Defining Wealth and Poverty and the Criticality of Reading the Scriptures

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On todays Bible Answer Man broadcast, Hank devotes his time to talk more about our resource of the month, On Wealth and Poverty, a book that contains multiple sermons from St. John Chrysostom on the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man. The point of the parable is that if you are richand certainly most of us are, at least by world standardsyou immediately realize that wealth is worthless apart from virtue. And if you are poor, you will refrain from thinking that poverty is an evil in itself. We learn from this parable not to call the rich man fortunate, nor the poor man unfortunate. For the rich are not those who collect many possessions, but rather those who need few possessions. Likewise, the poor man is not the one who has no possessions, but the one who has myriad desires. Throughout his sermons, St. John speaks again and again of the criticality of reading the Scriptures. He points out that ignorance of Scripture is like a great cliff or deep abyss. The Scriptures are replete with wisdom that transforms. It causes us to properly consider this life and its significance with respect to the life that is to come. Because once we are in eternity, there is no changing of our fate.