Why does God allow wicked men to prosper, some of whom became rich by theft, some by inheritance, and some by violence? We answer: Because God does not reward according to our merits now, but in the future.

How does this happen? Well, someone says, “Give me my reward now, and I won’t look for it later”. Here is why you don’t receive it even though you seek it: If the earthly enjoyments you try to obtain so eagerly in this present life are unattainable (and you would even prefer to enjoy them now than in the future), tell me, what would you do if you had nothing but pleasures all the time? Thus, by keeping them out of your reach, God is showing you that these worldly things are not important, that they are neutral, because if they were important, He wouldn’t let such men obtain them. 

You will agree that it doesn’t matter whether one is tall or short, or dark or light complected, nor if one is rich or poor. Tell me, aren’t the essentials bestowed equally on everyone? For example, the capacity to acquire virtues and the distribution of spiritual gifts? If you correctly understood God’s charity, you wouldn’t complain about not having the worldly things, because you would be enjoying the best gifts [the spiritual] equally with His fellow servants; and since you would know that the spiritual gifts are distributed equally, you wouldn’t desire to have the most worldly ones.

It’s like there is a servant somewhere enjoying more than enough of his master’s food and clothing and lodging and all the other necessities, which all the servants have an equal share of, and he prides himself in having longer fingernails or more hair on his head; this is what it’s like when a Christian is elated to have those worldly things, things he will enjoy for but a short time. This is why God puts those things far away from us, so that we might extinguish this burning desire for them and transfer our attachment from them to heaven.