John Chrysostom, On "But in vain they are troubled"

Oh, how many things I have said, and I found nothing more fitting than the prophetic voice, which says: Surely every man living is disquieted in vain! In short, see, beloved, if the affairs of men do not imitate the sea, if life is not entangled in its turmoil, if we are not more storm-tossed on the dry land than on the wet, if we do not clash with one another more violently than the winds, if money does not dash us against each other like tempests, if, as in the gloom of the sea, we are not tossed hither and thither. This one has seized that one's field, another has snatched away the servants of so-and-so; and one goes to law with his neighbor over water, while another wages war with his housemate over air. Some are enraged over measures of land, others oppress one another over a building; this one springs up to take what he did not give; that one goes to court not to give back what he received.

One is insatiable about interest; another insists on depriving even of the principal; this one, being poor, is in pain; that one, being rich, is in turmoil; he who has not is reproached, and he who has is plotted against; he who is in office is viewed with suspicion; he who is in power is hated; he who is in high station is conspired against. Wars are continuous, envies successive, insatiability tyrannizes, greed overpowers, falsehood prevails, faith towards one another has fled, truth has left the earth, friendship is confined to the dinner table. Others have lost their own strength; the earth, then, cannot bear the evils, the air is polluted up to the very ether. Because of money, life has become unlivable; because of money we have sold the free elements; roads are tolled, the earth is parceled out, waters are owned, the air is subject to purchase; tithe-collectors and tax-collectors and publicans possess the cities; the rich are wasted by cares; the lenders are withered by anxieties; the rapacious disturb life; the lovers of money wear out the courts; the merchants trade in misfortunes; the slanderers sell falsehood. Lying to one another we have exhausted our oaths; we know God only for the purpose of swearing. 2. Thus seeing all men heaped up in evils, and lamenting this life, the prophet said: Surely every man living is disquieted 55.561 in vain. Is man alone, O prophet, disquieted? Is rational creation alone accused? I found nothing among the animals or elements that is disquieted. The waters, he says, are troubled, and are restored again; the earth is shaken, and is made firm again; the winds are moved, and are quiet again; every beast is disturbed, and being sated, it ceases; a flame is stirred up, and consuming the underlying matter, it is extinguished. But man, being disquieted for money, never ceases; he has taken this, and looks toward that; he has seized that, and gapes for another.

He strives to double the hundred, upon so much he hastens to heap up so much again, and he never ceases from heaping up, until his own end is heaped up; and being seized by the thirst of avarice, he goes about paler than gold, for the sake of much-desired wealth, that perhaps most uncertain friend, that treacherous desire, that mocker with many masters, that much-loved scoffer, that winged prisoner, that hostile corpse, that wind flying away in the world; wealth, the begetter of all absurdity, the inventor of all wickedness, the collaborator of soul-destroying luxury, the rival of self-control, the enemy of moderation, and the secret thief of all virtue. But why do I slander wealth, letting its possessors go? It itself is also wronged, being bound by them, and held in fetters. For it seems to me that it sends forth a voice to them: Why do you fetter me, wealth, O lovers of money? Why do you bind me tight with countless bonds, like a runaway slave? Why do you embrace me as a friend, and bind me fast as an evildoer, transferring me from mines into your hands? If you want even of dreams

Ὢ πόσα εἶπον, καὶ τῆς προφητικῆς φωνῆς οὐδὲν ἁρμοδιώτερον εὗρον, τῆς λεγούσης· Πλὴν μάτην ταράσσεται πᾶς ἄνθρωπος ζῶν! Τέλος, ὅρα, ἀγαπητὲ, εἰ μὴ θάλατταν μιμεῖται τῶν ἀνθρώπων τὰ πράγματα, εἰ μὴ τῆς ἐκεῖθεν ταραχῆς ὁ βίος ἐμπλέκεται, εἰ μὴ τῆς ὑγρᾶς πλέον ἐπὶ τῆς ξηρᾶς χειμαζόμεθα, εἰ μὴ τῶν ἀνέμων σφοδρότερον ἀλλήλοις συμπίπτομεν, εἰ μὴ τὰ χρήματα, καθάπερ καταιγίδες, κατ' ἀλλήλων ἡμᾶς συγκρούουσιν, εἰ μὴ, καθάπερ ἐν ζόφῳ θαλαττίῳ, ὧδε κἀκεῖσε περιφερόμεθα. Οὗτος ἐκείνου τὸν ἀγρὸν παρεσπάσατο, ἄλλος τοῦ δεῖνα τοὺς οἰκέτας ἀφήρπασε· καὶ ὁ μὲν περὶ ὕδατος τῷ γείτονι κρίνεται, ὁ δὲ περὶ ἀέρος τῷ συνοικήτορι πολεμεῖ. Οἱ μὲν διὰ μέτρα τῆς γῆς διακαπνίζονται, οἱ δὲ περὶ οἰκοδομῆς ἀλλήλους διαθλίβουσιν· οὗτος, ἅπερ οὐκ ἔδωκε, λαβεῖν ἐπιφύεται· ἐκεῖνος, ἅπερ ἔλαβε, μὴ δοῦναι δικάζεται.

Ὁ μὲν περὶ τόκους ἀπληστεύεται· ὁ δὲ καὶ τὸ κεφάλαιον ἀποστερεῖν διισχυρίζεται· οὗτος ἀπορῶν ὀδυνᾶται· ἐκεῖνος εὐπορῶν θορυβεῖται· ὁ μὴ ἔχων ὀνειδίζεται, καὶ ὁ ἔχων ἐπιβουλεύεται· ὁ ἐν ἀρχαῖς, ὑποβλέπεται· ὁ ἐν ἐξουσίαις, μισεῖται· ὁ ἐν δυναστείαις, σκευάζεται. Οἱ πόλεμοι συνέχουσιν, οἱ φθόνοι ἐπάλληλοι, ἡ ἀπληστία τυραννεῖ, ἡ πλεονεξία καταδυναστεύει, τὸ ψεῦδος ὑπεραίρεται, ἡ πρὸς ἀλλήλους πίστις ἀπέφυγεν, ἡ ἀλήθεια τὴν γῆν κατέλιπεν, ἡ φιλία μέχρι τραπέζης περιορίζεται. Οἱ ἄλλοι τὴν ἰδίαν ἰσχὺν ἀπώλεσαν· ἡ γῆ λοιπὸν τὰ κακὰ βαστάζειν οὐ δύναται, ὁ ἀὴρ μέχρις αὐτοῦ τοῦ αἰθέρος μεμόλυνται. ∆ιὰ τὰ χρήματα ὁ βίος ἀβίωτος γέγονε· διὰ τὰ χρήματα ἐλεύθερα στοιχεῖα πεπράκαμεν· ὁδοὶ τελωνεύονται, ἡ γῆ ἀποκεκλήρωται, ὕδατα δεσποτεύονται, ὁ ἀὴρ ὠναῖς ὑποβάλλεται· δεκατολόγοι καὶ φορολόγοι καὶ τελῶναι τὰς πόλεις συνέχουσιν· οἱ πλούσιοι ταῖς φροντίσιν ἐκτήκονται· οἱ δανεισταὶ ταῖς μερίμναις μαραίνονται· οἱ ἅρπαγες τὸν βίον ταράττουσιν· οἱ φιλοχρήμονες τὰ δικαστήρια κατατρίβουσιν· οἱ ἔμποροι τὰς συμφορὰς πραγματεύονται· οἱ συκοφάνται τὸ ψεῦδος πιπράσκουσιν. Ἀλλήλοις ψευδόμενοι τοὺς ὅρκους ἀνηλώσαμεν· εἰς τὸ ὀμνύειν μόνον τὸν Θεὸν ἐπιστάμεθα. βʹ. Οὕτω πάντας ἐν κακοῖς σεσωρευμένους ὀρῶν ὁ προφήτης, καὶ τὸν βίον ταλανίζων, ἔλεγε· Πλὴν μάτην τα 55.561 ράσσεται πᾶς ἄνθρωπος ζῶν. Ἄνθρωπος μόνον, ὦ προφῆτα, ταράσσεται; ἡ λογικὴ μόνη διάπλασις κατηγορεῖται; Οὐδὲν τῶν ἐν ζώοις ἢ στοιχείοις ταρασσόμενον εὗρον. Ταράσσεται, φησὶ, τὰ ὕδατα, καὶ πάλιν ἀποκαθίσταται· σαλεύεται ἡ γῆ, καὶ πάλιν ἑδράζεται· κινοῦνται οἱ ἄνεμοι, καὶ πάλιν ἡσυχάζουσι· θορυβεῖται πᾶν θηρίον, καὶ κορεννύμενον παύεται· διεγείρεται φλὸξ, καὶ ὑποκειμένην ὕλην ἀναλίσκουσα σβέννυται. Ἄνθρωπος δὲ ταρασσόμενος ἐπὶ χρήμασιν οὐδέποτε παύεται· ἔλαβε τοῦτο, καὶ πρὸς ἐκεῖνο ἀποβλέπει· ἐκράτησεν ἐκεῖνο, καὶ πρὸς ἄλλο κέχηνε.

Τὰ ἑκατὸν διπλασιάζειν φιλονεικεῖ, ἐπὶ τοῖς τοσούτοις πάλιν τὰ τοσαῦτα σωρεύειν ἐπείγεται, καὶ οὐδέποτε τοῦ σωρεύειν παύεται, ἕως ἂν τὸ τέλος αὐτοῦ σωρευθῇ· καὶ τῇ δίψῃ τῆς φιλαργυρίας συνεχόμενος, ὠχρότερος χρυσίου περιέρχεται, διὰ τὸν πολυπόθητον πλοῦτον, τὸν τάχα ἀβεβαιότερον φίλον, τὸν ἐπίβουλον πόθον, τὸν πολυδέσποτον ἐμπαίκτην, τὸν πολυέραστον χλευαστὴν, τὸν ὑπόπτερον δέσμιον, τὸν πολέμιον νεκρὸν, τὸν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ἀφιπτάμενον ἄνεμον· πλοῦτον, τὸν πάσης ἀτοπίας γεννήτορα, τὸν πάσης κακίας εὑρετὴν, τὸν συνεργὸν τῆς ψυχοφθόρου τρυφῆς, τὸν ἀντίπαλον τῆς ἐγκρατείας, τὸν πολέμιον τῆς σωφροσύνης, καὶ τὸν πάσης ἀρετῆς λανθάνοντα κλέπτην. Ἀλλὰ τί διαβάλλω τὸν πλοῦτον, τοὺς κεκτημένους ἀφείς; Ἀδικεῖται καὶ αὐτὸς δεσμούμενος ὑπ' αὐτῶν, καὶ πέδαις συνεχόμενος. Ἔοικε γάρ μοι αὐτὸν πρὸς αὐτοὺς ἀφιέναι φωνήν· Τί με τὸν πλοῦτον, ὦ φιλοχρήμονες, συμποδίζετε; τί με, καθάπερ δραπέτην, μυρίοις δεσμοῖς περισφίγγετε; τί με ὡς φίλον περιπτύσσεσθε, καὶ ὡς κακοῦργον καταδεσμεῖτε, ἀπὸ μετάλλων εἰς τὰς ὑμῶν χεῖρας παραπέμποντες; Εἰ θέλετε κἂν τῶν ὀνείρων