Commentary on Baruch

Ambrose of Milan (340–397)

The elements have been given to all in common, the ornaments of the world are open equally to the rich and the poor. Are not the faces of the heavens, adorned with shining stars, more beautiful than the most precious gold-leaf ceilings of luxurious houses? Are the riches of the rich wider than the expanses of the earth? Whence it was said to those who join house to house and villa to villa: Will you alone dwell upon the earth? You have a larger house: the poor, in which you cry out and are heard. O Israel, says the prophet, how great is the house of God and its vast place of possession! It is great and boundless. The house of God is common to the rich and the poor, yet it is difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.

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• More works by Ambrose of Milan

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