Lucas 18
John Damascene
Lucas 18:24-25
"How hard it is for those who have riches to enter into the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God!" When all the saints heard this command, they thought they should withdraw from this hardness of riches. They parted with all their goods. By this distribution of their riches to the poor, they laid up for themselves eternal riches. They took up the cross and followed Christ. Some followed, being made perfect by martyrdom, even as I have already told you, while others by the practice of self-denial did not fall short of them in the life of the true philosophy. Know that this is a command of Christ our King and God that leads us from corruptible things and makes us partakers of everlasting things. — BARLAAM AND JOSEPH 15.128-29