The first of these precepts says, Man shall "ask no work from others,
but himself devote his whole life to work for others. 'Man lives not to
be served but to serve.'"[1108] Therefore, in particular, he is not to
keep accounts with others about his work, or think that he "has the more
of a living to claim, the greater or more useful his quantum of work
done is."[1109] Following this precept provides every man with what he
needs. This is true primarily of the healthy adult. "If a man works, his
work feeds him. If another makes use of this man's work for himself, he
will feed him for the very reason that he is making use of his
work."[1110] Man assures himself of a living "not by taking it away from
others, but by making himself useful and necessary to others. The more
necessary he is to others, the more assured is his existence."[1111] But
the following of the precept to serve others also provides the sick, the
aged, and children with their living. Men "do not stop feeding an
animal when it falls sick; they do not even kill an old horse, but give
it work appropriate to its strength; they bring up whole families of
little lambs, pigs, and puppies, because they expect benefit from them.
How, then, should they not support the sick man who is necessary to
them? How should they not find appropriate work for old and young, and
bring up human beings who will in turn work for them?"[1112]
The second precept that follows from the law of love, and of which a
corollary is that every man who works as he has strength should have as
much as he needs and no more, bids us "Share what you have with the
poor; gather no riches."[1113] "To the question of his hearers, what
they were to do, John the Baptist gave the short, clear, simple answer,
'He who hath two coats, let him share with him who hath none; and he who
hath food let him do likewise' (Luke 3.10-11). And Christ too made the
same declaration several times, only still more unambiguously and
clearly. He said, 'Blessed are the poor, woe to the rich.' He said that
one could not serve God and Mammon at once. He not only forbade his
disciples to take money, but also to have two garments. He told the rich
young man that because he was rich he could not enter into the Kingdom
of God, and that a camel should sooner go through a needle's eye than a
rich man come into heaven. He said that he who did not forsake
everything--house, children, lands--to follow him could not be his
disciple. He told his hearers the parable of the rich man who did
nothing bad except that he--like our rich men--clothed himself in costly
apparel and fed himself on savory food and drink, and who plunged his
soul into perdition by this alone, and of the poor Lazarus who did
nothing good and who entered into the Kingdom of Heaven only because he
was a beggar."[1114]
2. But what form can such a distribution of goods take in detail?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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