Quid sit inter divites electos et reprobos.
The Elect Rich: Detachment and Generosity
The elect may possess riches but do not love them; they give freely, avoid pride and anxiety, and store up treasure in heaven.
It is worth noting that Solomon does not say, "Whoever has riches," but rather, "Whoever loves riches" — and he says such a person "will gain no profit from them" (Eccles.✦ v). For the truly elect, even if they happen to have riches, nevertheless do not love them, and so they do not seek their rest in these things. Instead, they heed the Apostle's command to the rich: not to be proud in their thinking, nor to put their hope in the uncertainty of wealth (1 Tim.✦ vi), but they readily give, share with others, and store up for themselves a good foundation, so as to lay hold of true life. From their own riches they receive no small profit — since they are destined to hear from the Lord: "Come, blessed of my Father; for I was hungry and you gave me something to eat," and so on.✦ (Matt. xxv). Indeed, these people do not toil at acquiring riches, because they fear that word of the Apostle: those who want to become rich fall into the snare of the devil (1 Tim.✦ vi), and in preserving what they have, they are not tormented by empty anxiety — since they recite deeply the promise of the Lord, who both forbids worry and promises to provide what is necessary.✦
The Lord's Promise and the Reprobate's Contrast
Christ's words against anxiety and for seeking God's kingdom frame a contrast: the reprobate find no rest in wealth, only vain toil and blindness.
Do not be anxious, saying, "What will we eat, or what will we drink?"✦ And a little later: Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you (Matt. 6).✦ 6). Finally, they do not murmur at the loss of these things; indeed, they even receive the plundering of their own goods with joy, considering that they possess a better and lasting substance (Heb. 10).✦ 10). But for the perverse, the outcome is just the opposite. For while they think that the desire of a rational soul — which only God can satisfy — can be lulled by the most worthless abundance of worldly things, they gain no profit from piling up however many things they want. They do not free themselves from their unhappy cares even a little, and they never lay down their labor. And yet — what is more wretched — they swell with a vain blindness over the pursuit of such things.12 And all this is for the present — but what will be the end of these people?
The Lament of the Ungodly and the Call to Seek True Rest
The damned confess the futility of pride and riches, comparing their lives to shadow and smoke, leading to the exhortation to seek God's Sabbath rest.
Let us listen instead to their last words, which sacred Scripture does not pass over in silence: "They will say among themselves as they repent," he tells us, "groaning out of the anguish of their spirits" — and then he adds their words, which are these: "We have grown weary in the way of iniquity and destruction, and we have walked difficult roads; but the way of the Lord we have ignored."✦ What did pride profit us, and what did the boasting of riches bring us? All things have passed like a shadow, and like a runner speeding by, and like a ship that passes through surging waters, whose trace, once it has gone by, cannot be found; so too, from the moment we were born we immediately ceased to be, and we could show no sign of virtue at all, but we have been consumed in our own wickedness. Those in hell who have sinned have spoken such things: because the hope of the ungodly is like thistledown, which is carried away by the wind, and like foam, which is scattered by a storm, and like smoke, which is dispersed by the wind, and like the memory of a guest who stays but a single day (Wis. v). Therefore, on another occasion this rest and this Sabbath seem to be what we must seek.
Read the original Latin
Notandum sane quod non ait Salomon: Qui habet divitias, sed, qui amat, inquit, divitias, fructum non capiet ex eis (Eccle. v). Nam profecto electi quique, etsi forte divitias habeant, non tamen eas amant, proinde nec in his requiem quaerunt, sed audientes praecipientem Apostolum divitibus, non superbe sapere, nec sperare in incerto divitiarum (1 Tim. vi), sed facile tribuant, communicent, thesaurizent sibi fundamentum bonum, ut apprehendant veram vitam, ex suis divitiis non modicum fructum accipiunt, audituri nimirum a Domino: Venite, benedicti Patris mei: esurivi enim, et dedistis mihi manducare, etc. (Matth. xxv). Hi sane non laborant in divitiis acquirendis, timentes illud Apostoli, quia qui volunt divites fieri, incidunt in laqueum diaboli (1 Tim. vi), hos in conservandis cassa sollicitudo non cruciat, sponsionem Domini altius recitantes, qui et sollicitudinem prohibet, necessaria spondet.
Nolite, inquiens, solliciti esse dicentes: Quid manducabimus, aut quid bibemus? Et paulo post: Quaerite primum regnum Dei, et justitiam ejus, et haec omnia adjicientur vobis (Matth. vi). Postremo harum amissione non murmurant; imo et rapinam bonorum suorum cum gaudio suscipiunt, considerantes se habere meliorem et manentem substantiam (Hebr. x). At perversis in contrarium cedit. Dum enim rationalis animae appetitum, cui solus Deus satis est, vilissima mundialium rerum copia existimant posse sopiri; quia nihil quantarumlibet rerum ingestione proficiunt, nec ad modicum curis se infelicibus exuunt, nec aliquando laborem deponunt: et tamen, quod miserius est, talium rerum quaestu vana caecitate tumescunt. Et haec quidem in praesenti; at quis horum finis?
Ultima eorum verba, quae sacra Scriptura non tacet, potius audiamus: Dicent, inquit, inter se poenitentiam agentes et prae angustia spiritus gementes; eorumque verba subnectit, in quibus sunt haec: Lassati sumus in via iniquitatis et perditionis, et ambulavimus vias difficiles; viam autem Domini ignoravimus. Quid nobis profuit superbia, et divitiarum jactantia quid contulit nobis? Transierunt omnia velut umbra, et tanquam nuntius praecurrens, et tanquam navis, quae pertransit fluctuantes aquas, cujus, cum praeterierit, non est vestigium inveniri; ita et nos nati continuo desivimus esse; et virtutis quidem nullum signum valuimus ostendere; in malignitate autem nostra consumpti sumus. Talia dixerunt in inferno, qui peccaverunt; quoniam spes impii tanquam lanugo est, quae a vento tollitur; et tanquam spuma, quae a procella dispergitur, et tanquam fumus qui a vento diffusus est; et tanquam memoria hospitis unius diei praetereuntis (Sap. v). Alias ergo haec requies et hoc Sabbatum videtur esse quaerendum.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Eccl.5.9-Eccl.5.10 — Whoever loves money is never satisfied with money, and whoever loves abundance never has enough profit—this too is vanity. Eccl.5.10 — Whoever loves money is never satisfied with money, and whoever loves wealth is never content with income. This too is vanity.
- ↩1Tim.6.17 — Command those who are rich in this present age not to be arrogant, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.
- ↩Matt.25.34-Matt.25.35 — Then the King will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.' Matt.25.35 — For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you welcomed me in;
- ↩1Tim.6.9 — But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and a trap, and many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge people into ruin and destruction.
- ↩Matt.6.25-Matt.6.34 — Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat [or what you will drink], nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not the life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Matt.6.26 — Look at the birds of the air: they do not reap, nor gather into barns, nor store away grain — and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth far more than they? Matt.6.27 — And which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit to his lifespan? Matt.6.28 — And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they do not toil, nor do they spin. Matt.6.29 — Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of these. Matt.6.30 — If God so clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Matt.6.31 — Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' Matt.6.32 — For all these things the Gentiles seek after. For your Father who is in heaven knows that you need all of these things. Matt.6.33 — But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Matt.6.34 — Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
- ↩Matt.6.31 — Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'
- ↩Matt.6.33 — But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
- ↩Heb.10.34 — For you sympathized with the prisoners, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you yourselves have a better and lasting possession.
- ↩Isa.59.7-Isa.59.8 — Their feet run to evil, and they hurry to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; destruction and ruin are in their highways. Isa.59.8 — The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths. Their roads they have made crooked for themselves; whoever walks in them does not know peace.
Notes
- 1 ↩rationalis animae appetitum rendered as 'desire of a rational soul' preserves the scholastic anthropology; alternatives like 'appetite' or 'craving' would flatten the theological sense.
- 2 ↩sopiri ('lulled to sleep') carries the sense of sedating or numbing the soul's deepest longing; 'lulled' is chosen to keep the physical metaphor without trivializing it.
Speculum caritatis (The Mirror of Charity) companion
Reorder one love at a time, daily
Use the study map with the free Chosen Portion app's daily readings to work through Aelred at a sustainable pace.
Aelred wrote the Mirror as a rule for daily interior discipline in community, and Chosen Portion carries that discipline forward as a short ordered reading each day.
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