Let no man
then accuse poverty as being the cause of innumerable evils, nor let him
contradict Christ, who declared it to be the perfection of virtue, saying, ‘If
you will be perfect.’ [Matthew 19:21] For this He both uttered in His words,
and showed by His acts, and taught by His disciples. Let us therefore follow
after poverty, it is the greatest good to the sober-minded.
Perhaps some
of those who hear me, avoid it as a thing of ill omen. I do not doubt it. For
this disease is great among most men, and such is the tyranny of wealth, that
they cannot even as far as words endure the renunciation of it, but avoid it as
of ill omen. Far be this from the Christian’s soul: for nothing is richer than
he who chooses poverty of his own accord, and with a ready mind.
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