No man is crueller than the man who loves the abundance. He hates everybody, poor and rich – the poor because he fears they will ask for his hep and the rich because he aspires to have their money. He doesn’t know that piety, compassion or love mean. He is against all sort of social help. Any work, even the most important one, if it doesn’t bring him profit it leaves him indifferent. And, on the contrary, he is willing to do anything in order to increase his profit even just a little.

His love of money has no limit, no satisfaction. And this passion leads him the deepest of the sins,  to wickedness and vanity. This is why the devil doesn’t have much trouble with the wealthy. He easily fetters them through luxury and leads them into perdition. This is why, our Lord said: “Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God” and that “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God” (Mark 10: 24-25).

(Translated from Sfântul Ioan Gură de Aur, Problemele vieții, traducere de Cristian Spătărelu și Daniela Filioreanu, Editura Egumenița, pp. 44-45)