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you will empty your wealth, if you desist from evil desire. For that this is not reckoned to God alone, but He said this to show the magnitude of the achievement, listen to what follows. For when Peter said, Behold, we have left everything and have followed you, and asked, What then shall be for us? after defining their reward, He added: And everyone who has left houses, or fields, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit eternal life. Thus the impossible becomes possible. But how might this very thing come about, he says, this leaving? how is it possible for one who has once been baptized to overcome such a desire for money? If he begins to empty himself of his possessions, and to cut off what is superfluous. For in this way he will both advance further, and will then run more easily. Therefore, do not seek the whole thing at once, but gently and little by little ascend this ladder, which leads you up to heaven, if doing it all at once seems difficult to you. For just as those with a fever, having an excess of sharp bile within, when they add food and drink, not only do not quench their thirst, but even kindle the flame; so also the lovers of money, when they add wealth to this evil desire which is sharper than that bile, they inflame it all the more. For nothing stops it so much as to desist for a time from the desire of gaining, just as fasting and emptying stop the sharp bile. But from where will this itself come? he says. If you consider that while you are rich you will never cease from thirsting, and being consumed by the desire for more; but if you are rid of your possessions, you will be able to stop this disease. Therefore, do not acquire more, 58.607 lest you pursue unattainable things, and suffer from an incurable disease, and be more pitiful for raging with such things. For answer me, whom would we say is tormented and in pain, the one who desires expensive foods and drinks, and does not have them to enjoy as he wishes; or the one who does not have such a desire? It is quite clear that it is the one who desires, but is not able to partake of what he desires. For this is so painful, to desire and not to enjoy, to thirst and not to drink, that when Christ wished to describe Gehenna to us, He described it in this way, and so introduced the rich man being tormented in the flame; for desiring a drop of water, and not enjoying it, he was thus punished. Therefore, the one who despises money has stopped the desire; but the one who wants to be rich, and to acquire more, has kindled it more, and it does not yet stop; but even if he gets ten thousand talents, he desires as many more; and if he obtains these, he again longs for twice as many more; and going on, he prays that the mountains, and the earth, and the sea, and everything would become gold for him, being mad with a certain new and terrible madness, that can never be quenched in this way. And so that you may learn that this evil is stopped not by addition, but by subtraction; if you have ever had the strange desire to fly and be carried through the air, how would you have quenched this strange desire? By fashioning wings, and constructing other devices? Or by persuading your reason that it desires impossible things, and must not attempt any of them? It is clear that it is by persuading your reason. But that, he says, is impossible. But this is even more impossible, to find a limit to this desire. For it is easier for men to fly than to stop this passion by the addition of more. For when the things desired are possible, it is possible to be consoled by their enjoyment; but when they are impossible, one must strive for one thing only, to lead ourselves away from the desire, since it is not otherwise possible to recover one's soul. Therefore, so that we may not be pained needlessly, let us leave the love of money that constantly grieves us and never allows us to be silent, and let us anchor ourselves on another, which both makes us blessed and has great ease, and let us desire the treasures above. For neither is the labor here so great, and the gain is unspeakable, and it is not possible for one to fail who is in any way watchful and sober and of present things

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κενώσῃς τὰ χρήματα, ἂν τῆς πονηρᾶς ἐπιθυμίας ἀποστῇς. Ὅτι γὰρ οὐ τῷ Θεῷ μόνον αὐτὸ λογίζεται, ἀλλὰ διὰ τοῦτο εἶπεν, ἵνα δείξῃ τὸν ὄγκον τοῦ κατορθώματος, ἄκουσον τῶν μετὰ ταῦτα. Πέτρου γὰρ εἰπόντος, Ἰδοὺ ἡμεῖς ἀφήκαμεν πάντα, καὶ ἠκολουθήσαμέν σοι, καὶ ἐρωτήσαντος, Τί ἄρα ἔσται ἡμῖν; τὸν μισθὸν ὁρίσας ἐκείνοις, ἐπήγαγε· Καὶ πᾶς ὅστις ἀφῆκεν οἰκίας, ἢ ἀγροὺς, ἢ ἀδελφοὺς, ἢ ἀδελφὰς, ἢ πατέρα, ἢ μητέρα, ἑκατονταπλασίονα λήψεται, καὶ ζωὴν αἰώνιον κληρονομήσει. Οὕτω τὸ ἀδύνατον γίνεται δυνατόν. Ἀλλὰ πῶς αὐτὸ τοῦτο γένοιτ' ἂν, φησὶ, τὸ ἀφεῖναι; πῶς δυνατὸν τὸν βαπτισθέντα ἅπαξ ἐπιθυμίᾳ τοιαύτῃ χρημάτων ἀνενεγκεῖν; Ἂν ἄρξηται ἐκ τῶν ὄντων κενοῦν, καὶ τὰ περιττὰ περικόπτειν. Οὕτω γὰρ καὶ περαιτέρω προβήσεται, καὶ εὐκολώτερον λοιπὸν δραμεῖται. Μὴ τοίνυν ὑφ' ἓν τὸ πᾶν ζητήσῃς, ἀλλ' ἡρέμα καὶ κατὰ μικρὸν ἀνάβαινε τὴν κλίμακα ταύτην, τὴν εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν σε ἀνάγουσαν, εἰ δυσχερές σοι τὸ ἀθρόον φαίνεται. Καθάπερ γὰρ οἱ πυρέττοντες, δριμεῖαν χολὴν ἔνδον ἔχοντες πλεονάζουσαν, ὅταν ἐπεμβάλωσι σῖτα καὶ ποτὰ, οὐ μόνον οὐ κατασβεννύουσι τὸ δίψος, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀνάπτουσι τὴν φλόγα· οὕτω καὶ οἱ φιλοχρήματοι, ὅταν τῇ πονηρᾷ ταύτῃ ἐπιθυμίᾳ καὶ τῆς χολῆς ἐκείνης δριμυτέρᾳ τὰ χρήματα ἐπεμβάλωσι, μᾶλλον αὐτὴν ἐκκαίουσιν. Οὐδὲν γὰρ αὐτὴν οὕτως ἵστησιν, ὡς τὸ ἀποστῆναι τέως τῆς τοῦ κερδαίνειν ἐπιθυμίας, ὥσπερ οὖν τὴν δριμεῖαν χολὴν ὀλιγοσιτία καὶ κένωσις. Τοῦτο δὲ αὐτὸ πόθεν ἔσται; φησίν. Ἂν ἐννοήσῃς, ὅτι πλουτῶν μὲν οὐδέποτε παύσῃ διψῶν, καὶ τηκόμενος τῇ τοῦ πλείονος ἐπιθυμίᾳ· ἀπαλλαγεὶς δὲ τῶν ὄντων, καὶ τὸ νόσημα δυνήσῃ στῆσαι τοῦτο. Μὴ τοίνυν περιβάλλου πλείονα, 58.607 ἵνα μὴ ἀκίχητα διώκῃς, καὶ ἀνίατα νοσῇς, καὶ ἐλεεινότερος ᾖς τοιαῦτα λυττῶν. Ἀπόκριναι γάρ μοι, τίνα ἂν φαίημεν βασανίζεσθαι καὶ ὀδυνᾶσθαι, τὸν ἐπιθυμοῦντα σιτίων καὶ πότων πολυτελῶν, καὶ οὐκ ἔχοντα ἀπολαῦσαι ὡς βούλεται· ἢ τὸν οὐκ ἔχοντα ἐπιθυμίαν τοιαύτην; Εὔδηλον ὅτι τὸν ἐπιθυμοῦντα μὲν, οὐ δυνάμενον δὲ μετασχεῖν ὧν ἐπιθυμεῖ. Οὕτω γάρ ἐστι τοῦτο ὀδυνηρὸν, τὸ ἐπιθυμοῦντα μὴ ἀπολαύειν, καὶ διψῶντα μὴ πίνειν, ὡς καὶ τὴν γέενναν βουλόμενον ἡμῖν ὑπογράψαι τὸν Χριστὸν, τοῦτον αὐτὴν ὑπογράψαι τὸν τρόπον, καὶ τὸν πλούσιον οὕτως εἰσαγαγεῖν ἀποτηγανιζόμενον· ἐπιθυμῶν γὰρ σταγόνος ὕδατος, καὶ μὴ ἀπολαύων, οὕτως ἐκολάζετο. Οὐκοῦν ὁ μὲν χρημάτων καταφρονῶν ἔστησε τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν· ὁ δὲ πλουτεῖν βουλόμενος, καὶ περιβάλλεσθαι πλείω, ἀνῆψε μᾶλλον, καὶ οὐδέπω ἵσταται· ἀλλὰ κἂν μυρία λάβῃ τάλαντα, ἑτέρων τοσούτων ἐπιθυμεῖ· κἂν τούτων ἐπιτύχῃ, πάλιν δὶς τοσούτων ἄλλων ἐφίεται· καὶ προϊὼν, καὶ τὰ ὄρη, καὶ τὴν γῆν, καὶ τὴν θάλατταν, καὶ πάντα εὔχεται αὐτῷ γενέσθαι χρυσὸν, καινήν τινα μανίαν μαινόμενος καὶ φοβερὰν, καὶ οὐδέποτε οὕτω σβεσθῆναι δυναμένην. Καὶ ἵνα μάθῃς, ὅτι οὐ τῇ προσθήκῃ, ἀλλὰ τῇ ἀφαιρέσει τοῦτο ἵσταται τὸ κακόν· εἴ σοι γέγονεν ἐπιθυμία ποτὲ ἄτοπος πτῆναι καὶ δι' ἀέρος ἐνεχθῆναι, πῶς ἂν τὴν ἄτοπον ταύτην ἔσβεσας ἐπιθυμίαν; τῷ πτερὰ διαπλάττειν, καὶ ἕτερα ὄργανα κατασκευάζειν; ἢ τῷ πεῖσαι τὸν λογισμὸν, ὅτι ἀδυνάτων ἐπιθυμεῖ, καὶ οὐδενὶ τούτων ἐπιχειρεῖν δεῖ; Εὔδηλον ὅτι τῷ πεῖσαι τὸν λογισμόν. Ἀλλ' ἐκεῖνο, φησὶν, ἀδύνατον. Ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦτο ἀδυνατώτερον, τὸ τῆς ἐπιθυμίας ταύτης ὅρον εὑρεῖν. Καὶ γὰρ εὐκολώτερον ἀνθρώπους ὄντας πτῆναι, ἢ τῇ προσθήκῃ τοῦ πλείονος παῦσαι τὸν ἔρωτα. Ὅταν μὲν γὰρ ᾖ δυνατὰ τὰ ἐπιθυμητὰ, τῇ ἀπολαύσει παραμυθεῖσθαι δυνατόν· ὅταν δὲ ἀδύνατα, ἓν δεῖ σπουδάζειν μόνον, τὸ τῆς ἐπιθυμίας ἡμᾶς αὐτοὺς ἀπαγαγεῖν, ὡς ἑτέρως γε οὐκ ἐνὸν ἀνακτήσασθαι τὴν ψυχήν. Ἵν' οὖν μὴ περιττὰ ὀδυνώμεθα, τὸν διηνεκῶς λυποῦντα ἔρωτα τῶν χρημάτων καὶ οὐδέποτε σιγῆσαι ἀνεχόμενον ἀφέντες, ἐφ' ἕτερον μεθορμισώμεθα, τὸν καὶ μακαρίους ἡμᾶς ποιοῦντα, καὶ πολλὴν ἔχοντα τὴν εὐκολίαν, καὶ τῶν ἄνω θησαυρῶν ἐπιθυμήσωμεν. Οὔτε γὰρ πόνος ἐνταῦθα τοσοῦτος, καὶ τὸ κέρδος ἄφατον, καὶ ἀποτυχεῖν οὐκ ἔνι τὸν καὶ ὁπωσοῦν ἀγρυπνοῦντα καὶ νήφοντα καὶ τῶν παρόντων