Jesus spake a parable unto them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully; and he thought within himself, saying: ‘What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?’ And he said: ‘This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul: Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years: Take thine ease: eat, drink and be merry!’ But God said unto him: ‘Thou fool; this night shall thy soul be required of thee; then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?’ So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God.”

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The Lord Jesus Christ came among men to heal their souls from thieving tendencies, for these tendencies are a grave sickness of the human soul.

Does a son steal from his father? No; but a servant steals from his master. At the moment that Adam turned his spirit of sonship into a spirit of servant-hood, his hand stretched out to the forbidden fruit. Why does a man steal what is another’s? Is it because he needs it? Adam had everything, and was lacking in nothing, but even so he went to steal. Why does a man steal from a man, and a servant from a servant? Because they had first learned to steal from their masters. Men always first steal from God, and then from one another. The forefather of mankind first stretched out his hand to steal what was God’s, and then, as a result, his descendants began to steal from one another.

Men steal from God and from men, from nature and from themselves. A man steals not only with all his senses but with his heart, soul and thoughts. There is, moreover, never an act of theft in which the devil is not man’s ally. He is the prompter and instigator of all theft; he is the leader and initiator of all thieving thoughts. No thief is ever alone in the world. There are always at least two who go together to steal, and a Third sees them. Man and the devil go to steal, and God sees them. As Eve did not steal on her own, but in company with the devil, so no-one has ever carried out an act of theft alone, but always in company with the devil. The devil, though, is not just the leader and fellow-participant in the theft, but the reporter of the theft. He is not interested in the things stolen but in the destruction of a man’s soul, in dissension and hatred among men and in the destruction of the whole human race. He does not go to steal for the sake of stealing, but as a roaring lion, waIketh about, seeking whom he may devour. (I Pet 5:8). That it is the devil who arouses the soul to every evil act, and sows every tare in the soul, is made clear by the Lord Himself (Mt 13:39). With every act of theft that a man performs, the devil steals a part of his soul. The soul of a habitual thief is more and more shrunken, withered and ruined, like a lung riddled with tuberculosis.

For a man to keep himself from this thieving tendency, he must look on all he possesses as God’s and not as his. When he makes use of his possessions, he must reckon that he is using what is God’s, not his. Eating bread at his table, he must render thanks to God, for the bread is not his but God’s. For a man to be healed of the sickness of stealing, he must look on others’ possessions as God’s, and must know that when he steals from men he steals from God. Is it possible to steal from Him whose eye is ever open? For a man to chase away his wicked fellow in thieving, the sower of every evil, he must be vigilant over his soul, that the devil may not sow thieving desires and thoughts in it; and when he finds them sown there, he must apply himself at once to burning them out with the fire of prayer. Is a man not crazy who runs after the worse when he has known the better? Is a thief not crazy and ridiculous to visit another’s house at night to steal bales of cotton cloth, when he can see his friend driving up to visit him with a wagon full of gifts of silk and velvet?

The Lord Jesus, the Lover of mankind, brought with Him and opened to men innumerable and incomparable heavenly gifts, and invited them to take them openly and freely, on one condition: that they first wrest their souls away from corruptible earthly goods. Some men obeyed Him, took His gifts and enriched themselves; others, though, did not obey Him, but remained with their corruptible and stolen riches. As a warning to these latter, the Lord told the parable that is recounted in today’s Gospel:

Jesus spake a parable unto them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully; and he thought within himself, saying: ‘What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?’” He was not just rich; he had such a yield from his harvest that he did not know where to store it. Looking at his wheat-covered fields, and his orchards and vineyards whose branches were weighed down by fruit, his gardens overflowing with all kinds of vegetables and his hives full of honey, this rich man did not look towards heaven and cry out with joy: “Glory and praise to Thee, O most high and most merciful God! How great an abundance Thou hast, in Thy power and wisdom, brought forth from the black earth! Thou hast, through the sun’s rays, poured sweetness into all the fruits of the earth! Thou hast given every fruit a wonderful form and particular flavour! Thou hast rewarded me a hundredfold for my small labours! Thou hast had mercy on Thy servant, and hast poured such gifts from Thy full hands into his lap! O my most wondrous Lord, teach me to give joy to my brethren and neighbors with these Thy gifts. May they, together with me, rejoice and thankfully glorify and praise Thy holy name and Thine inexpressible goodness.”

Does he say all this? No; instead of remembering the Giver of all these gifts, he first worries about where to heap them up and keep them, like a thief who finds a bag of money in the road does not wonder where it came from or whose it is, but first worries about how to hide it. This rich man is in reality a thief. He cannot say that all this abundance has come from his own efforts. A thief takes pains over his thieving, using his skill and intelligence; he often exercises a great deal more skill and intelligence than a plowman or sower does. The rich man had done nothing, nor could he do anything, about the sun, rain, winds and earth. These are the four main elements—earth, air, fire and water—that, by God’s will, give fruit to plants and trees. This abundant fruit, then, is neither his nor the result of his futile efforts, nor his by the right of possession, for he is not the owner of the sun, the rain, the winds or the earth. This abundant fruit is the gift of God. A man appears grotesque in the eyes of all when he, receiving a gift from another, neither says “Thank you” nor pays any attention to the giver, but hastens only to hide it in a safe place. A decent beggar, on receiving a crust of black bread, thanks the giver, but this rich man does not spare a single thought or a single word to thank God for such a rich harvest, nor have a single smile of joy for such a marvel and so great a grace from God. In place of prayer and thanksgiving, hymns to God and joyfulness of heart, he is immediately seized on by worries about how to gather such gifts and bestow them in such a way that not a single grain may remain for the birds of the air or a single apple fall into the hands of his poor neighbors.

And he said: “This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.” See here the great labours of a man without understanding! Instead of striving to kill the old man in himself and raise up the new man, he invests all his efforts in the pulling down of his old granaries, barns and farms and building new ones. If his harvest is as abundant the following year, he will again have to labour to extend his old granaries or build yet more. And so his granaries will, from year to year, become larger and newer, and his soul will become narrower and older, and his old grain will rot away like his soul. He will be surrounded by envy, and curses will be heaped on him, for poor men will look with envy on his riches, and the hungry will curse him for his hardness and selfishness. And so his wealth will bring ruin to him and to his neighbors. His soul will be destroyed by hard-heartedness and selfishness, and those of his neighbors by envy and cursing. See how a man without understanding can use God’s gift to both his own and others’ ruin. God gave him his riches to be blessing and salvation both to him and his neighbors, but he made use of them to bring a curse on himself and others.

Saint John Chrysostom advises all who are open to advice: “Have you eaten your fill? Remember the hungry. Have you quenched your thirst? Remember the thirsty. Are you warm enough? Remember the frozen. Do you live in a richly-furnished house? Bring the homeless into it. Have you made merry at a party? Bring merriment to the sad and sorrowful. Have you been honoured as a rich man? Visit and relieve those in need. Have you come out joyful from your master? Make sure all your servants are joyful. If you are merciful and indulgent towards them, you will yourself be shown mercy when your soul leaves your body.”

It is said of two great ascetics in the Egyptian desert that they prayed to God to reveal to them whether there was anyone in the world who served Him better than they did. And this was indeed revealed to them: they were told to go to a certain place and to a certain man to find out what they wanted to know. They came to the place revealed to them, and found a simple man, Eucharistos by name, who kept cattle. The ascetics, seeing nothing remarkable about this man, asked him how he tried to fulfil God’s will. After long hesitation, Eucharistos told them that he divided all that he earned from his cattle into three parts: he gave one to the poor and needy, one he used for entertaining guests and the third he kept for himself and his chaste wife. Hearing this, the ascetics praised his benevolence and returned home. See how much greater and more pleasing to God charity is than strict asceticism. But this greedy rich man described in the Gospel had no thought for God, his soul or charity. His one thought was how to extend his barns and how to gather all the fruits from his lands. What, though, will he do when he has done all this? Let him tell us himself:

“And I will say to my soul: ‘Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years: Take thine ease: eat, drink and be merry!’” How can the soul eat and drink? The body eats and drinks the harvest of the lands, not the soul. The rich man is thinking of his body when he speaks of his soul. His soul has so completely grown into his body and become one with it that he no longer knows it by its name. No clearer expression could be found for the destructive triumph of the body over the soul. Imagine a lamb in a dog’s den, trapped and forgotten in this den. The dog hurries around and drags food into the den for itself. When it has filled its den with meat, offal and bones from a variety of carrion, it calls to the hungry lamb: “Now, my dear lamb, eat, drink and be merry; here’s food for many days!” Having said this, the dog will fall to, but the lamb will remain hungry and die of hunger. This rich man behaves in the same way with his soul as the dog does with the hungry lamb.

The soul is not fed with food that decays, but he offers it such food. The soul yearns for its heavenly homeland, where its granaries and the source of its life are to be found, but he nails it to the earth and vows it that he will keep it thus nailed down for many years. The soul rejoices in God, but he never has God’s name on his lips. The soul is nourished by justice and mercy, but it does not occur to him to use his riches to bring justice and mercy to the needy, the poor and the deformed around his house. The soul desires pure, heavenly love, but he pours oil on the flames of the passions, and censes the soul with the filthy smoke that they produce. The soul seeks its adornment: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance (Gal 5:22-23); he, though, decks it with drunkenness, gluttony, adultery and vanity. How can a vegetarian lamb not die in the company of a carnivorous dog? How can the soul not die when pressed down by the heavy cadaver of the body?

Not all the rich man’s folly, though, consists in his offering meat to a lamb or, rather, bodily food to the soul, but also in his making himself the lord of time and of life. We see that be prepares himself food and drink for many years. Hear, then, God’s reply:

“But God said unto him: ‘Thou fool; this night shall thy soul be required of thee; then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?’” Thus spoke the Lord of life and of the world, the Commander of time and death, in whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind. (Job 12:10). You foolish man, why do you not think with your mind instead of with your belly? As it was not in your power to determine the day of your birth, neither have you control over the day of your death. The Lord lit the candles of your earthly life when it seemed good to Him, and He will extinguish them when He so determines. As your riches could not hasten the hour of your coming into the world, so they cannot delay the hour of your leaving it. Do dawn and dusk depend on you? Does the wind’s blowing and dying down depend on you? To the same degree does the span of your earthly life depend on you. And also your granaries and cellars, and your sheepfolds and enclosures. All this belongs to God, as your soul does. Every day and every hour, God can take what is His from you and give it to others.

All is His during your lifetime, and it will still be His after your death. Your life and your death are in His hands. Why, then, do you speak of many years to come? Your life is counted to the minute, O man, and your last minute could tick away this very day. Do not, therefore, take thought for the morrow: what you will eat or drink, or what you wear; but take thought, far more thought, for the soul with which you come before God, your Creator and Lord. Take more thought for the Kingdom of God, for this is the food of your soul (Mt 6:31-3).

The Lord ended this parable with the words: So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God. How shall it be for him? He shall suddenly be parted from his riches, and his soul from his body. His riches will be given to others, his body to the earth and his soul to a place blacker than the earth, where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth. No single good work will be there to welcome him into the heavenly Kingdom that his soul might find a place there. His name will not be found written in the Book of Life, and it will neither be known nor named among the blessed! He has received his reward on earth, and God’s heavenly riches will not be revealed to his spirit.

Oh, how terrible is sudden death! When a man thinks himself to be firmly established on earth, it can suddenly open and swallow him up as it swallowed up Dathan and Abiram (Num 16:32). When a God-forgetting merrymaker makes ready to go on as such for many years, fire descends and devours him like Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19:24). When a man thinks he has well-insured himself with God and man, he will fall dead like Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:5, 10).

A sinner sustains a twofold loss from a sudden death: to himself and to his family. To himself, for he dies unrepentant, and to his family, for it stuns his kinsfolk with an unexpected blow and he leaves unfinished work behind him. Blessed are they who experience sickness before their deaths, enduring pain and suffering. Such a one is given the opportunity to look back over the whole of his life, to survey and count his sins, to repent of all the evil be has done and all the good he has not done, to weep with repentance and lament before God, cleansing his soul with tears, and to beg God for forgiveness; also to forgive all who have insulted or done evil to him during his lifetime, to bless all his friends and enemies, to remind his children to fear God, remember the hour of their death and enrich their souls betimes with faith, prayer and acts of charity.

Look how those pleasing to God, the righteous, died in the Old Testament: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and David. They were all sick before their deaths, and during their sickness the name of God did not leave their lips. They all left good testaments to their descendants and blessed them. This is the death of a righteous person. But you will say: have not many of the righteous died unprepared in battle? No; the righteous never die unprepared. They always prepare for death, and await from day to day their parting from this life. Their hearts are constantly filled with repentance and confession to God, and the glorifying of His name. The righteous do this in times of peace and prosperity; and even more in times of war, violence and temptation. Their whole life is a constant preparation for death, and so they never die unprepared.

To prepare oneself for death also means to enrich oneself in God. Only those who truly believe in God and in a life beyond this life prepare for death, for that other life. The unbelieving never prepare for death. They prepare for as long a life as possible here on earth. They are afraid of thinking about death, and make little effort to enrich themselves in God. He who prepares for death prepares for eternal life, and the nature of this preparation for eternal life is known to every Christian.

A wise man confirms his faith in God every day, and guards his heart from unbelief, doubt and malice, as a wise householder guards his vineyard from destructive midges (small flies, Ed.) and grasshoppers. A wise man exercises himself every day in the fulfilling of God’s commandments by acts of forgiveness, charity and love, and he is thus enriched in God. A wise man does not keep that which is dearest and most precious to him in granaries and corn cribs, but confides it to God’s keeping. This most precious thing is his soul. It is his greatest possession; the only thing that does not decay and die. A wise man has his accounts with the world balanced every day, and he is ready to lie down and die with the firm faith that he will live and come before the face of God.

Saint Anthony the Great says: “Reflect within yourself and say: ‘I shall not remain in this world longer than today’, and you will never sin against God.”

There is nothing more light-minded than to say: “Let me die suddenly, so that 1 may not feel my death!” Thus speak the foolish and godless. The wise and devout say: “May God’s will be done!” Better to be sick for years and to have growths and cramps from our sickness than to die unprepared and unrepentant. The pains of this world quickly pass, as do its joys. In the other world, though, there is nothing ephemeral and transitory, but all is eternal, whether torment or joy. It is therefore better to suffer a little here than there, for there the measure of both pain and joy is incomparably greater.

May God’s will be done! We pray our all-seeing God not to send sudden death on us in the midst of our sins and misdeeds, but to spare us as He spared King Hezekiah (Isa 38:1-5), and give us time for repentance. By His mercy, may He give us some indication of our approaching death, that we may hasten to do some further good and save our souls from eternal fire; that our names may be found in the Book of Life, and that our faces may be seen among the righteous in the Kingdom of Christ our God. To Him be glory and praise, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit—the Trinity consubstantial and undivided, now and forever, through all time and all eternity.

Amen.