THEOSISJohn Chrysostom
"...In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus" (vv. 17, 18).
To give thanks always belongs to a soul that loves wisdom. Have you suffered some evil? If you wish, it will not be evil at all. Give thanks to God, and the evil will be turned into good. Say also, like Job, "Blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job 1:21).
Indeed, tell me, what have you suffered? Has illness overtaken you? There is nothing extraordinary in this, since our body is mortal and subject to sickness. Have you lacked money? Money can be gained and lost, and it remains here.
Are enemies plotting against you and slandering you? Those who do this wrong not us, but themselves. For it is said, "The soul that sins shall die" (Ezek 18:20). The one who suffered evil did not sin, but the one who caused the evil.
Therefore one must not take vengeance on the dead, but pray for him, that he may be snatched from death. Do you not see that a bee dies after it has stung? Through this insect God teaches us not to insult our neighbors, because we ourselves will first undergo death.
By wounding them, we perhaps cause them some pain. But we ourselves, like that insect, will no longer remain alive. Scripture praises the bee when it says, "How industrious she is; kings and common people use her labors for health" (Prov 6:8).
Yet nothing can deliver her from death, and she must perish. If even her excellence in other respects does not save her when she does evil, much less will it save us.
Truly, it belongs only to the fiercest beasts to inflict injury first, when no one has yet wronged you. Or rather, this is not proper even to beasts. If you leave them to dwell in the wilderness and do not drive them to extremity by attack, they never do harm.
They will not come and bite, but will go their own way. Yet you are a man, a rational being, honored with such authority, honor, and glory. You do not even imitate beasts in dealing with those of your own race, but wrong and devour your brother.
How can you justify yourself? Do you not hear what Paul says? "Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud, and that even your brethren" (1 Cor 6:7, 8).
Do you see that misfortune lies in doing evil, and blessedness in enduring evil? Indeed, tell me, if someone reviles rulers or insults those in authority, whom does he wrong, himself or them? Clearly, himself.
If one who insults a ruler does not insult him, but himself, then does not one who insults a man insult Christ through him? Not at all, you say. What are you saying? If someone throws stones at the image of a king, whom does he strike? Is it not himself?
Therefore, if one who throws stones at the image of an earthly king strikes himself, does not one who insults the image of Christ wrong himself? For man is the image of God.
How long shall we love money? I shall not cease crying out against it, because it is the cause of all evils. When shall we satisfy this insatiable passion? What attractiveness does gold have in itself? I am amazed at this.
Truly, it is the result of some enchantment that gold and silver are valued so highly among us. We have no care for our souls, yet we show great concern for soulless idols.
Where did this disease enter the world from? Who can uproot it completely? What word can strike and utterly kill this savage beast? This passion has implanted itself even in the hearts of people who appear to be pious.
Let us be ashamed before the Gospel commandments. The words are contained only in Scripture, but they are not manifested at all in our deeds. Yet what plausible explanation do many give? I have children, one says.
I am afraid that I too may be forced to endure hunger and poverty, and someday may need help from others. I am ashamed to beg alms. Is that why you force others to beg alms? I cannot go hungry, you say. Is that why you subject others to hunger?
You know how dreadful it is to beg alms, and how painful it is to waste away from hunger. Therefore spare your brothers. Tell me, are you ashamed to endure hunger, but not ashamed to plunder? Do you fear dying of hunger, but not fear making others die of hunger?
On the contrary, there is neither shame nor crime in being hungry oneself. But to subject others to hunger is a deed that brings not only shame, but the heaviest punishment.
All this is invention, deception, and empty talk. The witnesses that you do not really do this for children are those among you who have no children and will not have any.
Yet they labor so much, wear themselves out, and gather such wealth, as if they had to leave it to countless children. Concern for children does not make you greedy for money, but a disease of the soul does.
Because of this disease, many who have no children are madly attached to money. Others, though they have many children, despise even what they possess. They will accuse you on that day.
Indeed, if the needs of children forced you to hoard money, they too ought to have the same desire and the same passion. But if they do not have it, then we are madly attached to money not because of many children, but because of avarice.
But who, you will say, has children and despises money? Many, and everywhere. If you wish, I will even point to men of old. Did not Jacob have twelve sons? Did he not spend his life as a hired laborer? Did he not suffer wrongs from his father-in-law?
Was he not often deceived by his father-in-law? Did his many children make him desire what he ought not to desire? And Abraham? Did he not have many other children besides Isaac? What then? Did he not acquire possessions for strangers?
Do you see that he not only did not wrong others, but even yielded from his own possessions? He not only bestowed benefits, but also willingly endured wrongs from his nephew.
To endure the plundering of possessions for God's sake is far greater than doing good. Why? Because the latter is the fruit of the soul and of good will, and for this reason it is easy. But the former is insolence and violence endured.
Someone would more easily give thousands of talents voluntarily, and would not count this as any loss, than meekly endure three obols being taken from him against his will. In this especially lies the love of wisdom in the soul.
This is what we truly see in Abraham. "Lot lifted up his eyes," it says, "and saw all the plain of the Jordan, that it was well watered, like the garden of the Lord, and he chose it" (Gen 13:10, 11). Abraham did not contradict him in the least.
Do you see that he not only did not wrong another, but was himself wronged? Why then, O man, do you appeal to your children? God did not give us children so that we might seize what belongs to others.
Take care not to anger God by saying this. If, as you say, they are the cause of your plunder and greed, then I fear you may be deprived of them, as harmful and malicious.
God gave you children so that they might care for you in old age, and so that they might learn virtue from you. He willed to arrange the human race in this way in order to prepare two most important things.
First, He made fathers teachers of their children. Second, He engendered greater love. Indeed, if people simply appeared in the world, no one would have affection for anyone.
If even now, when there are fathers, children, and grandchildren, many have no care for many others, how much more would that be true then? This is why God gave you children. Therefore do not lay the blame on the children.
If those who have children have no excuse, what will those say in their own defense who have no children, yet wear themselves out in labors to acquire wealth? Still, they too have a certain excuse, which of course does not excuse them at all.
What is it? We want, they say, to leave wealth behind as a memorial of ourselves in place of children. Truly, this is very ridiculous. Instead of children, you say, a house will be an eternal memorial of my glory.
It will not be a memorial of your glory, O man, but of your covetousness. Do you not see how many now pass by magnificent houses and say to one another, How much such a man extorted and plundered in order to build this house?
Now he himself has become ashes and dust, and this house of his has passed as an inheritance to others. Therefore you leave behind a memorial not of your glory, but of covetousness.
Your body is already hidden in the earth. But you do not allow the memory of your covetousness, which might have been erased with time, to perish. By your house you unwillingly renew and sustain it.
As long as it stands, bears your name, and is called the house of such-and-such a man, the mouths of all will necessarily be opened against you. Do you see that it is better to have nothing than to fall under such condemnation?
And this is only here. What shall we do there, tell me, if we possess such wealth here and share none of it with anyone, or share very little? How shall we justify our covetousness?
For one who wants to atone for covetousness does not give a little from much. He gives far more than what was plundered, and at the same time ceases to plunder. Hear what Zacchaeus says: "If I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore fourfold" (Lk 19:8).
But you take tens of thousands of talents, and if you give back a few drachmas, and even that with difficulty, you think you have returned everything. You rest easy, as though you had given more than was due.
Yet you ought to return not only what was plundered, but also add from your own possessions. A thief is not justified merely by returning what he stole. Often he gives his life besides, or is freed by giving several times more than what was stolen.
So it is also with the covetous man. For the covetous man is a thief and robber, and even worse, because he is more inhuman. The thief at least is not so brazen. He hides and lays his hand by night, as though ashamed and afraid of sin.
By contrast, the covetous man tramples down all shame and robs everyone openly in the marketplace. He is at once a thief and a tormentor.
He does not dig through walls, extinguish a lamp, open a chest, or break seals. What then? He acts more boldly than they do. Before the eyes of those he wrongs, he throws everything out, opens everything with audacity, and forces them to produce their own property.
This is the height of violence. He is more vile than thieves and robbers to the degree that he is more shameless and inhuman. One who loses something through deceit grieves, but finds no small consolation in the fact that the offender at least fears him.
But the other has not only suffered evil. He has also been despised, since he cannot resist the man's insolence without provoking even greater laughter.
Tell me, if one man secretly committed adultery with a wife, and another did it before the husband's eyes, which of them would insult him more and be more able to wound him? Is it not the latter?
He not only did evil, but also displayed contempt. The former, if he showed nothing else, at least showed that he feared the one he wronged.
The same must be said concerning money. The one who steals it secretly has shown a certain respect by the very fact that he took it secretly. But the one who takes it openly and publicly has inflicted dishonor along with loss.
Therefore let us cease seizing what belongs to others, both poor and rich. I address my word not only to the rich, but also to the poor. For they too rob those poorer than themselves.
Craftsmen who are more prosperous and well-off deceive those less prosperous and poorer than themselves. Shopkeepers deceive shopkeepers, and so do all who trade. Therefore I want to drive unrighteousness out from everywhere.
The crime does not consist in the quantity seized or stolen, but in the intention of the thief. As for the fact that those who do not disdain even small things are still greater thieves and covetous men, I know and remember that I have spoken to you about it.
Perhaps you remember it too. However, let us not enlarge upon this. Let them also live as the rich ought to live.