I just picked up a collection of sermons by St. Basil the Great from the Popular Patristic Series put out by St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press.  This is the first collection of St. Basil’s work particularly dedication to Social Justice in the English language; hence the title On Social Justice.  In the coming weeks, I will be working my way through these sermons, starting with “To the Rich,” and blogging my thoughts as they relate to issues of homelessness, debt, fiscal cliffs, and retirement savings.  I welcome any participants as I begin what feels like a sustained conversation on wealth and poverty.  As a teaser, here’s a paragraph from “To the Rich:”

 

“Look, the Lord’s offer shows just how distant you are from true love! For if what you say is true that you have kept from your youth the commandment of love and have given to everyone the same as to yourself, then how did you come by this abundance of wealth? Care for the needy requires expenditure of wealth: when all share alike, disbursing their possessions among themselves, they each receive a small portion for their individual needs. Thus, those who love their neighbor as themselves possess nothing more than their neighbor; yet surely, you seem to have great possessions! How else can this be, but that you have preferred your own enjoyment to the consolation of the many? For the more you abound in wealth, the more you lack in love.

 

If you had truly loved your neighbor, it would have occurred to you long ago to divest yourself of this wealth. But now your possessions are more a part of you than the members of your own body, and separation from them is as painful as the amputation of one of your limbs…Had you determined long ago to give to those in need, how would it be unbearable now to distribute whatever is left.”