Profit And Loss

Quid autem proficit homini, si totum mundum lucretur, animae autem se detrimentum faciat? Puto quod mundum lucratur qui non abnegat semetipsum, nec tollit crucem suam, et sequitur Christum secundum ea quae dicta sunt, nec perdit animam suam, ut salvet eam in spiritali amore, qui omnes in se carnales concupiscentias habuerit. Quia sicut omnia relinquit, ut Petrus insinuat, qui nihil concupiscit carnale: ita omnia lucratur, et tenet sibi, licet non possit assequi, dum in omnibus ejus concupiscentiis inhiat et versatur; et ideo cui non crucifigitur mundus, ipse deterimentum animae suae facit. Unde et nobis gemina proponiur electio, ut ex proposito maneat uniusjusque retributio. Quid si voluerimus mundum lucrari, perdimus animas nostras; aut si animas nostra voluerimus lucrari, abnegemus et perdamus hunc mundum, ita ut omnes concupiscentias ejus abdicemus. Videat igitur fidelis anima, quid potius eligendum sit, quidve sectandum; quia unum horum aut perdet aut salvabit sibi, quamvis mundum retinere non possit, et sine se nihil habere. Sanctus Paschasius Radbertus Corbeiensis, Expositio In Evangelium Matthaei, Lib VIII, Cap XVI Source: Migne PL 120.572b-c

For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but he loses his soul? 1 I think that he gains the world who does not deny himself, nor does he bear his cross and follow Christ according to the things which  have been said, nor does he destroy his soul that he may save it in spiritual love, but he possesses every carnal desire in himself. Because as he who forsakes everything, so Peter intimates, desires nothing carnal, so he gains everything and holds to himself, though he cannot follow while he lusts and twists about in all his desires. Therefore he to whom the world is not crucified makes the loss of his own soul. Whence even to us there is proposed a twofold choice, and from the proposal there awaits for each one a reward. If we wish to gain the world, we destroy our souls, or if we wish to gain our souls, we forsake and destroy the world, so that we may cast down all its desires. Therefore let the faithful soul see which one it is better to choose, and which one to follow, because one of these destroys and one saves it, though it cannot retain the world and it is allowed to have nothing. Saint Paschasius Radbertus, Commentary On The Gospel of Saint Matthew, Book 8, Chap 16 1 Mt 16.26