ЛЮБОСТЯЖАНИЕ

Do you not hear what Christ says: “The care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful” (Matthew 13:22), which is what He called thorns? Having said that one seed fell among thorns, and explaining to the disciples what thorns are, the Lord says: the care of this age and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. And well, He likened the worries of this age to thorns: just as thorns do not allow a seed to sprout, but with its density choke the sowing, so worldly worries do not allow the spiritual seed to bear fruit when it is placed in the soul, but, like thorns, they choke and destroy it, not allowing the spiritual seed to vegetate. And the deception of wealth, he says: it is good that He attributes deception to wealth too, because it is, in fact, a deception. What is the use of so many talents, so much money? “Yes, purchasing them, they say, brings a lot of pleasure!” What kind of pleasure? What does it say about pleasure? Doesn't this produce especially untimely sorrows and various troubles? Not to mention the threat of punishment for this; and in real life this matter [i.e. e. covetousness] cannot bring any pleasure, but is accompanied by daily anxieties and troubles. It is not as if the sea is heaving with waves, as such a soul is overwhelmed by thoughts and passions, and harbors hostility towards everyone, its own and others. And if someone loses at least some part of their wealth (and there are many different cases, there is a lot of treachery of slaves and oppression of people in power), then you will see that life becomes unbearable for them. What tears are worthy of such people who try to do everything contrary to their own benefit and want to collect it to the detriment of their soul! (1). Just as we call someone covetous who wants to appropriate someone else’s property and is not content with his own, so we call someone arrogant who demands more from his neighbor than he should, who considers himself worthy of all honor, but dishonors others. And this happens from nothing other than untruth. That this is truly untrue can be seen from the following. God created both you and him, and gave everything to you and to him equally and equally. Why do you reject him, deprive him of the honor that God gave him, do not allow him to participate in benefits, but appropriate everything to yourself: and not only in property, but also in honor, do you make him poor? God gave both of you the same nature, honored you with the same advantages, created you in the same way - because the words: “Let us make man” (Gen. 1:26) generally refer to the entire human race. Why are you depriving him of his father’s property, bringing him into extreme poverty and appropriating for yourself what belongs to everyone?.. So Paul often puts himself forward, not being arrogant or arrogant, but presenting himself as an example for others, for example, when he says: “I desire that all people should be like me” in self-control (1 Cor. 7:7) (2). A person never finds peace in his worry about money. He took this and is already looking at it; has mastered one - and opens its mouth to another. He tries to double a hundred, to this end he again rushes to accumulate the same amount, and never stops collecting until he prepares the end for himself. Obsessed with the thirst for covetousness, he becomes yellower than gold itself, [and all] - because of much-desired wealth, this unfaithful and fickle friend, treacherous love, the deceiver of many masters, the mocking lover of many, the winged prisoner, the hostile corpse raging in the world of the wind; because of wealth, the founder of all absurdity, the inventor of all evil, the collaborator of soul-destroying pleasure, the opponent of abstinence, the enemy of chastity and the secret thief of all virtue. But why am I blaming wealth, leaving money-grubbers aside? It itself suffers from them, bound by them and the contents in bonds. It seems to me that it could address them with the following words: Why do you, covetous people, bind me, O wealth? Why are you imposing thousands of bonds on me as a fugitive? Why do you embrace me as a friend and bind me as a villain, taking me into your arms straight from the bowels of the earth? If you want to make me lighter than sleep itself, let me into the hands of the poor. But [the accused] will say: “I am collecting wealth for the children so that they do not have to experience poverty.” Well, dreamy rich man: you don’t know the present, but you care about the future; you do not know what concerns you, and you care about children; You don’t know if they will bury you in the ground, but you are consulting about your heirs? Madman, tell me what end awaits you, and then try to provide for your children; tell me about today, and then I will believe you about tomorrow. Why do you deceive yourself even after death? Why do you want to be both dead and ridiculed? Why do you interfere with what is God's nature to do? Why do you teach Divine Providence how to use what is given to you? You don't care what happens after you. You cannot be dead and rule over the living and judge the dead, weighing the rights of each. So, why do you, rich man, labor in vain, collecting for yourself what belongs to the poor, but you yourself do not know for whom you are collecting it? Why do you withhold what belongs to the orphans, why are you indignant at their requests, as if you were losing something of your own? They seek theirs, not yours; entrusted to you from them, and not born with you. Give back what you took and receive the benefit, since you are tasked with giving, not taking. Be satisfied that in the person of the beggar God himself extends his hand to you. He who sends rain from heaven asks you for a copper plate; He who makes thunder and lightning says to you, “Have mercy on me”; He who covers the sky with clouds asks you for rags. Be content that the poor implore you as if they were God. Give, have mercy, have mercy, so that you may receive mercy. But you don’t even want to lift your eyebrows, and the begged one remains adamant. Give them what belongs to them before you receive admonition; give them what belongs to them and what you will leave a little later. Their father is the King: give them what belongs to them, and receive from their father their carefree life (3). The passion for wealth exposes you to cruel punishment not only in Gehenna, but even before it, in real life. This passion ruined many homes, started cruel wars and forced people to end their lives by violent death. And even before these disasters, it darkens the good qualities of the soul and often makes a person cowardly, weak, impudent, a deceiver, a slanderer, a predator, a covetous person, and generally having all the low qualities in himself. But perhaps, looking at the shine of silver, at the multitude of servants, at the splendor of buildings and at the respect for wealth in the collections, you are deceived by all this? What is the remedy against this disastrous disease? Your own reflection on how this hurts your soul, how it darkens it and makes it vile, ugly and vicious; your own reflection on what kind of disasters the accumulation of wealth is associated with, with what labors and dangers you must protect it, or rather, that it cannot be protected to the end, and even if you manage to save it from all thefts, then death comes and often transfers your wealth into the hands of enemies, and you yourself are kidnapped having nothing except the wounds and ulcers received from the wealth with which your soul moves into the next world. So, if you see someone dressed in shiny clothes and surrounded by a crowd of bodyguards, then open his conscience, and you will find inside him a lot of cobwebs and you will see a lot of uncleanness. Imagine Paul and Peter, imagine John and Elijah, and especially the Son of God himself, who had nowhere to lay his head (Luke 9:58). Imitate Him and His servants and think about unspeakable wealth. If, having gained some insight, you are again darkened by earthly goods, like those who perish in a shipwreck, then remember Christ’s saying that it is impossible for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Along with this saying, imagine that the mountains, the earth, and the sea, in a word, everything, if you want, turned into gold, and you will see that nothing can compare with the harm that would flow from here for you. You will point to many acres of land, ten, twenty, or perhaps more houses, the same number of baths, a thousand or twice as many servants, silver-plated and gilded chariots, and I will say this. If each of those who are getting rich among you, despising this poverty (after all, in comparison with what I intend to talk about, this is poverty), acquired the whole world, if each of them had as many slaves as there are now people on earth, sea and in the whole world, if each of them had in his possession both land and sea, all buildings, cities and peoples, and if for them gold flowed from all sources, instead of water, then I would also own these rich men. I would not consider even three obols worthwhile, since they are deprived of the Kingdom of Heaven. If they, desiring perishable blessings, are tormented when they do not receive them, then what can console them when they learn the price of future ineffable blessings? Absolutely nothing. So, think not about the abundance of wealth, but about the harm that those who are too addicted to it are exposed to; Because of him, they lose heavenly blessings and become like those who, having lost great honor at the royal court, are left with a heap of dung and are even still proud of it. And truly, a heap of wealth is no better than a heap of dung, even worse. Manure is suitable for agriculture, and for heating baths, and for other similar needs; gold buried in the ground is completely useless: and God forbid that it be only useless. But it ignites in the soul of the one who possesses it like a fiery furnace, if it is not used as it should. What evils does it not cause? That is why secular writers called covetousness the height of evil, but blessed Paul called it much better and with more expressiveness the root of all evil. So, considering all this, let us be jealous of what is worthy of jealousy: not desiring stately buildings or expensive estates, let us be jealous of men who have great boldness towards God, who have laid up for themselves treasure in heaven and enjoy it, men who are truly rich because they have become poor for Christ (7). Let us avoid covetousness. It was then that Judas was driven into a frenzy; it teaches extreme cruelty and inhumanity to those it possesses. In fact, if it forces one to abandon one’s own salvation, then all the more it encourages one to neglect the salvation of others. And this passion is so strong that sometimes it overcomes the strongest carnal lust. Therefore, it is with great shame that I mention that many refrained from debauchery only because they were sorry for money, and yet did not want to live chastely and honestly out of the fear of Christ. Let us flee from covetousness - I will never stop talking about this. Why do you, man, collect gold? Why do you impose such heavy slavery on yourself, such difficult care, such strong care? Suppose that you owned all the gold hidden both in the mines and in the royal palaces. Possessing so much gold, you would only take care of it, and not use it; If even now you do not use what you have, but take care of it as if it were someone else’s, then all the more would you do so if you had more. Usually, money lovers, the more they have, the more they protect their property. But, I know, you say, that this is mine. Therefore, your acquisition consists only in thought, and not in use. But with wealth, you say, others will be afraid of me. On the contrary, through this you will become more accessible to both the rich and the poor, to robbers, slanderers, slaves and generally all treacherous people. If you want to be scary, then destroy the reasons why everyone who strives for this can catch and insult you. Have you not heard the proverb: even a hundred people cannot rob the poor and the needy? Poverty serves as a strong protector for him, which even the king himself cannot take and conquer (7). Those addicted to wealth often do not recognize nature itself. Such a person does not know kinship, does not remember acquaintances, does not respect age, has no one as a friend, but shows a hostile disposition towards everyone, and most of all towards himself, not only because he is destroying his soul, but also because he burdens himself with countless worries, labors, and sorrows. He decides to travel, exposes himself to troubles, dangers, intrigues and everything like that, just to have the root of evil and count a lot of gold. What could be more terrible than such a disease! A person obsessed with it renounces luxury and all pleasure, because of which people sin so much, and deprives himself of glory and honor. He who loves wealth suspects everyone and has many accusers, envious people, slanderers and attackers. Those who are offended by him hate him because they suffered evil from him; those who have not yet suffered anything are arming themselves against him out of fear of suffering and out of sympathy for the victims; and finally, great and powerful people, partly out of indignation at him out of compassion for the lower ones, and partly out of envy, also become his enemies and hate him. But what am I saying about people? Against whom God himself is armed, what hope, what consolation, what consolation remains for him? He who is addicted to wealth will never be able to use it; he will be his slave and his guard, but not his master. Trying always to increase, he will never want to spend it, but will exhaust himself. will be the poorest of all beggars, because he will never satisfy his passion. But money exists not in order to save it, but in order to use it. If we begin to bury them from others, then can there be anything more pitiful than us when we run everywhere and try to seize everything in order to lock it in our house and remove it from general use? (9) As with tumors and ulcers, no matter how much medicine someone applies to them, without first stopping the matter flowing in and poisoning the wound, everything is in vain, because the source of evil is not stopped - so it happens with us: if we do not keep our hands from covetousness and do not break through this unclean stream, then even if we begin to give alms, everything will be in vain. What alms heals, covetousness will drown, spoil and make even worse. Let us first stop being predatory, and then we will begin to give alms. If we ourselves strive into the abyss, then where will we have the opportunity to stop? When a falling person is pulled upward by one (which is what alms does), and the other is dragged downwards, then nothing more will happen from such a struggle except that this person will be torn apart (9). Tell me, what will you tell a pagan when you yourself become rapacious and covetous? Retreat, you say, from idolatry, know God, do not strive for silver and gold. But won’t he laugh and say in response: first teach yourself this; After all, it is not the same thing to worship idols as a pagan and to commit the same sin as a Christian. And how will we be able to turn others away from idolatry, when we ourselves have not moved away from it? After all, we are closer to ourselves than to our neighbors. When we cannot convince ourselves, how will we convince others? He who does not rule his own home well will not take good care of the church. How can one correct others who does not know how to control his own soul? Do not tell me that you do not bow to the golden idol, but prove to me that you do not do what the gold commands. After all, there are different types of idolatry: one considers mammon to be his master, another recognizes the womb as God, and the third considers the grossest passion. But you [say] you do not sacrifice oxen to them, like the pagans? Is it true. For that you - which is much worse - will sacrifice your soul to them. Don't you kneel and bow before them? But you do with very great humility everything that your womb, and gold, and the dominant passion command you. And the Hellenes are vile precisely because they deified passions, calling lust Aphrodite, rage Ares, drunkenness Dionysus. If you do not make images of idols, like the pagans, then with great zeal you submit to the same passions, making the members of Christ the members of a harlot, desecrating yourself and other iniquities. Therefore, I ask you to avoid idolatry (as Paul calls covetousness), having understood the full importance of this vice - to avoid covetousness not only in money, but also in every evil inclination, in dress, in meals and in everything else. After all, for disobedience to the laws of the Lord, we will be subjected to much more severe punishment, as it is said: “But that servant who knew the will of his master... and did not do according to his will, will be beaten many times” (Luke 12:47). So, in order for us to avoid this punishment and become useful to others and to ourselves, let us strive for virtue, removing all vice from our souls (11). The scavenger grieves and laments that he is not free from his apparently painful and dishonorable occupation; but if you free him from this and provide him with sufficient supplies of necessary items, he will again begin to grieve over the fact that he does not have more than is necessary; if you give him more, he will again want to have twice as much and therefore will grieve no less than before; if you give him double or triple, he will again grieve that he is not an official; if you deliver this to him, he will consider himself unfortunate that he does not belong to the number of dignitaries; having received this dignity, he will complain that he is not a ruler; when he becomes a ruler - about the fact that he does not rule the whole people; when by a whole people - about the fact that not by many nations; when by many nations - that not by all; when he becomes the main ruler, he will again grieve that he is not a king; if he becomes king - that he is not alone; if there is one - that he does not also reign over the barbarians and over the entire universe; if over the entire universe - why not over another world? Thus, his plans, extending to infinity, will never allow him to be satisfied. Do you see that even if you make a low and poor man a king, you will not free him from sorrow unless you first correct his soul, which is devoted to covetousness? (12) You might be interested in: