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St. Nikolaj Velimirović: Property as God's Loan for Stewardship
7:04
The post shares an excerpt from St. Nikolaj Velimirović's homily for the 22nd Sunday after Pentecost, followed by a video summary and key points. The homily begins with a call to build a temple in the heart and includes a fundraising appeal for a parish church. The owner of both flock and pasture watches amazed that his flock fights over his pasture while he cares for both.
Men pay for property boundaries with their lives, yet boundaries shift, and they sacrifice what is incomparably more precious for what is less valuable, calling this madness justice or patriotism. Although men unanimously say humans are more important than grass, their deeds show they value grass more, making property the chief stumbling block, and only those with a God-like spirit pass it by.
Historical figures like Croesus, Lucullus, Caesar, and Napoleon left traces of wealth and power, but the vital question is where those men are now. Apart from Christ, humanity has only two answers: that man belongs to evil spiritual powers hiding behind nature, or to nature itself which creates and finally destroys man like furniture.
Christ testifies as an eyewitness from the source of being that man belongs to the all-good God as a free, rational son, not as an object. This testimony resolves questions of ownership, economics, and politics: everything called property is God's loan distributed unequally so that free beings may exercise stewardship for their salvation and their brethren's. The Gospel for the day describes a rich man who understood property in an absolute sense and suffered torments that make the heart grow cold and hair stand on end.
The discussion turns on the contrast between human claims of ownership and the Christian understanding of stewardship, the futility of striving for earthly possessions, and the eternal destiny of the soul.
Key moments
- Men quarrel over property endlessly; the owner of both flock and pasture watches amazed that his flock fights over his pasture while he cares for both.
- Men pay for property boundaries with their lives, yet boundaries shift; they sacrifice what is incomparably more precious for what is less valuable, calling this madness justice or patriotism.
- Although men unanimously say humans are more important than grass, their deeds show they value grass more, making property the chief stumbling block; only those with a God-like spirit pass it by.
- The wealth of Croesus, banquets of Lucullus, empire of Caesar, and power of Napoleon leave traces, but the vital question is where those men themselves are now.
- Apart from Christ, humanity has only two answers to who owns man: evil spiritual powers hiding behind nature, or nature itself which creates and finally destroys man like furniture.
- Christ's answer is not a philosopher's conclusion but the testimony of an eyewitness from the source of being: man belongs to the all-good God as a free, rational son.
- Because men belong to God, all nature belongs to God; what men call property is God's loan entrusted unequally to free beings so their reason and freedom may be revealed and they may steward it for salvation.
- Today's Gospel tells of a rich man who understood property in an absolute sense and suffered torments that make the heart grow cold and hair stand on end.