The Sermon on the Mount (Bossuet)/Day 33
Thirty-third Day
OF AVARICE AND RICHES AGAIN.
We are not to put confidence in possessions. — Luke xii. 15, 16, seq.
LET us add to the foregoing what St Luke says: — ' Take heed and beware of all covetousness.’ Uproot so great an evil to the last fibre: suffer not even the least feeling of such a kind to remain within you.
However rich you may be, something will always be wanting to you — either of happiness, or of health, or of good fortune, or of greatness. Rejoice in this deficiency: accept with gladness and consolation this portion of poverty that has fallen to your lot. Love it, as a mark of Christianity and an imitation of Christ. Love your need and your nakedness. If you are a Religious, renounce all spirit of ownership; and rejoice in the Lord that you not only possess nothing, but are incapable by your very condition of possessing anything.
'— for a man’s life doth not consist in the abundance of things that he possesseth.’ In vain do you say I have enough to live upon: you will live none the longer because of it. And in vain may you think I have nothing to fear — I possess all things in abundance: — ' Thou fool, this night do they require thy soul of thee.’ Take note how death is here explained: ' thy soul is required? It is not your own: your very life is only lent to you: an account of it will be demanded. And when? ' This night.’ You will be found to-morrow morning dead in your bed; and all these goods that you have been boasting of will not have helped you in the least, or have lengthened your life by a single second.
'What shall I do? ’ asks this rich man, in the midst of his abundance. Yes: here is the chief effect of great riches: — care and uneasiness. What shall I do with them? Where put them? How protect them? 'I will pull down my barns and will build greater.. and I will say to my soul: "Soul... take thy rest. Eat, drink and make good cheer.” ’ That is, ' refuse nothing to the senses, and repose on the thought of your abundance.’ And whilst you are taking your ease, with the sense of security bred by riches, they will snatch from you — not the riches themselves — but that very soul that you were inviting to enjoy them! ' And whose,’ then, ' shall those things be that thou hast provided? ’
'So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, but is not rich towards God:' — who does not, in short, find his sole treasure in Him. Such is his destiny — such his condition — such the end of his life: — to this alone do all his riches tend.
And now, after all these reflections, go back to the very words used by the Son of God Himself: read them over and over; ponder them yet again: you will find them infinitely more powerful in themselves than all that may be said or thought about them to help you in realising their force.