The Wealth of Faith and the Crossing of the Seas

For what did he set aside? And what did he acquire? Everything that he had, O man; and to each person, what he possesses is great; and that also is wealth, which he holds as a steward. He appears similar before God, both he who laid aside the chariot and he who despised the donkey. For just as a chariot is to the rich man, so a humble basket is to the poor man.

8.9.2 Likewise, a philosopher is he who left behind the silver table adorned with histories, and he who left the wooden one; likewise, he who left the populous village and he who left the small garden; he who left the gold-embroidered garment and he who left the worn-out tunic. For God does not judge the giver by the abundance or the quality of the things given, but He accepts the choice of the one giving.

8.9.3 Therefore, even that widow, the Gospel proclaims her as praiseworthy (Luke 21:2), she who gave the mite, because she did not set aside anything from what she had. And he who, reaching for the cup, took the cold water, receives as a reward for such easy generosity the kingdom; for he served the need of the thirsty with what he had, even if wine of spring-bloom was not present to him because of poverty.

8.9.4 Now I say these things by way of concession, since not always is a fisherman also a poor man. Do you not know that a fisherman is a hunter of pearls? But pearls are the bloom of the sardine and of exalted wealth, with which kings are adorned, and in which women are praised as lovers of wealth and lovers of beauty. A fisherman dyes the many-threaded and consecrated purple; fishermen dye the yellow pigment of the fields by hunting the sub-golden ones.

8.9.5 Therefore, it is not necessary to pay attention to the tools of their craft as if they were luxurious and highly esteemed—the net, I say, and the hooks; for it is not from the cheapness of the tools in each case, but from the completed work that prosperity is perceived; since, according to that same logic, you would find nothing poorer than agriculture, if judging from the hoe and the spade.

That its wealth might be tested. And those mining gold are utterly without resources, lacking the King of wealth. For a single value works for them: a wooden table, which separates the gold of the earth.

Be silent, then, both Gentiles and Hebrews, those insulting Peter for his poverty and attempting to belittle the fisherman by his former state; and having left such things, let them tell me, as I inquire: Which fisherman or which of all men has crossed the sea? Who set foot by a standing lake, as he did by the waves tossing in the winds? For our good God has performed many wonders through His own servants, even regarding the ancient polity of Israel, and even in later times, in which the Philanthropic Economy of our Savior has appeared to the world, no one from the beginning to the end of the saints seems to have accomplished such a deed through his own faith and the grace from above.

Moses was wonderful, having crossed the sea without ships; but he reached a land which was a law to men, from where the water was drawn back to itself. Great also is Jesus, the successor of this, because He crossed the Jordan while the banks were overflowing; but likewise, crossing the Red Sea, He cut the stream and gave the crossing people a dry path for their advance.

But no man ever raised his foot upon the water. For even the law of nature does not allow a liquid substance, flowing and changing, to withstand the solid and pressing. It seems to me that the Lord and Master of all, having been greatly amazed at such a ready willingness of the man, cried out saying: 'Command me to come to you upon the waters,' as a reward for that much love and faith, to give him that new and paradoxical grace, of which Peter alone appeared receptive from those of Adam until the end of men. For truly and exceptionally from God is the...