"What, then, had prompted him to flee, to desert his Master and give up his supplication, his hope, his life, and the efforts he had previously made [to observe the Ten Commandments]? The saying: Sell what you have (Lk 10:38-42). But what does this mean? It does not mean, as some superficially understand, that one should throw away one's possessions and renounce one's riches, but rather that one should rid oneself of a particular mentality pertaining to riches, namely attachment, excessive desire, morbid craving, anxieties, and the tribulations of existence, which suffocate the seed of life (Matthew 13:22; Mk 14:19; Lk 18:14). It is not a great or imitable thing to be without riches for no reason, unless one is so for the sake of life: otherwise, those who have absolutely nothing, but are abandoned and beg for everyday things, the poor thrown along the streets who ignore God and God's justice (Rom 10:3, 5, 21, 25, 26; 2 Cor 5:21; Phil 3:9), by the very fact that they are in extreme need and without means of subsistence and lack even the smallest things, would be most blessed, , and dearest to God, and the only ones to have eternal life. And it is not a new thing to renounce wealth and make donations to the poor or to the country, as many did before the coming of the Saviour, some to devote themselves to their studies and obtain a dead wisdom, others to obtain insignificant fame and for vainglory, such as Anaxagoras, Democritus and Crates."