The Vanity of Earthly Riches and Honors

Do you not seek to be written in the memory of God, rather than in the promise of blessedness? For this is the living book.

He speaks much of writing by contract-writers, and of the uneducated speaking crudely and making noise, and of flatterers among the people; a poor judge of what is needed, and a careless examiner of what is useful.

Give to the impoverished man who is struggling, not to the ruined musician; grant to the widow before the prostitute, and to the venerable woman who has been called forth before the public. Labor for the orphan, whom a holy virgin sings to God, and not for a shameless singer who cares only for the sight of the crowd to hunt for followers; satisfy the orphan, release the debt of the poor, and you shall see a glory that endures forever.

Many purses are cast into emptiness for the sake of shameful and disorderly laughter, not knowing how many tears the poor bestow, from which abundance was gathered; how many were bound, how many were flogged, how many came near the yoke and the bridle, so that today those who are indulging may receive. And what is the end? Vanity.

After everything, a small tomb, the body shrinking to a garment of a few obols, oblivion after a little while, and the consuming passion of time covering all that was labored for; judgment upon these is inevitable, from God and the punishment of evil disposition.

Where are the governors? Count those of yesterday and of former times. One was not cut off like the criminals of the head, falling through the continuous movement of a charging multitude; and was he sent off more like a funeral than when he was being carried upon a litter in the pride of his office? Another, having attained honor through the same military strategy, perished badly in the outskirts of Egypt and Libya, fleeing the punishment of the sentence, and finally entreating the sands, since all the land through which he wandered was waterless and uninhabited.

And what shall we say of the one from among the generals and governors, who is now passing through the land of Colchis and is being saved by the philanthropy of the barbarians there?

And that one from the former times, who, as he thought, had a fearless and lion-like mind—what a destruction of life he endured! First, he saw his own son being decapitated; then he himself received the vote for death, and when the rope was already being brought to his mouth, a royal philanthropy restrained the executioner from acting. Having lived a little longer, the old man delayed his end through pains and misfortunes and through the perception of evils, departing from life in disgrace, finding this to be the end of great governorship.

And how he of the past year cared for greater things than the giants, being able to contend with both women and men; fleeing the rods of lords, he desired the rods of governors; he acquired land such that it is not easy even to say, yet he was buried in as much as the one who pitied him bestowed.

Is it not, then, according to the wise Ecclesiastes (Eccl 1:2), that all such things are vanity of vanities, and honors are phantoms of unsubstantial dreams, pleasing for a little while, then passing away, blooming and then withering? We, therefore, standing firm in the Word until then, let us send glory to the Savior.