It’s tough to know where to start with a corpus of literature as large and varied as that of the Christian Church Fathers. The variety starts with the time frame, which runs from the immediate post-apostolic years to roughly AD 750 (St. John Damascene), though some extend it into the Ninth Century, including those who helped root out the last resurgence of iconoclasm.
The geography is similarly varied, running from Spain to Syria. Likewise the languages where surviving writings have been found: Greek, Latin, Syriac, Coptic, Armenian and Slavic.
And the topics run the spiritual and temporal gamut. It is overwhelming.
So I just cannon-balled in, Leeroy Jenkins-style. Starting small with St. John Chrysostom’s Homilies on Eutropios, a/k/a On the Vanity of Riches. Not so by the way, St. Anthony’s Greek Orthodox Monastery (Sagom) Press is an excellent publisher of patristics, too.
Eutropios was a eunuch who briefly became the most powerful man in Constantinople, holding great influence over the weak-minded Emperor Arcadius. Eutropios also loathed the Golden-Mouthed Patriarch and conspired against him. Unfortunately for Eutropios, he’d collected many enemies on his way up. The enemies got the upper hand and he ended up dodging soldier-assassins on his way to the only place he had a prayer of being safe: Chrysostom’s church. Chrysostom didn’t bat an eye and took his old nemesis in. With difficulty, Chrysostom persuaded the soldiers to relent. And then he took the opportunity to point out to his congregants how wealth could not be relied upon. Enthralled by the political drama which had come to their doorstep, the congregants packed the house. The story goes that Chrysostom revealed Eutropios, cringing behind a podium, to help make his point.
Eutropios stayed a few days, then left the safety of the church. Exile was decreed, followed by execution. That happened after the Homilies, but the sense of sic transit was hanging in the air even then, and Chrysostom thought it was a good time to bring that to mind:
Do you not know that the present life is a sojourn in a far country? For are you a citizen? Nay you are a wayfarer. Do you understand what I say? You are not a citizen, but you are a wayfarer, and a traveller. Say not: I have this city and that. No one has a city. The city is above. Present life is but a journey. We are journeying on every day, while nature is running its course. Some there are who store up goods on the way: some who bury jewellery on the road. Now when you enter an inn do you beautify the inn? Not so, but you eat and drink and hasten to depart. The present life is an inn: we have entered it, and we bring present life to a close: let us be eager to depart with a good hope, let us leave nothing here, that we may not lose it there. When you enter the inn, what do you say to the servant? Take care where you put away our things, that you do not leave anything behind here, that nothing may be lost, not even what is small and trifling, in order that we may carry everything back to our home.
You are a wayfarer and traveller, and indeed more insignificant than the wayfarer. How so? I will tell you. The wayfarer knows when he is going into the inn, and when he is going out; for the egress as well as the regress is in his own power: but when I enter the inn, that is to say this present life, I know not when I shall go out: and it may be that I am providing myself with sustenance for a long time when the Master suddenly summons me saying You fool, for whom shall those things be which you have prepared? For on this very night your soul is being taken from you. The time of your departure is uncertain, the tenure of your possessions insecure, there are innumerable precipices, and billows on every side of you. Why do you rave about shadows? Why desert the reality and run after shadows?
I say these things, and shall not cease saying them, causing continual pain, and dressing the wounds; and this not for the sake of the fallen, but of those who are still standing. For they have departed, and their career is ended, but those who are yet standing have gained a more secure position through their calamities. What then, you say, shall we do? Do one thing only, hate riches, and love your life — cast away your goods; I do not say all of them, but cut off the superfluities. Be not covetous of other men's goods, strip not the widow, plunder not the orphan, seize not his house: I do not address myself to persons but to facts. But if any one's conscience attacks him, he himself is responsible for it, not my words. Why are you grasping where you bring ill-will upon yourself? Grasp where there is a crown to be gained. Strive to lay hold not of earth but of heaven.
There’s another passage where Chrysostom, quoting Saint Paul, uses the concept of earnest money and dowries to explain God’s salvific design, which no doubt resonated with the well-heeled in the audience:
Observe, this is the reason why He speaks beforehand with reference to this dowry; He warranted to me in the dowry the resurrection of the body —immortality. For immortality does not always follow resurrection, but the two are distinct. For many have risen, and been again laid low, like Lazarus and the bodies of the saints. But in this case it is not so, but the promise is of resurrection, immortality, a place in the joyful company of angels, the meeting of the Son of Man in the clouds, and the fulfillment of the saying so shall we ever be with the Lord, [1 Thessalonians 4:17] the release from death, the freedom from sin, the complete overthrow of destruction. Of what kind is that? Eye has not seen nor ear heard neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love Him. Do you give me good things which I know not? He says yea; only be espoused to me here, love me in this world. Wherefore do you not give me the dowry here? It will be given when you have come to my Father, when you have entered the royal palace. Did you come to me! nay I came to you. I came not that you should abide here but that I might take you and return. Seek not the dowry here: all depends on hope, and faith.
And do you give me nothing in this world? He answers. Receive an earnest that you may trust me concerning that which is to come: receive pledges and betrothal gifts. Therefore Paul says I have espoused you. [2 Corinthians 11:2] As gifts of betrothal God has given us present blessings: they are an earnest of the future; but the full dowry abides in the other world. How so? I will tell you. Here I grow old, there I grow not old; here I die, there I die not, here I sorrow, there I sorrow not; here is poverty, and disease, and intrigue, there nothing of that kind exists: here is darkness and light, there is light alone: here is intrigue, there is liberty; here is disease, there is health; here is life which has an end, there is life which has no end; here is sin, there is righteousness, and sin is banished; here is envy, there nothing of the kind exists. Give me these things one says; Nay! Wait in order that your fellow-servants also may be saved; wait I say. He who establishes us and has given us the earnest — what kind of earnest? The Holy Spirit, the supply of the Spirit. Let me speak concerning the Spirit. He gave the signet ring to the Apostles, saying take this and give it to all. Is the ring then portioned out, and yet not divided? It is so. Let me teach you the meaning of the supply of the Spirit: Peter received, and Paul also received the Holy Spirit. He went about the world, he released sinners from their sins, he restored the lame, he clothed the naked, he raised the dead, he cleansed the lepers, he bridled the devil, he strangled the demons, he held converse with God, he planted a Church, levelled temples to the earth, overturned altars, destroyed vice, established virtue, made angels of men.
All these things we were. But the earnest filled the whole world. And when I say the whole I mean all which the sun shines upon, sea, islands, mountains, valleys, and hills.
Nothing has really changed in the way people look at wealth and status since. 1700 years later, it still pricks the conscience even as it cultivates hope.
It’s that sort of clear-eyed wisdom that makes the Fathers timeless and relevant.
Dive in and you will see it, too.