The love of money is the root of all evil
The patriarch of Alexandria, Saint John the Merciful, knew a certain miserly and money-loving bishop. Once, as he was going to the hospital, he took him along and, knowing that the bishop had money, said to him:
— Father Troilus, now it is thy turn to comfort these poor men with alms.
Troilus did not wish to give alms, but he was ashamed before Saint John and gave all that he had to the poor. And he had thirty pounds of gold. When he returned home, he greatly regretted it and fell into such despondency that he did not come to John's table. It was revealed to Saint John by the Holy Spirit why Troilus was despondent; he took thirty pounds of gold and came to him:
— I have brought thee that gold which at my request thou gavest away at the hospital. Take it, and give me a writing that thou renouncest that reward which was prepared for thee for the giving of alms.
Money-loving Troilus forgot shame and the fear of God. As soon as he saw the gold, he was straightway made well. And he wrote John this note: “O Lord Who lovest mankind! In my stead give the reward to John, patriarch of Alexandria, who returned to me the thirty pounds of gold given away in alms.”
John took the note, returned home, stood before the icons and prayed in secret that the Lord would heal Troilus of the love of money.
The next night Troilus saw in a dream a magnificent palace. At the entrance was written in letters of gold: “The dwelling and eternal rest of Bishop Troilus.” He rejoiced, but suddenly someone appeared to the servants and in the name of the Creator of the world commanded them to erase the golden inscription and in its place to write: “The dwelling and eternal rest of John, archbishop of Alexandria, who purchased it for the price of thirty pounds of gold.”
Troilus awoke in fear; repentance was poured into his heart, he understood that for thirty pounds of gold he had lost the Kingdom of Heaven, and he ran in haste to John. He told him everything and asked forgiveness. John instructed him with many counsels and teachings, after which Troilus became a lover of the poor and merciful.
The ascetic fathers tell of a certain gardener who tended his own garden and used the money he earned for works of mercy, keeping for his own food only a small part. Time passed. Once Satan put a thought into him: lay up money, that in old age and in sickness thou mayest use it as need requires. The gardener began to lay money aside and soon filled an earthen vessel with the coins he had gathered.
Time passed, and the gardener fell ill — his leg festered; the money he had gathered he spent upon physicians, but they could do nothing for him. Once an experienced physician visited him and said: “If thou dost not consent to have thy leg taken off, the gangrene will spread through thee entirely,” — and he appointed a day for the operation. On the night before the operation the gardener came to himself, repented of what he had done, and with sighs and weeping lamented: “Remember, O Lord, the alms which I gave while working in the garden, and the hand of help which I stretched out to the sick.” As he spoke these words, an angel of the Lord appeared to him and said: — Where is the money thou hast laid up? Where now is the ground of thy hope? The gardener understood his sin and cried out: “O Lord! I have sinned before Thee. Forgive me; from this day I shall leave off my former doing.” Then the angel touched his leg and healed it.
In the morning the physicians came to the gardener with the instruments needful for the operation and did not find the sick man at home; when they asked where he was, they were told: “Early in the morning he went to work in the garden.” The physician went thither and saw the former sick man working on the ground, and he glorified the Lord, Who in the twinkling of an eye can heal even that sick man whom the physicians cannot heal.
In Alexandria there lived a virgin, humble in appearance, who, sadly, bore only in name the grace granted by God — virginity; in truth she was greedy, wilful and a lover of money; she was more a lover of silver than a lover of Christ. Out of her property she would not have given so much as one obol in alms to a wanderer, to a poor man, to a monk, to a virgin, to a person in misfortune, nor even to the church. Despite the many admonitions of the holy fathers, the greedy virgin could not free herself from the burden of riches. The rich virgin had many kinsfolk, and she took her sister's daughter to bring up. To this newfound daughter she promised to leave all her property, but of the Kingdom of Heaven she did not think.
Such a life is one of the manifestations of the devil's temptations, when in a man, under the pretext of love for those close to him, the passion of acquisition takes up its dwelling.
The presbyter and overseer of the shelter for the poor at the house of mercy in Alexandria, Saint Macarius, purposed to heal of the sickness of greed the money-loving virgin of Alexandria who had fallen away from the virginal struggle. In his youth the holy father had known the craft of the stonecutter. Once Saint Macarius came to the rich recluse and said to her: “I have found precious stones — an emerald and a jacinth. Whether they are stolen or bought I do not know, but I know for certain that they are beyond price. The owner is selling them for five hundred pieces of silver. If thou art minded to acquire the precious stones, give me the money. The purchase will serve for thy daughter.” The virgin, who seemed to love her niece, rejoiced that she was given the means to adorn the beloved creature with jewels, fell at the feet of the holy father and begged: “Do me this kindness! Sell them to no one else.” The holy father answered: “Come with me, and thou shalt see the jewels with thine own eyes.” But the greedy virgin counted out five hundred pieces of silver and said: “I beg thee, buy them thyself, for I do not wish to meet the man who is selling them.” The money he received Saint Macarius used for the good ordering and the needs of the shelter.
After a long time the rich lender met the holy father in church and asked him: “Where are the jewels which I bought for five hundred pieces of silver?” Saint Macarius answered: “As soon as thou gavest me the money, I took it to the owner and received the precious stones; if thou desirest to see them, come with me to the shelter and thou shalt see.” The greedy virgin followed him with joy. The house of mercy founded by the holy father consisted of two storeys. On the second storey lived the women, on the first the men. As they drew near the shelter for the poor, Saint Macarius asked her: “Which wilt thou see first — the jacinth or the emerald?” “As it pleases thee,” answered the virgin. The elder led her up to the upper storey and showed her the sick women: “This is the jacinth”; then he brought her down and pointed to the paralysed men: “And this is the emerald; more precious than this thou wilt find nowhere; and if it does not please thee, I shall return thee thy money.”
The greedy virgin came out of the house of mercy put to shame, and, no sooner had she come home, was seized with sorrow that she had done a good deed not out of love for God but against her own will. After all this, coming to herself, the virgin greatly thanked the holy father for having opened her eyes.
A certain monk living in Nitria, more thrifty than greedy, forgot that our Lord Jesus Christ was betrayed for thirty pieces of silver: by embroidery he laid up a hundred gold pieces and soon died, and the gold remained. After the elder's death, five thousand fathers who struggled in that house gathered to agree how the gold that remained should be used; some of them preferred to distribute it to the poor, others chose to offer it to the church, while others thought to divide it among the kinsfolk of the dead man. But the holy fathers Macarius, Amvo, Isidore and other ascetic fathers, in whom the grace of the Holy Spirit dwelt, determined this: to bury the hundred gold pieces together with the elder, and to say to the dead man: “Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money” (Acts 8:20). This event so shook the fathers who struggled in Egypt that they held it a sin to lay aside even one gold coin. The decision handed down by the holy fathers may seem severe to us, but those who made this ruling were doers of the will of the Holy Spirit.
