NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works - Holy Bible Institute

To the same Amphilochius.inasmuch as they do not render their possessors good, are not in the category of thingsnaturally good, but, in so far as in any way they make life’s current flow more easily, in eachcase the former is to be preferred to its contrary, and has a certain kind of value. To somemen these things are given by God for stewardship’s sake, 3001 as for instance to Abraham,to Job and such like. To inferior characters they are a challenge to improvement. For theman who persists in unrighteousness, after so goodly a token of love from God, subjectshimself to condemnation without defence. The good man, however, neither turns his heartto wealth when he has it, nor seeks after it if he has it not. He treats what is given him asgiven him not for his selfish enjoyment, but for wise administration. No one in his sensesruns after the trouble of distributing other people’s property, unless he is trying to get thepraise of the world, which admires and envies anybody in authority.Good men take sickness as athletes take their contest, waiting for the crowns that areto reward their endurance. To ascribe the dispensation of these things to any one else is asinconsistent with true religion as it is with common sense.2793001 ἐξ οἰκονομίας. In Ep. xxxi. Basil begins a letter to Eusebius of Samosata: “The dearth has not yet leftus, we are therefore compelled still to remain in the town, either for stewardship’s sake or for sympathy withthe afflicted.” Here the Benedictines’ note is Sæpe apud Basilium οικονομία dicitur id quod pauperibus distribuitur.Vituperat in Comment. in Isa. præsules qui male partam pecuniam accipiunt vel ad suos usus, ἢ ἐπὶ λόγῳτῆς τῶν πτωχευόντων ἐν τῇ ᾽Εκκλησί& 139· οἰκονομίας, vel per causam distribuendi pauperibus Ecclesiæ. InEpistola 92 Orientales inter mala Ecclesiæ illud etiam deplorant quod ambitiosi præsules οἰκονομ as πτωχῶν,pecunias pauperibus destinatas in suos usus convertant.772