ХИЩЕНИЕ

Do not steal gold, but steal wealth that makes gold look like dirt. Tell me: if lead and gold lay before you, what would you steal? Isn't it obvious that it's gold? So, in the case when the kidnapper is punished, you prefer the better thing: then, when the kidnapper deserves honor, will you not give preference to the better? After all, wouldn’t you choose [of two things] preferentially this [better], if there was a punishment for stealing one and the other? But there is nothing like that here, but on the contrary, here is bliss. How can you, you ask, steal [the Kingdom of Heaven]? Drop what you have in your hands. As long as you hold it, you cannot kidnap it. Imagine me a man whose hands are filled with silver: will he be able to steal the gold while he holds the silver, and not throw it away and become free? The kidnapper should not be bound by anything in order not to be detained. After all, even now there are hostile forces that attack us and try to take away [the Kingdom of Heaven] from us. Let us run away from them, let us run away, leaving nothing behind us for them to grab onto. Let us cut off the threads and expose ourselves to the objects of everyday life. What need do you have for silk clothes? How long will we wrap ourselves in these ridiculous clothes? How long will we bury gold in the ground (8)? Let us not steal gold and so many acres of land; but still, through some kind of deception and concealment, we do the same thing on a smaller scale and as much as we can. When, for example, in trade obligations and when buying or selling something, we argue and try to pay less than we should, and try in every possible way about this, is this not robbery? Isn't it theft and embezzlement? Don't tell me that you didn't take away the house or the slaves. Injustice is determined not by the value of what is stolen, but by the intention of the thieves. Injustice and justice have equal force in both large and small. And I equally call a thief both the one who, having cut off his wallet, takes someone else’s money, and the one who, buying something in the market, withholds part of the real price. And the robber is not only the one who breaks down the wall and steals something from the house, but also the one who violates justice and takes away something from his neighbor (8). You might be interested in: