“What have you,” asks the
Apostle, “that
you have not received?” This
means, beloved, that we should not
be miserly, regarding possessions
as our own, but should rather invest
what has been
entrusted to us.
We have been entrusted with the administration
and use of temporal wealth for the common good, not with the
everlasting ownership of private property.
If you accept the
fact that ownership on earth is only for a time, you can earn
eternal possessions in heaven.
Call to mind the widow who forgot herself in her concern for
the poor, and, thinking only of the life to come, gave away
all her means of subsistence, as the judge himself bears witness.
Others,
he says, have given of their superfluous wealth; but she, possessed
of only two small coins and more needy perhaps
than many of the poor—though in spiritual riches she surpassed
all the wealthy—she thought only of the world to come,
and had such a longing for heavenly treasure that she gave
away, all at once, whatever she had that was derived from the
earth and destined to return there.
Let us then invest with the Lord what he has given us, for
we have nothing that does not come from him: we are dependent
upon him for our very existence.
And we ourselves particularly,
who have a special and a greater debt, since God not only created
us but purchased us as well—what can we regard as our own when
we do not possess even ourselves?
But let us rejoice that we have been bought at a great price,
the price of the Lord’s own blood, and that because of this
we are no longer worthless slaves.
For there is a freedom that is baser than slavery, namely,
freedom from justice. Whoever has that kind of freedom is a
slave of sin and a prisoner of death.
So let us give back
to the Lord the gifts he has given us; let us give to him who
receives in the person of every poor man or woman. Let us give
gladly, I say, and great joy will be ours when we receive his
promised reward.
(Letter
34, 2-4: CSEL 29, 305-06)
Paulinus
of Nola (353/54-431), was the son of a noble family of Bordeaux.
He seems to have received a good education, and sat at the
feet of the famous Ausonius. After a brief public career
he was baptized, and in agreement with his wife Therasia
retired from the world, after dividing his fortune between
the Church and the poor. He was ordained priest at Barcelona
in 394. Shortly afterward he settled at Nola, near the tomb
of Saint Felix, and with his wife opened a home for monks
and the poor. In 409 he was ordained bishop. Paulinus was
the foremost Christian Latin poet of this period, and the
friend of Martin of Tours, Ambrose, and Augustine. Many of
his letters survive. They are filled with Christian hope
and charity and reflect the Church’s understanding of the
mystery of salvation.