Prologue in Sermons: May 12

Woe To the One Who Becomes Rich in Himself and Not in God

May 12

(From the Life of Saint Epiphanios.) 
 
By Archpriest Victor Guryev

The Psalmist says: “The rich have become poor and hungry, but those who seek the Lord shall not be deprived of any good thing” (Ps. 33). What do these words mean? The Prophet means that the Lord never abandons those who place their hope in Him. And we may add that they also mean this: woe to the one who grows rich in himself and not in God.

In the city where Saint Epiphanios was bishop, a famine once occurred, and there was great distress in that place. At that time there lived there a wealthy nobleman named Faustian, who possessed enormous stores of grain. He was a pagan. Epiphanios said to him: “Friend, sell me some wheat on credit, so that I may feed the starving. In time I will repay you.”

Faustian replied: “Go to your God, and He will give it to you.”

Epiphanios went to the church of the holy martyrs and all night long prayed to God with tears that He would feed the hungry. There was also there a pagan temple into which no outsider was permitted to enter, for whoever entered immediately died.

Then a voice came to Epiphanios: “Go into the pagan temple.”

Epiphanios went, and before him the doors opened by themselves. Entering the temple, he found much gold there. He took it and went to Faustian, bought all the grain he had, and fed all the hungry with it. Not only that, but the citizens of the city filled their homes with bread as well.

When Faustian had sold all his grain, he sent eleven ships to Calabria, and there he filled all the ships with wheat and grain. But as the ships were returning home, a storm overtook them about sixty miles from the city and sank everything — all the ships, all the wheat, and all the grain.

When Faustian heard this, he began to blaspheme the Most High God and Epiphanios. But of course his blasphemies did not restore his grain or his ships.

“Thus,” the account concludes, “the word of the Psalm was fulfilled: ‘The rich have become poor and hungry, but those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.’”

Yes, truly the Psalmist was right, and his words have become clear. Here indeed the rich man became poor and hungry, while those who sought the Lord were filled with every good thing. And the same always happens to those who become rich in themselves and not in God.

You see an ungodly man towering like a cedar of Lebanon, and then you pass by, and behold, he is no more. Yet this concerns only the present life. What will happen afterward to the greedy man? What will happen when he hears: “Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have prepared?” (Luke 12:20).

Only then will he understand that everything earthly that belonged to him remained on this side of the grave. Nothing remains with him except his evil deeds — a curse upon those who outlive him — and those evil deeds alone will he carry with him before the eternal judgment seat of God.

Therefore, “Come now, you rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten” (James 5:1–2). Amen.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.