Did St. Basil say the rich are going to hell?

[Joseph_Kemp]

I have a friend who has been agonizing over the following statement made by St. Basil the Great:

The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry man; the coat hanging unused in your closet belongs to the man who needs it; the shoes rotting in your closet belong to the man who has no shoes; the money which you put in the bank belongs to the poor. You do wrong to everyone you could help but fail to help.

My friend doesn’t know what to make of this statement. She loves having nice clothes and shoes, but now she is afraid that any surplus clothes and shoes she has are going to send her to hell. She is also very rich, and is terrified that she is going to hell for having “money in the bank,” as St. Basil puts it.

I have referred my friend to Catholic apologist Michelle Arnold’s question-and-answer on how luxurious living is not sinful in and of itself, but my friend does not feel this adequately explains away the above quote from St. Basil. She is driving herself crazy with her fear. She has now begun to worry that having any excess food in the fridge at all is sinful, because as St. Basil says, “The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry man.”

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

It sound to me like your friend might be suffering from scrupulosity, and really should consult with a spiritual director or confessor experienced in dealing with scrupulosity. Since the root of scrupulosity for many people often can be obsessive-compulsive disorder, she may also want to get a referral from her doctor to a therapist. That is the answer for her, and I do not recommend talking with her further about her fears until she is evaluated and receives from spiritual experts and medical professionals any assistance she needs from them.

To you, though, I would say that these days I would revise that answer I wrote years ago. While it is not incorrect, I believe today that the emphasis was too strong on the idea that there is nothing wrong with owning a lot of material goods. I would still say today that material goods are not themselves sinful, and certainly your friend’s idea that she should empty her bank account and her refrigerator or she’ll go to hell is overwrought. But the emphasis I believe should be on evaluating whether or not material goods are truly needed, and if not, where they might be better put to use.

St. Basil was not saying that someone should deprive himself of necessities. But he was also strongly warning Christians that they must take care not to deprive others of necessities. Many a saint was formed in the school of material and spiritual poverty. Not one saint was formed in the school of laissez-faire capitalism and conspicuous consumption.