On the Lord's Prayer 20

He teaches that riches are not only to be despised but also dangerous; that in them is the root of alluring evils, deceiving the blindness of the human mind with hidden deception. Hence God rebukes the foolish rich man who thought of his worldly wealth and boasted of the abundance of his overflowing crops, saying: "Fool, this night your soul is required of you. Whose, then, will be the things you have prepared?" The fool rejoiced in his crops when he was to die that night, and he whose life was already failing was thinking of abundance of food. On the other hand, the Lord teaches that he becomes perfect and complete who, having sold all his goods and distributed them for the use of the poor, lays up treasure for himself in heaven. He says that that man can follow him and imitate the glory of the Lord's passion who, unencumbered and girded up, is entangled in no snares of household property, but, loosed and free, himself also accompanies his possessions, which he has sent ahead to the Lord. That each of us may be able to prepare himself for this, he thus learns to pray and to know from the law of prayer what he ought to be.