A Rich Man Warned

O delicate, qui deliciis et divitiis circumfusus atque confusus, confusionem exspectas et mortem; non est regnum Dei esca et potus, non purpura et byssus; quia dives ille utroque circumfluus, in puncto ad inferna descendit. Quid ergo? Sed justitia, et pax, et gaudium in Spiritu sancto. Attendis et intendis quia gaudium in fine est? Sic fatui filii Adam, et praecipiti saltu justitiam transilientes et pacem, rem finalem in principium convertere et pervertere vultis? Nemo enim est qui gaudere non velit. Non stabit et non erit istud; quia sicut non est pax impiis, sic nec gaudere impiis, dicit Dominus. Non sic impii, non sic. Prius est justitiam facere, inquirere pacem, et persequi eam: et sic demum apprehendere gaudium, imo a gaudio comprehendi. Sic angelicus ille conventus prius justitiam fecit, cum stetit in veritate, et veritatis deseruit desertorem. Post haec, illa pace firmati sunt quae exsuperat omnem sensum; quia cum diversis honorum primatibus ambiantur, nullus qui murmuret, qui invideat nullus. Sanctus Bernardus Clarae Vallensis, Sermo IX, De eisdem verbis Apostoli, Non est regnum Dei esca et potus Source: Migne PL 183.590a-c

O luxurious man, surrounded and abounding with delight and riches, expect confusion and death. The kingdom of God is not food and drink, nor purple and fine linen, because the wealthy man overflowing with both in a moment falls into hell. 1 What is it then? Righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 2 Do you consider and look for the joy at the end? So foolish sons of Adam, you wish with headlong leap to spring over righteousness and peace and turn and pervert the final thing to the beginning? There is no one who does not wish to be happy. But it shall not stand and this shall not be, because as there is no peace for the impious, so there is no joy for the impious, says the Lord. 3 Not so the impious, not so. 4 First be righteous, seek peace and pursue it, 5 and so at last you shall seize on joy, or rather by joy you shall be seized. So the gathering of angels were first righteous when they stood in the truth and He cast down the one who abandoned the truth. 6 After this, confirmed with that peace which overcomes all understanding, because they were endowed with differing primacies of honour , there was not one who murmured, for there was not one who envied. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, from Sermon 9, On the same words of the Apostle: The Kingdom of God is not food and drink. 7 1 Lk 16.19,22 2 Rom 14.17 3 Isaiah 48.22, 57,21 4 Ps 1.4 5 Ps 33.15 6 Jn 8.44 7 Rom 4.17