St John Chrysostom, seventh sermon on
TOROBOTUB OIA OOOO
OOOO SALES SAISAISS St. John Chrysostom, seventh sermon on Lazarus and the rich man I want to start again on my usual instruction and set the spiritual table before you; but I hesitate and draw back, seeing that you have gathered no fruit from my continual teaching. When a farmer has sowed the seeds with a generous hand in the bosom of the earth, and sees that the yield is not worthy of his efforts, he does not undertake his work with the same willingness; for the hope of the harvest always relieves the burden of effort. In the same way we also would easily have borne this great effort of teaching, if we knew that something greater were being produced by our advice for your benefit. But as it is, when we see that after so much exhortation, counsel, and rebuke from us (for we have not ceased reminding you of the terrible court, the inexorable judgments, that unquenchable fire, and the undying worm') some of those who listen to this (for I do not condemn all of you, far from it), have forgotten everything and surrendered themselves again to the satanic spectacle of the races, with what expectation shall we undertake the same efforts after this and set this spiritual teaching before them? We see that they have gathered no more fruit from it; but simply following some habit, they applaud what we say, show us that they receive our words with pleasure, and afterwards run back to the race-course. They give greater applause to the charioteers and show an uncontrollable frenzy. They rush
'Mark 9:48.
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together with great excitement and often wrangle with one another, saying that one horse ran badly, another was tripped and fell. One person attaches himself to one charioteer, another to the other. They have no thought or memory of our words, nor of the spiritual and awesome mysteries which are celebrated here; but like captives in the snares of the devil they spend the whole day there, surrendering themselves to the satanic spectacle, and shaming themselves before the Jews, the pagans, and those who wish to ridicule us.
Who would be able to endure this without pain, even if he were stony-hearted and insensible, not to mention us who are eager to demonstrate our paternal love towards you all? This is not the only thing which grieves us, that you reveal our toil as fruitless; but we are even more affected when we consider that those who do these things are bringing a more severe condemnation on themselves. We expect the reward of our efforts from the Master, for we have done all our part, we have invested our silver, we have distributed the talent entrusted to us, and we have omitted nothing of the tasks which came to us. But as for those who received this spiritual silver, what excuse will they have, tell me, what pardon, when not only the principal is required of them but also the interest? With what eyes will they look on the Judge? How will they endure that terrible day, those unbearable punishments? They cannot plead ignorance, can they? Every day we resound in their ears, we exhort them, we urge them, we show them the destructiveness of their delusion, the greatness of the harm, the treachery of Satan's assembly; and even so we have not been able to reach them.
And why do I speak of that terrible day? Let us train them just for the present life. How, tell me, will those who have shared in the spectacle of Satan be able with confidence to attend here, while their conscience rises up against them and cries out with a loud voice? Or do these
ON WEALTH AND POVERTY
people not hear the blessed Paul, the teacher of the world, when he says, "What fellowship has light with darkness
. oF what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?'"
What condemnation would it not deserve, when the believer who enjoys both the prayers and awesome mysteries which are celebrated here and the spiritual instruction, after the end of the service here, goes out and sits at that satanic spectacle with the unbeliever—he who has been illuminated by the light of the Sun of righteousness, with him who wanders in the darkness of impiety? How, tell me, after this will we be able to silence the pagans or the Jews?
How will we be able to attract them, how will we persuade them to come over and enroll themselves in piety, when they see those who are enrolled with us mixed up with them at those deadly shows which are filled with all kinds of corruption? Why, tell me, after attending here, cleansing your thoughts, and leading your mind to sobriety and compunction, do you go back there and defile yourself? Or do you not hear the voice of a wise man who says, "When one builds and another tears down, what do they gain but toil?"* This is what is happening now. When you go back there and tear down all at once what we have built up here by our continual instruction and spiritual exhortation, and you raze it (so to speak) to the foundation, what use is there in our demonstrating the elements of the building again from the beginning, and in your going through the purification again? Would this not be the greatest madness and senselessness? Tell me, if you saw someone doing this kind of thing in these material buildings which are made with stones, would you not look upon him as a madman who toils haphazardly and vainly, and spends everything to no purpose? You must think the same way about this spiritual building, and cast the same vote in this case.
*2 Cor. 6:14-15.
*Sir. 34:23.
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Behold: since we have been assigned by God's grace to this task, every day we raise this spiritual building on high, and endeavor to lead you to instruction in virtue; but some of those who hurry to gather here in one moment of time all but tear down with their own hands by their unspeakable self-indulgence this building which has been raised with great effort. In this way they bring great discouragement to us, but upon themselves they bring a great and deadly penalty.
Perhaps I have made my rebuke too severe: too severe, that is, in respect to my love for you, but nowhere near worthy of the greatness of the transgression. Nevertheless, since it is necessary to stretch out a hand even to the fallen, and to show paternal concern for those who have been so careless, I do not despair of their salvation even so, if only they are willing no longer to fall into the same habits, but to stop their self-indulgence at this point, and to deny themselves their visits to the race-course and all similar satanic spectacles. We have a Master who is loving, gentle, and concerned for us. When He sees the weakness of our nature, when we fall into some sin, tripped up by our laziness, He seeks only one thing from us, not to despair but to leave the transgression and hurry to confess. If we do this a swift forgiveness is promised to us, for it is He Himself who says, "When someone falls, does he not arise? When someone turns away, does he not turn back again?"* So since we know this, let us not despise our Master who loves us so much, but let us overcome the harmful habit. Let us not walk by the wide gate and the easy road, as you have heard the common Master of all exhorting today in the Gospel, when He says, "Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many."* 'Jer. 8:4.
*Matthew 7:13.
ON WEALTH AND POVERTY
When you hear "wide gate" and "easy road," do not be deceived by the introduction, not observe that many enter through it, but understand that it turns out narrow at the end. And consider intelligently that He is not speaking of a visible gate, nor simply of a road, but advising us concerning our whole life and concerning virtue and wickedness. For this reason, you see, He began saying, "Enter by the narrow gate," calling the gate of virtue by this name.
Then, when He has said, "Enter by the narrow gate," He teaches us afterwards the reason why He gives this advice.
For He says, "If this gate is narrow and requires much effort when you enter, nevertheless if you strive a little while, you will come out into a very wide place and an easy way which can offer you great relief. Do not look at its narrowness," He says, "nor let the introduction disturb you, nor let the narrowness of the entrance make you reluctant; for this wide gate and this easy road end in destruction." Many people are deceived by the beginning and the introduction; not foreseeing any of what is to come, they yield themselves to destruction. For this reason He says, "The gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many." Well did
He call it a wide gate and an easy road that leads to destruction. For those who are eager to go to the races and the other satanic spectacles, who have no care for self-control and give no thought for virtue, who wish to behave recklessly, who yield themselves to luxury and gluttony, who spend themselves every day in madness and frenzy for money, who strain after the things of the present life—these people walk by the wide gate and the easy road. But when they go farther along, and gather a great burden of sins for themselves, when they are all spent and come to the end of the road, they are no longer able to go any farther, because they are pressed tightly by the narrowness of the road and burdened by the weight of their sins so that they cannot go through. So they must come
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at last to the very brink of destruction. What benefit is it, tell me, after walking on the easy road a little while, to come to a permanent destruction; after luxuriating in a dream, so to speak, to be punished in truth?
For what the dream of one night is, the whole present life is in comparison to the punishment and retribution which await us. This is not written, is it, so that we may read it and do nothing more? For this reason the grace of the Spirit has caused the Lord's sermons to be entrusted to writing, so that by receiving medicines from them as remedies for our passions we may be able to escape the punishment which hangs over us. For this reason also at that time Christ our Master applied appropriate medicines to the listeners' wounds when He advised, "Enter by the narrow gate." He called the gate narrow, not because it is narrow by nature, but because our disposition, which generally inclines to laziness, thinks that it is narrow. Nor did He call it narrow in order to turn us away, but in order that we might avoid the width of the other gate and judge each road by its end, and so might prefer to choose this one.
But to make the sermon easily understood by everyone, come if you agree, let us bring into our midst those who entered by the wide gate and who walked on the easy road, and let us see what kind of end received them. Let us also bring forward those who entered by the narrow gate and the way of tribulation, and let us learn what kind of good things received them. You see, by setting before us one of those who entered by this wide gate and one of those who walked on the narrow road of tribulation, let us show the truth of the Lord's words, using again one of the Lord's parables. So who is it who entered by the wide gate and walked on the easy road? First we should show who this is, and what distance he traveled walking on the wide road; and then we should make clear to you how he ended his journey. I know indeed that you, intelligent as
ON WEALTH AND POVERTY
you are, have already understood what I am going to say; nevertheless it is necessary for me to say it. Remember with me that rich man, the one who wore purple and fine linen every day, who dined lavishly, who fed parasites and flatterers, who served out a lot of undiluted wine, who yielded himself to gluttony and great luxury every day; he entered by the wide gate, all the time enjoying the pleasure and contentment of this life. Every thing flowed to him as if from a spring—he had many servants, immeasurable luxury, health of the body, plenty of money, honor from the mass of people, praise from the flatterers, and nothing up to that time to give him grief. Above all, as he passed his days in such intoxication and gluttony, he did not only enjoy bodily health and complete freedom from care, but also he pitilessly neglected the poor man Lazarus who lay at his gate, suffering from sores, surrounded and licked by dogs, and wasting away from hunger. He did not share even crumbs with him. The man who entered by the wide gate walked on the easy road, the way of luxury, licentiousness, laughter, relaxation, gluttony, drunkenness, accumulation of money, frivolity in dress. During the whole time of the present life he walked on the easy road, without being tried by anything painful, but always borne by a fair wind; inasmuch as he was traveling on the easy road, he kept on running his course free from care. Nowhere did he encounter headlands, nowhere cliffs, nowhere undersea reefs, nowhere shipwreck, nowhere unpredictable change; but continuously traveling on a firm, smooth road he ran the course of the present life.
He was drowned every day by the waves of evil and did not take notice of it. He was torn to pieces every day by wicked desires and enjoyed himself. He was continuously besieged by licentiousness, by gluttony, by the madness for money, and took no notice of these terrible things, nor was able to foresee the end of the road; but plucking only the present pleasure, he gave no thought to the perpetual anguish. In his delusion, so to speak, he kept on walking the
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easy road, driven along toward the very brink without being aware of it because of his drunkenness. His prosperity in all aspects of this life drowned his reasoning, and blinded the eye of his mind; and as if deprived of sight thereafter he went on walking without knowing where he was going.
Perhaps he did not even take thought of his human nature as he did not see himself enduring any difficulty. He did not enjoy luxury only, but also wealth; not wealth only, but also bodily health; not bodily health only, but also the attendance of servants, and not only the attendance of numerous servants, but seeing everything flowing to him as if from a spring he passed his time in uninterrupted pleasure. Do you see, my beloved, the man who entered by the wide gate and walked always on the easy road? Do you see what comfort he enjoyed?
But no one who hears this should dare to call him lucky before his end; he should await the end of the story, and then he may cast his vote. If you agree, let us also bring into our midst the man who entered by the narrow gate and traveled by the road of tribulation. When we have observed the ends of both men, we may cast the appropriate vote in each case. Whom else can we now bring forward but Lazarus, who lay at the rich man's gate, who was afflicted by those sores, saw the dogs' tongues touching his wounds, and was not strong enough to drive them away?
Just as the other man entered by the wide gate and walked on the easy road, so this fortunate man (for I call him fortunate already, because he chose to enter by the narrow gate) entered by the narrow gate, the one opposite to that other way of many possessions. Just as the other lived in continuous luxury, so this man kept on wrestling with hunger. The other man along with luxury and bodily health enjoyed also a surplus of money, and squandered it in daily gluttony and drunkenness; this man along with hunger and extreme poverty afflicted by continuous illness and sores did not even procure his necessary sustenance, but desired
ON WEALTH AND POVERTY
the crumbs from the rich man's table and was not granted even these.
Do you see how this man who had entered by the narrow gate kept on walking the road of tribulation? Do you see how the other man kept on traveling by the wide gate and the easy road? But let us see finally the end of each man, and how that one reached a narrow end, but this one ended in a wide place full of comfort, so that when we have learned this thoroughly, we may not follow the easy road at all times nor be eager to enter by the wide gate, but may seek out the narrow gate and walk the road of tribulation, in order that we may be able to meet a good end full of comfort. When the end of each man's life arrived, see first what the Lord says about the one who traveled by the road of tribulation. "The poor man died,"
He says, "and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom.'* Perhaps the angels led him away in procession, carrying spears before him, restoring him to the place of comfort after all his tribulations and his straitened journey.
Do you see how wide the narrow gate and the road of tribulation appear at the end? Finally, you must see also the disastrous end of the easy road. "The rich man also died," He says, "and was buried." No one went before him, no one carried spears, no one led the way for him as they did for Lazarus. For since the rich man had enjoyed all these things on the easy road, and had had many bodyguards and attendants, I mean the flatterers and parasites, when he reached the end, he was stripped naked and destitute of all of them after those great comforts—or rather after that brief comfort and prosperity. For all our present life is brief when compared with the age to come.
So you see, after the brief comfort which he enjoyed as he walked the easy road, the place of distress and tribulation received him. The poor man rested in the bosom
*Luke 16:22.
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of the patriarch, receiving the due recompense for his great pain and misery. After his hunger and sores and his lying at the gate, he shared in that ineffable comfort which cannot be described in words. But the rich man after his luxury and comfort and his great gluttony and drunkenness met that inexorable punishment and was tormented on the grill. In order that each of them might learn from the result, the benefit of the narrow road and the disastrous penalty of the easy road, they saw each other from a great distance. Hear how this was: "And in Hades," He says,
"being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus in his bosom.' It seems to me that when he observed such a complete reversal of circumstances, and the man who had lain at the gate exposed to the tongues of the dogs now enjoying such confidence and dwelling in the bosom of the patriarch, but himself afflicted with such shame and besides tormented by a fiery grill, he felt his anguish more keenly. In any case, he saw the circumstances reversed, and knew that he had lived his life of luxury as it were in a dream and a shadow, and that he was now enduring the unbearable punishment and had reached such a narrow end after his easy road and his wide gate; he saw also that the opposite had happened to Lazarus, who was enjoying those ineffable good things because of his patient endurance in this life. When he is reduced to helplessness and knows from experience the delusion which he has suffered in choosing the easy road, he makes supplication to the patriarch and utters pitiful words full of tears. He who previously has not been moved and has not deigned even to see Lazarus the poor man who lay at his gate, but loathed him, so to speak, because of the stench of his sores and his own frivolity, in which he continually lived luxuriously, now supplicates the patriarch and says,
"Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to "Luke 16:23.
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dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame.'* These words are enough to inspire pity; nevertheless even so they did not help him at all. His confession and petition were untimely, since he did not make them at the time when they were needed.
"Send," he says, "that Lazarus, the poor man whom hitherto I loathed, to whom I did not give a share of crumbs. Now
I am begging for him, and asking for that finger which the dogs used to lick." Do you see how the retribution has humbled him? Do you see how the easy road has reached a narrow end? And he does not make his supplication to Lazarus, but to the patriarch. With good reason—for he did not dare to look the poor man straight in the face. He was remembering, I suppose, his own inhumanity, and thinking how hard-hearted he had been to Lazarus, he suspected that he would perhaps not even grant him an answer. For this reason, you see, he did not even make his petition to Lazarus, but supplicated the patriarch.
Nevertheless even so he obtained no benefit at all. Such an evil is untimeliness, and the neglect of the time of our earthly life which is given to us by God's kindness as the opportunity for our salvation.
What steel is so hard as not to be bent by these words, and led to pity and sympathy? Nevertheless not even so does the patriarch accede to his entreaty. He does indeed grant him an answer, but teaches him that he himself was responsible for bringing these evils on himself. For the patriarch says to the rich man, "Son, remember that you in your lifetime have received the good things due to you, and Lazarus likewise the evil due to him; but now he is comforted, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be
*Luke 16:24.
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able, and none may cross from there to us."" What he says is frightful, and sufficient to affect those who have any sense. For in order to teach him that he himself is showing his own compassion towards him, and is moved to pity by seeing the severity of his punishment, but is not able to do anything else for his assistance, Abraham all but apologizes to him and says, "I wanted to reach out my hand to you, to relieve your pain, and to reduce the severity of your punishment; but by taking your comfort in advance you yourself have deprived yourself of this relief." This is why he says, "Son, remember." See the goodness of the patriarch: he calls him "son." But while this can reveal Abraham's gentleness, it provides no help to the rich man because he has betrayed himself. "Son," he says, "remember that in your life you received the good things due to you: be mindful of the times which are past, do not forget how much luxury you enjoyed, how much relaxation, how much ostentation, how you spent all your life in gluttony and drunkenness, thinking that your whole lifetime would be occupied with these, and limiting the good to things like these." He passed sentence on himself by his own vote.
Without imagining anything sublime or having before his eyes the evils which awaited him, he thought that those things were good.
Even now most people who are excited about luxury and gluttony have the habit of saying, "We have had many good things," when they wish to reckon the extent of their great luxury. Do not call these things good without qualification,
O man, bearing in mind that they are given by the Master in order that by enjoying them in due proportion we may have sustenance for our life and may overcome the weakness of our bodies; but the truly good things are something else. None of these things is good, not luxury, not wealth, not expensive clothing; they have only
*Luke 16:25-26.
ON WEALTH AND POVERTY
the name of goodness. Why do I say that they have only the name? They often indeed cause our destruction, when we use them improperly. Wealth will be good for its possessor if he does not spend it only on luxury, or on strong drink and harmful pleasures; if he enjoys luxury in moderation and distributes the rest to the stomachs of the poor, then wealth is a good thing. But if he is going to give himself up to luxury and other profligacy, not only does it not help him at all, but it even leads him down to the deep pit. This is what happened to this rich man. Therefore the patriarch says to him, "Son, remember that in your life you received the good things due to you. What you thought to be truly good, that you received, and Lazarus likewise the evil things;' not that Lazarus thought them evil (far from it), but Abraham added this also according to the rich man's judgment. He had made this judgment authoritative for himself, and thought that wealth, luxury, wantonness, and all other frivolity were good things, but supposed that poverty, hunger, and severe ill-health were evil things. "So as you supposed, and held that false opinion, remember that according to your judgment you have received those good things, as you traveled on the wide and easy road; and Lazarus likewise has received the evil things according to your opinion, as he walked by the narrow gate and the road of tribulation. So, since you saw only the beginning of the road, but he looked also toward the end, not being made more reluctant by the beginning of the road, for this reason he now is comforted here, but you are in anguish; you have reached ends opposite to each other."
By the very events, my beloved, you have seen the end of the easy, wide road; you have learned how good an end awaited the man who chose the narrow gate and the toad of tribulation. Hear what is even more frightful:
"Besides all this," he says, "between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass
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from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us."'° Let us not simply pass over what is said, my beloved, but let us consider the exact sense of the words, and how much honor and precedence the man enjoys who lay beside the gate, the poor man who was easy to despise, who struggled continually with hunger, who was afflicted with sores and exposed to the dogs. I am happy to keep turning these things over with you, in order that no one of those who are in disease and hunger may despise his situation, feeling sorry for himself, but bearing everything with patience and thanksgiving, may already be nourished by good hopes, awaiting that ineffable recompense and the repayment for his sufferings. "And besides all this." What does he mean, "besides all this'? When he said, "You received in your earthly life everything which you thought good, and he received everything which you thought evil," he added this, teaching him that a fitting end awaited each one, besides all that he had said: "After your enjoyment of what you thought good, tribulation, distress, and the unquenchable fire received you; after his struggle throughout his life with what you yourself thought evil, relief, enjoyment of good things, and rest with the saints received him. When, you see, each one found his fitting end, and the wide gate and easy road had made you reach these straits, but the narrow way of tribulation had brought him to this relief, besides all this between us and you a great chasm has been fixed." See the poor man, the one who suffered from sores (I say this again), numbered with the patriarch and enrolled in the chorus of the righteous. For he says, "between us and you." Do you see what kind of rest awaited the man who had endured that severe illness and hunger with patience and thanksgiving? "Besides all this," he says, "a great chasm has been fixed." What separates them is great, he says, and not simply a chasm,
1 uke 16:26.
ON WEALTH AND POVERTY
but a great chasm. And in truth there is a great distance between virtue and evil, and a great difference. One is wide and easy, but the other is narrow and full of tribulation. Luxury is wide and easy, but poverty and need are narrow and full of tribulation. So just as in this life the ways are opposed—the person who chooses virginity travels the narrow road of tribulation, and so does the person who pursues chastity, embraces voluntary poverty, and scorns vain glory; but the person who is eager to travel on the wide and easy road surrenders himself to drunkenness, luxury, madness for money, licentiousness, and harmful spectacles
—the difference between them is great; so also in the time of punishment and recompense, there is a great distance to be found between their requitals. "A great chasm," he says,
"is fixed between us," that is, the righteous, the virtuous, those to whom that rest is allotted, "and you," that is, those who have spent themselves in wickedness and evil.
"So great is the chasm that neither can anyone standing here go over to you, nor can anyone cross from there to us."
Did you see the greatness of the chasm? Did you see a judgment deeper than hell? When you heard at the beginning of the rich man's prosperity, how he was attended by many servants and followers, how he devoted himself to luxury every day, did you not think that he was exceedingly fortunate? And again, when you saw the poor man lying at the gate and afflicted with those grievous sores, did you not pity his life? But behold now, from the end of the events we see the opposite happening: the rich man on the grill after that luxury and drunkenness, but Lazarus in the bosom of the patriarch after that extreme poverty and hunger.
But lest we stretch out the sermon to a great length, it is enough to stop our teaching at this point, and to entreat your love not to pursue the wide gate or the easy road, nor always to seek comfort, but bearing in mind the end of each way, to flee the easy way, considering what befell
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this rich man, and to pursue the narrow gate and the way of tribulation, so that after tribulation here we may be able to reach the place of comfort. Flee, therefore, I beg of you, the spectacles of Satan and the harmful sights of the racecourse. For the sake of those who have been enticed away and have walked towards the easy road I have been led to say these things, in order that they may learn to leave that road, and by traveling on the way of tribulation, I mean the way of virtue, they may be counted worthy of the patriarch's bosom like Lazarus, and in order that all of us together, freed from the fire of hell, may enjoy those ineffable good things which eye has not seen nor ear heard.
May we all attain to these, by the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, might, and honor, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.
POPULAR SPAR
UST eS SERIES
1 On the Priesthood St John Chrysostom 23 On God and Christ St Gregory of Nazianzus
2 Lectures on the Christian Sacraments — St Cyril of Jerusalem 24 Three Treatises on the Divine Images — St John of Damascus 25 On the Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ — St Maximus the Confessor 26 Letters from the Desert — Barsanuphius and John 3, On the Incarnation — St Athanasius 4 On the Divine Images St John of Damascus
6 On the Holy Icons St Theodore the Studite 7 On Marriage and Family Life — St John Chrysostom 8 On the Divine Liturgy — St Germanus 9 On Wealth and Poverty — St John Chrysostom 27 Four Desert Fathers — Pambo, Evagrius, Macarius of Egypt, and Macarius of Alexandria 28 Saint Macarius the Spiritbearer — Coptic Texts 29 On the Lord's Prayer Tertullian, Cyprian, Origen
30 On the Human Condition St Basil the Great 31 The Cult of the Saints St John Chrysostom
10 Hymns on Paradise St Ephrem the Syrian 11 On Ascetical Life St Isaac of Nineveh
32 On the Church: Select Treatises — St Cyprian of Carthage 12 On the Soul and Resurrection — St Gegory of Nyssa 13 On the Unity of Christ St Cyril of Alexandria
14 On the Mystical Life, vol. 1 St Symeon the New Theologian 15 On the Mystical Life, vol. 2 St Symeon the New Theologian
16 On the Mystical Life, vol. 3 St Symeon the New Theologian 17 On the Apostolic Preaching St Irenaeus
33 On the Church: Select Letters St Cyprian of Carthage 34 The Book of Pastoral Rule St Gregory the Great
35 Wider Than Heaven — Eighth-century Homilies on the Mother of God 36 Festal Orations St Gregory of Nazianzus
37 Counsels on the Spiritual Life Mark the Monk 18 On the Dormition Early Patristic Homilies
19 On the Mother of God Jacob of Serug 38 On Social Justice — St Basil the Great 39 The Harp of Glory An African Akathist
40 Divine Eros — St Symeon the New Theologian 41 On the Two Ways Foundational Texts in the Tradition
42 On the Holy Spirit St Basil the Great 20 On Pascha Melito of Sardis 21 On God and Man The Theological Poetry of St Gregory of Nazianzus 22 On the Apostolic Tradition Hippolytus
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On Wealth and Poverty
ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOa,
Translation and introduction by Catharine P. Roth The sermons of St John Chrysostom are noted as classical commentaries on the Christian life.
Knowing well the realities of life in the world, the temptations of rich and poor alike, this great orator—"the goldenmouthed"—addresses the questions of wealth and poverty in the lives of people of his day. And yet, as the modern reader is confronted with his words, it becomes apparent that he too is being addressed; Chrysostom's words are words proclaiming the truth of the Gospel to all people of all times.
The message of the story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) is brought home to every person in these six sermons of Chrysostom with clarity, insight into the human dilemma, compassion, and judgment.
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