Wealth

A Teaching for the Twenty-Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Now there was read the Gospel of St Luke about the foolish, self-loving rich man, who gathered only for himself and did not share of his wealth with the needy[1]. But this is a parable; therefore its meaning is evidently far broader than it appears at first sight, and by the rich man must be understood people of every rank, title, and station, endowed by God with every good and with material abundance—not landowners and people of the tax-paying classes alone; and likewise by the good harvest of the field must be understood not only natural, vegetable products, that is, wheat, rye, and the like, but every kind of material abundance: a rich inheritance, a large salary received from the state treasury, rich incomes afforded by some post or position, direct or indirect, open or secret, a good profitable trade, good income from houses let out for hire, a profitable craft, and so on. Thus this parable, like a net, catches up very many and, in a word, all those who have good means of livelihood. And what does our divine Teacher, the Lord Jesus Christ, want and require of us in this parable? He wants and requires of us that we should not enjoy God’s gifts only for ourselves personally, to our own pleasure alone, for the satisfaction only of our animal needs, habits, passions, and lusts, but that we should share, share without fail, our goods, according to our means, with the destitute and the needy, of whom there are so many everywhere; for every kind of material abundance the Lord sends us not for ourselves alone, but in our persons for our neighbors also. There lies before you a multitude of God’s gifts, given to you as much for yourself as for the common good, and they lie there without any profit, and you turn the fountain of God’s blessing into a fountain of cursing; you mock God’s goodness and bounties, you are the friend of the common envier and enemy, the devil: for you are an enemy to God and to men, because you are destroying many by your hard-heartedness.

This truth, which seems strange to many, is so clear that it speaks for itself, and for someone who looks at the matter squarely, without preconceived thoughts of his own or false convictions, there is no need to explain it and prove it: for all of us—the rich as well as the poor, the noble and the simple, the educated and the uneducated—are all neighbors to one another, as having come of one blood, members of one great family of God, members, if not of one church, then of one state, members of one common fatherland; we have one tsar-father who cares equally for the good of all his subjects, for whom the height of his desires is that all, in general, should be content and prosperous, that all should labor for the benefit of society, and each for his own. But our extreme self-love, by which we have grown accustomed to count our material goods exclusively as our own, a false view of our relations to others, and a strictly judicial, one-sided view of our neighbors who require our help, run counter to the truth indicated; and many, many say: what is mine is only for me and for no one else, and others have no business with it—although it is obvious that such a conviction is false and extremely inhumane, that is, without love for man. We will prove, on the basis of reason and the word of God, its unsoundness, and then draw the conclusion that we must not gather for ourselves alone, but grow rich in God as well, that is, grow rich in mercy, in righteousness, and in good deeds in general.

First of all, in all nature, in the whole visible world, we notice reciprocity and communality. From the height of the heavens the sun illuminates, warms, and gives life to the whole earth, to all creatures, of which there is no number; the air penetrates into all and everything—we all breathe it and feed on it every minute; the winds, blowing in their turns from all sides, work in different places a beneficial change in the air, purifying it and making it healthful; the rivers, watering the various lands through which they flow, bring manifold benefit to people and animals. Bees gather from the flowers a fragrant, wholesome, and nourishing juice, lay it up in their combs, and make honey, which many people use; the silkworm spins cocoons, or silken threads, and people use them for their own products. People of the sciences and the arts, of the crafts, of farming, of trade, and of industry share their treasures with other people; the army lays down its life for the faith, the tsar, and the fatherland: everything and everyone is in mutual interaction and fellowship. But here you have large sums of money lying idle, which would suffice to feed a thousand people; what use is there in them? Can it really be that property, money, bread, clothing, and dwellings are to be our possession alone, and that we will not willingly share them with our brothers who are in need? Mercy on us, my brethren: this is contrary to our nature and to our reason. Just as all nature shares with us its treasures, its riches, so must we in turn share our possessions with one another for the common good.

In the second place, since we all, insofar as we are Christians, together constitute the conjoined members of the spiritual body of the Church, whose Head is Jesus Christ and whose Helmsman, or Ruler, is the Holy Spirit, we are therefore obligated to take care, both spiritually and materially, not only of ourselves but also of the other members of the body, as the apostle Paul says: If one member suffers, all the members suffer along with it; if one member is glorified, all the members rejoice along with it. And you are the body of Christ, while each of you taken separately is a member of it.[2]. The Church and the state together form one living organism, but in this organism there are members who are sickly, feeble, of little capability, or who have no work and cannot by themselves obtain it. If this is so, then how can the rich fail to take care of the poor—the rich man of every station: whether a member of the clergy, a merchant, a man of civil or military rank, a scholar or one exercising authority in any station, or a well-to-do craftsman? And in this case people who stand higher or hold higher office, as being the better educated, ought to set an example by their own conduct for those beneath them, as the apostle says: We who are strong must carry the weaknesses of the weak, and not gratify ourselves.[3].

If the powerful, the distinguished, persons of high station, or the rich are only going to please themselves, taking no thought for the poor and the weak, then what can people do for their benefit—people who, though they have good intentions, good wishes, and good undertakings, are not strong in authority or capital? Take, for instance, what we have here in Kronstadt: a poor, unprivileged class of registered townsfolk, who have neither work, nor money, nor food, nor clothing, nor a dwelling, nor even the slightest moral voice with which to defend themselves, but who could be useful if the people honored with authority would turn a fatherly attention upon them. Tell me, what will become of them in the end if the powerful in the city do not pay attention to them? Will they either have to waste away and die prematurely of hunger and cold, or will they have to resort to unlawful means of gain so as not to die of starvation? And if the distinguished and the rich are unwilling to allot them what is necessary for life out of their granaries or out of their rich treasuries, then at least, by common effort, care must be taken to give them lodging, to employ them in labors according to their strength, and to assist them in common. After all, they are Christians as we are: subjects and children of the same sovereign as we are; members of the same society as we are. And yet they, our own members, through some strange negligence and hardheartedness of society, remain to this day without any care whatsoever. O self-love, O pride, O hardheartedness, O the devouring greed of men arrogant in their false enlightenment! What is scholarly enlightenment without Christian love? Nothing. The wisdom of this world is foolishness before God[4]. Humble yourself, haughty mind, before the teaching of the Gospel and before the poverty of Christ; come down from your pedestal, lower yourself, draw near to these poor, whom Christ Himself is not ashamed to call His own brethren, and stretch out to them a hand of help; do not gather for yourself alone, do not satisfy only your own whims—but grow rich toward God in good works as well, which will follow you even after death.

So then, both nature and reason and the word of God urge us to be ready to share our property with our neighbors—yielding, without complaining, without stinginess, willingly, with zeal, meekly and humbly—and to help the poor cheerfully, as brothers in Christ and as members of civil society. Amen.