Homilies on Matthew, Homily 63

“And look, someone came and said to Him, Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Some accuse this young man of being insincere and malicious, and of coming to Jesus to test Him. But although I would not deny that he loved money and was enslaved to his wealth, since Christ in fact exposed him as that kind of person, I would certainly not call him insincere. It is unsafe to make claims about uncertain things, especially when blaming someone, and Mark has removed this suspicion. For he says that “he ran up to Him, knelt before Him, and pleaded with Him,” and that “Jesus looked at him and loved him.” But wealth exercises a powerful tyranny, as this makes clear. I mean that even if we are virtuous in other respects, this ruins everything else. Paul was right to declare it the root of all evils in general. “For the love of money is the root of all evils,” he says. Why, then, does Christ answer him this way, saying, “No one is good”? Because he approached Him as a mere man, an ordinary person and a Jewish teacher. For this reason, He speaks with him as a man. Indeed, He often answers the secret thoughts of those who approach Him, as when He says, “We know what we worship,” and, “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true.” So when He says, “No one is good,” He does not mean to exclude Himself from being good. Far from it. For He did not say, “Why do you call me good? I am not good,” but, “No one is good,” meaning no one among human beings. And when He says this very thing, He does not mean that even human beings have no goodness, but speaks by comparison with the goodness of God. That is why He added, “Except one, that is, God.” He did not say, “Except my Father,” so that you would understand that He had not revealed Himself to the young man. Earlier, too, He called people evil, saying, “If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children.” There, too, He called them evil without condemning the whole human race as evil (for by “you,” He does not mean “you human beings”). Instead, He used that description to compare the goodness in human beings with the goodness of God. That is also why He added, “How much more will your Father give good things to those who ask Him?” “And what prompted Him,” one may ask, “or what purpose did it serve, to answer this way?” He leads him forward little by little and teaches him to avoid all flattery, drawing him away from earthly things and fixing his attention on God, persuading him to seek the things to come, to recognize what is truly good, the root and fountain of all things, and to direct his honors to Him. Likewise, when He says, “Call no one master on earth,” He says this by comparison with Himself, so that they may learn who holds supreme authority over everything that exists. The young man had already shown considerable eagerness by developing such a desire. While some of the others were testing Him, and some came to Him to have diseases healed, either their own or someone else’s, he came and spoke with Him about eternal life. For the soil was fertile and rich, but the multitude of thorns choked the seed. Notice, at any rate, how ready he is so far to obey the commandments. For he says, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” He was that ready to do whatever he was told. But if he had come to test Him, the evangelist would have told us this too, as he does about the others, as in the case of the lawyer. And even if the evangelist himself had said nothing, Christ would not have allowed him to remain concealed. He would have exposed him plainly, or at least hinted at it, so that the man would not seem to have deceived Him and escaped detection, and so have been harmed. If he had come to test Him, he would not have left sorrowful at what he heard. That, at any rate, was never how any of the Pharisees felt. Instead, they grew furious when their mouths were stopped. But this man did not. He goes away dejected, which is a significant sign that he had approached Him with a will that was too weak, rather than evil, and that he did desire life, but was enslaved by another, most dreadful passion. So when Christ said, “If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments,” he says, “Which ones?” He was not testing Him—far from it—but supposed that there were others besides those in the law that would bring him life, as someone with a very strong desire would think. Then, when Jesus mentioned those in the law, he says, “I have kept all these things from my youth.” Nor did he stop there, but asks again, “What do I still lack?” This, too, was a sign of his very earnest desire. And what he thought he still lacked was no small thing either, nor did he think that what he had described was enough to attain what he desired. What, then, does Christ say? Since He was about to command something great, He sets out the rewards and says, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in Heaven; and come, follow me.” 2. Do you see how many prizes, how many crowns, He offers for this race? If the man had been testing Him, He would not have told him these things. But as it is, He both says this and, to draw him forward, shows him how great the reward is. He leaves everything to the man’s own choice, doing everything to make what seemed burdensome in His advice fade into the background. So even before mentioning the struggles and the toil, He shows him the prize, saying, “If you want to be perfect.” Then He says, “Sell what you have, and give to the poor,” and immediately returns to the rewards: “You will have treasure in Heaven; and come, follow me.” For following Him is itself a great reward. “And you will have treasure in Heaven.” For since the discussion concerned money, He advised him to strip himself of all of it, showing that he does not lose what he has, but adds to his possessions. He gave him more than He required him to give up, and not merely more, but as much greater as Heaven is greater than earth, and more still. But He called it a treasure to show the abundance of the reward, its permanence and its security, as far as human comparisons could convey these things to His listener. So it is not enough to despise wealth. We must also support the poor, and above all follow Christ; that is, do everything He commands and be ready to be slaughtered and to die daily. “For if anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” So giving away one’s money is a much smaller thing than this final commandment, to shed even one’s own blood. Yet being freed from wealth contributes a great deal toward this. “But when the young man heard it, he went away sorrowful.” After this the evangelist, as if to show that his feelings were only to be expected, says, “For he had great possessions.” For those who have little are not enslaved to it as much as those who overflow with great wealth, since the love of it then becomes more tyrannical. This is something I never stop saying: increasing one’s possessions fans the flame and makes those who acquire them poorer, since it gives them greater desires and makes them feel their need more keenly. See, for example, how much power this passion displayed even here. When Christ commanded him to give away his riches, it so overwhelmed and weighed down the man who had approached Him joyfully and eagerly that it would not even let him answer about these things. Instead, he went away silent, dejected, and sullen. What, then, does Christ say? “How hard it will be for the rich to enter the kingdom of Heaven!” He blames the people enslaved by riches, rather than riches themselves. But if it is “hard” for the rich man, how much more for the greedy man. For if failing to give away one’s own possessions is an obstacle to entering the kingdom, think how much fire taking other people’s property heaps up. Why, though, did He tell His disciples that “it will be hard for a rich man to enter,” when they were poor and had no possessions? To teach them not to be ashamed of their poverty and, as it were, to justify Himself to them for allowing them to have nothing. But after saying it was hard, He goes on to show that it is actually impossible, and not merely impossible, but impossible to the highest degree. He showed this through the comparison of the camel and the needle. “It is easier,” He says, “for a camel to enter through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven.” This shows that the reward is extraordinary for those who are rich and are able to practice self-control. That is also why He declared it a work of God, to show that anyone who is to accomplish this needs great grace. Indeed, when the disciples were troubled, He said, “With human beings this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” And why are the disciples troubled, when they are poor, indeed extremely poor? Why, then, are they alarmed? Because they are distressed about the salvation of everyone else, have great love for all, and have already taken on the tender compassion of teachers. At any rate, this declaration left them trembling and afraid for the whole world, so that they needed a great deal of comfort. So first, “He looked at them and said to them, What is impossible with human beings is possible with God.” With a gentle, humble look, He soothed their trembling minds and ended their distress (for this is what the evangelist meant by saying, “He looked at them”). Then He also reassures them with His words, setting God’s power before them and so giving them confidence. But if you also want to learn how this happens, and how what is impossible can become possible, listen. For He did not say, “What is impossible with human beings is possible with God,” so that you would give up and hold back as though facing something impossible. He said it so that, after considering the greatness of this good work, you would eagerly undertake it, ask God to help you in these noble struggles, and attain life. 3. How, then, can this become possible? If you give away what you have, if you empty yourself of your wealth, if you restrain the wicked desire. For proof that He does not leave it to God alone, but said this so that you would recognize the greatness of the good work, listen to what follows. For after Peter had said, “Look, we have left everything and followed You,” and asked, “What, then, will we have?” He assigned their reward and added, “And everyone who has left houses, or lands, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.” This is how what is impossible becomes possible. “But how can someone do this very thing,” one may ask, “and leave these things? How can someone who has sunk into such a lust for wealth recover?” By beginning to empty himself of his possessions and cut away what is unnecessary. In this way he will make further progress and afterward run his course more easily. So do not try to achieve everything at once. Instead, gently and little by little, climb this ladder that leads you up to Heaven, even if, taken as a whole, it seems difficult. For when people with fevers have an excess of acrid bile inside them, adding food and drink does not quench their thirst but actually fans the flame. In the same way, when the greedy add their wealth to this wicked lust, which is more acrid than that bile, they only inflame it. For nothing checks it as effectively as abstaining for a time from the lust for gain and from acquiring more, just as acrid bile is checked by fasting and purging. “But how can even this be done?” one may ask. By considering that while you are rich, you will never stop thirsting and wasting away with the lust for more, but once freed from your possessions, you will also be able to check this disease. So do not surround yourself with more, or you will pursue the unattainable, become incurable, and be more miserable than everyone else in this madness. For answer me: whom should we call tormented and distressed? Someone who longs for expensive food and drink and cannot enjoy them as he wishes, or someone who has no such desire? Clearly we must say the one who desires but cannot obtain what he desires. For desiring without enjoying, thirsting without drinking, is so painful that when Christ wanted to describe hell to us, He described it this way and presented the rich man suffering this torment. For longing for a drop of water and not receiving it was his punishment. So someone who despises wealth quiets the desire, but someone who wants to be rich has inflamed it further, and still does not stop. Even if he has acquired ten thousand talents, he desires as much again. Even if he obtains that, he again aims for twice as much, and as he goes on he desires even the mountains, the earth, the sea, and everything to turn to gold for him. He is mad with a strange and terrifying madness, one that can never be extinguished this way. And to understand that this evil is checked by taking away, rather than by adding, suppose you had ever had an absurd desire to fly and be carried through the air. How would you extinguish this unreasonable desire? By making wings and preparing other devices, or by convincing your mind that it desires impossible things and that you should attempt none of them? Clearly, by convincing your mind. “But that,” you may say, “is impossible.” Yet finding a limit to this desire is even more impossible. Indeed, it is easier for human beings to fly than to stop this lust by adding more. For when the objects of desire are possible, enjoying them may bring relief. But when they are impossible, we must work at one thing: drawing ourselves away from the desire, since otherwise the soul cannot recover. So, to avoid unnecessary sorrows, let us abandon the love of money, which constantly torments us and never agrees to be quiet. Let us turn to another love, which both makes us happy and is very easy to pursue, and let us long for the treasures above. For the labor here is not so great, the gain is beyond words, and anyone who is at all watchful and sober and despises present things cannot fail to obtain them. On the other hand, anyone enslaved to these present things and completely devoted to them will inevitably miss those better riches. 4. Considering all these things, then, put away the wicked desire for wealth. For you could not even say that it gives us present things, though it deprives us of things to come—even if that were so, it would be the most severe punishment and retribution. But as it is, even this is not true. For besides hell, and before that hell, it casts you into a more grievous punishment even here. This lust has overthrown many households, stirred up fierce wars, and driven people to end their lives by a violent death. And before these dangers arise, it ruins the nobility of the soul and often makes the person who has it cowardly, unmanly, reckless, deceitful, slanderous, ravenous, grasping, and everything that is worst. But perhaps you are bewitched by the gleam of silver, the multitude of servants, the beauty of the buildings, and the attention paid to someone in the marketplace? What remedy, then, is there for this terrible wound? Consider what these things do to your soul, how dark, desolate, filthy, and ugly they make it. Consider how many evils were involved in acquiring these things, how much labor and how many dangers are involved in keeping them. Or rather, they are not kept to the end. After you have escaped everyone’s schemes, death often comes upon you and transfers these things into your enemies’ hands. It goes off taking you with it, destitute, dragging none of these things after you except the wounds and sores that the soul received from them before its departure. So when you see someone outwardly splendid in clothing and surrounded by many attendants, lay open his conscience, and you will see many cobwebs and much dust inside. Consider Paul and Peter. Consider John and Elijah, or rather the Son of God Himself, who has nowhere to lay His head. Imitate Him and His servants, and picture their indescribable riches. But if, after gaining a little light from these examples, you fall into darkness again, as when a storm strikes during a shipwreck, listen to Christ’s declaration that it is impossible “for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven.” Set against this declaration the mountains, the earth, and the sea, and imagine, if you wish, that everything is gold. You will see nothing equal to the loss you suffer from it. You speak of so many acres of land, of ten or twenty houses or even more, of as many baths, of a thousand slaves or twice as many, and of chariots fitted with silver and overlaid with gold. But I say this: suppose each of you who are rich left this poverty behind (for these things are poverty compared with what I am about to describe), and possessed a whole world; suppose each had as many people as now exist everywhere on land and sea, and each had a world of both sea and land, with buildings, cities, and nations everywhere, and gold gushed up for him on every side instead of water, instead of fountains. I would not say that people this rich were worth three obols when they are cast out of the kingdom. For if, even now, they are tormented when they pursue perishable riches and fail to obtain them, what could possibly comfort them if they came to understand those indescribable blessings? Nothing. So do not tell me about the abundance of their possessions. Consider instead how great a loss those who love this abundance suffer because of it, losing Heaven for these things. They are in the same condition as someone who, after being expelled from the highest honor in royal courts, possessed a dung heap and took pride in it. For hoarding money is no different from that—or rather, the dung heap is even better. For it is useful for farming, for heating a bath, and for other such purposes, but buried gold serves none of these uses. And if only it were merely useless! As it is, it also kindles many furnaces for its owner, unless he uses it rightly. Countless evils, at any rate, spring from it. That is why those outside the faith used to call the love of money the citadel of evils. But the blessed Paul spoke much better and more vividly when he called it “the root of all evils.” Considering all these things, then, let us strive to imitate what deserves imitation: not magnificent buildings or expensive estates, but people who have great confidence before God, those who have riches in Heaven, the owners of those treasures, those who are truly rich, those who are poor for Christ’s sake. In this way may we attain the good things of eternity through the grace and love for humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ. To the Father, with Him and the Holy Spirit, be glory, might, and honor, now and always and forever and ever. Amen.