Day 326 - Acts 3-5

If for gathering sticks one could be stoned to death, much more, it may be argued, ought he be stoned for committing sacrilege. This money was sacred. For the person who withdraws his possessions after he has chosen to sell them and distribute them would be guilty of sacrilege. And if this person, who is taking from his own possessions, is sacrilegious, much more so is he who takes from what is not his own. And do not think that because the consequence now is not the same, the crime will go unpunished. Do you see that this is the charge brought against Ananias, that having made the money sacred, he then took it? For were you not able, says Peter, even after the sale to use the proceeds as your own? For you were not forbidden, were you? Why then after you had promised? See how the devil made his attack from the very beginning, how in the midst of such signs and wonders this man became insensible as a rock!… For sacrilege is a most grievous crime, insolent and full of contempt. We neither forced you to sell, says the apostle, nor to give the money after you have sold. You chose to do so of your own free will. Why then did you steal from the sacred treasury?—St John Chrysostom