Now nothing is more effective against the devil’s wiles, dearly beloved, than tender compassion and unselfish love; by these every sin can be either avoided or conquered. But such a degree of virtue cannot be attained until its contrary is overcome; and there is surely nothing so hostile to mercy and works of charity as the love of money, from the root of which all evil springs up. Unless this noxious weed is starved to death, it is inevitable that the heart in which it has taken root will bring forth the thorns and briars of vice rather than any flower of true virtue. Therefore, my beloved, let us resist this most pestilent of evils and make charity our aim, for no virtue can flourish without it; and then by the same path of love which Christ trod when he came down to us, we shall be able to ascend to him, to whom, with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, belong honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
St Leo the Great,
Sermon 74, 5 (CCL 138A:459-461); Word in Season III, 1st ed.
