Thursday, November 24, 2022

No One Would Be In Need

"But whom do I treat unjustly," you say, "by keeping what is my own?"  Tell me, what is your own?  What did you bring into this life?  From where did you receive it? ...  For if we all took only what was necessary to satisfy our own needs, giving the rest to those who lack, no one would be rich, no one would be poor, and no one would be in need.

-- Basil of Caesarea, also called Saint Basil the Great (~329 - 379), Byzantine bishop of Caesarea Mazaca in Cappadocia, Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), Homily 6, "I Shall Tear Down My Barns," C. P. Schroeder, trans., in Saint Basil on Social Justice (2009), p. 69

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