The Text Behind Which the Hoarders Shelter

These people, then, try to make a case for their original avarice from some authority in Holy Scripture, which they interpret with base cunning. They want to twist and bend to their own purposes a saying of the apostle, or rather of the Lord himself. They do not fit their own life or understanding to the meaning of Scripture, but bend the meaning of Scripture to the desires of their own cravings, trying to make it agree with their own views. And they say that it is written, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” By an entirely wrong interpretation of this, they think they can weaken the force of the Lord’s saying: “If you want to be perfect, go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Under cover of this they think they need not part with their riches. Indeed, they declare that they are more blessed if, supported by what originally belonged to them, they also give to others out of their abundance. [a]

And while they shrink from embracing, with the apostle, that glorious self-denial for Christ’s sake, they will not be content either with manual labor or with the sparing diet of the monastery. There is only one thing for it. Either they must know that they are deceiving themselves, and have not really renounced the world while they cling to their former riches; or, if they truly want to make trial of the monastic life, they must give up and forsake all these things, keep back nothing of what they have renounced, and with the apostle glory “in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness.”