Salvian the Presbyter

In his own words on Sirach

• Sirach 3:30

  The apostle calls people to contrition; I only to a cure. He affirms that riches are a fire; I desire to extract from them water that helps to extinguish the blaze. This is precisely why it is written, "Water extinguishes a lit fire; alms extinguish sins." The apostle attests that damnation is the punishment for riches improperly packed away; I desire to obtain eternal life through these very riches that he says cause eternal damnation to all. Not that I believe that riches will enable anyone who has always lived among the pleasures of the flesh to obtain eternal life if he persists in such sin even up to death—even if he bequeaths all he has when he is at death's door—unless, in fact, he has previously bid farewell to his sins and taken off his filthy clothes, filled with the filth of his profligacy, and puts on the new robe of repentance, of holiness, from the hands of the apostle who admonishes him.

  AGAINST AVARICE 1:8.39-40

• Sirach 4:8

  The divine voice admonishes each one of us through the language of the holy Scriptures, "Honor the Lord with your belongings." In another passage it says, "Pay your debt." God is a tender and mild master. He invites us to spend the goods of our earthly belongings! He says, "Honor the Lord with your belongings." Everything that is given to us is his, and yet, he affirms that it is ours so that we can give it away. Thus, he calls the ownership of these possessions ours so that there may be a greater reward for work since we spend more time and effort on possessions that belong to us, and in this way the worker necessarily receives a considerably greater reward for his labor.The Lord has said that the ownership is ours. However, in order that our soul not become too proud, he adds, "Pay back your debt." If a person is not induced to be generous from his devotion, however, he will be constrained to pay from necessity. If faith is of no help to persuade a saint to operate, that which obliges him to satisfy his debt will motivate him. First he says, "Honor the Lord with your possessions," and then, "Pay your debt," so that, if you are devoted, you should give as though it belonged to you; if you are not, provide restitution as though it were not yours. Thus, God has rightly fixed in the law both the will to give and the necessity to pay. He wants to say to everyone, "You are invited with persuasive words or constricted by contracted debt to do holy deeds. Give, if you want; provide restitution in the contrary case." The apostle also provided similar teaching when he ordered the rich not to be proud, not to put hope on the uncertainty of riches but on God, who, he says, "gives us everything in abundance, which we can enjoy in the will to do good works.' " It is one phrase, but with this the apostle teaches us who is the benefactor and what is the reason for the possessions that have been given.

  AGAINST AVARICE 1:5.27-6:29

• Sirach 10:8

  People must aspire to wealth, procure it, hold in trust, increase it—only they should do so having in mind those we previously indicated. Otherwise, when one makes bad use of the assets he has, which are a gift from God, disastrous, irreparable damage occurs. As sacred Scripture says, "There is nothing more wicked than a miser." Wealth kept from one's Lord does the worst and most deadly kind of damage. This is an incontrovertible truth! What is worse or more horrible than for anyone to change the asset we enjoy in the world into disasters for the future? What is worse than the fact that death and damnation are pursued with these very things that have been given to us by the Lord for the purpose of obtaining a true eternally happy life from them? But we must also contemplate the fact that if wealth held in trust is a source of trouble for people, piling up more wealth without stopping to see what it is doing constitutes an even more serious calamity. Who among the rich, in fact, is equipped with the kind of temperament that can limit himself to conserve and not to increase his assets? Our present time is indeed wretched and deplorable in which people reduce themselves to this. Scripture asserts that it is a serious crime to even keep money. Today, people believe it is a virtue not only to keep but also to add to their wealth. Once again, therefore, we ask: How can someone think he or she is undamaged by guilt, if even at the moment of death, having no thought for salvation, people do not donate the assets they possess, since they have already committed a crime in keeping them until the moment they depart this life? How will these people not be guilty who, by a predilection toward vanity that is completely sacrilegious, leave their wealth to just anyone, especially since those who have not deprived themselves of at least a portion of their possessions for the worship of God will be found guilty in this life? The same Lord is our master in this matter as well. Through the apostle he says, "And now to you who are rich: weep over the disaster that will come on you! Your wealth is corrupted, and your gold and silver are consumed by rust; their rust will be raised in testimony against you and will devour your flesh like fire. You have accumulated treasures for the last days!"

  AGAINST AVARICE 1:7.31-33

• Sirach 13:19

  Is there anyone who has been found to live next door to a rich person who has not been robbed or even reduced to a state of permanent poverty? This is because as the powerful continue to encroach, the weak lose their possessions, or even themselves along with their possessions. The Word of God traces the profile of both with this most appropriate phrase, "The wild ass is the lion's prey in the desert; so also the poor are devoured by the rich." But it is also true that it is not only the poor who endure such tyranny but nearly the entire human race. What other dignity, after all, is there for those of high rank if not the power to confiscate the assets of the citizens? Concerning some, whose names I will not mention, what is a political position except a kind of plunder? For there is no worse pillaging of the poor than that which occurs among those in political power. Government positions are bought by the few and paid for by the ravaging of the rest of the citizenry. What can be more scandalous and evil than this? The poor pay the price for positions that are not for them. They do not know the meaning of buying, they only know the meaning of paying. The world is turned upside down for just a few individuals. The elevation of one person brings about the general ruin of everyone else.

  THE GOVERNANCE OF GOD 4:4.20-21

• Sirach 15:17

  It is written that life and death both confront humankind and that he reaches out his hand toward what he wants. We draw from these words that everyone will possess for eternity those goods that they seized with their hand, so to speak, during this life. And whatever they became attached to, they will remain attached to, with his mind and will entirely fixated on it.

  AGAINST AVARICE 1:1.7

• Sirach 19:2

  Everything was destroyed from two dominant common defects: avarice and drunkenness. For, unrestrained in their greed for drink, it came to the point where the city authorities could not even get up from the table—not even when the enemy had already penetrated into the city. I think that God intentionally wanted to show them the reason of their ruin: that at the moment when they were experiencing ruin, they continued to conduct themselves in the very thing that ultimately led to their ruin. I have seen with my own eyes deplorable scenes in that city. It mattered not whether they were boys or old men. It was the same scurrilous partying and levity. All kids of evil were going on at the same time: luxury, drinking, depravity. Everyone was doing the same thing: they amused themselves, got drunk and used prostitutes. Both old and young let themselves go during the banquets. Individuals who were already too weak to live were nonetheless daunting in their wine drinking; those nearly incapable of walking were still sturdy in their drinking; those otherwise uncertain in their steps were agile and lively in their dancing.What is there left to say? Well, they were so filthy in all the evils of which I have spoken that the saying of the sacred text came true that says, "Wine and women make men fall away from God." And, in fact, while they were drinking, amusing themselves, having sex and going crazy, they did begin to deny Christ. And although this happened, we are still astonished that they lost their material assets, even though they had begun to unravel morally for quite some time! Therefore, let no one think that city perished only on the day in which it was destroyed! Where such things happen, the people were destroyed long before they were overwhelmed by their enemies.

  THE GOVERNANCE OF GOD 6:13.77-79

• Sirach 30:23

  "Have compassion on your own soul." Great is the mercy of God our Lord, who invites us to be charitable toward ourselves. He says, "Have compassion on your own soul," that is, "you also should have compassion on yourself, you for whom I feel an aching commiseration, for whom I experience an infinite compassion. If you see me so moved over the soul of another, you at least should have mercy on your own soul." O extremely wretched person, God acts toward you in this way, and you do not put faith in him. He beckons you to be charitable toward yourself, and you do not want to be so? He pleads your case with you, and he cannot win the decision from you?

  AGAINST AVARICE 3:19.86

• Sirach 39:7

  The holy book says that everything, day after day, is ruled by the divine will and that God governs all things unceasingly. It says, "The Lord loves wisdom and an ordered life," and "There is no other God who cares for all." And still, "Since you are just, you guide all things with equity, and you govern us with great respect." So then, it speaks to you of God who guides and governs without interruption, but in this passage of Scripture not only is the government of God set forth but the dignity of human beings as well, since by saying "he governs us," it wants to convey the power of the divine rule, and by saying "with great respect," it allows us to understand how high is human dignity. Elsewhere in a prophet, it is written, "Do I not fill heaven and earth?" God declares the reason why he fills all things: "Because I am with you to save you." And with these words the Lord makes us understand not only that he governs and fills the universe but also the power and fruits of his presence. The divine presence, of itself, produces this fruit: the salvation of what it fills. And this is why saint Paul says in the Acts of the Apostles, "In him we have life, movement and being."

  THE GOVERNANCE OF GOD 2:2.8-9