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but the members of our body do not have free authority, but are regulated for their activities by a master's will, what would one say to those who think they have unaccountable possession of gold and silver and land and other things? 2.6.2 Nothing is yours, O man. You are a slave and your things belong to the Lord. For a slave does not have a free peculium. For you were brought naked into this light; you received what you have according to the law of your Lord; either inheriting from a father, since God so ordained—for "Parents," it says, "will divide spoils for their children"—or acquiring wealth from marriage—and marriage and its circumstances are ordained by God—or from commerce and agriculture and other pretexts, with God cooperating in those things. 2.7.1 See, then, it has been shown that you received things that are not yours. Let us see, then, for the rest, what was commanded you and what sort of stewardship over them. Give to the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the afflicted, do not overlook the destitute, the one cast out in the streets. Do not be anxious about yourself, nor worry how you will live on the next day. And if you do these things, he says, you will be honored by the lawgiver; but if you disobey the commandment, you will be punished bitterly. 2.7.2 I do not see these things as belonging to one who is self-governing nor to one living with authority, but on the contrary, the many and continuous commands show me a man ruled strongly and responsible to a master's laws and required to render his regulated conduct as a debt. 2.7.3 But how do we, living our life as if unaccountable, overlook the wretched and poor dying in their misfortunes, but spend lavishly on vanities, feeding a multitude of dissolute flatterers and attracting fraternities of wretched parasites; and again squandering our wealth on beast-fighters and beasts, and in horse-breeding sparing none of our possessions, and again spending our resources on wonder-workers and mimes and other ruinous things! 2.7.4 And we experience something empty and close to madness. For where spending brings countless profit and immortal salvation, we hold on tightly to our money, so that not even a few obols fall from our hand; but where the expense is for sinners and the cause of myriad punishments and even of the punishment through fire itself, we flow of our own accord. And our ambition anticipates the request; and opening all doors we let our wealth go out to those outside. This mindset is not of slaves awaiting their master, but of prodigal, revelling, licentious youths. 2.8.1 But if you wish, O hearer, to see the fear of a steward administering what was entrusted to him with sober reverence, open the book of David; seek those words where the man, being much concerned about the appointed time of his own end, says to God: Make known to me, O Lord, my end, and what is the number of my days, that I may know what I lack. 2.8.2 Do you see how the disposition of the one who prayed is seen in his word as in an image, that he is fearful and foresees the future and awaits the judgment and is concerned about the appointed time, so that the signal for his departure may not catch him unprepared; and he seeks after reflection to perceive what is the deficiency of his sojourning, so that he may hasten to make it full before the one who leads him out arrives. 2.8.3 For truly the death of each of us is an image of a steward, if we compare the details with one another, what the one dying suffers, and what the one being cast out of the stewardship endures. 2.9.1 For likewise the one who is dying also hands over the administration to others, as the steward hands over the keys; that one is cast out of a field, this one from the whole world as from a single estate. Distressed, the steward departs from his own labors such as vineyards, gardens, houses; what then do you think the one who is dying also suffers? 2.9.2 Does he not mourn his possessions? Does he not look around piteously at his property, after so much effort being torn away from it unwillingly, far from treasures, from storehouses? and when he arrives at the appointed place, hearing: Give an account of the

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δὲ τὰ μόρια τοῦ σώματος ἡμῶν οὐκ ἐλεύθερα ἐξουσίαν, ἀλλὰ δεσποτικῷ βουλήματι πρὸς τὰς ἐνεργείας κανονιζόμενα, τί ἂν εἴποι τις πρὸς τοὺς οἰομένους χρυσοῦ καὶ ἀργύρου καὶ γῆς καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἀνεύθυνον ἔχειν τὴν κτῆσιν; 2.6.2 Οὐδὲν σόν, ἄνθρωπε. Σὺ δοῦλος καὶ τὰ σὰ τοῦ Κυρίου. ∆οῦλος γὰρ ἐλεύθερον πεκούλιον οὐκ ἔχει. Γυμνὸς γὰρ ἤχθης εἰς τοῦτο τὸ φῶς· ἔλαβες ἃ ἔχεις κατὰ νόμον τοῦ Κυρίου σου· ἢ κληρονομήσας πατέρα, ἐπειδὴ οὕτως ὁ Θεὸς διετάξατοΓονεῖς γὰρ τέκνοις, φησί, μεριοῦσι σκύλα, ἢ ἀπὸ γάμου τὴν εὐπορίαν κτησάμενοςγάμος δὲ καὶ τὰ ἐπ' ἐκείνῳ παρὰ Θεοῦ διατέτακται, ἢ ἀπὸ ἐμπορίας καὶ γεωργίας καὶ τῶν ἄλλων προφάσεων Θεοῦ πρὸς ἐκεῖνα συμπράξαντος. 2.7.1 Ἰδοὺ τοίνυν, ἐδείχθη ὅτι ἔλαβες τὰ μὴ σά. Ἴδωμεν τοίνυν λοιπὸν τί σοι ἐπετάχθη καὶ οἵα ἐπ' ἐκείνοις διοίκησις. ∆ὸς τῷ πεινῶντι, ἔνδυσον τὸν γυμνόν, θεράπευσον τὸν κεκακωμένον, μὴ περιίδῃς τὸν ἄπορον, τὸν ἐρριμμένον ἐν ταῖς τριόδοις. Σὺ περὶ σαυτοῦ μὴ μεριμνήσῃς, μηδὲ φροντίσῃς πῶς διάξεις ἐπὶ τῆς ὑστεραίας. Κἂν ταῦτα, φησίν, ἐργάσῃ, τιμηθήσῃ παρὰ τοῦ νομοθέτου· ἂν δὲ παρακούσῃς τῆς ἐντολῆς, κολασθήσῃ πικρῶς. 2.7.2 Ταῦτα ἐγὼ οὐ βλέπω τοῦ αὐτεξουσίου οὐδὲ τοῦ ζῶντος μετ' αὐθεντείας, ἀλλὰ τοὐναντίον, τὰ πολλὰ καὶ συνεχῆ προστάγματα ὑποδείκνυσί μοι ἄνθρωπον βασιλευόμενον ἰσχυρῶς καὶ νόμοις δεσποτικοῖς ὑπεύθυνον καὶ τὴν κεκανονισμένην πολιτείαν ἀπαιτούμενον ὡς χρέος. 2.7.3 Ἡμεῖς δὲ πῶς ὡς ἀλογίστευτον ἔχοντες τὸν βίον τοὺς μὲν ἀθλίους καὶ πενομένους περιορῶμεν ἐντελευτῶντας ταῖς συμφοραῖς, δαπανώμεθα δὲ φιλοτίμως ταῖς ματαιότησιν, κολάκων πλῆθος ἀσώτων τρέφοντες καὶ φρατρίας κακοδαιμόνων παρασίτων ἐπισυρόμενοι· καὶ αὖθις θηριομάχοις καὶ θηρίοις σκορπίζοντες τὸν πλοῦτον κἀν ταῖς ἱπποτροφίαις οὐδενὸς τῶν ὄντων φειδόμενοι καὶ πάλιν θαυματοποιοῖς καὶ μίμοις καὶ τοῖς ἑξῆς ὀλεθρίοις δαπανῶντες τὴν εὐπορίαν! 2.7.4 Καὶ πρᾶγμα πάσχομεν κενὸν καὶ μανίας ἐγγύς. Ἔνθα μὲν γὰρ ἡ δαπάνη φέρει τὸ κέρδος ἀνάριθμον καὶ σωτηρίαν ἀθάνατον, συνέχομεν σφοδρῶς τὸ ἀργύριον, ὡς μηδὲ ὀλίγους ὀβολοὺς τῆς χειρὸς ἐκπεσεῖν· ὅπου δὲ ἁμαρτωλῶν γίνεται τὸ ἀνάλωμα καὶ μυρίων κολάσεων αἴτιον καὶ αὐτῆς γε τῆς διὰ πυρὸς τιμωρίας, αὐτοκέλευστοι ῥέομεν. Καὶ ἡ φιλοτιμία προλαμβάνει τὴν αἴτησιν· καὶ πάσας θύρας ἀνοίξαντες ἀφίεμεν τὸν πλοῦτον πρὸς τοὺς ἔξω χωρεῖν. Τοῦτο δὲ τὸ φρόνημα οὐκ ἔστι δούλων ἀναμενόντων τὸν κύριον, ἀλλὰ νέων ἀσώτων, κωμαστῶν, ἀκολάστων. 2.8.1 Εἰ δὲ θέλεις, ὁ ἀκροατής, ἰδεῖν οἰκονόμου φόβον μετὰ τῆς σώφρονος εὐλαβείας διοικοῦντος τὰ πιστευθέντα, ἀνάπτυξον τὴν βίβλον τοῦ ∆αβίδ· ζήτησον ἐκείνους τοὺς λόγους ἔνθα φησὶν πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν ὁ ἀνὴρ πολυ πραγμονῶν τοῦ ἰδίου τέλους τὴν προθεσμίαν· Γνώρισόν μοι, Κύριε, τὸ πέρας μου καὶ τὸν ἀριθμὸν τῶν ἡμέρων μου τίς ἐστιν, ἵνα γνῶ τί ὑστερῶ ἐγώ. 2.8.2 Ὁρᾷς ὅπως ὡς ἐν εἰκόνι θεωρεῖται τῷ λόγῳ ἡ τοῦ εὐξαμένου διάθεσις, ὅτι περιδεής ἐστι καὶ προορᾷ τὸ μέλλον καὶ ἀναμένει τὴν κρίσιν καὶ τὴν προθεσμίαν περιεργάζεται, ἵνα μὴ τὸ ἀπαράσκευον αὐτὸν καταλάβῃ τῆς ἐξόδου τὸ σύνθημα· καὶ ζητεῖ λογισάμενος κατιδεῖν τί τὸ τῆς παροικίας ὑστέρημα, ἵνα σπεύσας ἀναπληρώσῃ πρὶν ἐλθεῖν τὸν ἐξάγοντα. 2.8.3 Ἀληθῶς γάρ ἐστιν εἰκὼν οἰκονόμου ἡ ἑκάστου ἡμῶν τελευτή, ἂν τὰ καθ' ἕκαστον ἀλλήλοις ἀντεξετάσωμεν, τί μὲν πάσχει ὁ ἀποθνήσκων, τί δὲ ὑπομένει ὁ τῆς οἰκονομίας ἐκβαλλόμενος. 2.9.1 Ὁμοίως γὰρ καὶ ὁ τελευτῶν ἄλλοις μεταπαραδίδωσι τὴν διοίκησιν, ὡς ὁ οἰκονόμος τὰς κλεῖδας· ἐκεῖνος ἐκβάλλεται ἀγροῦ, οὗτος τοῦ κόσμου παντὸς ὡς ἑνὸς χωρίου. Περιπαθῶν ἀναχωρεῖ ὁ οἰκόνομος τῶν ἰδίων πόνων οἷον ἀμπέλων, κήπων, οἰκιῶν· τί οὖν δοκεῖ σοι καὶ ὁ τελευτῶν πάσχειν; 2.9.2 Οὐκ ὀδύρεται τὰ κτήματα; οὐκ ἐλεεινὸν περιβλέπει τὴν οὐσίαν, μετὰ τοσαύτην προσπάθειαν ἀπροαιρέτως αὐτῆς ἀποσπώμενος, πόρρω θησαυρῶν, ταμιείων; καὶ ὅταν ἀφίκηται πρὸς τὸν κληρωθέντα τόπον ἀκούων· Ἀπόδος τὸν