Riches profit not in the day of wrath: but righteousness delivers from death.
Read Chapter 11
Basil the Great
AD 379
[Solomon] leads toward understanding especially when he says, “Possessions are of no advantage in the day of wrath.” For he infused your heart with the knowledge that an abundance of money will be of no help to you in that day, nor will it remove eternal punishment. And when he says, “The innocent will inherit the earth,” he clearly means the earth of which the meek are also heirs, for first the psalmist said, “But the meek will inherit the earth,” and then the Lord, when preaching about beatitude, said, “Blessed are the meek, for they will possess the earth.”
I know why it is written: “Wealth will not profit in the day of wrath.” This was said about the one who does not employ his wealth for mercy. Is not the power of wealth to be brought forth and used at a time of need? At the hour in which you return your spirit to the hands of God, you will understand that the full utility of your riches is to use them for the sake of mercy. For they were given to you by Jesus Christ, God and the Son of God. .
