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| Chapter XXV. Of the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira, and Judas, which they underwent through the impulse of covetousness.
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Chapter XXV.
Of the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira, and Judas, which
they underwent through the impulse of covetousness.
Lastly, the chief of the
apostles, taught by these instances, and knowing that one who has any
avarice cannot bridle it, and that it cannot be put an end to by a
large or small sum of money, but only by the virtue of renunciation of
everything, punished with death Ananias and Sapphira, who were
mentioned before, because they had kept back something out of their
property, that that death which Judas had voluntarily met with for the
sin of betraying the Lord, they might also undergo for their lying
avarice.904
How closely do the
sin and punishment correspond in each case! In the one case treachery,
in the other falsehood, was the result of covetousness. In the one case
the truth is betrayed, in the other the sin of lying is committed. For
though the issues of their deeds may appear different, yet they
coincide in having one and the same aim. For the one, in order to
escape poverty, desired to take back what he had forsaken; the others,
for fear lest they might become poor, tried to keep back something out
of their property, which they should have either offered to the Apostle
in good faith, or have given entirely to the brethren. And so in each
case there follows the judgment of death; because each sin sprang from
the root of covetousness. And so if against those who did not covet
other persons’ goods, but tried to be sparing of their own, and
had no desire to acquire, but only the wish to retain,
there went forth so severe a sentence, what should we think of those
who desire to amass wealth, without ever having had any of their own,
and, making a show of poverty before men, are before God convicted of
being rich, through the passion of avarice?E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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