Come now, so far as it can be done, let us consider what things are our own and what are another's. The apostle Paul says: 'We brought nothing into this world, and neither can we carry anything out' (1 Tim. vi, 7). And what can be called ours, which we did not bring in, and which we are not to carry back? 'Naked,' says Job, 'I came forth from my mother's womb, naked shall I return to the earth' (Job i, 21). It is plain how faithless is the use of riches, which accompanies us neither at our beginning nor at our end. Why do you covetously multiply gold and silver? Why do you call yours that to which you came naked? The world's is the wealth that you think your own; common is what you suppose to be your private possession. The road of whatever journey we tread can briefly be called ours, while it is walked upon by us:
but once we have passed by, it belongs to those who follow. How can that perishable and earthly wealth be ours, if it does not feed the needy, when it can feed the violent? How is it ours, in which we are neither harmless in taking it, nor just in retaining it, nor sure in possessing it, nor secure in keeping it? And as certainly as we hold that we came naked into the earth, so certainly let us know that we can carry nothing away of earthly things. The Apostle recalls that he brought nothing in and will carry nothing out. Job confesses that he was born naked and will die naked. Solomon proclaims that death is equal for all and their departure alike. However much a man may wish to be distinguished by ambition, at his beginning and his end he is joined with the rest.
For what he said, 'One entrance into life for all, and an equal exit unto death' (Wis. vii, 6), taught not an equality of merits, but an equal condition. Whence, if it appears, as I think, that the things of the faithful are not unfaithful, nor the things of the saved perishable, let us distinguish a little what things are ours. Behold, as I said above, when we come into this world, we bring in nothing of earthly substance; yet we do present a soul, master of its own choice and capable of reason, for choosing the good, if God shall inspire it. And when, in the course of time, the quality of our will is confirmed, it is God's will that we do well, but it is our own that we have done. But perhaps someone says: even this very doing of the good a man can lose through the plotting of the devil.
It is true that a man can lose his own good when the adversary steals it. But from this it ought rather to be inferred that it is ours, because it is not taken away by force. For we do not lose our reward in the same way as our possessions. For what is outside us, the carnal enemy can take away by snatching; but what is within us, the spiritual enemy cannot filch except by plotting. And therefore, 'if the householder had known at what hour the thief would come, he would surely have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken through' (Luke xii, 39). That, then, is our house, which, if we watch, cannot be pulled down; but that is wholly another's, which can be seized while we watch.