In a letter lamenting human folly, Marsilio Ficino presents many examples, such as when he said, “The magistrates forbid murder, and allow instruments for killing men to be made everywhere.”[1] Ficino points to an obvious fact: as long as we provide the means for sin, such as murder, we should not be surprised such sins occur. Moreover, if we do not properly prepare people to a life of virtue, which includes the practice of prudence, we should not be surprised that they will take what is offered them and use it to their detriment. “They desire an excellent crop of men, yet they do not take sufficient care of the seedling, that is the child.”[2] This is manifest, he points out, in how we pursue our own selfish gains, no matter who it hurts. We value money more than anything else:
How many people will you find who value a man as much as money; who cultivate themselves in the same way as they cultivate their fields and other affairs; who bring up the family with as much care as many rear their horses, dogs and birds; who consider how grave is the waste of time? In spending money we are very mean, in expending time we are extravagant beyond measure. How many can you name who recognise the poverty of their soul?[3]
Ficino’s words should remind us as to what is central to our lives. Yes, we might be able to make a place for ourselves in the world, but at what expense? Jesus, in his complement to the beatitudes gives the following woes, woes which are in accord with Ficino’s wisdom:
But woe to you that are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you that are full now, for you shall hunger. Woe to you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you, when all men speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets. (Lk.6:24-26 RSV)
What we own today can be lost tomorrow. We can try to preserve our way of life, but if we do so at the expense of others, we will find that Jesus’ other warning will come true: “Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it” (Lk. 17:33 RSV). This is not to say wealth is to be rejected, that everyone needs to be poor, but rather, we must understand what such wealth is for: the benefit of humanity. Those who are granted it are meant to be stewards, sharing it with others, not hording it up for themselves:
And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully; and he thought to himself, `What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, `I will do this: I will pull down my barns, and build larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, `Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:16-21 RSV).
What ties many evils together is the attempt to make an idol out of oneself, and to demand the sacrifice of everyone and everything for the preservation of that self. People accumulate weapons for “self defense,” thinking that we are allowed no expense in the defense of the self. This is far from the Christian ideal, the ideal of Christ who shows us the path of self-surrender. People accumulate wealth for themselves, thinking if they own it then anything they want to do with it is acceptable. This, too, is far from the Christian ideal, which sees the world and all that is within it as God’s. Those who have been given much, much is expected of them. They starve themselves and their souls as they accumulate at the expense of others. We must never confuse ourselves as God, and place ourselves as the center of being. This is what it is to be like god in a sinful sense: to try to displace God in the hierarchy of being. And this is what is done when we try to claim absolute rights over any part of the world. Any system which is founded upon this ideology must be, in the end, Satanic, and the evils it produces are going to be the byproducts of this Satanic core. This is not to say we should not deal with the evils which plague us as a society, but we must do so wisely. “I beg you, my friends, let us seek the same ends that we are already seeking, but let us not continue to seek them in the same place. The man who believes he will find one thing in its opposite is mad and miserable.”[4]
[1] Marsilio Ficino, Letter to Piero Vanni, in The Letters of Marsilio Ficino Volume I. trans. Members of the Language Department of the School of Economics, London (London: Shephard-Walwyn, 1975; repr. 1988), 104.
[2] ibid., 104.
[3] ibid., 105.
[4] ibid., 105.
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