Excess (Wealth)
“….though wealth isn’t inherently evil, we must vigilantly guard against the temptation it brings.” (Dylan Pahman)
“There is a tension in the Gospels between being a follower of Christ and being wealthy. Some have wondered whether in fact rich people can be saved or if their pursuing mammon already makes them at odds with Christ and the Gospel…wealth is a blessing from God and can be used for godly purposes. It is up to the prosperous to realize this and to use their possessions in a way which is well pleasing to the Lord.” (Fr. Ted Bobosh)
“There are many reasons why the rich man did not sense Lazarus [Luke 16:19-31], but the most important are three in number:…The second reason is that the rich man enjoyed great luxury every day. This life of luxury removes a person’s attention to the other, and also his attention to himself. A person who defines the ideal image of his life as “luxury” puts this idol in God’s place and because of it does without both God and his neighbor. Pleasure in general has an effect on people and makes them selfish. They seek for themselves and they consume everyone around you for its sake. Many people do not feel others’ tragedies unless they taste life’s bitterness or are in the grip of hardship. Good things were given to us so that we could be liberated from slavery to need. However, sumptuous luxury, as the Gospel describes it, enslaves us to the love of pleasure. The first manifestations of luxury are self-sufficiency, and introversion, even if it does not reach the point of abuse.” (Metropolitan Paul Yazigi)
“Jesus taught that we must give food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothing to the naked, shelter to the homeless, or else be punished in fire and outer darkness. (Matthew 25:31-46) But how could a person do these things if he has divested himself of all his goods? No, in fact, the Savior once invited Zacchaeus and Matthew, the rich tax collectors, to entertain him hospitably. (Luke 5: 29) He didn’t require them to part with their property. Instead, he applied just judgment to them, saying [about Zacchaeus], ‘Today, salvation has come to this house, because this man is also a son of Abraham.‘ (Luke 19:9) In fact, Jesus has so much praise for the appropriate use of wealth that he orders that if it be shared, in order to give drink to the thirsty, bread to the hungry, shelter to the homeless and clothing to the naked. It’s not possible for a man to provide those needs unless he has material possessions of his own. So if the Lord was really calling people to abandon all of their material possessions, he would have been telling us both to give and not to give at the same time. He would be telling us to feed and not to feed. To take in and shut out. To share and not to share. That would be most irrational!” (St. Clement of Alexandria)
“But if a modern child has 50 pairs of shoes, he'll toss the new pair aside with an indifferent look on his face. If he has a ton of games, he’ll break a new game in a second—it’s not interesting to him; maybe he doesn’t even look at it; he has 200 other games. Having too many things devalues everything for him. And then when such a child grows older, it’ll be impossible to satisfy him with anything. He’ll always be looking for something false for himself to try to find the meaning of life in it. Sometimes you see children from rich families who have everything, and they take drugs, smoke marijuana, or drink all kinds of garbage. Why do people drink? Because their lives are boring, colorless, tasteless. If you give someone fifty dishes, he won’t be able to eat anything at all; he’ll lose his appetite. He’ll get sick of the abundance of food, the very smell of it, and won’t even want to eat anything anymore. Whereas, with a hungry man, if you put just one or two dishes in front of him, he eats them with great pleasure, and he even grabs a piece of bread to clean his plate with, so he won’t have to wash it then.” (Metropolitan Athanasios)
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