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130 Pages
Page 75
"Listen, you rich men, to the kind of advice I am giving to the poor because of your inhumanity. Far better endure under their dire straits than undergo the troubles that are bred of usury! But if you were obedient to the Lord, what need of these words? What is the advice of the Master? Lend to those from whom ye do not hope to receive. [505] And what kind of loan is this, it is asked, from all which all idea of the expectation of repayment is withdrawn? Consider the force of the expression, and you will be amazed at the loving kindness of the legislator. When you mean to supply the need of a poor man for the Lord's sake, the transaction is at once a gift and a loan. Because there is no expectation of reimbursement, it is a gift. Yet because of the munificence of the Master, Who repays on the recipient's behalf, it is a loan. He that hath pity on the poor lendeth unto the Lord.' [506] Do you not wish the Master of the universe to be responsible for your repayment? If any wealthy man in the town promises you repayment on behalf of others, do you admit his suretyship? But you do not accept God, Who more than repays on behalf of the poor. Give the money lying useless, without weighting it with increase, and both shall be benefited. To you will accrue the security of its safe keeping. The recipients will have the advantage of its use. And if it is increase which you seek, be satisfied with that which is given by the Lord. He will pay the interest for the poor. Await the loving-kindness of Him Who is in truth most kind.
"What you are taking involves the last extremity of inhumanity. You are making your profit out of misfortune; you are levying a tax upon tears. You are strangling the naked. You are dealing blows on the starving. There is no pity anywhere, no sense of your kinship to the hungry, and you call the profit you get from these sources kindly and humane! Wo unto them that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter,' [507] and call inhumanity humanity! This surpasses even the riddle which Samson proposed to his boon companions:--Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.' [508] Out of the inhuman came forth humanity! Men do not gather grapes of thorns, nor figs of thistles, [509] nor humanity of usury. A corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. [510] There are such people as twelve-per-cent-men and ten-per-cent-men: I shudder to mention their names. They are exactors by the month, like the demons who produce epilepsy, attacking the poor as the changes of the moon come round. [511]
[505] cf. Luke vi. 34, 35.
[506] Prov. xix. 17.
[507] Is. v. 20.
[508] Judges xiv. 14.
[509] Matt. vii. 16.
[510] cf. Matt. vii. 18.
[511] On the connexion between seleniasmos and epilepsia, cf. Origen iii. 575-577, and Caesarius, Quaest. 50. On the special attribution of epilepsy to daemoniacal influence illustrated by the name hiera nosos, see Hippocrates, De Morbo Sacro.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/basil/life-works.asp?pg=75
