Simplicity: Basil the Great: Homily to the Rich

Basil the Great preached his famous "Homily to the Rich" (also known as "I Will Pull Down My Barns") on the parable of the rich fool in Luke 12. He declared: "When someone strips a man of his clothes, we call him a thief. And one who might clothe the naked and does not -- should not this person be given the same name? The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry; the coat hanging unused in your closet belongs to the one who needs it; the shoes rotting in your closet belong to the one who has no shoes."

Basil was not condemning wealth per se but the hoarding of wealth while others suffer. He taught that surplus possessions are not really ours -- they are God's provision for others that has been temporarily misrouted through us.

Practical application: Walk through your home and identify items in surplus -- multiple coats when one suffices, food that will expire before you eat it, books you have read and will not read again. Donate them. Basil's sermon, preached over 1,600 years ago, remains one of the most powerful challenges to the accumulation mindset that dominates modern life.