Today you have heard with what tender exhortation the Lord consoled the small and earthly beginnings of His evangelical flock. 'Fear not,' He says, 'little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give you a kingdom' (Luke XII). He takes away anxious hopes, removes doubtful outcomes, and drives out and excludes every fear, when at the very outset He promises a kingdom to those being born anew. 'Since it has pleased your Father to give you a kingdom.' Who, being sure of a kingdom, being secure of dominion, sighs over sustenance, over clothing, over plebeian income, and the cheapness of the spring turf?
He greatly envies himself who, being raised to the heights, casts himself down to lowly things and lays himself down among needy things. But it is fitting to know who this Father is, or of what sort He is, or what kingdom He promises to His children. Who this Father is, you come to know daily as you confess it, when you cry: 'Our Father who art in heaven' (Matthew VI, 9). And of what sort He is, you have discerned from the very greatness of His works: out of nothing He made heaven, and made the earth firm out of the fluid, set the mountains to the balance, enclosed the seas within their lawful bounds by the sole authority of His command. But if you desire to know the quality of the kingdom which He promises to the little ones, He Himself opens it, saying thus: 'Suffer the little children to come to me; for of such is the kingdom of heaven' (Matthew XIX, 14).
To be in heaven is marvellous; to live in heaven is of majesty. Now how great a thing it is to reign in heaven, the mortal understanding ceases to estimate; and yet, O man, what you cannot estimate, you have received, the Apostle saying thus: 'What eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him' (I Corinthians II, 9). And what you doubt that you have merited, you are now compelled to confess that you have and possess. What then has he to do with earth who possesses heaven? What has he to do with human things who has already attained divine things? — unless perhaps groans please him, labors are chosen, dangers are loved, the worst death delights, and evils inflicted are more welcome than goods bestowed. But let us see what counsel so great a Father gives to those who are to reign.
'Sell what you possess, and give alms.' If you believe that you are to live, that you are to reign, that you are already rich in the heavenly realms — where you are to be, whither you are to migrate, where you are to reign — let those things which are yours go before you now; reckon your wretched wealth as mercy; convert what is human into what is divine. And lest perhaps anyone should lack a means of conveyance to carry those things which you send ahead, the poor man has been pressed into service: the poor carry our burdens, and carry them willingly, for such men are not weighed down by the load, but are lifted up. 'Sell what you possess, and give alms; make for yourselves purses that do not grow old, a treasure that does not fail in the heavens, where the thief does not approach, nor the moth corrupt. Make for yourselves purses that do not grow old.'
You see that this Father wishes to enrich His children, not to strip them bare. 'Make for yourselves purses that do not grow old.' In a new manner — nay, in a heavenly manner — he who hears this acquires by selling, stores up by disbursing, and while he loses, he gains. How He desires that money should endure, that the purses of riches should be perpetuated, that things stored up should remain, He who says: 'Make for yourselves purses that do not grow old!' Behold, He teaches covetousness who had begun to urge contempt: 'Make for yourselves purses that do not grow old.' And He who reproved those laying up treasure for a time, now commands purses to be sought without end for the whole kindling of desire. O Christ, whither does the love of Your own draw You? That You may win over the greedy man, You make him hear what he desires, not what is fitting: You command purses;
You wish eternal treasures, which do not fail, to be prepared; so that the greedy man, while he runs after his accustomed gains, may either lay hold of virtue or be laid hold of by virtue. Truly You are a Father, who deal thus with any of Your little ones. For we too sometimes give harmful things to our little ones when they ask, giving wholesome things under the appearance of harmful ones, deceiving their folly, not being foolish in our affection. You have said: 'Make for yourselves purses that do not grow old, treasures that do not fail in heaven.' Why is a purse prepared? Why bars there, where innocence itself is the guardian? Why a seal there, where there is no suspicion of fraud? If purses are needed even in heaven, why is it not lost, but only changed?
O Lord, You have seen that for the greedy their whole faith is in their treasures, their whole hope in their purses; and therefore You wish incorruptible purses to be prepared in heaven, so that he who does not follow You to heaven may at least follow his own purses. O greedy man, make for yourself purses, and make them at God's command, for the divine Majesty assents to your desires. But make yourself purses by disbursing, for whatever the poor man receives, the heavenly Father takes up. And where does He store it? In heaven. And lest perhaps you grieve that you have lost even the interest, you will receive back a hundredfold in the heavenly lending, whatever you send into heaven with the poor man carrying it. The interest of the world is a hundred to one; God receives one and gives back a hundred; and yet all men do not wish to have a contract with God. Are they perhaps anxious about the surety? Why?
Is not man bound to man by the obligation of a tiny slip of paper? Does God pledge Himself by so many and so great volumes, and yet is not held as a debtor? But you say, granting that He owes it, at whose demand will He repay? By Himself; for He cannot lie to anyone: He Himself is at once both the executor and the debtor. He will not be harsh in repaying who has been lavish in bestowing. Believe, O man, in God for what God has given you; the Giver wishes to repay greater things when He wishes to be a debtor.