Sunday, November 1, 2009

St. Basil the Great on the Rich Young Ruler

From St. Basil's Sermon to the Rich:

For if [the rich young ruler's claims] were true, that [he had] kept from [his] youth the commandment of love, and have given to each person as much as to [himself], how has it come to [him], this abundance of money? For it takes wealth to care for the needy: a little paid out for the necessity of each person you take on, and all at once everything gets parceled out, and is spent upon them. Thus, the man who loves his neighbor as himself will have acquired no more than what his neighbor has; whereas you, visibly, have acquired a lot. Where has this come from? Or is it not clear, that it comes from making your private enjoyment more important than helping other people? Therefore, however much you exceed in wealth, so much so do you fall short in love: else long since you’d have taken care to be divorced from your money, if you had loved your neighbor.
One wonders what his judgment on the ethic of capitalism might look like.

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