The matter treated in this homily, the authority of Gennadius, the testimonies of the most excellent codices, and the title, all confirm that it is to be adjudged to St. Maximus. Gennadius handed down to memory that Maximus dealt against the vice of avarice; but whether he accomplished this in one discourse or in two he did not hand down. But from the codices of Holy Cross in Jerusalem, of St. Gall, the Ambrosian, and the Vatican 1270, it is established that both were attributed to St. Maximus. The inscription too shows this homily to be a genuine sequel to the preceding one; for thus it stands in codex 90 of Holy Cross in Jerusalem: 'Here begins the sequel'; and in codex 99: 'There follows [a discourse] on avarice and on Ananias.' The title of the St. Gall codex is briefer, namely: 'Sequel'; but the Laurentian codex X:
'The sequel on avarice and on Ananias.' Since these things are so, the compilers of homilies praised above published it in this order, with the title prefixed: 'The second homily on the same subject as above.' The Roman editors, in re-editing the Ambrosian sermons, inscribed the same as number 13 to St. Alexius Confessor.—Your love, brethren, retains that, some days ago, when we were proclaiming the concord and generosity of that people which was under the most blessed apostles, we came at last to the avarice of Ananias, who at that time, in the wholly pure life of the entire race, was found alone as a sickly sheep. For he was so infected with the pestilence of avarice that St. Peter wished not so much to amend him as to condemn him. For he had read:
'Cast out the pestilent one from the council, and all strife will go out with him' (Prov. 22). Alone, therefore, in the holy assembly he was pestilent, who—while all, by contempt of money, sought the gain of life—he alone rather bargained for the gain of money than of salvation, and while he hopes for the profit of a price, he finds the loss of his soul. By the apostles, then, Ananias was found to be avaricious; now our lowliness is excused: for it is less to be wondered at that this vice abounds under us, since it began to sprout under the apostles; and if their authority could not amend this in Ananias, what will be imputed to us if we are not able to correct the same in very many of the brethren? For in Ananias, if Peter had been able to correct avarice, he would not have punished it;
but while he punishes that one, he corrects others: for he willed that the punishment should reach to one, but the fear to very many. An example, therefore, was set forth in Ananias to all the avaricious, so that whoever is guilty of the same crime may be struck by the sentence of the same punishment on the day of judgment. A great evil, therefore, is avarice, nay it is the origin of all evils, as the Apostle says: 'For the root of all evils is covetousness, which some coveting have erred from the faith' (1 Tim. 6). You see therefore that he who covets money loses faith; he who hoards gold squanders grace. For avarice is a blindness; it induces an error of religion;
blind, I say, is avarice, but keen-eyed with diverse contrivances of fraud it does not see the things that are of the Divinity, but ponders the things that are of covetousness; always, however rich it may be, it ponders how to acquire from anywhere, even from evil: it counts the whole of life as business; suppressing all things even of profits, it imposes the usury of its own empty pretence; it blushes at the name of usury, and does not blush at the gain of usury. The avaricious man, therefore, always makes use of another's goods, feeds himself on another's loss; another's want is his prey, another's weeping is his gladness, as we have always seen happen. How many bewail things lost, over the seizure of which very many rejoice! Behold, an aged father laments a captured son, and you already glory over him as over a little slave.
The innocent countryman groans over a lost bullock, and you with it dispose to cultivate your field, and think you can gather fruits by another's groanings. Behold, a devout widow grieves that her house has been despoiled of all its furnishings, and you glory that your house is adorned with those same furnishings. Tell me, O Christian, are you not pricked, are you not constrained, when you see in your dwelling another's tears? Scripture says to the sons of Israel: 'Touch not that which was seized by a beast: for polluted and defiled is whatever a bloody wild beast has touched' (Exod. 22). And by this, worse than a beast is whoever takes what the beast has left over. Tell me therefore, O Christian, why have you presumed upon the plunder left behind by the plunderers?
Why have you brought into your house what is torn and defiled, as you yourself suppose? Why have you, more savage than a beast, devoured what the hostile beast left over? Many say that wolves are wont to follow the tracks of lions, and not to wander far from their huntings—namely, that they may sate their rage with another's plunder, and that what remains from the satiety of the lions may be consumed by the rapacity of the wolves; so these wolves of avarice too have followed the tracks of the plunderers, so that what remained over from their rapacity might yield to the ferocity of these. But perhaps you say that you bought it, and therefore you escape the crime of avarice. Buying and selling are not wont to be established thus: it is good to buy, but in peace, what is sold by its owner's will, not in depredation.
Look at the origin of the contract, the author of the sale, the amount of the price, and you understand that you are a buyer rather of plunder than of a sale. For whence come to a barbarian the necklaces of gold and gems? Whence to a skin-clad man the silken garments? Whence, I ask, do you take Roman slaves? We know that these belong to our fellow-provincials, or to fellow citizens. Let him act, therefore, as a Christian and a citizen, who buys for this purpose—that he may give back.