On Wealth and Poverty by John Chrysostom

Poor, to keep you from thinking that poverty is any evil.” Rich and you who are poor: the rich, to keep you from thinking that wealth is worth anything without virtue the You saw his sufferings see his recompense, both you who are Striving in contest see him crowned with victory. You saw him in poverty then see him in luxury now. You saw him licked byĭogs see him carried in triumph by the angels. “You saw Lazarus then at the gate of the rich man see him today in the bosom of Abraham. Good fortune to neglect others who are wasting away with hunger, to lock up his heart, and not to be made more His heart by misfortune and distress not to help his neighbor, as for one who enjoys such happiness and continuous Again, it is not the same thing for one who is troubled in “It is not the same thing to see a poor man once or twice and pass him by, as to look at him every day and not beĪroused by the persistent sight to mercy and generosity.

As a little drop is to the boundless sea, so much a thousand years are to that future glory and enjoyment.” As one dream is to a hundred years, so the present life is to the future life or rather the difference is much greater. “So you must think about the life to come.

Such is the nature of this abundance: the deeper you dig, the more divine thoughts will gush forth, for it is a never-failing spring.’”įrom Chrysostom’s six sermons on Lazarus and the rich man John Chrysostom takes Christ’s famed parable of the rich man and Lazarus and attempts to plumb its immeasurable riches - knowing all the while that ‘no one will be able to empty all its wealth.

On Wealth and Poverty by John Chrysostom