Wealth And Contentment

Nihil enim intulimus in mundum, verum quia nec auferre possumus quidquam; habentes autem alimentum, et quibus tegamur, his contenti simus. Frustra mortales homines copiae studere, et locupletes fieri velle aperta voce declarat, cum sciant nihil se proprium habere in mundo. Cui rei proficit humana cupiditas, nisi quia ipsa sibi inimica exsistit? Nihil enim intulit mundo, nihil auferre poterit. Quid sibi incutit sollicitudinem, et quaerit congregare? Talis hinc exiet, qualis venit. Quod etiam scribit Job, et in sua passione fatetur, dicens: Nudus exivi de utero matris meae, nudus revertar in terram...sit nomen Domini benedictum. Quod si avari non retinerent in perniciem suam, pauci conderent quod pluribus posset proficere cum eorum ipsorum emolumento. Ambrosiaster, Commentaria in Epistolam ad Timotheum Primam, Caput VI Source: Migne PL 17.482a-b

'Nothing we brought into the world, and nothing are we able to take from it; having, then, food and with what we are covered, with these things we shall be content.' 1 Vainly mortal men desire wealth, and openly declare their wish to be rich, when they should know that they have nothing of their own in the world. To whom is human cupidity a benefit, but to him who is the enemy? Nothing indeed a man brings into the world, nothing he is able to take out of it. Why does he trouble himself with care for it and seek to gather it? As he came in, so he goes out. So indeed Job writes in the confession of his suffering, saying: 'Naked I came from the womb of my mother, naked I return to the earth ... may the name of the Lord be blessed.' 2 If by avarice they did not wallow in their wickedness, a little would establish them, so that with the same riches they would be a benefit to many. Ambrosiaster, Commentary On The First Letter of Saint Paul To Timothy, Chapter 6 1 1 Tim 6.7-8 2 Job 1.21