st john chrysostom

On Wealth and Poverty

Translated and Introduced by

Catharine P. Roth

Foreword by

Hank Hanegraaff

ST VLADIMIR’S SEMINARY PRESS

YONKERS, NEW YORK

2020

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020946850

Translation copyright © 1981 by

st vladimir’s seminary press

575 Scarsdale Road, Yonkers, NY 10707

1-800-204-2665

www.svspress.com

Foreword copyright © 2020 by

Hank Hanegraaff

President of the Christian Research Institute

isbn 978-0-88141-673-2 (paper)

isbn 978-0-88141-674-9 (electronic)

issn 1555-5755

All Rights Reserved

st vladimir’s seminary press

Popular Patristics Series

Number 9

The Popular Patristics Series published by St Vladimir’s Seminary Press provides readable and accurate translations of a broad range of early Christian literature to a wide audience—from students of Christian history to lay Christians reading for spiritual benefit. Recognized scholars in their fields provide short but comprehensive and clear introductions to the material. The texts include classics of Christian literature, thematic volumes, collections of homilies, letters on spiritual counsel, and poetical works from a variety of geographical contexts and historical backgrounds. The mission of the series is to mine the riches of the early Church and to make these treasures available to all.

Series Editor

Bogdan Bucur

Associate Editor

Ignatius Green

Series Editor

1999–2020

John Behr

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

first sermon

On Lazarus and the Rich Man

second sermon

On Lazarus and the Rich Man

third sermon

On Lazarus and the Rich Man

fourth sermon

On Lazarus and the Rich Man

sixth sermon

On Lazarus and the Rich Man

seventh sermon

On Lazarus and the Rich Man

Foreword

You hold in your hand a treasure. A pearl of greatest value in the treasure chest of Orthodoxy. To absorb its message is to be eternally transformed—to be assured that whatever your status in this life, you will experience the quintessence of wealth in the life that is to come. This is of ultimate importance, for as the golden-mouthed expositor says, “As a little drop is to the boundless sea, so much a thousand years are to that future glory and enjoyment.”1

In this literary pearl, St John Chrysostom takes Christ’s famed parable of the rich man and Lazarus and attempts to plumb its immeasurable riches—knowing all the while that “no one will be able to empty all its wealth. Such is the nature of this abundance: the deeper you dig, the more divine thoughts will gush forth, for it is a never-failing spring.”2

The beauty of this patristic classic is that by absorbing its bounty, you may well arrive at a true valuation of things. St John removes the masks and exposes the rich man as poor and the poor Lazarus as the most affluent of all. For just as actors enter the stage with the masks of kings and generals, so poverty and wealth mask reality. The man who plays a king often turns out to be somebody who sells figs in the market. In like fashion, when the rich man’s mask is removed, when he dies and ...