The Root of Conflict and Divine Providence

From this, men have destroyed natural friendship toward one another; they sharpen iron, form battle lines, and like wild beasts, they seize one another with great ferocity.

How could anyone even explain what follows this? Walls are besieged by engines, cities are plundered, women are led away, and children are enslaved; the earth is cut and plowed, and trees are fought over as if they were humans who had done wrong; and the slaughter of those in their prime is great, and the streams of blood flow from the wretched bodies; and the wealth of the defeated is the prize of the victors.

Upon these things are the wails of bereavement, the tears of orphans, and the lamenting of father and child together, and of liberty. The former master of great wealth now begs for a morsel of bread, stretching out his right hand; and he who once had many slaves, weaving fabrics and filling houses with clothing, now wears a rag and serves, carrying water out of necessity and unhitching the horse's pole and performing shameful services; and ten thousand other evils, which it is impossible to take in at once.

The beginning, cause, and root of all these things is the desire for more, the unjust love of the property of others. If anyone had cut off this passion of men, he would not have prevented peace from being lived deeply, nor wars and disturbances from fleeing from men, but all would have returned to natural affection and friendship.

For this reason also our Lord carefully allows this disease to pass by, sometimes forbidding: 'You cannot serve God and mammon' (Matt 6:24); sometimes rejecting that wretched rich man, who was about to die soon and was setting before himself the long-lasting enjoyment of luxury as a model; and elsewhere teaching that the perfect man is he who, having given away all that he has to those in need, will go his own way toward virtuous philosophy, the mother and companion of all things.

But I think I hear, even while being silent, such things being said to the teachers by those accustomed to them: 'And how shall we manage life if the possession of money is neglected? How shall we suffice for our needs? How shall a debt be settled? And how shall a loan be given to the one seeking, if we are all destitute because of your advice?' Unbelieving is the word, senseless is the voice, not knowing that we have God as Master, the steward of life, who provides for the living being from himself the useful things and the necessary supplies of food and the need of clothing.

For the providence of God regarding the things of His own is all-encompassing; and He has never withheld calamity from one who prospers in faith. And bringing forward one of the divine sayings as a sufficient testimony for what is at hand, I think, I shall provide a witness. In the history of the Kingdoms...