Богатство

Earthly prosperity makes it possible to do more good deeds: for example, a rich man can help the poor brethren a lot with alms, and a nobleman can help them with protection from violence and representation in courts. In this activity, one must be careful not to act out of oneself, 21 as did the Pharisee mentioned in the Gospel (see Luke 18), who certainly did many good deeds, but with the wrong view of his activity. As a result, he fell into a wrong opinion about himself and his neighbors, and his good activities became displeasing to God. The Apostle says that those who do good works should do them “as good stewards of the manifold grace of God” (1 Pet. 4:10). Let the rich man give alms from his estate, not as from his own, but as from what was given to him by God. Let a nobleman do good from a high position, not as from his own, but as from one given to him by God. Then the look of contempt on the activities of one’s neighbors, even if they were insufficient, will be destroyed; then the question of one’s own activities will begin to appear in the conscience, as was the case with the righteous Job (see. Job 1:5), does it satisfy God’s requirement? Does it have any major or minor flaws? Then, little by little, the concept of a more perfect life will begin to form. Agree that monastic life seems devoid of activity and benefit precisely for those who highly, that is, erroneously, value their activity. A sign of correct Christian activity is humility: pride and conceit are a sure sign of incorrect activity, as directed by the Lord Himself. The one who used his life to acquire wealth, who accumulated a lot of money, acquired vast expanses of land for his own possession, established various institutions that provided abundant income, lived in palaces shining with gold and marble, rode around in magnificent chariots and horses - did he take this into eternity? No! He left everything on earth, satisfying the last needs of the body with the smallest piece of earth, which is equally needed and equally satisfied by all the dead. Whoever knows that the human race is in decline, that the earth is the place of our exile, our prison, where, having stayed for a short time, we emerge to receive either eternal bliss or eternal punishment, he, of course, also knew that the only treasure of man on earth is Christ, the Savior of the lost. Consequently, the only and invaluable acquisition of a person on earth is the knowledge of Christ and assimilation to Christ. Will the one who wants to acquire this treasure desire acquisitions and temporary pleasures? On the contrary, he will run away from them, fearing that they will entertain him. He will be pleased not only with what is necessary, but also with what is scarce. And a contented person is richer than the rich! Those who are given the disposal of earthly goods must be especially protected from their abuse. Glorious and strong lands! Your purpose is to be benefactors of people and, through doing good to your neighbors, to be benefactors to yourself. Abraham has a womb in heaven, that is, an abode into which he receives earthly sufferers who are worthy of it. His position in heaven is similar to the position he chose for himself on earth. On earth he was rich, accepted strangers, helped the oppressed and the needy. His blissful position in heaven was arranged in accordance with his virtuous life on earth. And by such residence you will acquire such abodes and such a position that, with justice, it will be possible to recognize them as your property. They will never be taken away, while earthly dignities and advantages, earthly wealth, all earthly blessings are given only for maintenance. The Gospel calls earthly property unrighteous and alien, and heavenly property true and the property of man. “If you have not been faithful in unrighteous wealth, who will trust you with the true? And if you have not been faithful in what belongs to others, who will give you what is yours?” (Luke 16:11–12). Temporary wealth is called unrighteous because it is a consequence of the fall. We would not need money, nor protection from the elements, which we try to make magnificent, nor other benefits that turn into luxury items, if we had not been cast out of paradise to earth, on which we remain for the shortest time, given to us by the mercy of God to return the lost paradise. Temporary wealth is called alien: it is destroyed in itself, and constantly passes from hand to hand, it is not characteristic of man, it serves as a denunciation of his need to help himself, a denunciation of his fall. Unstoppable! It did not stop and did not remain in any hands; it is always given for a more or less short period, equally short before boundless eternity. Eternal property is called true as incorruptible, unchanging, always remaining the property of the one who one day receives it. It is called its own to man: man was created to possess and enjoy it, it is peculiar to man. To receive the true, inalienable wealth inherent in you, remain faithful to God when disposing of what is urgently entrusted to you. Do not deceive yourself: do not consider earthly possessions to be property! Do not deceive yourself: do not consider yourself entitled to dispose of this property at will! Do not deceive yourself: do not consider it sinless to use this property for luxury and entertainment! You are obliged to dispose as God, who entrusted you with the management, commanded. By using your property for luxury and entertainment, you are trampling on the Law of God, robbing your neighbors of what God has instructed you to distribute to them. By indulging in feasts and amusements, you are destroying yourself. You enslave the spirit to the body, you drown out, kill the soul, forget about God, about eternity, and lose faith itself. Developing in yourself only carnal sensations, strengthening them with exquisite and excessive nutrition, constant carnal amusements, you can no longer restrain yourself from fornication, you insatiably indulge in it. In this mortal sin you are finally burying your salvation. “Woe to you,” the Savior declared to the rich who abuse their wealth, “for you have already received your consolation. Woe to you who are now satiated! for you will hunger. Woe to you who laugh now! for you will weep and lament” (Luke 6:24–25). “Give me alms. Prepare for yourselves sheaths that will not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven” (Luke 12:33). Find pleasure in the creation of virtues! As soon as you touch the task of completing them, you will be greeted by this spiritual, holy pleasure - and carnal pleasures will seem vile to you. From the alms you give, a living faith will begin to appear in you, through which you will see and experience God. It is common for mercy to give birth to faith, and for faith to give birth to mercy. Abstinence from gratifying carnal lusts brings purity to the mind, and the mind’s view of the earth and everything earthly changes: it reveals to it what it has not seen before, the corruptible in the corruptible and the temporary in the temporary; his thoughts begin to ascend to eternity; he finds it essential to inspect in good time, to study its vast area. “Make for yourselves friends from the mammon of unrighteousness,” the Gospel exhorts, calling material property the mammon of unrighteousness, and friends of the holy Angels and those holy men who have already departed from here into eternity; it is fitting for us to assimilate them to a virtuous life and the participation of Divine grace during our earthly pilgrimage. “Make for yourself friends from mammon of unrighteousness, so that when you become poor,” they will accept you into eternal shelters! It is as if you will become impoverished, impoverished in the full sense, when, under the mysterious action of death, you leave on earth everything that belongs to the earth and borrowed from the earth, when you leave your bodies on it! “May the inhabitants of heaven then receive you into eternal shelters” (Luke 16:9), 22 into heavenly abodes! May God’s mercy vouchsafe us these coveted abodes for our obedience to the all-holy will of God. The deceitfulness of thoughts and dreams that deceive a person when he clings with all his soul to wealth and places his trust in it, the Lord picturesquely depicted in the parable that he told two brothers after the instruction about guarding oneself from covetousness. “A certain rich man had a good harvest in the field,” this is how the parable begins, “and he reasoned with himself” (Luke 12:16-17). The first effect of a bountiful harvest on the rich man was that he began to engage in special reflections. This almost always happens to those who suddenly become rich or to those who suddenly receive a significant increase in their previous wealth. Thinking to himself, the rich man said: What will I do? “What should I do?..” Blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria rightly notes that excessive wealth is similar to poverty. Both of them cry out from the difficulty of their situation: “What should I do?” The reason for difficulty in poverty is a lack of bodily needs; in wealth, there is an excess in them. "What should I do?" – the rich man asks himself, “I have nowhere to gather my fruits” (Lk. 12, 17), I have nowhere to put the wealth I have acquired. Finally, he figured out what to do, and, as if rejoicing at his resourcefulness, he said in delight and with determination: “This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and I will gather there all my grain and all my goods, and I will say to my soul: soul! you have a lot of goods laid up for many years: rest, eat, drink, be merry” (Luke 12:18-9). The blind rich man did not think about God, about eternity, about his poor brethren; he thought only about himself, he thought disastrously for himself, because he forgot about the purpose of the soul and in his dream destined for it the ultimate enslavement of the body. He did not think about God, who, while benevolent to him, called him to charity. He did not think about eternity, where it is necessary to send part of his estate in alms, so as not to end up there as a beggar, unworthy of the heavenly palace. What an untrue dream does the rich man flatter himself with! He says that his property is enough for a long time, meaning that his life will last just as long or even longer; he bases his orders on this vain, unsteady dream. The state of self-delusion is common to all covetous and peace-loving people. Earthly life seems to them eternal. The thought of death is completely alien to them, like the thought of an event that can never have anything to do with them. What assumptions does the blinded rich man base on his enrichment? He, as they say in the world, wants to live well. What does it mean to live well in this sense? It means: sweet, eat and drink a lot, indulge in entertainment and amusements, commit adultery, live luxuriously, be vain, satisfy all your lusts and desires. If we look more closely at the world, we will find that the Gospel parable of the rich man can serve as a mirror for all of us: not all of us are constantly carried away by the dreams of the rich man, but we are all more or less carried away by them from time to time. When the rich man dreamed with delight about the sinful life ahead of him, God’s verdict was suddenly pronounced against him. God told him: “You fool! this night your soul will be taken from you; who will get what you have prepared? (Luke 2:20) What happened to the rich man happens to every person who forgets God and gives himself up entirely to the service of sin. While such a person reaches the end of his desires, as he arranges his situation in the best possible way, God sends death or some kind of vicissitude is allowed - and the most lasting earthly well-being collapses. The Lord expressed this in the words with which He concluded the parable: “This is what happens to those who store up treasures for themselves, but are not rich toward God” (Luke 12:21). This is the fruit of the love of money, covetousness and, in general, an intense desire to acquire property, a desire carried out under the exclusive direction of self-love. The Lord called the proud rich man insane because this rich man, blinded by pride, acting in self-delusion as if solely in his own favor, acted in the very thing against himself, lowering himself from the high dignity of man, created for eternity, who must act on earth for heaven, who must always grant dominion to the soul over the body. To grow rich in God means to lead a life pleasing to God. Earthly activity, directed according to the Gospel commandments, brings imperishable wealth to the soul: knowledge of God and oneself, faith, humility, love for God and neighbors. Such activity correctly disposes of earthly property as a gift from God and, through correct disposal, transforms perishable property into incorruptible property, transfers its treasures from earth to heaven. By transferring his perishable property to heaven through alms, a Christian will inconspicuously transfer his heart to heaven, as the Lord himself testified: “where your treasure is, there your heart will also be” (Luke 12:34). Such a Christian will live in heaven with his thoughts, inclinations, and feelings, just as the apostle lived there, who even during his stay on earth announced about himself: “our residence” is “in heaven” (Phil. 3:20). According to the explanation of Blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria. In the synodal translation: make friends for yourself with unrighteous wealth, so that when you become poor, they will receive you into eternal abodes. – Approx. ed. You might be interested in: