Homilies on First Corinthians 34 part 2/2

And indeed we ought to have left off at this point, having freed the Scripture from these accusations, so that you might thus pay us the penalty for your carelessness concerning the Scriptures;

but since I spare you greatly, and cannot bear to see you further troubled and disturbed, come, let us bring forward the solution as well, first stating who it was that spoke, and when it was spoken, and to whom.

For God does not converse with all alike, just as we ourselves do not deal in the same way with children and with grown men.

When, then, was it spoken, and by whom, and to whom? By Solomon, under the Old Covenant, to the Jews, who knew nothing other than things perceptible to the senses, and who from these tested the power of God.

For these are they who say:

Can He give bread also? and, What sign do You show us? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness.

Since, then, they tested Him from these things, he says to them that this too is possible for God, both to make men rich and to make them poor;

not that He altogether does this, but that He is able, whenever He wills;

just as when it says, He that threatens the sea and dries it up, and makes all the rivers a desert;

and yet this has never happened.

How, then, does the prophet say it? Not as something that always happens, but as something possible for Him to do.

What sort of poverty, then, does He give, and what sort of wealth? Call to mind the patriarch, and you will know the wealth that is given by God.

For God Himself made Abraham rich, and after him Job, even as he himself says:

If we have received good things from the Lord, shall we not endure the evil things? And the wealth of Jacob also had its beginning from thence.

And there is also from Him the praiseworthy poverty, such as He then procured for that rich man, saying:

'If you would be perfect, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and come, follow Me.'

And again, laying down a law for the disciples, He says, 'Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor two coats.'

Do not say, then, that God Himself gives all wealth;

for it has been shown that this wealth is often gathered together from murders, from rapine, and from countless other pretexts.

But once again our discourse comes back around to the former question.

For if the rich are of no use to us, why have they come to be? What, then, shall we say? That these men are not useful—those who have made themselves rich in this manner—whereas those who have become rich from God are indeed exceedingly useful.

And learn this from the very deeds that are done by those men.

For Abraham possessed his wealth for the sake of strangers and of all who were in need.

For when three men, as he supposed, had arrived, he slew a calf and kneaded three measures of fine flour, sitting by the door at the hour of noon. Consider with what lavishness and eagerness he spent his own goods upon all, offering along with his money the service of his own body as well—and that in so great an old age—being a very haven for strangers and for those in need.

—being such a shelter for those in need, and possessing nothing as his own, not even his own son;

for when God commanded, he gave up this one also;

and together with his son he gave up himself also and his whole household, when he hastened to snatch away his nephew.

And these things he did not for the sake of money, but out of love for mankind alone.

At any rate, when those who had been saved through him would have made him lord of the spoils, he thrust it all away, down to a thread and a shoe-latchet.

Such also was the blessed Job.

For 'My door,' he says, 'was open to everyone who came.'

'I was an eye to the blind, and a foot to the lame;'

'and the stranger did not lodge outside;'

'and the helpless, if ever they had need, did not fail; nor did I suffer the helpless to go forth from my door with an empty bosom.'

And far more than these—that we may not now recount them all—he continued to do, spending all his wealth upon those in need.

Would you also see those who have become rich not from God, that you may learn how they use their wealth? Behold the man in the story of Lazarus, who would not share even the crumbs;

behold Ahab, who even seized the vineyard;

behold Gehazi; behold all such men.

For those who have gained their wealth righteously, inasmuch as they received it from God, spend it upon the commandments of God;

but those who in acquiring it have offended God, in spending it do the same, lavishing it upon harlots and parasites, or burying and locking it away, but spending nothing upon the poor.

And for what reason, one asks, does God permit such men to be rich? Because He is long-suffering; because He wishes to lead us to repentance; because He has prepared a hell; because He has appointed a day on which He is about to judge the world.

But if He immediately punished the rich who acted wickedly, Zacchaeus would not have had a set time for repentance, so as both to restore fourfold what he had seized and to add the half of his own possessions;

nor would Matthew have changed and become an apostle, had he been snatched away before the fitting season;

nor would many others of the same kind.

For these reasons He bears with all, calling them to repentance.

But if they be unwilling, and persist in the same courses, they shall hear Paul saying that, 'According to their hardness and impenitent heart they are treasuring up for themselves wrath in the day of wrath and of the revelation and of the righteous judgment of God;'

and that we may flee this wrath, let us be rich in the wealth of heaven, and pursue that praiseworthy poverty.

For thus shall we also obtain the good things to come;

which may it be granted us all to attain, by the grace and love toward mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, dominion, and honor, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.