What the Gospel of the unjust steward says is also an image of this matter. He says to the debtor [of one hundred measures of wheat], Take your bill, sit down, and write eighty, and the other things that are related. You see that he said to each man, Take your bill. It is evident from this that the documents of sin are ours, but God writes documents of justice. The apostle says, For you are an epistle written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in the fleshly tables of the heart.^[1] You have in yourselves documents of God and documents of the Holy Spirit. If you transgress, you yourself write in yourselves the handwriting of sin. Notice that at any time when you have approached the cross of Christ and the grace of baptism, your handwriting is fastened to the cross and blotted out in the fountain of baptism. Do not rewrite later what has been blotted out or repair what has been destroyed. Preserve only the documents of God in yourself. Let only the scripture of the Holy Spirit remain in you.

Why did the Lord Jesus Christ present this parable to us? He surely did not approve of that cheat of a servant who cheated his master, stole from him and did not make it up from his own pocket. On top of that, he also did some extra pilfering. He caused his master further loss, in order to prepare a little nest of quiet and security for himself after he lost his job. Why did the Lord set this before us? It is not because that servant cheated but because he exercised foresight for the future. When even a cheat is praised for his ingenuity, Christians who make no such provision blush. I mean, this is what he added, Behold, the children of this age are more prudent than the children of light. They perpetrate frauds in order to secure their future. In what life, after all, did that steward insure himself like that? What one was he going to quit when he bowed to his master’s decision? He was insuring himself for a life that was going to end. Would you not insure yourself for eternal life?

He told another parable of the steward, who was accused in the presence of his master. The shrewdness of this unjust steward was praised in the presence of his master. He unjustly wasted the initial treasures and then unjustly and cunningly cancelled the later debts. He was praised because he acquired what was to be his by what was not his, namely, his friends and supporters. Through what was not his, Adam got something that was not his, namely, thorns and pains.^[1] O children of Adam, buy for yourselves those things that do not pass away, by means of those temporary things that are not yours!

Mammon is the Hebrew word for riches, just as in Punic the word for profit is mammon. What are we to do? What did the Lord command? Make yourselves friends with the mammon of iniquity, so that they too, when you begin to fail, may receive you into eternal shelters. It is easy, of course, to understand that we must give alms and a helping hand to the needy, because Christ receives it in them. . . . We can understand that we have to give alms and that we must not really pick and choose to whom we give them, because we are unable to sift through people’s hearts. When you give alms to all different types of people, then you will reach a few who deserve them. You are hospitable, and you keep your house ready for strangers. Let in the unworthy, in case the worthy might be excluded. You cannot be a judge and sifter of hearts.

You know that many high standing people renege on repayment of a loan. They are either resistant with a bad attitude or unable to pay because of poverty, as it often happens. In the case of the Lord of all, there is no room for thinking this. On the contrary, the loan is proof against loss. He guarantees to return in good time one hundred percent of what was deposited, and he keeps life everlasting in reserve for us. In the future, what excuse will we have if we are negligent and fail to gain a hundredfold in place of the little we have, the future in place of the present, the eternal in place of the temporary? What excuse will we have if we heedlessly lock our money behind doors and barricades, and we prefer to leave it lying idle? Instead, we should make it available to the needy now, so that in the future we may count on support from them. Remember that Scripture says, Make friends with ill-gotten gains so that, when you go down in the world, they may welcome you into their eternal dwellings.

Anyone may readily learn the meaning and view of the Savior’s words from what follows. He said, If you have not been faithful in what is another’s, who will give you what is your own? We again say that what is another’s is the wealth we possess. We were not born with riches, but on the contrary, naked. We can truly affirm in the words of Scripture that we neither brought anything into the world, nor can carry anything out.^[1] . . .

Let those of us who possess earthly wealth open our hearts to those who are in need. Let us show ourselves faithful and obedient to the laws of God. Let us be followers of our Lord’s will in those things that are from the outside and not our own. Let us do this so that we may receive what is our own, that holy and admirable beauty that God forms in people’s souls, making them like himself, according to what we originally were.

The Lord says, No servant can serve two masters. If we want to serve both God and money, it will do us no good. What good does it do a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?^[1] This world and the world to come are enemies. This one means adultery, corruption, greed and deceit, while the other gives them up. We cannot be friends of both. To get the one, we must give the other up. We think that it is better to hate what is here, for it is trivial, temporary and perishable and to value what is there: things good and imperishable. Yes, if we do the will of Christ, we will find rest, but if not, nothing will save us from eternal punishment if we fail to heed his commands. 2

No servant can serve two masters,^[1] not because there are two, but the Lord is One. Although there are those who serve mammon, he still does not possess any rights to sovereignty, but they impose on themselves the chains of slavery. Power is not just, but slavery is unjust. He says, Make for yourself friends of the mammon of iniquity, so that by giving to the poor, we may match the grace of the angels and all the saints for ourselves. He does not rebuke the steward. By this, we learn that he does not belong to the Lord himself but to the riches of others. Although he has sinned, he is praised because he sought help for himself in the future through the Lord’s mercy. He fittingly mentions the mammon of iniquity, because greed tempted our dispositions with different enticements of wealth, so that we were willing to be the slaves of riches.

Being lovers of money, they repeatedly did not judge matters before them according to what was agreeable to the laws of God. On the contrary, they judged inequitably and in opposition to God’s will. . . .

Since it says that the Pharisees were lovers of money, they derided Jesus for directing them by his healthful doctrines to praiseworthy conduct and making them want saintly glories. He tells them that it was their duty to sell their possessions and distribute them to the poor. They would then possess in heaven a treasure that could not be stolen, purses that could not be harmed, and wealth that would not have to be abandoned.

Let us see the cause of their wickedness. The passion of greed possessed and tyrannized their heart. Their mind was in subjection even against its will. It was humbled under the power of wickedness and bound as it were by inevitable bonds. . . .

The Savior of all spoke many things to them but saw that they would not change from their crafty purposes and passions. They preferred rather to abide in their innate folly. He began to correct them sternly, calling them by the very occasion. He shows that they are hypocrites and liars in wait among the altars. They are eager for the glory due to righteous and good people, but in reality, they are not like these. They are not eager to receive the approval of God.

He says that Moses and the company of the holy prophets announced beforehand the meaning of my mystery to the inhabitants of earth. The law declares by shadows and types that I should even endure the death of the flesh to save the world and by rising from the dead abolish corruption. The prophets also spoke words meaning the same as the writings of Moses. He says, It is not strange or not known before, that you reject my words and despise everything that would benefit you. The word of prophecy concerning you and me extends until the holy Baptist John. From the days of John, the kingdom of heaven is preached, and everyone takes it by force.^[1] The kingdom of heaven here means justification by faith, the washing away of sin by holy baptism, and sanctification by the Spirit. It also means worshiping in the Spirit, the service that is superior to shadows and types, the honor of the adoption of children, and the hope of the glory about to be given to the saints.

The Law and the Prophets reached as far as John did, but the Messiah is the beginning of the New Testament. Through baptism, the Lord assumed the justice of the Old Testament in order to receive the perfection of the anointing and to give it in its fullness and entirety to his disciples. He ended John’s baptism and the law at the same time. He was baptized in justice, because he was sinless, but he baptized in grace because all others were sinners. Through his justice, he dispensed from the law, and through his baptism, he abolished baptism [of John].

The Creator promised that old things would pass away because he said that new things were to arise. Christ marked the date of that passing, saying, The law and the prophets were until John. He set up John as a boundary stone between the one order and the other, of old things thereafter coming to an end, and new things beginning. The apostle necessarily, in Christ revealed after John, also invalidates the old things while validating the new. His concern is for the faith of no other god than the Creator under whose authority it was even prophesied that the old things were to pass away.

He says that the kingdom of heaven is preached. The Baptist stood in the middle saying, Prepare the way of the Lord.^[1] He has also shown that he is already near and, as it were, within the doors, even the true Lamb of God who bears the sin of the world. Whoever hears and loves the sacred message takes it by force. This means that he uses all his eagerness and strength in his desire to enter within the hope. He says in another place, The kingdom of heaven is taken by violence, and the violent seize upon it.^[2]

Who are we to say that someone commits adultery in taking another woman after he puts away his wife, and that another who, in doing this, does not commit adultery? The Gospel says that everyone who performs such an act commits adultery. If everyone who marries another woman after the dismissal of his wife commits adultery, this includes the one who puts away his wife without the cause of immorality and the one who puts away his wife for this reason.

He had above proposed that the kingdom of God should be preached. When he had said that one tittle cannot fall from the law, he added, Everyone who puts away his wife, and marries another, commits adultery. The apostle rightly admonishes, saying that this is a great sacrament concerning Christ and the church.^[1] You find a marriage that doubtlessly was joined by God, when he himself says, No man comes to me, unless my Father who sent me has drawn him.^[2] He alone could join this marriage. Solomon mystically said, A wife will be prepared for a man by God.^[3] The man is Christ, and the wife is the church that is a wife in love and a virgin in innocence. Do not let him whom God has drawn to the Son be separated by persecution,^[4] distracted by extravagance, ravaged by philosophy, tainted by Manichaeus, perverted by Arius, or infected by Sabellius.^[5] God has joined; let not a Jew separate. All who desire to defile the truth of faith and wisdom are adulterers. . . . Come, Lord Jesus, to find your bride not tainted or polluted. She has not defiled your house or disregarded your commandments. Let her say to you, I found him whom my soul loved.^[6] Let her lead you into the house of wine. Wine makes glad the heart of man.^[7] Let the Spirit saturate her. Let her recognize the mystery and speak the prophecy.^[8]

The rich man, in purple splendor, is not accused of being greedy or of carrying off the property of another, or of committing adultery, or, in fact, of any wrongdoing. The evil alone of which he is guilty is pride. Most wretched of men, you see a member of your own body lying there outside at your gate, and have you no compassion? If the laws of God mean nothing to you, at least take pity on your own situation and be in fear, for perhaps you might become like him. Give what you waste to your own member. I am not telling you to throw away your wealth. What you throw out, the crumbs from your table, offer as alms.

Lazarus was lying at the gate in order to draw attention to the cruelty paid to his body and to prevent the rich man from saying, I did not notice him. He was in a corner. I could not see him. No one announced him to me. He lay at the gate. You saw him every time you went out and every time you came in. When your crowds of servants and clients were attending you, he lay there full of ulcers.

Cut off from compassion and care, he would have gladly gathered the worthless morsels that fell from the rich man’s table to satisfy his hunger. A severe and incurable disease also tormented him. Yes, it says that even the dogs licked his sores and did not injure him yet sympathized with him and cared for him. Animals relieve their own sufferings with their tongues, as they remove what pains them and gently soothe the sores. The rich man was crueler than the dogs, because he felt no sympathy or compassion for him but was completely unmerciful.

Jesus kept quiet about the rich man’s name and mentioned the name of the poor man. The rich man’s name was thrown around, but God kept quiet about it. The other’s name was lost in silence, and God spoke it. Please do not be surprised. God just read out what was written in his book. . . . You see, God who lives in heaven kept quiet about the rich man’s name, because he did not find it written in heaven. He spoke the poor man’s name, because he found it written there, indeed he gave instructions for it to be written there.

There was a certain poor man, named Lazarus. The meaning of Lazarus’s name is . . . one who has been helped. He is not a helper but one who has been helped. He was a poor man, and in his poverty, the Lord came to his assistance.

I said, What are the fire, the gulf, or the other things which are mentioned, if they are not what they are said to be?

It seems to me, she [Macrina] said, that the Gospel wishes, through each of these details, to indicate some opinions concerning what we are seeking in connection with the soul. The patriarch says to the rich man, ‘You had your share of goods during your life in the flesh.’ He also says concerning the beggar, ‘This man fulfilled his duty by his experience of hardship during his life.’ By the gulf separating the one from the other, Scripture seems to me to set forth an important belief. . . . This, in my opinion, is the gulf, which is not an earthly abyss, that the judgment between the two opposite choices of life creates. Once one has chosen the pleasure of this life and has not remedied this bad choice by a change of heart, he produces for himself a place empty of good hereafter. He digs this unavoidable necessity for himself like some deep and trackless pit.

It seems to me that Scripture uses the ‘bosom of Abraham,’ in which the patient sufferer finds rest, as a symbol of the good state of the soul. This patriarch was the first person recorded to have chosen the hope of things to come in preference to the enjoyment of the moment. Deprived of everything he had in the beginning of his life, living among strangers, he searched for a future prosperity through present affliction. We use the word bosom when referring figuratively to a part of the outline of the sea. It seems to me that Scripture uses the word bosom as a symbol of the immeasurable goals toward which those who sail virtuously through life will come to when having departed from life. They anchor their souls in this good bosom as in a quiet harbor.

I think that we have proved that Christ did not object to the riches of the rich man but to his impiety, infidelity, pride and cruelty. . . .

The rich must not start saying that I have agreed to be their advocate. They felt afraid, after all, when reminded of the gospel. When they heard about the rich man hurled into the pains of hell, they felt afraid. I have reassured them. They do not need to fear riches but vices. They should not fear wealth but greed. They should not be afraid of goods but of greed. Let them possess wealth like Abraham, and let them possess it with faith. Let them have it, possess it and not be possessed by it.

But until the perishable body

You will raise up, O God, and refashion,

What mansion of rest is made ready

For the soul that is pure and unsullied?

It shall rest in the patriarch’s bosom

As did Lazarus, hedged round with flowers,

Whom Dives beheld from a distance

While he burned in the fires everlasting. HYMN

This place, despised and spurned

By the denizens of paradise,

Those who burn in Gehenna

hungrily desire;

Their torment doubles

At the sight of its fountains,

They quiver violently

As they stand on the opposite side;

The rich man, too, begs for succor

But there is no one to wet his tongue,

For fire is within them,

While the water is opposite them. HYMNS

From the words of Scripture, we gather that the soul suffers from the burning heat not only through its sense of sight but also by actually experiencing the pain. We know from Christ’s words that the rich man was burned in hell. His prayer to Abraham declares that his soul was held in fire. He says, Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue. I am tormented in this flame. Since Christ describes the condemned sinner Dives surrounded by the flames of hell, no one with understanding would deny that fire holds fast the souls of the wicked.

The Lord compared the priests of the people with him who was clothed in purple. Nothing is more honored than purple clothing. He compared the disciples of the cross with Lazarus. There were none more lowly than Lazarus was. He revealed the name of his beloved ones through Lazarus, his beloved one. He also wished to reveal the name of his enemies through the words, If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets. It is not the case that all those living are alive, or that all those buried are dead.

See, the more the rich man lived sumptuously, the more Lazarus was humbled! The more Lazarus was made low, the greater was his crown. Why should he have seen Abraham above all the just, and Lazarus in his bosom? He saw him because Abraham loved the poor and so that we might learn that we cannot hope for pardon at the end, unless the fruits of pardon can be seen in us. If Abraham, who was friendly to strangers and had mercy on Sodom, was not able to have mercy on the one who did not show pity to Lazarus, how can we hope that there will be pardon for us? That man called him my father, and Abraham called him my son, but he was not able to help him. Remember, my son, that you received good things during your life and Lazarus evil things.

Send Lazarus. As I see the matter, the rich man’s actions spring not from new pain but from ancient envy. This hell does not kindle his jealousy as much as Lazarus’s possession of heaven. People find it a serious evil and unbearable fire to see in happiness those whom they once held in contempt. The rich man’s ill will does not leave him, although he already endures its punishment. He does not ask to be led to Lazarus but wants Lazarus to be led to him. O rich man, loving Abraham cannot send to the bed of your tortures Lazarus whom you did not condescend to admit to your table. Your respective fortunes have now been reversed. You look at the glory of him whose misery you once spurned. He who wondered at you in your glory sees your tortures.

Remember, son, that you received good things in your life, and Lazarus likewise bad things. He assigns pain in return for riches, refreshment in return for poverty, flames in return for purple and joy in return for nakedness. The equal balance of the scales will be maintained. The standard of measurement will not be proved false that says, The measure you give will be the measure you get.^[1] The reason he refuses to show mercy to the rich man in his pain is that while he lived the rich man neglected to show mercy. The reason why he ignored the rich man’s pleas in his torment is that he ignored the poor man’s pleas on earth.

Why then, rich man, do you desire too late in hell what you never hoped for while you were enjoying your luxuries? Are you not the one who ignored the person lying at your gate? Are you not the one who in your disdain for the poor man made fun of Moses and the prophets? You refused to hold faith with a neighbor in his poverty; now you do not enjoy his good times.^[1] . . .

We should not hold faith with a poor neighbor in such a way that we hope riches are coming to him in due course, and so we keep faith with him in order to hold them with him. That is not the way at all. What is the way is in line with our Lord’s instruction, Make friends for yourselves with the mammon of iniquity, so that they too may receive you in the eternal dwellings.^[2] There are poor people here who have no dwellings where they themselves can receive you. Make friends of them with the mammon of iniquity, the profits that iniquity calls profits. Since there are profits that justice calls profits, they are in God’s treasury. . . .

Whoever receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward. Whoever gives one of my little ones a cup of cold water simply in the name of a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will not lose his reward.^[3] He holds faith with a neighbor in his poverty, and therefore he will enjoy his good things.

Your father is Abraham. How can you say, Send him to my father’s house? You have not forgotten your father. You have not forgotten that your father destroyed you. Since he was your father, you have five brothers: sight, smell, taste, hearing and touch. These are the brothers to whom formerly you were enslaved. Since they were the brothers you loved, you could not love your brother Lazarus. Naturally you could not love him as brother, because you loved them. Those brothers have no love for poverty. Your sight, your sense of smell, your taste, and your sense of touch were your brothers. These brothers of yours loved wealth, and they had no eye for poverty. I have five brothers, that he may testify to them. They are the brothers who sent you into these torments. They cannot be saved unless they die. Lest they too come into this place of torments. Why do you want to save those brothers who have no love for poverty? Brothers must dwell with their brother.

He and his brothers were in the habit of making fun of the prophets. I imagine and have no doubt at all that he talked with his brothers about the prophets. He talked about their urging us to do good and forbidding us to do wrong, and their frightening us with torments to come and promising rewards to come. He made fun of all this and said with his brothers, What life is there after death? What does rottenness in the grave remember? What do ashes feel? Everyone is carried there and buried. Whoever came back from there and was heard? That is the reason, as he remembered his words, that he wanted Lazarus to go back to his brothers, so that now they would not say, Whoever came back from there? This also has a very suitable and proper answer. This man, you see, seems to have been a Jew. That is why he said, Father Abraham. He got an excellent and fitting answer. If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if one should rise from the dead. This was fulfilled with the Jews, because they did not listen to Moses and the prophets, nor did they believe Christ when he rose. Had he not foretold this to them before, If you believed Moses, you would also believe me?^[1]

If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, they will not believe even if someone rises from the dead. If you believed Moses, you would believe me also, for he wrote of me.^[1] Do you now see what Abraham means? You do well to wait for him who will rise from the dead, but Moses and the prophets proclaim that he is the One who is going to rise from the dead. Christ, in fact, speaks in them. If you hear them, you will also hear him.