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Rich people are crazy who grow rich not in God, but in themselves, in their flesh, because they spend their whole lives collecting their wealth in order to leave it after death, against their will, often to strangers. Their dwellings are like tombs throughout their lives. With their passion, they gradually smolder within them and with the stench of greed and avarice infect the sphere of society in which they live and act. Sepulchers are usually cramped, and the rich are oppressed, according to the apostle, in their bellies. But how unsearchable are the destinies of God: the settlements of such people are often long-lasting and villages and lands are named after them! This means that the final reward according to the merits of each will be in another world or on another land, the land of the living (2). You bow down and cringe before the rich man. What does it mean? What is this for? Do you expect protection and benefits from him? So; but if he is a proud, insensitive rich man, leave him, let his silver be with him to his destruction! Is he alone, like some deity, rich in everything, although not rich in mercy alone? Turn to God, or to honest labor, or to both, or to the kind and merciful rich people. It is a disaster if a rich man is not rich in mercy alone. He himself will see this on his sickbed, especially on his deathbed: the mask will then fall from his wealth, and he will see it as it is in itself - a pile of soulless metal, no longer good for anything for him. Only in his stomach his soul did not know how to please itself; but now the terrible hour of death has come, and he will take nothing and his glory will not go away with him (Ps. 48:18) (2). In the case of the rich man mentioned in the Gospel, who departed from the Lord with sorrow, we see how even today many rich people, apparently believing and loving the Lord, immediately fall into distrust and hardness of heart when they are required to give alms to the poor, and depart from the preacher with sadness, better desiring to live in wealth than with God (4). The main illness of the rich young man, which is spoken of in the Gospel, was that he was passionately devoted to self-interest, to the love of money - from head to toe, and his heart was not merciful, but cruel, uncompassionate towards the poor, and he lied to the Lord, the Knower of the Heart, that he had kept all the commandments from his youth: he did not love either God or his neighbor, he loved only himself, he loved to save and collect, and not to give to the poor. I saw a hungry man - I did not feed him, I saw a naked man - I did not clothe him; In general, he did not help anyone in need. You see, it’s a pity for him to collect it, it’s a pity to give it away. Will he pray - he thinks about money, not about God; in general, he only thinks about earthly things, and not about how to love God and neighbor more passionately, to do good more diligently; but he does the commandments only out of appearance, as if to show off to others. Oh, my damned soul, flee from such hypocrisy and double-mindedness! (4) She (the Holy Trinity) is everything to me, I envy no one, I am well-wishing to everyone and I pray to God to grant to everyone what they need, and to the rich, a generous womb and a compassionate heart (4). The Lord Jesus Christ did not have anywhere to lay His head during His earthly life (see Matt. 8:20), but He had within Him His life and the life of all (see John 3:36, 5:26, 11:25, 14:6), while rich people build magnificent palaces for themselves, live in them, but, alas, in such a brilliant environment they do not have true life in their hearts, they cannot enjoy their vanity: they are bored and stuffy in their magnificent palaces, so that many rich people and important dignitaries would exchange their palaces for a poor man’s hut, just to get his peace of mind (6). The rich should help the poor, give alms if possible, receive the strange, visit the sick, console the sad, instruct the ignorant, admonish the erring, forgive offenses, remembering that we are all Christ’s (7). The young man (rich) boasted that he had kept all the commandments, but in reality it turned out that he was far from achieving perfection in fulfilling them, for with all his heart he was attached to wealth and, therefore, did not sincerely love either God or his neighbor, for the Lord says, and experience confirms, that it is impossible to work for God and wealth (see Matt. 6:24; Luke 16:13), just as it is impossible to serve two masters. He departed from the Savior with sadness when the Lord, for the sake of his perfection, offered to sell his property and give it to the poor, for he saw that it was binding his spiritual feet. That is why the Lord said that it is difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven - more difficult than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. But what is difficult and impossible for people is convenient for God, for God can make a rich man merciful, just as many of the rich are truly merciful, and can make a rich man virtuous and an heir to the Kingdom of Heaven, if he does not resist the will of God, but diligently fulfills it (9). But you have large sums of money that would be enough to feed a thousand people - what use is it? Will only property, money, bread, clothing, housing be our only property and we will not willingly share it with our needy brothers? Have mercy, my brothers, this is contrary to our nature and reason. Just as all of nature shares its treasures and riches with us, so we must mutually share our wealth with each other for the common good. If strong, noble, high-ranking persons or the rich please only themselves, without caring about the poor and weak, then what can people do in their favor, although with good intentions, desires, enterprises, but weak in power and capital? (9) Abraham was at one time a very rich man, but wealth did not prevent him from being a friend of God, because he was a stranger and hospitable and was faithful and obedient to God in everything (9). “There was... a certain beggar named Lazarus, who was lying at his (the rich man’s) gate covered in scabs and wanted to be fed with the crumbs falling from the rich man’s table, and the dogs came and licked his scabs” (Luke 16:20, 21). This is where the real guilt of the rich man is, which makes him guilty both of his luxurious dressing and of his daily rich feasts: this guilt is hard-heartedness and unmercifulness towards the poor, which arose in him from a passion for luxury and extravagance, for an idle and cheerful life. At the very gates of his house lies poor Lazarus covered in scabs - such a poor man who, by his very appearance and position, should arouse compassion and mercy, call the rich man to help, but the rich man, and seeing, does not seem to see him and does not show him the slightest compassion: he is busy with his feasts; dogs are more compassionate than him - they come and lick Lazarus' pus. Lazarus wanted to be fed with crumbs from the rich man's table - which means that he was not given anything from the rich meal. It is for this hard-heartedness and unmercifulness that the rich man was sent to hell after death (9). You might be interested in: