Chapter XXX.
The remedies against the disease of covetousness.
then in mind the
judgment of Ananias and Sapphira let us dread keeping back any of those
things which we gave up and vowed utterly to forsake. Let us also fear
the example of Gehazi, who for the sin of covetousness was chastised
with the punishment of perpetual leprosy. From this let us beware of
acquiring that wealth which we never formerly possessed. Moreover also
dreading both the fault and the death of Judas, let us with all the
power that we have avoid taking back any of that wealth which once we
cast away from us. Above all, considering the state of our weak and
shifty nature, let us beware lest the day of the Lord come upon us as a
thief in the night, and find our
conscience defiled even by a single penny; for this would make void all
the fruits of our renunciation of the world, and cause that which was
said to the rich man in the gospel to be directed towards us also by
the voice of the Lord: “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be
required of thee: then whose shall those things be which thou hast
prepared?” And taking no thought
for the morrow, let us never allow ourselves to be enticed away from
the rule of the Cœnobium.