Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved?

Those who bring speeches of praise as gifts to the rich would rightly seem to me to deserve to be judged not only flatterers and servile, since they pretend to bestow as a great favor what is no favor at all,

but also impious and treacherous: impious because, neglecting to praise and glorify the only perfect and good God, from whom are all things and through whom are all things and to whom are all things, they attach … the prize to men … wallowing in … life …

the chief thing, which is subject to the judgment of God. They are treacherous because, although wealth by itself is enough to puff up the souls of its possessors, to corrupt them and turn them aside from the way by which salvation can be reached, these people further dazzle the minds of the rich with the pleasures of immoderate praise, exalting them and preparing them to despise absolutely everything except the wealth for which they are admired. As the proverb says, they channel fire onto fire, pour pride upon pride, and load wealth, a heavy thing by nature, with a heavier burden of arrogance, when they ought rather to take it away and cut it back as a dangerous and deadly disease. For to the one who is exalted and magnified the opposite change is attached, a turn to humiliation and a fall, as the divine Word teaches.

To me it seems far more humane, instead of flattering … the rich … to their harm, to help … their salvation … in every possible way: on the one hand by asking it of God, who surely and gladly grants such things to his own children; on the other by healing their souls with the Word through the grace of the Savior, enlightening them and leading them to the possession of the truth. Whoever obtains it and is made illustrious by good works will alone carry off the prize of eternal life.

But prayer needs a soul that is strong and persevering, measured out to the last day of life; and the way of life needs a good and steadfast disposition that reaches out to all the commandments of the Savior.

It may be that the reason why salvation seems harder for the rich than for people without money is not a single one but manifold.

For some, hearing the Lord's saying straight off and carelessly, that a camel will more easily pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man into the kingdom of heaven, have despaired of themselves as not destined to live; surrendering everything to the world and clinging to life here as the only one left them, they have gone further from the way to the life there, no longer inquiring whom the Master and Teacher calls rich, nor how what is impossible with men becomes possible.

Others understood this rightly and fittingly, but, neglecting the works that lead to salvation, did not make the preparation needed to obtain what they hope for.

I say both of these things about the rich who have perceived the Savior's power and his manifest salvation; for those uninitiated into the truth I care little. It is necessary, then, for those who … with love of truth and love of the brethren …

neither insolently to treat the rich who have been called with arrogance, nor again to fawn on them out of their own love of gain, but first to remove from them by the Word their empty despair, and to show, with the needed interpretation of the Lord's sayings, that the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven is not entirely cut off from them if they obey the commandments.

Then, when they have learned that they fear a groundless fear and that the Savior gladly receives them if they are willing, one should show them in advance and initiate them into how, and by what works and dispositions, they may enjoy what they hope for, since it is neither impossible for them nor, on the other hand, obtained at random

by chance. But in the way it is with athletes (to compare small and perishable things with great and incorruptible ones), let the one who is rich in the world's goods consider this in his own case too.

For among athletes, one who has given up hope of being able to win and gain crowns does not even enter his name for the contest; another, who has cast this hope into his mind but does not undertake the labors, exercises, and suitable diet, goes away uncrowned and misses his hopes.

So too let one who is clothed with this earthly wealth neither shut himself out from the start from the Savior's contests, if he is a believer and perceives the greatness of God's love for mankind, nor again hope to share in the crowns of incorruption while remaining untrained and without contest, without dust and without sweat.

Rather, let him submit himself to the Word as his trainer and to Christ as the president of the games. Let his appointed food and drink be the new covenant of the Lord; his exercises, the commandments; his grace and adornment, the fair dispositions: love, faith, hope, knowledge of the truth, … gentleness, compassion, dignity; so that when the last trumpet sounds for the race and the departure from here, as from the stadium of life, he may stand victorious with a good conscience before the Judge of the games, acknowledged worthy of the fatherland above, into which he returns with crowns and the proclamations of angels.

May the Savior grant us, then, beginning our discourse from here, to contribute to the brethren what is true, fitting, and saving, first for hope itself, and second for access to what is hoped for.

He grants it to those who ask, teaches those who inquire, dispels ignorance and shakes off despair, bringing forward again the very words about the rich, which become their own interpreters and safe expositors.

For there is nothing like hearing the very sayings again, which up to now have troubled us in the Gospels because we heard them without examination and mistakenly, through childishness.

“As he was going out on the way, a man came up and knelt before him, saying,

‘Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’ And Jesus says, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but one, God.

You know the commandments: do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and mother.’ And he answered and said to him, ‘All these I have kept from my youth.’

And Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘One thing you lack: if you wish to be perfect, sell what you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.’ But he was gloomy at the saying and went away grieving;

for he had many possessions and fields. And Jesus, looking around, says to his disciples, ‘How hard it will be for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!’ And the disciples were amazed at his words.

Again Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God! A camel will more easily go through the eye of the needle than a rich man into the kingdom of God.’ And they were exceedingly astonished and said, ‘Who then can be saved?’ And he, looking at them, said, ‘What is impossible with men is possible with God.’ Peter began to say to him,

‘See, we have left everything and followed you.’ And Jesus answered, ‘Truly I say to you, whoever leaves his own possessions, and parents, and brothers, and riches for my sake and for the sake of the gospel will receive a hundredfold. Now in this time, to have fields and riches and houses and brothers with persecutions—to what end? But in the age to come there is eternal life. And the first will be last, and the last first.’”

This is written in the Gospel according to Mark; and in all the other acknowledged Gospels the wording perhaps varies a little here and there, but all show the same agreement in meaning.

We must know clearly that the Savior teaches nothing in a merely human way, but teaches his own everything with divine and mystical wisdom; we must not hear what is said in a fleshly way, but search out and learn the meaning hidden in it with due inquiry and understanding.

For even the things the Lord himself seems to have made plain to the disciples, among what he had said in riddles, are found to need no less, but even more attention still, because of the surpassing excess of wisdom in them.

And where even the things thought to have been opened up by him to those within, those whom he himself calls children of the kingdom, still need further thought, surely the things that seem to have been spoken simply, and for that reason were not even questioned by those who heard them, but which bear on the whole goal of salvation itself, and are covered with a wonderful and supercelestial depth of meaning, should not be received superficially by the ears, but by directing the mind to the very spirit of the Savior and the secret of his thought.

Our Lord and Savior is gladly asked a question most fitting for him: the Life about life, the Savior about salvation, the Teacher about the chief point of the doctrines taught, the Truth about true immortality, the Word about the Father's word, the Perfect about perfect rest, the Incorruptible about sure incorruption.

He is asked about the things for which he came down, which he trains us in, teaches, and provides, so as to show the theme of the gospel: that it is the gift of eternal life.

As God, he knows beforehand both what he will be asked and what someone will answer him. For who should know this better than the Prophet of prophets and Lord of every prophetic spirit?

Being called good, he takes his cue from this very first word and begins his teaching from it, turning the disciple to God, the good, the first, and the only dispenser of eternal life, which the Son gives us, having received it from him.

Therefore the greatest and highest of the lessons for life must be laid up in the soul from the very beginning: to know the eternal God, giver of eternal things, first, supreme, one, and good.

He may be gained through knowledge and apprehension; for this is the unchanging and unshakable beginning and foundation of life: the knowledge of God, who truly is and who bestows the things that are, that is, the eternal things; from him the others have both their being and their continuing.

For ignorance of him is death, but knowledge of him, intimacy with him, love for him, and likeness to him are the only life.

He urges the one who would live the true life, then, first to know him “whom no one knows except the Son and he to whom the Son reveals him”; then, after him, to learn the greatness of the Savior and the newness of grace, since, according to the apostle, “the law was given through Moses, grace and truth through Jesus Christ”; and the things given through a faithful servant are not equal to those bestowed by a true Son.

If the law of Moses had been able to provide eternal life, the Savior himself would have come and suffered for us in vain, running through the course of humanity from birth to the sign of the cross; and in vain would the one who had done all the commandments of the law “from his youth” kneel and ask immortality from another.

For he had not only fulfilled the law but had begun doing so from his earliest age. For what is great or splendid about an old age that bears none of the wrongs that youthful desires, boiling anger, or love of money produce? But if someone in the leaping of youth and the heat of that age has shown a mind ripe and older than his years, he is a marvelous contestant, distinguished, and gray-haired in judgment.

Yet this man is fully persuaded that he lacks nothing for righteousness, but lacks life altogether; so he asks for it from the one who alone can give it. Toward the law he has confidence, but he supplicates the Son of God.

He passes “from faith to faith”; as one tossing dangerously in the law and lying at anchor in peril, he moves his anchorage to the Savior.

At any rate, Jesus does not rebuke him as though he had not fulfilled all the things of the law; he loves him and warmly welcomes his obedience in what he had learned. But he says he is imperfect with respect to eternal life, as one who had not done perfect things, a worker of the law but idle in regard to true life. Those things too are good (who denies it?

for “the commandment is holy”), as far as a kind of instruction with fear and preliminary training, advancing toward the supreme legislation and grace of Jesus. But “Christ is the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes,” not making slaves as a slave does, but sons and brothers and joint heirs, those who do the will of the Father.

“If you wish to be perfect.” So he was not yet perfect, for nothing is more perfect than the perfect. And divinely the words “if you wish” showed the free will of the soul conversing with him. For the choice lay with the man, as free, but the gift with God, as Lord.

He gives to those who wish, who are very earnest, and who ask, so that salvation may thus become their own. For God does not compel (force is hateful to God), but provides for those who seek, gives to those who ask, and opens to those who knock.

If you wish, then, if you truly wish and are not deceiving yourself, acquire what is lacking. “One thing you lack”: the one thing, the thing that is mine, the good, what is already beyond the law, what the law does not give, what the law does not contain, what belongs to those who live.

Indeed, the one who had fulfilled all the things of the law “from his youth” and boasted of extraordinary things was unable to add this one thing to them all, the Savior's special gift, so as to receive the eternal life he longed for. Instead he went away displeased, vexed at the commandment of the life

for which he was pleading. For he did not truly want life, as he claimed, but was only clothing himself with the reputation of a good intention.

He was able to busy himself with many things, but the one thing, the work of life, he was powerless, unwilling, and too weak to accomplish. It was something like what the Savior said to Martha, who was busy with many things, distracted and troubled with serving, and who blamed her sister because she had left the serving and sat at his feet, spending her time as a disciple: “You are troubled about many things; but Mary has chosen the good portion, and it will not be taken away from her.”

So too he told this man to let go of his busyness and cling and sit close to the one thing, the grace of him who adds eternal life.

What, then, was it that drove him to flight and made him desert the Teacher, his supplication, his hope, his life, his previous labors?

“Sell your possessions.” What is this? It is not what some hastily take it to mean, that he commands us to throw away the property we have and give up our money; but to banish from the soul its opinions about money, its attachment to it, its excessive desire, its excitement and disease over it, its anxieties, the thorns of life that choke the seed of life.

For it is nothing great or enviable simply to lack money without a reason connected with life. (Otherwise those who have nothing at all, destitute and beggars for their daily bread, the poor lying along the roads, “not knowing” God and “the righteousness of God,” would be most blessed and most beloved of God and the only ones to have eternal life,

simply because they are utterly without resources and means of life and short of the smallest necessities.) Nor is it new to renounce wealth and give it to the poor or to one's country, which many did before the Savior's coming, some for the sake of leisure for letters and dead wisdom, others for empty fame and vainglory: men like Anaxagoras, Democritus, and Crates.

Why, then, does he command as new, proper to God, and alone life-giving what did not save those before? If “the new creation,” the Son of God, reveals and teaches something special, he does not enjoin the visible act, which others have done, but something else signified by it, greater, more divine, and more perfect: to strip the soul itself and its disposition of the passions that lie hidden in it, and to cut out by the roots and cast away what is alien to the mind. This is the lesson proper to the believer,

and the teaching worthy of the Savior. For those before, who despised external things, let go and got rid of their possessions, but I think they even increased the passions of their souls; for they fell into arrogance, boastfulness, vainglory, and contempt for other people, as though they themselves had done something beyond human.

How then would the Savior recommend to those who are to live forever things that would harm and damage them with regard to the life he promises?

And there is this too: one can unload one's property and still have the desire and craving for money no less, rooted and living in one; one can have lost the use of it, yet, being in want and longing for what one squandered, be doubly grieved, both by the absence of its service and by

the company of regret. For it is unattainable and impossible for one who lacks the necessities of life not to be broken in mind and distracted from better things, trying to procure them by any means and from any source.

And how much more useful is the opposite: that one who possesses enough should not himself suffer want in the matter of possessions, and should help those whom it is fitting to help? For what sharing would be left among people if no one had anything?

How would this doctrine not be found plainly contradicting and fighting against many other fine doctrines of the Lord?

“Make friends for yourselves by means of the mammon of unrighteousness, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.” “Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, nor thieves break in.”

How could anyone feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, and take in the homeless, for failing to do which he threatens fire and the outer darkness, if each person were already lacking all these things himself?

But in fact he himself is a guest of Zacchaeus and of Levi and Matthew, rich men and tax collectors, and he does not command them to give up their money; rather, imposing its just use and removing the unjust, he announces:

“Today salvation has come to this house.” He so praises their use of it that with this addition he also enjoins sharing: to give drink to the thirsty, bread to the hungry, to receive the homeless, to clothe the naked.

But if these needs cannot be met except from money, and he commands us to give up money, what else would the Lord be doing but advising us both to give and not to give the same things, to feed and not to feed, to receive and to shut out, to share and not to share, which is the most absurd of all? So money that benefits one's neighbors too is not to be thrown away;

for they are possessions because they are possessed, and goods because they are useful and prepared by God for the use of human beings. They lie at hand and are placed under us like material and instruments for good use by those who know how.

If you use an instrument skillfully, it is skillful; if you fall short in skill, it shares in your lack of art, though it is not to blame.

Wealth too is such an instrument.

You can use it justly: it serves righteousness. Someone uses it unjustly: again it is found a servant of injustice. For its nature is to serve, not to rule. We must not, then, blame what has in itself neither good nor evil and is not responsible, but what is able to use these things both well and badly, according to what it chooses, and is responsible for that very reason. And this is the human mind,

which has in itself free judgment and free will in handling what has been given it. So let no one destroy his possessions, but rather the passions of the soul, which do not allow the better use of what one has,

so that, having become noble and good, he may be able to use these possessions nobly too. To renounce all one's possessions, then, and sell all that one has, must be understood in this way, as spoken of the passions of the soul.

I would say this too: since some things are within the soul and others outside it, and the latter also seem good if the soul uses them well and evil if it uses them badly, does the one who commands us to give away our possessions reject the things whose removal still leaves the passions remaining, or rather those whose removal makes possessions too useful?

The one who has thrown away his worldly wealth can still be rich in passions, even when their material is absent; for the disposition does its own work, and chokes and oppresses the reason and inflames it with the desires bred with it. So it has done him no good to be poor in money while rich in passions.

For he has not thrown away what should be thrown away, but what is indifferent; he has cut himself off from what serves him, but set on fire the innate material of vice by the lack of external things.

We must renounce, then, those possessions that are harmful, not those that can also help, if one knows how to use them rightly.

What is managed with prudence, self-control, and godliness is beneficial; what is harmful must be thrust away; external things do not harm.

So the Lord also admits the use of external things, commanding us to put away not the means of living but the things that use them badly; and these

were the infirmities and passions of the soul. The wealth of these, when present, brings death to all; when destroyed, it brings salvation. Of this one must render the soul pure, that is, poor and naked, and so then hear the Savior saying, “Come, follow me.”

For he himself becomes the way for the pure in heart; but the grace of God does not slip into an impure soul, and impure is the soul that is rich in desires and in labor with many worldly loves.

The one who holds possessions, gold and silver and houses, as gifts of God, and serves God who gave them by using them for the salvation of others; who knows that he possesses them for the sake of the brethren rather than for himself; who is superior to their possession, not a slave to what he possesses, nor carrying them about in his soul, nor defining and limiting his life by them, but always laboring at some fine and divine work; and who, if he must ever be deprived of them, is able to bear their loss with a cheerful mind as calmly as their abundance: this is the one who is blessed by the Lord and called poor in spirit, a ready heir of the kingdom of heaven, not one who is unable to live as a rich man.

But the one who carries his wealth in his soul, and in his heart, instead of the Spirit of God, carries gold or land, always making his property boundless and forever looking for more, bent downward and fettered by the snares of the world, being earth and destined to go to earth: how can he desire and care for the kingdom of heaven, a man who wears not a heart but a field or a mine, and who must of necessity be found in the things he has chosen? “For where the mind of man is, there is his treasure also.”

The Lord knows two kinds of treasure: the good, for “the good man brings out good from the good treasure of his heart”; and the evil, for “the evil man brings out evil from the evil treasure, because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”

As, then, treasure is not one thing with him, as with us too, there being the treasure that gives sudden great gain when it is found,

and also a second kind, profitless, unenviable, hard to get, and harmful, so too there is a wealth of good things and a wealth of evil things, since we know that wealth and treasure are not separated from each other by nature. The one wealth is to be acquired and embraced, the other not acquired but thrown away. In the same way, poverty too is blessed when it is spiritual.

That is why Matthew added: “Blessed are the poor.” How? “In spirit.” And again: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God.” So wretched are the opposite kind of poor, who have no share in God, and still less in human possessions, and have not tasted the righteousness of God.

So the rich who will enter the kingdom with difficulty must be understood in a learned way, as disciples should, not clumsily, rustically, or in a fleshly way; for it is not said in that way. Salvation does not depend on external things, whether they are many or few, small or great, glorious or inglorious, esteemed or unesteemed, but on the virtue of the soul: faith, hope, love, brotherly love, knowledge, gentleness, humility, and truth, of which salvation is the prize.

No one will live because of bodily beauty, nor perish for the opposite; but the one who uses the body given him purely and according to God will live, and the one who destroys the temple of God will be destroyed.

An ugly man can be licentious, and a beautiful one self-controlled. Neither strength and size of body give life, nor does the insignificance of the limbs destroy; but the soul that uses them provides the cause in either direction.

“Endure,” he says, “when struck on the face,” which a strong and healthy man can obey, and again a weak man can transgress through lack of self-control.

So too one who is without resources and livelihood might sometimes be found drunk with desires, and one rich in money sober, poor in pleasures, obedient, prudent, pure, disciplined.

If, then, it is above all and first the soul that is to live, and virtue growing in it saves while vice kills, it is now clear that the soul is saved when it is poor in the things by which one is corrupted through wealth, and is killed when it is rich in the things that wealth ruins.

And let us no longer seek the cause of our end anywhere else than in the state and disposition of the soul, toward obedience to God and purity, or toward transgression of the commandments and the accumulation of vice.

The one who is truly and nobly rich, then, is the one rich in virtues and able to use every fortune in a holy and faithful way; the counterfeit rich man is the one rich according to the flesh, who has transferred his life to external possession, which passes away and perishes, belongs now to one and now to another, and in the end to no one at all.

Again, in the same way, there is a genuine poor man and another, counterfeit and falsely named: the one poor in spirit, which is what matters, the other poor in the world's goods, which is foreign to him.

To the one who is not poor in the world's goods but rich in passions, the one who is poor in spirit and rich toward God says: ‘Withdraw from the alien possessions that are in your soul, so that, becoming pure in heart, you may see God, which in other words is to enter the kingdom of heaven.

And how will you withdraw from them? By selling them. What then? Will you take money instead of possessions, making an exchange of wealth for wealth,

turning your visible property into cash? Not at all; but instead of what was formerly in your soul, which you long to save, bring in another wealth, which makes you divine and supplies eternal life: the dispositions that accord with God's commandment. In return for these you will have reward and honor,

perpetual salvation and eternal incorruption. In this way you sell well your possessions, the many, superfluous things that shut heaven against you, exchanging them for what can save. Let those things be had by the fleshly poor, who lack these; but you, receiving spiritual wealth in exchange, would already have treasure in heaven.’

Not understanding this properly, the man who was very rich and observant of the law, nor how the same person can be both poor and rich, and have money and not have it, and use the world and not use it, went away gloomy and downcast, leaving the rank of life, which he could only desire but not obtain, having made the difficult impossible for himself.

For it was difficult for the soul not to be led astray or dazzled by the luxuries attached to evident wealth and its flowery enchantments; but it was not impossible even in this state to lay hold of salvation, if one would lead himself away from sensible wealth to the wealth that is intelligible and taught by God, and learn to use indifferent things well and in the right way, so as to set out toward eternal life.

The disciples too were at first very frightened and astonished. Having heard what? Was it because they too had much money? On the contrary, they had long since left those very nets, hooks, and service boats, which were all they had.

Why then do they say in fear, “Who can be saved?” They heard well, as disciples, what the Lord had spoken in a parable and obscurely, and they perceived the depth of the words.

As far as having no money was concerned, they were hopeful of salvation; but since they were conscious that they had not yet completely put away their passions (for they had only just begun to learn and had recently been enlisted by the Savior), “they were exceedingly astonished” and despaired of themselves no less than that man who had much money and clung terribly to the possession he preferred to eternal life.

It was therefore entirely worthy of fear for the disciples if both the one who possesses money and the one pregnant with passions, in which they too were rich, will likewise be driven from heaven; for salvation belongs to souls that are free from passion and pure.

But the Lord answers that “what is impossible with men is possible with God.” This too is full of great wisdom: that a man exercising and laboring for freedom from passion by himself achieves nothing; but if he shows himself very eager and earnest for it,

he prevails by the addition of power from God. For God breathes together with souls that are willing, but if they fall away from their eagerness, the spirit given by God is also withdrawn. For to save the unwilling is the act of one who uses force, but to save those who choose is the act of one who shows grace.

Nor does the kingdom of God belong to those who sleep and are lazy, but “the violent seize it.” For this is the only good violence: to do violence to God and seize life from God. And he, knowing those who hold on violently, or rather steadfastly, yields; for God rejoices to be defeated in such things. So, hearing these things, the blessed Peter,

the chosen, the eminent, the first of the disciples, for whom alone, together with himself, the Savior pays the tax, quickly seized and understood the saying.

And what does he say? “See, we have left everything and followed you.” If by “everything” he means his own possessions, he boasts of leaving perhaps four obols,

as the saying goes, and would unwittingly declare the kingdom of heaven equivalent to them. But if, as we have just now been saying, they throw away their old possessions of the mind and the diseases of the soul and follow in the footsteps of the Teacher, this would now attach them to those who will be enrolled in heaven.

For this is truly to follow the Savior: to pursue his sinlessness and perfection, and, looking to him as to a mirror, to adorn and order the soul, and to arrange everything in every way alike.

“And Jesus answered, ‘Truly I say to you, whoever leaves his own possessions, and parents, and brothers, and riches for my sake and for the sake of the gospel will receive a hundredfold.’”

But let not this trouble us, nor the even harder saying uttered elsewhere: “Whoever does not hate father and mother and children, and moreover his own life, cannot be my disciple.”

For the God of peace, who exhorts us to love even our enemies, does not introduce hatred and separation from those dearest to us.

If enemies are to be loved, then, by analogy, rising from them, so are one's nearest kin; or if blood relatives are to be hated, much more, descending, the saying teaches us to reject our enemies; so the sayings would refute each other by cancelling each other out.

But they do not cancel each other out, not even nearly; for from the same mind and disposition, and with the same aim, one might hate a father and love an enemy: the one who neither takes revenge on an enemy nor honors a father more than Christ.

In the one saying he cuts out hatred and doing harm; in the other, false shame toward those we grew up with,

if it harms salvation. If, at any rate, someone has a godless father, son, or brother, who becomes a hindrance to faith and an obstacle to the life above, let him not side with him or agree with him, but dissolve the fleshly relationship because of the spiritual enmity.

Imagine the matter to be a lawsuit. Let your father seem to stand before you and say, ‘I begot you and reared you; follow me, join me in wrongdoing, and do not obey the law of Christ,’ and whatever else a man might say who is a blasphemer and dead by

nature. On the other side, hear the Savior: ‘I have begotten you again, who were born badly by the world for death; I have set you free, healed you, redeemed you. I will give you life unceasing, eternal, above the world; I will show you the face of God, the good Father. “Call no one on earth your father.” “Let the dead bury the dead, but you follow me.”

For I will lead you up to rest and to the enjoyment of unspeakable and indescribable good things, “which eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor have they entered into the heart of men, into which angels long to look and see what good things God has prepared for the saints and for the children who love him.”

I am your nourisher, giving myself as bread, which no one who has tasted any longer experiences death; and giving daily the drink of immortality. I am the teacher of supercelestial lessons. For you I contended with death and paid your death, which you owed for your former sins and for your

unbelief toward God.’ Having heard these words from both sides, judge for yourself and cast your vote for your own salvation. Even if a brother says the same, or a child, or a wife, or anyone at all, before all things let Christ, who conquers, be in you; for he contends on your behalf.

Can you rise above your wealth? Say so, and Christ does not draw you away from possessing it; the Lord does not begrudge it. But do you see yourself overcome and overthrown by it? Let it go, throw it away,

hate it, renounce it, flee it. “Even if your right eye causes you to stumble, cut it out quickly”; the kingdom of God with one eye is preferable to the fire with both. Whether it is a hand, a foot, or your own life, hate it; for if it perishes here for Christ's sake, it will be saved there.

The following saying holds to the same meaning: “But now in this time, to have fields and riches and houses and brothers with persecutions—to what end?”

For he does not call to life those without money, or without homes, or without brothers; since he has also called the rich, but in the way we have described before, and brothers in the same way, like Peter with Andrew, and James with John, the sons of Zebedee, but brothers of one mind with each other and with Christ.

But the words “with persecutions” reject having each of these things. One kind of persecution comes from outside, from people who harass the faithful out of enmity, envy, love of gain, or at the devil's instigation;

but the hardest persecution is from within, sent forth for each person from his own soul, which is ruined by godless desires, various pleasures, base hopes, and corrupting dreams, when, always craving more, raging and inflamed with savage loves, it is goaded as with spurs or gadflies by the passions that beset it, until it bleeds, into frenzied pursuits, despair of life, and contempt of God.

This persecution is heavier and harder, starting from within and always present, and the one persecuted cannot even escape it;

for he carries the enemy about in himself everywhere. So too burning that falls on one from outside works testing, but burning from within brings about death.

And a war brought from outside is easily ended, but war in the soul lasts until death. If, with such persecution, you have sensible wealth, and brothers by blood, and other pledges, abandon the whole possession of these that leads to evil; give yourself peace; be set free from long persecution; turn from them to the gospel; choose the Savior before all, the advocate and paraclete of your soul, the ruler of boundless life.

“For the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are not seen are eternal”; and in the present time they are short-lived and unstable, but “in the age to come there is eternal life.”

“The first will be last and the last first.” This saying is rich in meaning and in explanation, but it does not require investigation at present; for it does not apply only to those with many possessions, but simply to all people who have once given themselves over to faith. So let it be set aside for now.

But I think our subject has been shown no less than was promised: that the Savior has in no way shut out the rich on account of their wealth itself and the possession of property, nor has he fenced off salvation from them, if only they are able and willing to bow beneath God's commandments, to value their own life above temporary things, and to look to the Lord with steady gaze, as men watching the nod of a good helmsman, to see what he wishes, what he commands, what he signals, what watchword he gives his sailors, where and from where he announces the harbor.

For what wrong does someone do if, by applying his mind and being thrifty, he gathered a sufficient livelihood before coming to faith? Or, even more blameless than this, if from the start he was placed by God, who distributes fortune, in a household of such people, and in a family abounding in money and powerful through wealth?

For if, because of an involuntary birth in wealth, he were driven from life, he would rather be wronged by God who gave him birth, being granted temporary luxury but deprived of eternal life.

And why should wealth ever have sprung up from the earth at all, if it is the supplier and agent of death?

But if one is able to turn back short of the power his possessions give him, to think modestly, to be self-controlled, to seek God alone, to breathe God, and to live as a fellow citizen with God,

this man stands before the commandments poor, free, unconquered, free of disease, unwounded by riches. But if not, a camel will sooner go through a needle than such a rich man pass into the kingdom of God.

Let the camel, passing through a narrow and hard way before the rich man, signify something higher too, which is a mystery of the Savior to be learned in the exposition on first principles and theology.

Nevertheless, let the evident, primary meaning of the parable, and the reason it was spoken, be set out. Let it teach the prosperous that they must not neglect their own salvation as though already condemned, nor, on the other hand, sink their wealth in the sea or condemn it as a plotter and enemy of life, but learn in what way and how wealth is to be used and life obtained.

For since no one is wholly lost because he is rich and fearful, nor wholly saved because he is confident and believes that he will be saved, come, let us consider what hope the Savior sketches for them, and how what seemed hopeless may become assured, and what is hoped for may come into possession.

The Teacher, then, asked which is the greatest of the commandments, says: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your soul and with all your strength,” and that no commandment is greater than this; and

very fittingly, for it gives command concerning the first and the greatest, God our Father himself, through whom all things have come to be and are, and to whom what is saved returns again.

Since we were loved by him first and received our existence from him, it is not holy to hold anything else older or more honorable. We repay only this small thanks for the greatest gifts, being unable to think of anything else at all to give in return to God, who needs nothing and is perfect; but by the very act of loving the Father with all our own strength and power we gain incorruption. For the more one loves God, the more one enters within God. He says that the second in order, and no smaller than this,

is this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”; therefore God above yourself.

And when the man conversing with him asked, “Who is my neighbor?”

he did not define him in the same way as the Jews, as the blood relative, or fellow citizen, or proselyte, or one likewise circumcised, or one who uses one and the same law. Instead, in his story he leads a man going down from above, from Jerusalem to Jericho, and shows him stabbed by robbers, thrown half-dead on the road, passed by by a priest, overlooked by a Levite, but pitied by the Samaritan, who was reviled and excluded. He did not pass by by chance like them, but came equipped with what the man in danger needed: wine, oil, bandages, a beast, and payment for the innkeeper, some given at once and more promised. “Which of these,” he said, “became a neighbor to the one who suffered these terrible things?”

And when he answered, “The one who showed mercy to him,” he said, “You too, then, go and do likewise,” since love bears the fruit of good deeds.

In both commandments, then, he introduces love, but he has divided it by order: in one place he attaches the first place of love to God, in the other he assigns the second place to the neighbor.

And who else could this neighbor be but the Savior himself? Or who has had more mercy on us than he, when we had almost been put to death by the world rulers of darkness with many wounds: fears, desires, angers, griefs, deceits, pleasures?

Of these wounds Jesus is the only physician, who cuts the passions out utterly, root and all; not like the law, which cuts off only the effects, the fruits of evil plants, but applying his own axe to the roots of vice.

He it is who poured out on our wounded souls the wine, the blood of the vine of David; he it is who brought and lavishly supplied the oil, the mercy from the heart of the Father; he it is who showed the unbreakable bandages of health and salvation: love, faith, hope; he it is who ordered angels, principalities, and powers to serve us, for a great reward, because they too will be set free from the vanity of the world at the revelation of the glory of the sons of God.

We must love him, then, equally with God. And he loves Christ Jesus who does his will and keeps his commandments.

“For not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father.” And: “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” And: “Blessed are you who see and hear what neither the righteous nor the prophets saw,” if you do what I say.

First, then, is the one who loves Christ; second, the one who honors and cares for those who have believed in him. For whatever one does to a disciple, the Lord receives as done to himself and makes it all his own.

“Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me to eat, and I was thirsty and you gave me to drink, and I was a stranger and you took me in;

I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and take you in, or naked and clothe you? Or when did we see you sick and visit you,

or in prison and come to you?’ The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers,

you did it to me.’” Again, conversely, he casts into the eternal fire those who did not provide these things for them, as not having provided them for him.

And elsewhere: “Whoever receives you receives me; whoever does not receive you rejects me.”

These he calls children, little children, infants, and friends, and little ones here, in view of their future greatness above: “Do not despise one of these little ones; for their angels always behold the face of my Father in heaven.”

And elsewhere: “Do not be afraid, little flock; for it has pleased the Father to give you the kingdom” of heaven.

In the same way he says that the least in the kingdom of heaven, that is, his own disciple, is greater than John, the greatest among those born of women.

And again: “Whoever receives a righteous man or a prophet in the name of a righteous man or a prophet will receive their reward; and whoever gives a disciple a cup of cold water to drink in the name of a disciple will not lose his reward.” So this is the only reward that is not lost.

And again: “Make friends for yourselves by means of the mammon of unrighteousness,

so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.” He shows that by nature all property that someone possesses for himself as his own, and does not put into the common stock for those in need, is unrighteous; but that from this unrighteousness it is possible to do something righteous and saving: to refresh one of those who have an eternal dwelling with the Father.

See first that he has not commanded you to wait to be asked or pestered, but to seek out yourself those who are to be benefited and who are worthy,

being disciples of the Savior. Fine too is the apostle's saying: “For God loves a cheerful giver,” who rejoices in giving and does not sow sparingly, so that he may not reap sparingly either, who shares without grumbling, hesitation, or grief, which is pure beneficence.

But better than this is the saying of the Lord in another place: “Give to everyone who asks you”; for such generosity truly belongs to God. But this saying goes beyond all divinity: not even to wait to be asked, but oneself to search out whoever is worthy to be benefited,

and then to appoint so great a reward for sharing: an eternal dwelling. O fine trading! O divine market! One buys incorruption with money, and, giving the perishing things of the world, receives in exchange an eternal abode for them in heaven.

Sail to this fair, O rich man, if you are wise; if need be, go round the whole earth; do not spare dangers and labors, so that here you may buy a heavenly kingdom.

Why do transparent stones and emeralds delight you so much, and a house, food for fire, or a plaything of time, or a byproduct of an earthquake, or an outrage of a tyrant?

Desire to dwell in heaven and reign with God. A man imitating God will give you this kingdom; receiving little here, he will make you his fellow resident there through all the ages.

Beg him to accept; hurry, strive, fear that he may slight you; for he has not been commanded to receive, but you to give.

Nor did the Lord say, ‘Give,’ or ‘Provide,’ or ‘Do good,’ or ‘Help,’ but ‘Make a friend’; and a friend is made not from one gift, but from complete refreshment and long companionship. For neither faith, nor love, nor endurance is a matter of one day, but “the one who endures to the end will be saved.”

How then does a man give these things? Because the Lord gives them on account of that man's honor, goodwill, and intimacy with him: “For I will give not only to my friends, but also to the friends of my friends.”

And who is this friend of God? Do not you judge who is worthy and who is unworthy; for you may be quite mistaken in your opinion. In the uncertainty of ignorance it is better to do good even to the unworthy for the sake of the worthy, than, guarding against the less good, not to meet the earnest either.

For by being sparing and pretending to test who will deserve to receive or not, you may neglect some who are loved by God, the penalty for which is eternal punishment by fire; but by giving to all in turn who are in need, you must surely find one of those who can save you with God.

“Do not judge,” then, “so that you may not be judged. With the measure you measure, it will be measured back to you; a good measure, pressed down and shaken,

running over, will be given back to you.” Open your heart to all who are enrolled as God's disciples, not looking at the body with contempt,

nor disposed carelessly toward their age; nor, if someone appears without property, or ill-clad, or ugly, or weak, be disgusted at this in your soul and turn away. This is a form thrown around us from outside, on the occasion of our passage into the world, so that we may be able to enter this common school; but within dwells hidden the Father and his Son, who died for us and rose with us.

This visible form deceives death and the devil; for the inner wealth and beauty are invisible to them, and they rage around the poor flesh, which they despise as weak, being blind to the inner possessions, not knowing what a great “treasure in an earthen vessel” we carry, walled around by the power of God the Father, the blood of God the Son, and the dew of the Holy Spirit. But do not you be deceived.

you who have tasted truth and been counted worthy of the great redemption. On the contrary, unlike other people, enroll for yourself an army without weapons, without war, without bloodshed, without anger, without stain: God-fearing old men, orphans dear to God, widows armed with gentleness,

men adorned with love. Acquire such bodyguards with your wealth, for body and soul, whose general is God. Through them a sinking ship is lightened, steered by the prayers of the saints alone; raging disease is subdued, put to flight by the laying on of hands; the attack of robbers is disarmed, despoiled by godly prayers; and the violence of demons is shattered, rebuked by earnest commands.

All these are active soldiers and sure guards. No one is idle, no one useless. One can obtain your pardon from God; another can comfort you when you are sick; another can weep and groan in sympathy for you before the Lord of all; another can teach you something useful for salvation; another can admonish you with boldness; another can counsel you with goodwill; and all can love you truly, without guile, without fear, without hypocrisy, without flattery,

without pretense. O sweet services of those who love! O blessed ministries of those who are bold! O sincere faith of those who fear God alone! O truth of words among those who cannot lie! O beauty of works among those persuaded that they serve God, persuading God, pleasing God! They think they touch not your flesh but each one his own soul; they think they speak not to a brother but to the King of the ages, who dwells in you.

All the faithful, then, are noble and godlike and worthy of the name they wear like a diadem. Yet there are already some more elect than the elect, and the more so the less conspicuous they are: those who in some way draw their ship up out of the surge of the world and bring themselves to safety, not wishing to seem holy, and ashamed if anyone calls them so, hiding the unspeakable mysteries in the depth of their mind, and disdaining to have their nobility seen in the world. These the Word calls “the light of the world” and “the salt of the earth.”

This is the seed, the image and likeness of God, his true child and heir, sent here as on a sojourn abroad by the Father's great plan and fitting order;

for whose sake both the visible and the invisible things of the world were created, some for its service, some for its training, some for its instruction. And all things hold together as long as the seed remains here; and when it has been gathered in, all things will very quickly be dissolved.

For what more is needed? Behold the mysteries of love, and then you will gaze into the bosom of the Father, whom the only-begotten God alone has declared. God himself is love, and for love's sake he became visible to us.

What is ineffable in him is Father; what has compassion for us has become Mother. The Father, by loving, became feminine.

And a great sign of this is the one whom he begot from himself; and the fruit born of love is love. For this he came down; for this he put on man; for this he willingly suffered what belongs to men, so that, having been measured to the weakness of us whom he loved, he might measure us in return to his own power.

And when he was about to be poured out as a libation and was giving himself as a ransom, he left us a new covenant: “I give you my love.” What is this love, and how great?

For each of us he laid down his life, which was worth the whole universe; this he demands of us in return, for one another. And if we owe our lives to the brethren, and have made such a covenant with the Savior, shall we still shut up and hoard the things of the world, which are beggarly, alien, and flowing away? Shall we shut out from one another what the fire will soon have?

Divinely and inspiredly John says, “He who does not love his brother is a murderer”: a seed of Cain, a nursling of the devil. He has not the heart of God, he has no hope of better things. He is seedless, he is barren. He is not a branch of the ever-living supercelestial vine; he is cut off; he awaits the fire all at once.

But you, learn the “still more excellent way” that Paul shows to salvation: “Love does not seek its own,” but is poured out on the brother; it is excited about him; about him it is sensibly mad.

“Love covers a multitude of sins. Perfect love casts out fear. It does not boast, it is not puffed up; it does not rejoice in injustice but rejoices with the truth; it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. Prophecies are abolished, tongues cease, healings are left behind on earth. But these three remain: faith, hope, love; and the greatest of these is love.”

And rightly: for faith passes away when we are convinced by seeing God with our own eyes, and hope vanishes when what was hoped for has been granted; but love comes together into fullness and grows the more when perfect things have been given.

If someone implants this in his soul, even if he was born in sins and has done many forbidden things, he can, by increasing love and taking up pure repentance, retrieve his failures.

Let not this, too, be left to you as a cause of despair and hopelessness, if you have learned who the rich man is

who has no place in heaven, and in what way someone using what he has might escape the reproach of wealth and its difficulty for life and be able to enjoy the eternal good things; but if he happens, through ignorance, weakness, or involuntary circumstance, after the seal and the redemption, to have fallen into some sins or transgressions, so as to have been completely carried away, let him not suppose that he has been utterly condemned by God.

For to everyone who turns to God in truth with his whole heart the doors are open, and the thrice-glad Father receives a son who truly repents. True repentance is to be no longer liable for the same things, but to root out utterly from the soul the sins for which one condemned oneself to death; when these are removed, God will again come to dwell in you.

For he says that there is great and unsurpassable joy and festival in heaven for the Father and the angels when one sinner turns and repents.

That is why he has cried out: “I desire mercy and not sacrifice. I do not desire the death of the sinner, but his repentance. Though your sins be like scarlet wool, I will make them white as snow; though they be blacker than darkness, I will wash them and make them like white wool.”

For God alone can grant forgiveness of sins and not count transgressions, while the Lord also commands us to forgive our repentant brothers every day.

And if we, being evil, know how to give good gifts, how much more “the Father of mercies,” the good Father “of all comfort,” who is very compassionate and very merciful, by nature is patient and waits for those who turn back. And to turn back is truly to cease from sins and no longer look behind.

For past sins, then, God gives forgiveness; for those to come, each person to himself. And this is repentance: to condemn one's past deeds and to ask the Father to forget them, who alone of all is able to undo what has been done, by the mercy that comes from him, and to wipe out former sins by the dew of the Spirit.

“For in whatever I find you,” he says, “in that I will also judge you.”

And at every point the end of all things cries out: so that for one who has done the greatest good in his life, but at the end has run aground on vice, all his previous labors are useless, since at the catastrophe of the drama he has been put out of the contest; while one who lived worse and carelessly before can, repenting later, overcome a long evil way of life by the time after repentance.

But much care is needed, just as bodies worn out by long illness need a diet and more attention.

Thief, do you want to receive forgiveness? Steal no more. Adulterer, burn no longer. Fornicator, from now on be chaste. Robber, give back, and give back more. False witness, practice truth. Perjurer, swear no more. And cut short the other passions: anger, desire, grief, fear; so that at your departure you may be found to have already been reconciled here with your adversary.

It is perhaps impossible to cut off all at once passions that have grown up with us; but with God's power, human supplication, the help of the brethren, sincere repentance, and constant practice, it is achieved.

That is why you, who are proud, powerful, and rich, must by all means set over yourself some man of God as a trainer and helmsman. Respect even one, fear even one, practice listening to even one who speaks boldly, who is both severe and healing.

For it does not benefit the eyes to remain unchecked all the time; they must sometimes weep and smart for the sake of better health.

So too nothing is more ruinous to the soul than continual pleasure; for it is blinded by the melting, if it remains unmoved by the word that speaks boldly.

Fear this man when he is angry; be grieved when he groans; respect him when he ceases from anger; and anticipate him when he pleads for your punishment to be averted.

Let him spend many sleepless nights for you, interceding for you with God and charming the Father with familiar litanies; for he does not hold out his heart against his children when they plead.

And he will plead purely if he is honored by you above others as an angel of God, and is grieved not at all by you, but for you. This is repentance without hypocrisy.

“God is not mocked,” nor does he pay attention to empty words; for he alone examines the marrow and reins of the heart, and hears those in the fire, and listens to those praying in the belly of the whale, and is near to all who believe and far from the godless, unless they repent.

And so that you may take courage, if you repent truly in this way, that a worthy hope of salvation remains for you, hear a story that is no story but a true account, handed down and preserved in memory, about John the apostle.

When, after the tyrant's death, he moved from the island of Patmos to Ephesus, he used to go, when invited, to the neighboring regions of the Gentiles, in some places to appoint bishops, in others to set whole churches in order, in others to choose by lot to the clergy some one of those indicated by the Spirit.

Coming then to one of the cities not far off, whose name some people even give, and having comforted the brethren in other matters, he finally looked at the bishop who had been appointed and, seeing a young man strong in body, handsome in appearance, and ardent in soul, said, “This one I entrust to you with all earnestness, with the church and Christ as witness.” When the bishop accepted him and promised everything, John again gave the same charge and called on witnesses.

Then he set off for Ephesus, and the presbyter took home the young man entrusted to him, reared him, kept him close, cherished him, and finally baptized him. After this he relaxed his greater care and guardianship, as though he had set over him the perfect safeguard, the seal of the Lord.

But, as he had gained freedom too early, some idle, dissolute young men of his age, accustomed to evil, corrupted him. First they drew him on with expensive banquets; then they took him along when they went out at night to rob; then they thought fit to have him join in something greater.

And he gradually grew used to it, and through the greatness of his nature, bolting from the right road like an unbridled and powerful horse, and biting the bit, he rushed all the more headlong toward the pits.

Having completely despaired of salvation in God, he no longer planned anything small, but, doing something great, since he was lost once for all, he thought fit to suffer the same as the others. Taking these very men and forming a band of robbers, he became a ready robber chief, most violent, most bloodthirsty, most cruel. Time passed, and some need arose, and they summoned John again.

When he had settled the other matters for which he had come, he said, “Come now, bishop, return to us the deposit that Christ and I entrusted to you, with the church over which you preside as witness.” At first the bishop was astonished, thinking he was being falsely accused about money

he had not received, and he could neither believe about what he did not have nor disbelieve John. But when John said, “I demand the young man and the soul of the brother,” the old man groaned deeply, and even shed tears, and said, “He is dead.” “How, and by what death?” “He is dead to God,” he said; “for he turned out wicked and depraved and, to sum up, a robber; and now, instead of the church, he has taken to the mountain with a troop like himself.”

The apostle tore his clothes and, beating his head with great lamentation, said, “A fine guardian of the brother's soul I left! But let a horse be brought to me now, and let someone guide me on the way.” He rode off, just as he was, straight from the church.

Coming to the place, he was taken by the robbers' outpost, neither fleeing nor begging off,

but crying out, “This is what I have come for; take me to your leader.” The leader meanwhile waited, armed as he was; but when he recognized John approaching, he turned to flight, ashamed.

But John pursued him with all his might, forgetting his age, and crying out, “Why do you flee from me, child, your own father, unarmed and old? Have pity on me, child; do not be afraid. You still have hope of life. I will give account to Christ for you. If need be, I will willingly endure your death, as the Lord did for us. For you I will give my own life in exchange. Stand, believe; Christ has sent me.”

When he heard this, he first stood still, looking down; then he threw away his weapons; then, trembling, he wept bitterly. When the old man came up, he embraced him, pleading his defense with laments as best he could, and baptized a second time with his tears, hiding only his right hand.

But John, pledging and swearing that he had found forgiveness for him from the Savior, begging, kneeling, kissing that very right hand as though cleansed by repentance, brought him back to the church. Interceding for him with abundant prayers, struggling with him in continual fasts, and charming his mind with varied spells of words, he did not leave, they say, until he had restored him to the church, giving a great example of true repentance and a great token of regeneration, a trophy of a visible resurrection.

… rejoicing with radiant [faces], singing hymns, opening the heavens. And before all the Savior himself comes to meet him, welcoming him, holding out a light without shadow and unceasing, leading him into the bosom of the Father, into eternal life, into the kingdom of heaven.

Let someone believe these things, both God's disciples and God who is their guarantor: prophecies, Gospels, apostolic words. Living with these, lending them his ears, and practicing the works, he will see at his very departure the end and proof of the doctrines.

For whoever welcomes the angel of repentance here will not repent then, when he leaves the body, nor will he be ashamed when he sees the Savior coming with his glory and his army; he does not fear the fire. But if someone chooses to remain, sinning again and again for pleasures, and prefers luxury here to eternal life, and turns away when the Savior offers forgiveness, let him no longer blame God, or wealth, or his fall, but his own soul, perishing willingly.

But to the one who looks to salvation, longs for it, and asks for it with persistence and force, the good Father who is in heaven will grant the true cleansing and the unchanging life.

To him, through his Child Jesus Christ, the Lord of the living and the dead, and through the Holy Spirit, be glory, honor, power, and eternal majesty, both now and to generations of generations and to the ages of ages. Amen.