In illud Verumtamen frustra conturbatur

On the Prophetic Saying, "Truly, every living man is disturbed in vain"; and on almsgiving. 1. A deep bosom urges on a fisherman, when he has cast his net and, having encompassed a great catch of sea-creatures, he hauls in the seine, laboring under the load; and a beast-nurturing forest urges on a hunter, when he has searched the mountains and, having opened up a thickly wooded summit, he returns with a splendid and rich catch. But if for those who are excited about gains and the hunt the toil in these matters is sweet, how much more so for the fishermen of ecclesiastical bosoms, for whom the gain is not daily nor earthly, but the very kingdom of the heavens has been established? Come then, beloved, let us strike up the psalmody of the Davidic lyre, and, having denounced human worthlessness against David, let us say: "Truly, every living man is disturbed in vain." He is disturbed, and the end is lost; he is disturbed, and before he can settle, he is swallowed up; he is kindled like fire, and is reduced to ash like stubble; he is raised up like a whirlwind, and is leveled to the ground like dust; he is fanned up like a flame, and is dissolved like smoke; he is beautified like a flower, and is dried up like grass; he is spread out like a cloud, and is diminished like a drop; he is swollen like a bubble, and is extinguished like a spark; he is disturbed, and by his insatiability he gains foul odor; he is disturbed, and departs taking nothing from the disturbance. His are the disturbances, and others' the delights; his are the labors, and others' the treasures; his are the anxieties, and others' the joys; his are the afflictions, and others' the enjoyments; his are the curses, and others' the services.

his plunderings, and others’ pleasures; with him the groaning, and with others the surpluses; with him the tears, and with others the wealth; he is punished in Hades, and others again revel in his possessions, singing. Nevertheless, every living man is disturbed in vain. Man: the temporary loan of life, the debt of death that admits no delay, the creature untamed by choice, the self-taught evil, the self-learned plot, the artful in villainy, the resourceful in injustice, the ready for greed, the insatiate in avarice, the naturally disposed to faithlessness, the over-inflated spirit, the boastful audacity, the easily dissolved arrogance, the easily overthrown pride, the easily captured daring, the self-willed mud, the seditious ash, the high-minded dust, the puffed-up cinder, the easily extinguished spark, the quickly fading flame, the easily blown-out lamp, the soon-rotting wood, the quickly dried grass, the soon-withered verdure, the easily consumed nature; he who today threatens, and tomorrow dies; he who today is in wealth, and tomorrow in the tomb; he who today is in a diadem, and tomorrow in a monument; he who today is in purple, and tomorrow in a funeral procession; he who today is in treasures, and tomorrow in coffins; he who today is among flatterers, and tomorrow among worms; he who today is, and tomorrow is not; he who just now is arrogant, and after a little is mourned; he who in good fortune is insufferable, and in misfortune inconsolable; he who is ignorant of himself, and busies himself with things beyond him; he who knows not the present, and fantasizes about the future; he who is mortal by nature, and by his pride, as he thinks, eternal.

the ready-made bywork of every sickness, the easily traversed lodging of every passion, the indifferent daily exercise of fevers, the readily receiving inn of every grief. Oh, how great a tragedy is our cheapness! Oh, how great a triumph of human cheapness! Oh, how many things I have said, and I have found nothing more fitting than the prophetic voice which says: Yet every living man is disturbed in vain! Finally, see, beloved, whether human affairs do not imitate the sea, whether life is not entangled in that same disturbance, whether we are not more storm-tossed on dry land than on the wet, whether we do not clash against each other more violently than the winds, whether possessions, like squalls, do not dash us against each other, whether, as if in a sea's darkness, we are not carried here and there. This one has encroached upon that one's field, another has seized someone else's servants; and one is judged against his neighbor over water, another fights with his housemate over air. Some are smoked out over measures of land, others oppress each other over building; this one clings to take what he did not give, that one goes to court not to give what he took.

One man is insatiable in his pursuit of interest; another insists on defrauding even the principal. This one, being in need, is pained; that one, being well-off, is troubled. The one who has not is reproached, and the one who has is plotted against. The one in office is looked at askance; the one in authority is hated; the one in power is conspired against. Wars press upon us, envies follow one upon another, insatiability tyrannizes, greed dominates, falsehood is exalted, trust among men has fled, truth has left the earth, friendship is limited to the table. Others have lost their own strength; the earth can no longer bear the evils, the air up to the very ether is polluted. Because of money, life has become unlivable; because of money, we have sold the free elements. Roads are taxed, the earth is portioned out, waters are owned, the air is subjected to purchase. Tithe-collectors, tax-collectors, and publicans hold the cities in their grip. The rich are consumed by cares; the lenders wither from anxieties; the plunderers disturb life; the lovers of money wear out the courts; the merchants traffic in misfortunes; the sycophants sell falsehood. Lying to one another, we have exhausted our oaths; we know God only for swearing. 2. Seeing all thus heaped up in evils, and lamenting life, the prophet said: “Yet every living man is troubled in vain.” Is it only man, O prophet, that is troubled? Is only the rational creation accused? I find nothing among animals or elements that is troubled. Waters are troubled, he says, and then are restored; the earth is shaken, and then is fixed.

winds are stirred, and then again they grow calm; every wild beast is disturbed, and when it is sated, it ceases; a flame is kindled, and when it has consumed the fuel beneath it, it is extinguished. But a man who is troubled over money never ceases: he has taken this, and he looks to that; he has grasped that, and he gapes after another. He strives to double the hundred, he hastens to heap up as much again upon such amounts, and he never ceases heaping up until his own end is heaped up; and, constrained by the thirst of avarice, he goes about paler than gold, because of the much-desired wealth—that friend who is rather unstable, that treacherous desire, that many-mastered mocker, that much-loved scoffer, that winged prisoner, that hostile corpse, that wind that flies away in the world; wealth, the begetter of every absurdity, the inventor of every vice, the accomplice of soul-destroying luxury, the adversary of self-control, the enemy of temperance, and the secret thief of every virtue. But why do I slander wealth, leaving aside its possessors? It too is wronged, being bound by them and held in fetters. For it seems to me that it sends forth a voice to them: "Why do you, lovers of money, shackle me, wealth? Why do you, as if I were a runaway, bind me tight with countless bonds? Why do you embrace me as a friend and bind me as a malefactor, sending me from the mines into your hands? If you wish, even in your dreams

It is easier for me to rest; let me be sent even into the hands of the poor. But he says: I am gathering wealth for my children, so that they may not become heirs of poverty. Well said, you rich man of many fantasies: you do not know the present, and you worry about the future; you are ignorant of your own affairs, and you worry about your children; you do not know whether you will be buried, and you deliberate about your heirs. O foolish one, tell me your end, and then make provision for your children; tell me the things of today, and then I will believe you also about the things of tomorrow. Why do you deceive yourself even after death? Why do you wish to be both dead and mocked? Why do you prescribe to God what must be done? Why do you legislate that the providence of God be administered by what has been given to you? Nothing concerning what comes after you pertains to you. You cannot be both dead and a manager of the living, nor a judge of the dead, weighing out justice for each. Why then do you toil in vain, O rich man, hoarding the goods of the poor for your own, and not knowing for whom you gather them? Why do you withhold what belongs to orphans? Why do you resent being asked by them, as if you were spending from your own? They seek what is their own, not yours; what was entrusted to you for their sake, not what was born with you. Give what you received, and gain the use of it, for you were commanded to give, not to receive. It is enough for you that through the poor man God extends his right hand to you. He who rains from heaven begs from you a copper drop; he who thunders and lightnings says to you, "Have mercy"; he who clothes the sky with clouds asks a rag from you. It is enough for you that the poor supplicate you as if you were God. Give, pity, have mercy, so that you may be pitied.

But you are not willing even to raise your eyebrows, and when entreated you do not relent. Give them what is theirs, before the reckoning comes; give them what is theirs, which you are about to receive back before long. They have a king as father; give them what is theirs, and receive from their father freedom from care. What freedom is this? Insofar as you have done for one of these, my least brothers, you have done for me. For one who goes to a beggar and a poor man not only erases the bond of sin but also receives a promissory note, the voice that says, "He who gives to a poor man lends to God." Let us lend alms to God, so that we may receive from him the return of philanthropy. But oh, what a most wise saying! He who pities a poor man lends to God. Why then did it not say, "He who pities a poor man gives to God," but "lends"? Scripture knows our greed; it has observed that our insatiability, looking toward greed, seeks increase, and for this reason it did not simply say, "He who pities a poor man gives to God," lest you think the giving and the reward are simple; but, "He who pities a poor man lends to God," so that the lover of gain, hearing the name of a loan, may give himself over to pity. He who pities a poor man lends to God. If God borrows from us, then he is our debtor.

What then do you want: to have him as judge, or as debtor? The debtor respects the lender; but the judge is not shamed by the one being judged. 3. It is necessary, brothers, also to see in another way why God said, "He who gives to the poor lends to me." Since he saw our greed inclining toward excess, as I said earlier, and that nowhere does the one who has money wish to lend without security (for the lender demands either a mortgage, or pledges, or a guarantor, and through these three securities he entrusts his own money, or accepts sureties, as I said earlier, or a mortgage of property); since therefore God knows that without these no one lends, nor looks to philanthropy, but looks only to profit; and the poor man is bereft of all these, having no mortgage (for he possesses nothing), bringing no pledges (for he is stripped bare), providing no guarantor (for he is distrusted because of his poverty); when he saw him endangered by his poverty, and the one who has money through

inhumanity, he placed himself in the middle, as a surety for the poor man and as a pledge for the lender. "Do you distrust this man," he says, "because of his poverty? Trust me because of my abundance." He saw the poor man and took pity; he saw the poor man and did not overlook him, but gave himself as a pledge for the one who had nothing, and stood by the needy out of great goodness. "He who pities a poor man lends to God. Take courage," he says, "you are lending to me. And what do I gain so much by lending to you? I give you a hundredfold and eternal life. When will you repay me these things? I demand the terms, wishing to confirm the contract. Give me the time of the repayment; set the deadline for the receipt. Listen attentively: when and where does the one who borrowed through the poor repay the debt to you?" When the Son of Man sits upon his throne of glory, he will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left, and he will say to those on the right: "Come, the blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." For what? "Because I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was naked, and you clothed me; I was in prison, and you came to me." Then those who served well in due time, looking to their own weakness and to the worthiness of the borrower, say: "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink, you on whom the eyes of all hope? Or when did we see you in such need? When did we do these things?" "Insofar as," he says, "you have done them to one of these least ones, you have done them to me.

Is the saying not true, that "He who gives alms to a poor man lends to God"? But just as to those on the right, on account of their philanthropy, he showed the kingdom as a gift, so also to those on the left, on account of their barrenness, he threatened punishment: "Depart from me, you accursed ones, into the outer darkness, which is prepared for the devil and his angels." Why? For what reason? Because they were hungry, and you did not give me to eat. He did not say, "Because you committed fornication, because you committed adultery, because you stole, because you bore false witness, because you perjured yourselves." And even if these things are admittedly also present, yet they are inferior to inhumanity and lack of compassion. Why then, O Lord, do you not bring any of the other things to mind? "I do not judge," he says, "the sin, but the inhumanity; I do not judge those who have sinned, but those who have not repented. I condemn you for inhumanity, because, having so great and so powerful a remedy of salvation, namely almsgiving, you neglected so great a benefaction. I therefore reproach inhumanity as the root of all evil and all impiety, and I praise philanthropy as the root of all good things, and I threaten some with eternal fire, while to others I give the kingdom of heaven, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom are the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.