An Instruction for the Twenty-Sixth Sunday: On Covetousness

Beloved brethren!

During the sojourn of our Lord Jesus Christ on earth, once a certain unknown man brought Him a complaint against his brother because of a disagreement that had occurred between them in the division of property (Lk 12:13-21). The Kingdom of the Lord – “is not of this world” (Jn 18:36). With meekness and humility the Lord answered the one who sought His judgment in an earthly matter: “Man! Who made Me a judge or divider over you?” It is not earthly matters that constitute the object of the mission of the God-Word incarnate to earth! Then, raising the disputing brothers to a correct view of themselves, of earthly life and its goods, the Lord added: “Beware and guard yourselves against avarice: for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions”, that is, the duration of earthly life does not depend on possessions. The passion of avarice is evil: the Lord commands vigilance against it, so that it should not creep into the soul imperceptibly. The passion of avarice is destructive: the Lord commands us to guard against it. This passion, striving to open an entrance to the soul, usually presents to a man a long life, sickness in old age, various reversals and contingencies that might befall a man, in which accumulated wealth seems as if it should be the sole and almighty source of aid. The Lord, to strike at the passion of avarice at its very beginning, at the fundamental thoughts on which it rests and is based, shows that these thoughts are entirely erroneous and false, shows that the duration of earthly life with its reversals is not at all connected with accumulated excess possessions. The duration of earthly life and its well-being do not flow from much possession; they flow from God’s blessing. When God’s mercy departs from a man, then irresistible and terrible calamities approach him, strike him amid all his abundance, amid all his might. With coldness wealth looks upon its supposed possessor when God’s hand strikes him, and with an uncompassionate gaze it answers his suffering, parting looks, which he casts unwillingly as he separates from his perishable property.

The falsehood of thoughts and daydreams that deceive a man, when he attaches his entire soul to wealth and places his hope in it, the Lord vividly portrayed in a parable which He told to two brothers following His instruction about guarding oneself from avarice. “A certain rich man’s ground brought forth abundantly” – thus begins the parable – and “he thought to himself”. The first action of the abundant harvest on the rich man was that he engaged in special reflection. This almost always happens with those who suddenly become rich or who suddenly receive a significant increase to their previous wealth. Reflecting with himself, the rich man said: “What shall I do?” What am I to do?… Blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria correctly observes that excessive wealth resembles poverty. Both cry out from the difficulty of their position: what am I to do? The cause of difficulty in poverty is the lack of bodily necessities; in wealth, the excess of them. “What shall I do”, asks himself the rich man, “because I have no place where to gather my fruits”, I have nowhere to put the wealth I have acquired. Finally, he thought of what to do, and, as if rejoicing in his resourcefulness, in rapture and with determination he says: “This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will gather all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul: Soul, you have many good things laid up for many years; rest, eat, drink, and be merry”. The blinded rich man did not think of God, of eternity, of his poor brethren; he thought only of himself, thought in a way disastrous for himself, because he forgot the purpose of the soul and decreed for it, in his daydream, complete enslavement to the body. He did not think of God, Who, by providing for him, called him also to charity. He did not think of eternity, to which he must send ahead by almsgiving a portion of his possessions, so as not to find himself there poor, unworthy of paradise’s hall. With what false daydream the rich man deceives himself! He says that his possessions are sufficient for a long time, by which he understands that his life will continue as long or even longer; on this vain, shifting daydream he bases his arrangements. The state of self-deception is common to all lovers of riches and lovers of the world. Earthly life seems to them eternal. The thought of death is completely foreign to them, as if it were the thought of an event that could never have any relation to them. What assumptions does the blinded rich man base on his enrichment? He, as they say in the world, “wants to live well”. What does it mean in this sense to “live well”? It means: to eat and drink sweetly and abundantly, to indulge in entertainments and pleasures, to commit adultery, to live luxuriously, to be vainglorious, to satisfy all his lusts and caprices. If we look at the world more carefully, we will find that the Gospel parable of the rich man can serve as a mirror for all of us: not all of us are constantly carried away by the rich man’s daydreams, but all of us are carried away by them more or less at times.

When the rich man thus dreamed with pleasure of the sinful life before him, suddenly God’s judgment was pronounced against him. God said to him: “Foolish one! This night your soul will be required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” What happened to the rich man happens to every person who forgets God and gives himself entirely to the service of sin. At the time when such a person reaches the end of his desires, when he has arranged his situation in the best possible way, God sends death or permits some misfortune – and the most solid earthly well-being crumbles. This is also expressed in the words with which the Lord concluded the parable: “So it is with the one who stores up treasures for himself but is not rich toward God”. Such is the fruit of covetousness, avarice, and in general the intense striving to acquire possessions, a striving that takes place under the exclusive direction of self-love. The Lord called the self-loving rich man foolish, because this rich man, blinded by self-love, acting in self-deception as if solely for his own benefit, was actually acting against himself, bringing himself down from the high dignity of a man created for eternity, who must act on earth for heaven, who must always allow the soul dominion over the body. To be rich toward God means to live a life pleasing to God. Earthly activity directed according to the Gospel commandments brings the soul incorruptible wealth: knowledge of God and of oneself, faith, humble-mindedness, love of God and neighbor. Such activity properly manages earthly possessions as God’s gift and by proper management transforms perishable property into imperishable, transfers treasures from earth to heaven. By transferring his perishable possessions to heaven through almsgiving, the Christian will imperceptibly transfer his heart to heaven, as the Lord Himself testified: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Lk 12:34). Such a Christian will dwell in heaven by his thoughts, inclinations, and feelings, as did the Apostle, who even during his sojourn on earth proclaimed of himself: “Our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil 3:20). Amen.