fertility and during times of infertility, they equally oppress them and show them no mercy. Is there anyone more unfortunate than these poor people who, working all winter, spending nights in the cold, in the rain, without sleep, and for all this without receiving any pay, but still in debt, are forced to run away from their masters, not so much to escape and fear of hunger and domestic disorder, as torment, violence, torture, prison and inevitable work - from the stewards? What can we say about the trades carried out through them, and about the unjust profits received from here? The gentlemen who oppress them, filling their winepresses and sinkholes from their labors and sweat, do not allow these poor people to take into their homes the slightest part; but pouring all the fruit from the grapes into their unrighteous vessels, they give them the smallest payment for this. They invent new types of interest, prohibited by the laws even among the pagans; draw up the most dishonest debt instruments, in which they demand not a hundredth part, but half of the entire estate from the debtor; and even if the latter had a wife, raised children, even if he was a poor man and collected his threshing floor and grindstone with his own labor, they do not think about it. Therefore, it is appropriate to quote the words of the prophet here: fear the heavens, and fear the earth! (see Jer. 2:12) What a frenzy the human race has reached! Speaking about all this, I do not condemn the arts, agriculture, military rank, estates - but ourselves. And Cornelius was a centurion, and Paul was a tabernacle worker, and after preaching he worked at his craft, and David was a king, and Job was the lord of a large estate and received great incomes; but all this did not serve as an obstacle to virtue for any of them. So, having considered all this and remembering the darkness of our talents, let us at least for this reason forgive our neighbors for small and unimportant insults. We must give an account of fulfilling the commandments prescribed to us; but we are not able to accomplish everything no matter what we do (7). Sin wraps its thousand arms around our thoughts, invades unexpectedly and torments everything, like dogs that bite suddenly. However, why do we need a pictorial image when we can imagine [the people themselves] like him? Who should you picture first? Isn't he a greedy man and a robber? Indeed, what could be more shameless than his eyes? What is more unscrupulous than him and more like dogs? The dog does not act as brazenly as he does when he steals the property of others. What is worse than his hands? What is more vile than his mouth, which devours everything and is not satisfied? Do not mistake his face and eyes for human ones: that is not how human eyes look. He does not look at people as people, does not look at the sky as at the sky, does not direct his gaze to the Lord, but sees money in everything. Human eyes, seeing those dejected by poverty, usually shed tears; and the eyes of the robber, seeing the poor, express brutality. Human eyes do not look at what belongs to others, they do not desire what belongs to others, but they give theirs to others, and the eyes of a self-seeking person do not rest until they have stolen everything from others, because they do not look like a human being, but like a beast. Human eyes cannot see their own body naked - after all, for them it is theirs even when in appearance it belongs to others - and the eyes of a self-seeking person are not satisfied until they completely expose someone and hide everything at home, or, better said, they are never satisfied. Therefore, the hands of such people can be called not only brutal, but also much more ferocious and dangerous than those of animals. Bears and wolves, having had their fill, retreat from food, but they never get enough. Meanwhile, God gave us hands so that we could help others and not harm them. If we begin to use them as a last resort, then it would be better to cut them off and remain without them. You grieve when a wild beast tears a sheep to pieces; and when you yourself do the same with your fellow tribesman, don’t you consider this thing terrible? What kind of person are you? Don’t you know that we call a deed human that is full of mercy and love for mankind, but we call a rude and cruel deed inhumane? Thus, we depict the character of a person by deeds of mercy, and the character of a beast by deeds contrary to this, and we often say: is he really a man, and not a beast or a dog? People tend to alleviate poverty rather than increase it. Selfish people have mouths that are brutal or even worse; they utter words that, with their poisonousness, cause death much more quickly than the teeth of animals. And if we were to count everything, it would be clearly visible how inhumanity turns people into beasts. And whoever tests the soul of such people will call them not only beasts, but even demons. They are filled with extreme cruelty and hostility towards their neighbors: there is no desire for the Kingdom, no fear of Gehenna, no shame before people, no mercy, no compassion, but shamelessness, arrogance and contempt for the whole future; God's broadcasts about [future] torment seem to them a fable, threats - a ridicule. Such is the soul of a self-seeking man! If they are demons inside, and outside they are beasts and even worse than beasts, then who, tell me, will we consider them to be? That they are worse than animals is evident from the following: animals are such by nature, and they, having received meekness from nature, contrary to nature, try to assimilate the properties of animals. The demons themselves make ill-intentioned people their accomplices, since if the latter were not their accomplices, then most of their intrigues against us would remain unsuccessful; and they try to oppress those who assist them in their unrighteous deeds. Moreover, the demon is at enmity against man, and not against demons like him; and the self-seeking man tries in every possible way to cause harm to both his neighbor and his family, without being ashamed of nature itself (12). If you want, we will present a self-seeking man, we will expose a vicious passion. We will see that he is tormented by fear and cannot enjoy pure pleasure. Imagining those offended by him and regretting them and everyone’s opinion of himself, he is overwhelmed by countless waves. And not only is this painful for him, but also the fact that he cannot enjoy his favorite [object]. This is precisely the property of money lovers: they have not in order to use, but in order not to use. If this seems a mystery to you, then listen to something even worse and stranger: they are not only deprived of pleasure because they do not dare to use their property as they would like, but also because they are never satisfied, but are tormented by an incessant thirst. What could be more painful than this? This is not a righteous man; he is free from fear, hatred, fear and unquenchable thirst; Just as everyone curses him, everyone wishes him well; just as he does not have a single friend, so he does not have a single enemy. If all this is certain, then what could be more unpleasant than vice and more pleasant than virtue (12)? If you grieve over the fact that you use it [money] together with others, and not alone possess it as you do money, then it means that you are not devoted to money, but only to greed. You wouldn't love money if it were common to everyone. So, having found what you love, that is, greed, I will now show you how it does not love and hates you, how many swords it sharpens against you, how many abysses it digs, how many nets it scatters, how many rapids it prepares, in order to at least in this way extinguish your passion. Where can this be seen? From wars, from what is on the roads, on the seas, in courts of law. After all, it fills the seas with blood, and often stains the swords of judges unjustly, and arms those who carry out ambushes on the roads day and night, and makes them forget nature itself, and creates parricides and matricides, and generally introduces all kinds of evil into life (12). You might be interested in: