Social Justice and the Poor According to the Church Fathers Part 2 - the Rich

“Surely every man walks about as a phantom; Surely they make an uproar for 
nothing; He amasses riches and does not know who will gather them. 
Psalm 39:6 NASB

On Riches and Faithful Stewardship
What is the use of riches for the Christian and what is their purpose?
Most certainly we should not despise the rich but in many cases, pity 
them. 

In the writings of the holy Fathers we read;

"Isidore said: 'In this fleeting life the rich do not have the satisfaction

of permanently enjoying their power, their fame, or their money.

Suddenly death carries them off, the abyss swallows them up and

they disappear, condemned to eternal torments.

'Greed makes the rich haughty. It does not happen because of

their riches, but because of their free choice. Evil does not

consist in things, but in the use we make of them.

Those who spend their riches on beneficial objects are 

making good use of good things. The same good things are

being badly used by those who plan to multiply their 

wealth or who only do good to their neighbors for 

reputation's sake." 

Defensor Grammaticus in the Book of Sparkling Sayings, 58

And St Maximos the Confessor plainly states, ""But there are four
kinds of people who put money aside. I have just mentioned three
(for pleasure, conceit and lack of faith).

There are, however, also those who restrict themselves to the 

administration of goods. Only these last are justified in 

accumulating money, on the assumption that their aim is to be

always in the business of helping the needy." St Maximos the 

Confessor, Centuries of Charity, 3:16

"Be very merciful if you care about prayer. For through mercy,
monks (and I can add, the rest of us Christians also) shall 
receive a hundred fold, and the rest in the future life." St John
Climacus, Ladder of Divine Ascent, p.218:44.

"Gregory said, 'When we are presenting something to the poor that

they need, we are not giving them what would be ours but that to

which they have a right." Defensor Grammaticus in the Book of

Sparkling Sayings.

Of course, it is possible to be poor in material possessions and at the
same time, miserly in spirit as St Basil teaches us, "Many are poor in
terms of possessions and very miserly in spirit, and those people will
not be saved through their poverty but damned by their attitude of 
mind." St Basil the Great, On Psalm 33.

What is the wise disposition? In the Psalms we read,

"Do not trust in oppression And do not vainly hope in robbery; If
riches increase, do not set your heart upon them." Psalm 62:10

The love of money is a passion, an unnatural movement of the soul
which cannot be satisfied. It corrupts and ruins the soul,

"He who loves money will not be satisfied with money,
nor he who loves abundance with its income. This too is vanity."
Ecclesiastes 5:10

St John Climacus in 'The Ladder of Divine Ascent' p.121 writes,
"Avarice, or love of money, is the worship of idols, a daughter of
unbelief, an excuse for infirmities, a foreboder of old age, a
harbinger of drought, a herald of famines. The lover of money
sneers at the Gospel and is a willful transgressor. He who has

attained to love scatters his money. But he who says that he 

lives for love and for money has deceived himself." And, "A 

hospitable man and a money lover met one another, and the 

latter called the former undiscerning." Published by Holy

Transfiguration Monastery 1991.

"There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches
being hoarded by their owner to his hurt." Ecc.5:13

Riches are a gift from God, but he who receives this gift must use it
wisely!
"Furthermore, as for every man to whom God has given riches
and wealth, He has also empowered him to eat from them and to
receive his reward and rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God."
Ecc.5:19

Jeremiah 9:23 Thus says the Lord, “Let not a wise man boast of 
his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let 
not a rich man boast of his riches.

The lure and terrifying tempting power of riches is evidenced by
our Lord's words when He said;

"And Jesus said to His disciples, 'Truly I say to you, it is hard for
a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I say to you, it is
easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich
man to enter the kingdom of God.' When the disciples heard this,
they were very astonished and said, 'Then who can be saved?' And
looking at them Jesus said to them, 'With people this is impossible,
but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:23-26

Saint Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria comments on this incident 
which appears also in chapter 18 of the Gospel of Luke, St Cyril
writes; "Observe , however that He does not altogether cut away
the hope of the rich, but reserves for them a place and way of 
salvation. For he did not say that it is impossible for a rich man to
enter in, but that he does so with difficulty. When the blessed 
disciples heard these words, they objected saying, And who can 
live? And their plea was for those who had wealth and 
possessions. 

For we know, they say, that no one will ever be persuaded to 
abandon his wealth and riches: Who then can be saved? But 
what does the Lord reply? The things that are impossible with
man are possible with God. He has reserved, therefore for 
those who possess wealth the possibility of being counted 
worthy, if they will, of the kingdom of God; for even though 
they refuse entirely to abandon what they have, yet it is 
possible for them in another way to attain to honor. And the
Savior has Himself showed us how and in what way this can 
happen, saying, 'Make to yourselves friends of the unrighteous
mammon; that when it has failed, they may receive you into 
eternal tabernacles. For there is nothing to prevent the rich, if 
they will, from making the poor partakers and sharers of the 
abundance which they possess. What hinders him who has 
plentiful possessions from being affable of address, and ready
to communicate to others, easily prevailed upon to give, and 
compassionate, and full of that generous pity which is well 
pleasing to God? Not unrewarded, nor unprofitable shall we
find carefulness in this respect; for as it is written, mercy 
boasteth over judgment. From the Commentary on the 
Gospel of St Luke by St Cyril of Alexandria, Translated by
R. Payne Smith, Homily12.2, p.491, Studion Publishers,
Inc. 1983

Who can forget the precious story of a righteous rich man
giving his very best to the Lord? 
"When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, 
named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus.
This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then 
Pilate ordered it to be given to him. And Joseph took the body
and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new
tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a large
stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away."
Matthew 27:57-60

Unto all ages, the Holy Orthodox Church has immortalized this
event in its Liturgy. It is reenacted during the afternoon services 
of Great and Holy Friday, when the 'unnailing (apokathelosis)
takes place, and we all chant the hauntingly beautiful lament,
"The Noble Joseph brought down thine pure body, from the cross,
He wrapped it in clean linen and with fragrant spices laid it in a
new tomb"

And then we have this striking passage from the Gospel of St.
Luke, chapter 12;
"And He told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man
was very productive. And he began reasoning to himself, saying,
‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he
said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build
larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I
will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many
years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.” But God
said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you;
and now who will own what you have prepared?’ So is the man who
stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
St Luke 12:16-21

Blessed Theophylact in his Explanation to the Holy Gospel
According to St Luke, writes,
"The Lord had said that the life of a man is not lengthened by an
abundance of possessions, and now He offers this parable in 
confirmation of this truth...
See also the pleasures of the rich man: What shall I do? Does not
the pauper say the same thing as well, 'What shall I do? I have 
nothing to eat or to put on.' Think if you will, about the words of
the rich man, What shall I do, because I have no room where to 
gather my crops? At the very least he could take a good rest. If both
the pauper says, 'What shall I do because I have not ?' and the rich
man says, What shall I do because I have not?' then what do we gain
by gathering more and more? We do not gain any rest, and it
is clear from all the cares that come from our further 
efforts that we are piling up for ourselves only a great 
multitude of sins.  

Yet the foolish man says, I will pull down my barns, and build 
greater. And if your land yields even more bountifully in the future,
will you pull these down and build again? But what need is there
to pull down and build? You have available to you as 
storehouses the stomachs of the poor which can hold 
much, and are indestructible and imperishable. They
are in fact heavenly and divine storehouses.for he who
feeds the pauper, feeds God.

See something else that is foolish: my fruits and my goods. The
rich man did not consider that he had received these things from
God. If he had, he would have treated these things as would a 
steward of God. But he imagined that these things were the fruits
of his own labors, which is why he usurped them for himself
calling them my fruits and my goods. 'I am the sole owner', he
thinks, 'and there is no one else entitled to a share. These things
are not God's but mine, and therefore I alone will enjoy them. I
will not now take God in as a partner to enjoy my profit.'

Because he spoke foolishly, let us see what happened.
Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years. He
determines that he will have a long life, as if length of
years was something else he could obtain by working 
his land. But a long life is not a crop you can grow, and
it is not another of your belongings.

But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night they shall require
thy soul of thee....the thoughts that came into the man's mind are
what God spoke. Thou fool, He calls him a fool because everything
he wanted was foolish, as we have shown. And every man like him
is foolish and acts in vain, for, as David says, 'In vain doth every 
man disquiet himself (Psalm 38:14) Why? Because he stores up
things without knowing for whom he gathers them. .....

Thus he who lays up treasure for himself is called foolish: he never
stops drawing up plans and dies in the midst of them. But if he had
been laying up treasure for the poor and for God, it would not have
been so. 

Let us strive , therefore, to be rich toward God, that is, to
trust in God to have Him as our wealth and the treasury
of wealth, and not to speak of my goods but 'the good 
things of God'. If they are God's then let us not deprive 
God of His own goods. This is what it means to be rich 
toward God: to trust that even if I empty myself and give
everything away, I will not lack the necessities. God is my
treasury of good things, and I open and take from the 
treasury what I need"  
p.146-148, Translated by Fr. Christopher Stade, Chrysostom Press 1997


St Ephraim the Syrian gives us the most profound meaning
of the beloved Gospel of Matthew 21:31-46 (italicized below)
"At the terrible judgment the Lord will say to those at His right
hand: come, O sons of My light, blessed heirs of My kingdom.
Come,ye who for My sake have been impoverished, hungered
and thirsted, who loved not the world nor all that is in it. Come,
ye who for  My sake have left all worldly power and joy,
brothers and friends, parents and children.

Come, ye who have dwelt in deserts, on mountains, in caves
and crevices in the earth together with beasts, and rejoice with
the angels in heaven. Come all ye who have walked the strait 
and narrow path. Come, ye who are blessed of My Father;
inherit the kingdom that has been prepared for you since the
creation of the world.

And to those at His left hand He will say; Go away from Me,
into the fire that lies without. Go away from Me, ye heartless
ones, who have hated both brothers and Christ. Ye were not 
merciful and neither shall ye obtain mercy. Ye did not heed
My noble gospels and My blessed disciples - and neither shall
I heed your lamentation. 

You lived a life of luxury on earth, enjoyed good things in your
life, and here there is nothing more for you to receive - you
have already taken what is yours. Daily I called out to you
through the scriptures, but when you heard, you mocked
those who read them. And now I say to you: I know you not.
Go away from Me, ye accursed souls, into the eternal fire that
is prepared for the devil and his angels.

And they will enter into eternal torment, but the righteous 
will enter into eternal life."

From 'A Spiritual Psalter' No. 127 p.201-202, excerpted by Bishop

Theophan the Recluse from the works of our Holy Father Ephraim 

the Syrian, Trans. by Br. Isaac E. Lambertsen, 

The St. John of Kronstadt Press, Liberty TN 1997

ISBN 0-912927-40-2

“But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the 
angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.
All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will
separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates
the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His
right, and the goats on the left.

Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who
are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for
you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and
you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me
something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in;
naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I
was in prison, and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will
answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed
You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when
did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and
clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come
to You?’ The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to
you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of
Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’

“Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me,
accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for
the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me
nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink;
I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you
did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’
Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see
You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in
prison, and did not take care of You?’ Then He will answer them,
‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of
the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’  These will go away
into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
These are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Gospel

of St. Matthew chapter 25:31-46