Послание 6 Григория Нисского

Another type of idolatry, for this is what the holy Apostle calls covetousness (Col. 3:5) (according to 1 Timothy - the same as the love of money; ed.), I don’t know how our Fathers omitted it without indicating healing. This evil, as I think, is a disease of the soul in three respects: for the mind, erring in judgment about good, dreams as if good were in matter, and does not look at immaterial beauty; lust tends downward, falling away from what is truly desired; and the grumpy and irritable disposition of the soul takes on many cases for this reason. And in general we can say that such a disease corresponds to the Apostolic description of covetousness. For the Divine Apostle recognized it not only as idolatry, but also as the root of all evil (1 Tim. 6:10). But, however, this type of sin is omitted without special consideration and treatment, which is why this illness multiplies in the churches, and no one tests those accepted into the clergy to see if they have been defiled by this type of idolatry. However, since our Fathers did not mention this, we believe it is sufficient to heal this, as much as possible, with the universal word of teaching, and to cleanse the ailments of covetousness, like some diseases from excess moisture, by reasoning. We consider only theft, grave-digging and sacrilege to be a serious illness, because this is our tradition about this, inherited from the Fathers. And according to the Divine Scripture, among the forbidden deeds are interest and growth, and the sharing of someone else’s wealth with one’s own, through some kind of predominance, even if it was under the guise of an agreement. So, since our opinion is not so worthy of faith that it has the power inherent in the rules, then to what has been said we will add a judgment, according to the rules, about things that are undoubtedly forbidden. Theft is divided into robbery and undermining, the goal of both is the same - to take away someone else's property, but between them there is a great difference in mood. For the robber, in order to achieve his intention, uses murder, and prepares himself for this with weapons, and with a crowd of people like himself, and with the ability of places, why he is subject to the judgment of murderers, if through repentance he returns to the Church of God. And he who appropriated someone else’s property through secret theft, and then through confession declared his sin to the priest, let him heal his illness with an exercise opposite to his passion, that is, by distributing property to the poor, and having squandered what he has, he will show himself cleansed from the disease of covetousness. To the one who has nothing but the body, the Apostle commands him to heal this passion with bodily labor. This commandment reads like this: let him who steals not steal, but rather let him work, doing good, so that he may have the means to give to those who need it (Eph. 4:28). (Ap. 25, 72; Carth. 5; Gregory of Nyssa. 2, 3, 4, 5; Basil the Great. 61). Bishop Nicodemus gives an explanation of the terms “interest and growth, and appropriation of someone else’s wealth through some addition to one’s own.” Likhva happens, according to his explanation, when someone lends something to a well-known person and demands that it be returned to him in a much larger quantity; growth - when the lender demands high interest on borrowed money. The third group of appropriation of other people's things refers to when someone himself does not use any force or means to obtain someone else's thing, however, he does this through another person, or through abuse of his official position and power. You might be interested in: