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of us. Creation is unstable; enjoyment is treacherous; there are countless cliffs, and waves from every side. Why do you remain, and trouble yourself about shadows? 95.1517 Why do you abandon the truth, and run to the shadow? Hate possessions, and love your life. Cast away the evils of this life, that you may inherit the good things there. What I mean is this: Do not plunder a poor man, do not covet your neighbor's things; do not strip the widow bare; do not seize from the orphan; do not take the poor man's house. If anyone's conscience seizes him, he himself is the cause. Why do you plunder a poor man? Why do you plunder where there is envy and curses, Seize where there is a crown of incorruption. Do not seize the things of the earth, nor the earth, but seize heaven. For the kingdom of heaven, he says, suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. Do you plunder the poor man, who pleads against you to God night and day, and cries out? Seize Christ, who praises you. If you seek to seize the kingdom below, even if you are perceived, it punishes; but if you do not seize the one above, then it punishes worse. Did you light a lamp in the church? But the poor man wronged by you entered, and pleading to God through his tears, extinguished your lamp. Did you give a poor man bread? But the herd of your oxen and your sheep grazed down a whole summer's harvest of the poor man. Do not do much wrong, and do little good. Do not wrong your neighbor; do not strike the orphan; do not oppress the widow; do not envy your neighbor. He who looks to those in a superior position will not be able to have a sense of his own wealth; for example, one who possesses one hundred gold pieces, if he thinks of the one who has two hundred, will consider that he has nothing, as the desire for more goads him on. And even if he gets them, he will not thus put aside his desire, aspiring to even more. And the desire for things not yet possessed, continually annoying him, does not allow the pleasure of what has already been gathered to appear. Life is precarious for the rich, and a change of fortune is hard to manage. Furthermore you say: the rich man leads about many servants, and possesses many acres of land. First, he will have a difficult reckoning, holding himself accountable to God for all. For he did not receive it only to enjoy it, but also to be useful to others. Secondly, that nothing more comes to him from this abundance than cares, and anxieties, and daily angers, and vexations, and to be perpetually in turmoil and disturbances. For this one fills countless stomachs; but the poor man fills only one; but both this one and that one fill one, and both care for one body; but the one without struggle and fear, the other with trembling and being afraid of uprisings, and needing countless people to assist him in the management of his affairs. Do not, therefore, see that he has great 95.1520 abundance, but whether he enjoys anything more from this great abundance. He who has grown soft, and has nailed himself to the present things, being torn away and separated, is stung more greatly, and laments and mourns the more. But the poor man is not so, but having philosophized much in the time before, will not receive death with so much despondency, so that both when present, and when expected, it is more fearful to that man than to this one. In any case, the one who is wronged is consumed by grief, but being unable to defend himself, or to retaliate in kind, sometimes for this reason calls upon the sting of justice from above for aid. Each of the evil-doing men is accustomed to consider justice to be a bad thing. Sell your possessions. Why do some not readily accept to cast away their existing property, the affection for it, the excessive desire, the sleeplessness over it, the sickness, the anxieties, the thorns of life, which choke the seed of life? A great obstacle to those hastening toward virtue is the affection for worldly things, often causing destruction to both soul and body. For what destroyed Naboth the Israelite? Was not an envied vineyard the cause of his death, having moved his neighbor Ahab to his murder? And what caused the two and a half tribes to remain outside the promised land

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ἡμῶν· ἄστατος ἡ κτίσις· ἐπίβουλος ἡ ἀπόλαυσις· μυρίοι κρημνοὶ, καὶ πανταχόθεν κύματα. Τί μένῃ, καὶ θορυβεῖς σε περὶ τὰς σκιάς; 95.1517 Τί ἄφεις τὴν ἀλήθειαν, καὶ τρέχεις ἐπὶ τὴν σκιάν; μίσησον χρήματα, καὶ ἀγάπα σου τὴν ζωήν. Ῥίψον τὰ ὄντα τοῦ βίου κακὰ, ἵνα τὰ ἐκεῖ ἀγαθὰ κληρονομήσῃς. Οἷόν τι λέγω· Μὴ ἁρπάσῃς πένητα, μὴ ἐπιθυμήσῃς τὰ τοῦ πλησίον· τὴν χήραν μὴ γυμνώσῃς· τὸν ὀρφανὸν μὴ ἁρπάσῃς· τὴν οἰκίαν μὴ λάβῃς τοῦ πένητος. Εἴ τινος ἐπιλαμβάνεται τὸ συνειδὸς, αὐτός ἐστιν ὁ αἴτιος. Τί ἁρπάζεις πένητα; τί ἁρπάζεις, ὅπου φθόνος καὶ κατάραι, Ἅρπασον ὅπου στέφανος ἀφθαρσίας. Μὴ ἅρπαζε τὰ τῆς γῆς, μηδὲ τὴν γῆν, ἀλλὰ ἅρπασον τὸν οὐρανόν. Βιαστὴ γάρ ἐστι, φησὶν, ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν, καὶ βιασταὶ ἁρπάζουσιν αὐτήν. Ἁρπάζεις τὸν πένητα, τὸν ἐντυγχάνοντα κατὰ σοῦ τῷ Θεῷ νύκτα καὶ ἡμέραν, καὶ βοῶντα; Ἅρπασον τὸν Χριστὸν, τὸν ἐπαινοῦντά σε. Τὴν κάτω βασιλείαν ἐὰν ζητήσῃς ἁρπάσαι, κἂν νοηθῇς, κολάζει· τὴν δὲ ἄνω ἐὰν μὴ ἁρπάσῃς, τότε χεῖρον κολάζει. Ἧψας λύχνον ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ; ἀλλ' εἰσῆλθεν ὁ πένης ὁ ὑπὸ σοῦ ἀδικηθεὶς, καὶ διὰ τῶν δακρύων κατεντυγχάνων τῷ Θεῷ, ἔσβεσε τὸν λύχνον σου. Ἔδωκας τῷ πένητι ἄρτον; ἀλλ' ἡ ἀγέλη τῶν βοῶν καὶ τῶν προβάτων σου ὁλόκληρον θέρος τοῦ πένητος κατενεμήσατο. Μὴ ἀδικήσῃς πολλὰ, καὶ καλλοποιήσῃς ὀλίγα. Μὴ ἀδικήσῃς τὸν πλησίον σου· μὴ κονδυλίσῃς τὸν ὀρφανόν· μὴ καταδυναστεύσῃς τὴν χήραν· μὴ φθονήσῃς τὸν γείτονα. Ὁ πρὸς τοὺς ἐν ὑπεροχῇ βλέπων, τῆς οὔσης αὐτῷ εὐπορίας οὐ δυνήσεται λαβεῖν αἴσθησιν· οἷον ὁ κεκτημένος ἑκατὸν χρυσίνους, ἐὰν νοήσῃ τὸν διακοσίους ἔχοντα, οὐδὲν ἡγήσεται ἔχειν, τῆς ἐπιθυμίας τῶν πλειόνων αὐτὸν κεντούσης. Κἂν αὐτὰ λάβῃ, τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν οὐδὲ οὕτως ἀποθήσεται, ἑτέρων πλειόνων ἐφιέμενος. Καὶ ἡ τῶν οὐδέπω κτησθέντων ἐπιθυμία διηνεκῶς αὐτὸν ἐνοχλοῦσα, τῶν ἤδη συνηγμένων τὴν ἡδονὴν οὐκ ἀφίησι φαίνεσθαι. Ἐπισφαλὴς ὁ βίος τοῖς πλουτοῦσι, καὶ δυσμεταχείριστος ἡ μεταβολή. Ἔτι δὲ λέγεις· πολλοὺς οἰκέτας περιάγει, καὶ πολλὰ κέκτηται πλέθρα γῆς ὁ πλουτῶν. Πρῶτον μὲν χαλεπὰς ἕξει τὰς εὐθύνας, πάντων τῷ Θεῷ τὸν λόγον ὑπέχων. Οὐ γὰρ ὅπως ἀπολαύσειε, μόνον ἔλαβεν, ἀλλ' ὅπως καὶ ἑτέροις γένοιτο χρήσιμος. ∆εύτερον δὲ, ὅτι πλέον οὐδὲν ἀπὸ τῆς περιουσίας αὐτῷ γίνεται ταύτης, ἢ φροντίδες, καὶ μέριμναι, καὶ ὀργαὶ καθημεριναὶ, καὶ ἀγανακτήσεις, καὶ τὸ διὰ παντὸς εἶναι ἐν ταραχαῖς καὶ θορύβοις. Οὗτος μὲν γὰρ μυρίας πληροῖ γαστέρας· ὁ δὲ πένης μίαν πληροῖ μόνον· ἀλλὰ καὶ οὗτος κἀκεῖνος μίαν, καὶ ἓν ἀμφότεροι θεραπεύουσι σῶμα· ἀλλ' ὁ μὲν χωρὶς ἀγωνίας καὶ δέους, ὁ δὲ μετὰ τοῦ τρέμειν καὶ δεδοικέναι τὰς ἐπαναστάσεις, καὶ μυρίων δεῖσθαι τῶν συνεφαψομένων αὐτῷ τῆς τῶν πραγμάτων οἰκονομίας. Μὴ τοίνυν εἶδε, ὡς πολλὴν ἔχει 95.1520 περιουσίαν, ἀλλ' εἰ πλέον τι τῆς πολλῆς ταύτης ἀπολαύει. Ὁ καταμαλακισθεὶς, καὶ τοῖς παροῦσιν ἑαυτὸν προσηλώσας, ἀποσπώμενος καὶ χωριζόμενος, μειζόνως δάκνεται, καὶ μᾶλλον ὀδύρεται καὶ θρηνεῖ. Ὁ δὲ πένης οὐχ οὕτως, ἀλλὰ πολλὰ φιλοσοφήσας κατὰ τὸν ἔμπροσθεν χρόνον, οὐ μετὰ τοσαύτης δέξεται τῆς ἀθυμίας τὸν θάνατον, ὥστε καὶ παρὼν, καὶ προσδοκώμενος, ἐκείνῳ μᾶλλόν ἐστι φοβερὸς ἢ τούτῳ. Πάντως ὁ ἀδικούμενος, καταφλέγεται μὲν ὑπὸ λύπης, ἀμύνασθαι δὲ οὐκ ἔχων, ἢ διὰ τῶν ἴσων ἐλθεῖν, ἔσθ' ὅτε διὰ τοῦτο τῆς ἄνωθεν δίκης τὸ κέντρον καλεῖ πρὸς ἐπικουρίαν. Πέφυκεν ἕκαστος τῶν κακουργῶν ἀνδρῶν, τὸ δίκαιον εἶναι νομίζειν κακόν. Πώλησόν σου τὰ ὑπάρχοντα. Τί οὐ προχείρως δέχονταί τινες τὴν ὑπάρχουσαν οὐσίαν ἀποῤῥίψαι, τὴν πρὸς αὐτὰ συμπάθειαν, τὴν ὑπεράγαν ἐπιθυμίαν, τὴν περὶ αὐτὴν ἀγρυπνίαν, τὴν νόσον, τὰς μερίμνας, τὰς ἀκάνθας τοῦ βίου, αἳ τὸ σπέρμα τῆς ζωῆς συμπνίγουσιν; Μέγα τοῖς πρὸς ἀρετὴν ἐπειγομένοις ἐμπόδιον ἡ τῶν κοσμικῶν πραγμάτων συμπάθεια, καὶ ψυχῇ καὶ σώματι πολλάκις ὄλεθρον προξενοῦσα. Τί γὰρ Ναβουθαὶ τὸν Ἰσραηλίτην ἀπώλεσεν; οὐκ ἄμπελος ἐπίφθονος αἴτιος αὐτῷ θανάτου γεγένηται, πρὸς φόνον αὐτοῦ κινήσας τὸν γείτονα Ἀχαάβ; Τί δὲ τὰς δύο ἥμισυ φυλὰς ἔξω τῆς ἐπαγγελλομένης γῆς μεῖναι