Chapter VI.
How ineffective wealth is! And why are they called riches! It is more miserable to be rich than to be in the bondage of slaves. This is the place for the Gospel, What shall I do... I will tear down my barns, etc., is explained piously and eloquently.
27. Which artist could add one day to a person's life? Who redeemed his wealth from the underworld? Whose sorrow did money alleviate? Not in the abundance of riches, he said, is his life (Luke XII, 15). And elsewhere: Treasures are of no use to the unjust, but justice frees from death (Proverbs X, 2). The Prophet rightly cries out: If riches increase, do not set your heart on them (Psalm LXI, 11). For what use are they to me if they cannot save me from death? What use are they to me if they cannot be with me after death? They are acquired here, they are left here. Therefore, we are talking about a dream, not an inheritance. Hence the same Prophet rightly said about the rich: They have slept their sleep, and all the men of riches have found nothing in their hands (Psalm 75:6); that is to say, the rich have found nothing in their works, as they have not given anything to the poor: they have not helped anyone in need, they have not been able to find anything that benefits them.
28. Consider the name itself. The pagans call him the ruler of the underworld, the arbiter of death and the wealthy one, because unless he knows how to bring death, he is not able to bring wealth to the dead, nor have control over the realm of the dead or the underworld. For what is wealth, if not an insatiable abyss of riches, an insatiable hunger and thirst for gold? The more one drinks from it, the more it burns within. Thus the prophet admonishes: 'Those who love money will never be satisfied with money' (Ecclesiastes 5:9); and further: 'And indeed this is the worst disease.' For as he was, so he also went away, and his abundance labors in the wind. And indeed all his days are in darkness, and sorrow, and much anger, and weakness, and wrath (Ibid., 15 et seq.); so that the condition of slaves is more tolerable. For they serve men, he serves sin. Thus the Apostle says (Rom. VI, 16): For he who commits sin is the servant of sin. Always in snares, always in chains he is: never free from fetters, because he is always in crimes. How wretched is servitude, to serve sins!
29. Nature itself does not know its duties, nor does it understand the changes of its own sleep, nor does it perform the function of food with its sweetness, for which there is no immunity from servitude. For sweet sleep serves as a slave, whether it consumes little or much; but for one who is satisfied with wealth, there is no one who allows him to sleep. Desire excites him, worry harasses him about stealing others' vigils, envy torments him, delay vexes him, barrenness of income disturbs him, abundance troubles him. Hence, for that wealthy person whose possession has brought forth abundant fruits, who contemplated within himself, saying: What should I do, since I lack the means by which I may gather my fruits? And he said: 'I will do this, I will tear down my barns and build larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry.' But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?' (Luke 12:17-20) Even God does not allow him to sleep. He interrupts him while he is thinking and wakes him up while he is sleeping.
But even he himself does not allow himself to be at peace, who is troubled by the abundance of his wealth, and in the abundance of his produce he utters the voice of a beggar. What shall I do, he says? Is this not the voice of a poor man, not having the means to live? Needy of everything, he looks here and there, searches for shelter, finds nothing for sustenance. He considers nothing more miserable than being consumed by hunger, and dying from lack of food. He seeks shortcuts to death, and searches for more tolerable ways to endure punishments. He seizes the sword, hangs the noose, kindles the fire, explores poison; and amidst all this he hesitates on what to choose, and says: What shall I do? Then, tempted by the sweetness of this life, he desires to reconsider his decision if he can find the means of subsistence. He sees everything bare, everything empty, and says: What shall I do? Where will I find food, where will I find clothing? I want to live, if I have a way to sustain this life: but with what foods, with what resources?
31. 'What should I do,' he says, 'since I don't have what I need? He shouts that he is rich yet has nothing. This is a discourse of poverty: he complains of being lacking while abundant in fruits. 'I don't have,' he says, 'where I can gather my fruits. You would think he is saying: 'I don't have fruits from which I can live.' Blessed is he who risks from abundance; indeed, more wretched is he with his own abundance than the poor person, for whom the danger is destitution. He has a reason to excuse his hardship; he certainly has injury, but he doesn't have fault: that person doesn't have anyone else to accuse besides himself.'
32. And he said: This I will do, I will destroy my barns. Do you think he still says: I will open my barns, let those who cannot bear hunger enter, let the needy come, let the poor enter, let them fill their pockets, let me destroy the walls that exclude the hungry one. Why should I hide, to whom God makes abound what I give? Why should I close the doors with bolts to the grain, with which God fills the entire circumference of the fields, which grow and abound without a guard?