Asterius of Amasea: Sermons (1904) pp. 72-110. Sermon 3: Against Covetousness
III
AGAINST COVETOUSNESS
Texts Quoted by Asterius in the Body of his Discourse
No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.---- Luke 16: 13 .
For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God---- Eph.5:5.
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.---- 1 Tim. 6 : 10.
And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:
And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?
And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.
And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?
So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.---- Luke 12: 15-21.
III
AGAINST COVETOUSNESS
CHRISTIANS and sharers of a heavenly calling, you country folk, and all who come from the towns, you who in concord have gathered at the present feast, ----for by a general address I embrace you all,----has each one of you thoughtfully considered and realized why we are assembled? And why are martyrs honored by the construction of notable buildings and by these annual assemblies, and what end did our fathers have in view when they ordained the things we see, and left the established custom to their descendants? Is it not evident to one who concentrates his thought |76 on this subject even for a short time, that these things have been given permanent form to rouse us to pious emulation, and that the feasts constitute public schools for our souls, in order that while we honor the martyrs, we may learn to imitate their sturdy piety; that lending the ear to the gathered teachers, we may learn some useful thing which we did not know before,----either the certainty of some doctrine, or the explanation of some difficult Scripture, ----or may hear some discourse that will improve our morals?
But you seem to me to have abandoned your care for virtue, to have forgotten your zeal on behalf of your souls, and to have devoted all your thought to the rubbish of mammon and the business of the markets; some bargaining yourselves; some greedily haggling with competing dealers in order to reduce their prices. But transfer your |77 love to the church, Abandon the love of money, that mad passion of the market. Turn from it as from a disorderly courtezan who, embellished with foreign stuffs and with the brilliant colors of the apothecary, smiles upon the multitude. Love the church, divine and discreet, modestly attired, with look august and grave. For thus Solomon says in the book of Proverbs, "Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee." Do not pass her by with contempt, nor deem the things that lie near us on this table of little worth because it is possible for you to procure them freely. But desire them all the more because we do not sit, as hucksters, with balance and scales; but seek only one gain,----the salvation of the hearer.
There has been read to us from the Acts |78 the speech of Paul to Festus and Agrippa, ----Paul the faithful apostle and wise speaker. You doubtless saw, my hearer, if you gave heed, how he boldly declares the truth, but, mingling deference to Agrippa with his boldness, he softens the harsh tribunal to gentleness, subduing them by the manner of his speech, as wild beasts by song. Zechariah, too, has prophesied to-day, opening to us the door of the great mysteries of the Only-begotten, by the stone with the seven quick-glancing eyes, and by the golden candlestick with its seven lamps, and the trunks of the two olive trees. There are many kindred Scriptures full of profit for us, into all of which I wished to go that I might show you the abundance of the spiritual feast. But I must fulfil the promise that I made yesterday. For after we had brought many accusations against |79 covetousness, but had scarcely laid bare its vanity, we deferred until to-day the proof of the charges. Listen, therefore, and show yourselves wise judges of the truth; for your decision affects your own salvation, not that of others; and each of you casts his vote of condemnation against his own soul, as though driving it out of house or town.
Covetousness, then, is not simply being mad for money, and other possessions, wishing to add to what you have that to which you have no right, but, to speak more broadly, it is the desire to have in every transaction more than is due or belongs to you. And you know that the devil was the first to have this fault; for he was an archangel, and appointed to the most honorable life and station; but the arrogant creature conceived of absolute rule, and rebellion against God, and was |80 thereafter cast down from heaven, and, falling into this atmosphere of earth, he became your malicious neighbor. So he did not attain the divinity to which he aspired, and he lost the rank which he had enjoyed of being archangel; an unfaithful servant, changed by gradually increasing audacity into a robber;----the dog of the Greek fable, who was both deprived of his meat and failed to grasp the shadow----for how could he grasp an intangible thing?
After him, the first man was beguiled into the love of pleasure, and by eating the forbidden fruit lost immortality, as Esau afterward lost his birthright for a dish of pottage. And love of more introduced into our life these languages of ours, the many tongues of men. For men who through plenty had become wanton, |81 thinking that the heavens were accessible to them, foolishly made a preposterous tower for mounting up to the sky, and so caused mankind, which had been of one language, to speak with different tongues; in seeking more than they had, they themselves were not only confounded but left to mankind the weariness of hearing unintelligible tongues, and of searching for their interpretation.
And what of Pharaoh? How came he to fall into difficulties and to be afflicted with plagues? Was it not through covetousness, through the desire of being lord over a strange people which by no means belonged to his kingdom? And, since he did not let those go who belonged to another, he lost those who were his own; some in the smiting of the first-born and others in the pursuit through the sea. For I do not mention the rivers flowing blood, |82 and the infinite generation of frogs, and the destruction wrought by locusts, and the eruption of boils, and the death of four-footed beasts, and all the evil to which Egypt was condemned on account of her ruler's covetousness.
Again, somewhere else I have learned the outcome of this sin, how leprosy in a moment spread over the body of the covetous. Recall with me, if you are historically inclined, and fond of hearing of Elisha's deeds, how Naaman the Syrian bathed in the Jordan, and was healed of his leprosy, and how his malady passed over upon Gehazi, the prophet's servant, a covetous and foolish young man, who received raiment and silver for his master's free act of healing. How did Absalom, that fiery and impetuous young man, son of an indulgent father, become a parricide? Was |83 it not by prematurely seeking the inheritance of the kingdom and leaping like a robber upon what Was another's? And Judas, also,----what drove him out from the company of the apostles, and made him a traitor instead of an apostle? Was it not the treasury at first dishonestly administered, and then the getting of the shameful price? Why does the Acts of the Apostles tell in tragic vein of Ananias and Sapphira? Is it not because they were thieves of what was their own, and violators of their own offerings? The day will soon fail me if I try to enumerate the servants of covetousness.
But now, leaving ancient history, let us interrogate the experience of daily life, and learn what sort of a creature it recognizes in covetousness, and how hard it is to get |84 rid of; for whomsoever it seizes, ever waxing but never waning, it grows old with its victims and abides with them to the end.
The lustful and the lover of his body, even if he be for a long time mad in his desires, when he becomes old, or sees the object of his affection, his body, now aged and the bloom departed, finds that there is a limit to his disorder. The glutton himself withdraws from his indulgence when surfeited, or when his digestive organs become weak, and their intense desire for food is gone. The ambitious man after having attained great notoriety ceases to desire to show himself off. But the disease of covetousness is an evil hard to rid one's self of. And just as this ivy, the plant flourishing and ever green, creeping up the trees that grow near, coils tight about the trunks wherever it touches----and even if they suffer harm or wither, it does not |85 die, unless some one with an axe severs its serpent-like coils----so it is not easy to free the soul from covetousness, whether the body be youthful or beginning to grow old, unless some sober consideration enter in and like a knife cut off the disease.