"I hated my toil in which I had toiled under the sun,
seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come
after me" RSV translation
___________________________________________
Carolinne White's transl. edition in PENGUIN
Early Christian Lives (pages 20 - 21) #17 of
St. Athanasius of Alexandria: Life of Antony (a desert saint)
Even if we renounce the whole world,
we cannot give anything in exchange
which is of similar value to the heavenly
dwellings. If each person considers this
he will immediately realize that if he
abandons a few acres of land or a small
house or a moderate sum of gold, he
ought not to feel proud of himself in
the belief that he has given up a lot. Nor
should he become despondent, thinking
that he will receive only a little in return.
For just as someone considers one bronze
drachma of no value in comparison with
winning one hundred gold drachmas, so too,
anyone who renounces possession of the
whole world will receive in heaven a hundred
times as much in more valuable rewards.
In short, we must realize that even if we
want to retain our riches, we will be torn
away from them against our will by the law
of death, as it says in the book of
Ecclesiastes / Qoheleth. . . Let Christians
care for nothing that they cannot take
away with them. We ought rather to seek
after that which will lead us to heaven, namely:
wisdom, chastity, justice, virtue, an
ever-watchful mind, care of the poor, firm
faith in Christ, a mind that can control
anger, hospitality.
Striving after these things, we shall prepare
for ourselves a dwelling in the land of the
peaceful, as it says in the Gospel (of John
14:2-3) -- Life of Antony was a best-seller
in Greek and very soon translated into
Latin by Evagrius of Antioch [Syria].
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