The elements have been given to all for their common use. The splendid ornaments of the world are enjoyed by the rich and poor alike. Are perhaps the gilded ceilings of the palaces of the wealthy more beautiful than the glistening stars that gild the sky? Are perhaps the estates of the rich more expansive than the surface of the earth? For this is what was said to those who were adding house to house, villa to villa: “Will you alone dwell over the earth?” You, though poor, have a larger house in which when you raise your voice it is heard and listened to. “O Israel,” says the prophet, “how great is the house of God and how vast the place of his possession! It is large and has no end, immense and high.” The house of God belongs to the rich and poor alike; it is difficult, however, for the rich to enter into the kingdom of heaven.
