What I Learned From the Early Christians about Spiritual Growth Part 5: We Don't Need as Much Stuff as We Think

Some time around AD 245 there lived in the Roman city of Carthage a man named Cyprian, a wealthy, important man with a talent for rhetoric. His impressive personal gifts, along with the accident of his birth, ensured that he would prosper in pagan society, and he became enormously wealthy. He also fell into the innumerable vices to which pagan Roman society was susceptible. Of this period of his life, Cyprian later wrote, “I myself was held in bonds by the innumerable errors of my previous life, from which I did not believe that I could by possibility be delivered, so I was disposed to acquiesce in my clinging vices; and because I despaired of better things, I used to indulge my sins as if they were actually parts of me, and indigenous to me.”[1]

This experience of being held enslaved by vices and sins was not pleasant for Cyprian, but he didn’t think it was possible to live without them until, with the aid of a priest named Caecilian, he met Christ. This is what happened next, according to Cyprian: “by the help of the water of new birth, the stain of former years had been washed away, and a light from above, serene and pure, had been infused into my reconciled heart—after that, by the agency of the Spirit breathed from heaven, a second birth had restored me to a new man—then, in a wondrous manner, doubtful things at once began to assure themselves to me, hidden things to be revealed, dark things to be enlightened, what before had seemed difficult began to suggest a means of accomplishment, what had been thought impossible, to be capable of being achieved…”[2]

We do not know the exact details of Cyprian’s conversion. His biographer, the Deacon Pontius, simply states that Caecilian “converted him from his worldly errors to the acknowledgment of the true divinity.”[3] This conversion, however it came about, had a remarkable effect on Cyprian. He sold off his considerable property and gave the proceeds to the poor. He forgave his political rivals and counted them among his closest friends. He gave up the sexual sins to which upper class Romans were prone. The completeness of his conversion was noted among Christians and pagans alike. The Christian community of Carthage thought so highly of him that he was ordained a priest and Bishop while still a neophyte.

Cyprian’s story has many remarkable aspects. He went on to be a great Bishop of Carthage during a time of crisis. But the aspect I want to focus on today is the remarkable fact that he gave up his great wealth almost immediately after conversion. Certainly this was remarkable in his day. Upper class Romans had a great disdain for the poor, and there were very few social institutions designed to help the poor in the Roman world, so Cyprian’s odd behavior was noticed by his peers. But Cyprian seems to have had three motives for his behavior, which are worth noting today:

1. He wanted to atone for the many sins he had committed prior to his conversion.
2. He wanted to be free from the compulsions that enslaved him.
3. He wanted to do what Jesus asked, and he took seriously Jesus’ command to the rich young man to sell all his possessions and give them to the poor.

The people around him focused on what Cyprian had given up, but Cyprian focused on what he had gained: freedom from sin and the ability to do good. As Cyprian observed to Donatus, “liberty and power to do is given you in proportion to the increase of your spiritual grace.”[4] Cyprian went on to observe to Donatus that the Holy Spirit is not subject to the same constraints human beings are, and there is no limit to what the Spirit can give to those who are willing to receive. Thus, in Cyprian’s estimation, when he gave up his wealth, he gained much more than he gave, and he considered himself the greatest beneficiary in the transaction.

There is a powerful lesson for us today in the story of Saint Cyprian’s life. Here in the West almost everyone is as wealthy as an upper class Roman such as Cyprian. And, like Cyprian, we find ourselves tied to our many possessions and vices, which we tell ourselves are not so great after all. But we don’t need as much stuff as we think we do, and in fact when we divest ourselves of some of our material possessions, we find that we have gained a great deal spiritually.

[1] Cyprian of Carthage Epistle 1, To Donatus, 4.

[2] Ibid, 4.

[3] Pontius, Life and Passion of Saint Cyprian, 4.

[4] Cyprian of Carthage, Epistle 1, To Donatus, 5.