Слово 16. О сребролюбии

1. Most of the wise teachers, after the voluptuous tormentor we described, usually believe that this is the main demon of the love of money. So that we, the unwise, would not change the order of the wise, we also wanted to follow the same distribution and rule. So, if you like, let’s talk a little about this illness, and then we’ll talk briefly about healing. 2. The love of money is the worship of idols, the daughter of unbelief, an excuse for one’s own infirmities, a predictor of old age, a harbinger of famine, a fortuneteller about lack of rain. 3. The lover of money is a blasphemer of the Gospel, and a voluntary apostate. He who acquired love squandered his money; and whoever says that he has both is deceiving himself. 4. He who mourns himself, even his own body, has rejected it and does not spare it in case of need. 5. Do not say that you are collecting money for the sake of the poor; for even the widow’s two mites bought the kingdom of heaven. 6. The stranger and the money-lover met each other; and the second called the first reckless. 7. He who conquered this passion cut off care; and one bound by it never prays purely. 8. The love of money begins under the guise of giving alms, and ends in hatred of the poor. The lover of money is merciful while he collects money; and as soon as he accumulated them, he clasped his hands. 9. I saw the poor in money, who, in cohabitation with the poor in spirit, became spiritually rich and forgot their first poverty. 10. A monk who loves money is a stranger to laziness; he remembers hourly the word of the apostle: “Let the idle not eat” (2 Thess. 3:10); and another: “This hand serve me and those who are with me” (Acts 20:34). Sixteenth fight. Whoever won the victory in it either acquired the love of God or cut off vain cares. You might be interested in: