Why do the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer?

Do not fear when others become rich,

when the wealth of their houses grows great.

Psalm 49:17

"Do not fear," the Psalmist says, "when others become rich" [Ps. 49:17]. This proclamation is necessary to those "who inhabit the world," both to those "of lowly birth" and to those "of high estate," to the "rich and poor alike" [Ps. 49:2-3]. "Do not fear when others become rich" [Ps. 49:17]. When you see, he says, the wicked becoming rich and the righteous poor, do not fear for yourself; do not be dismayed in mind, as if the providence of God is nowhere looking upon human affairs, or as if perhaps somewhere there is a divine watchfulness, but it does not reach to places near the earth, so as to watch over our affairs; for, if there were a providence, it would be apportioning to each person what is proper to him or her, so that the righteous, who understand how to use wealth, would be rich, but the wicked, who have wealth as the instrument of their wickedness, would be poor.

Now, since there are many in the nations and among those of lowly birth who have such notions and who, because of the apparent inconsistency of the distribution of the fortunes of life, assume that the world is not the work of providence, the Scripture addresses these to calm their uninstructed emotion. In the very beginning it had also invited them to hear the teachings ["Hear this, all you peoples!" (Ps. 49:2)]. And surely it alludes particularly to only the person of the poor when it says, "Do not fear when others become rich" [Ps. 49:17]. These especially need consolation, so as not to cower before the more powerful. For, it says, the rich have no advantage when they are dying, since they are not able to take their wealth with them; at any rate, they gained only as much from the enjoyment of it as for their souls to be deemed happy in this life by flatterers. But in dying they will not take all these possessions, it says; they will take only just the garment that covers their shame, and this if it shall seem best to those of their household who are clothing them. They must be content to obtain a little earth; and, since this is given to them through pity by those burying them, they provide it for them out of reverence for our common human nature, not granting a favor to them, but honoring humanity.

Do not, then, be faint about present affairs, but await that blessed and everlasting life. Then you will see that poverty and contempt and the lack of luxuries befall the righteous person for his or her good. And do not be troubled now about imagined good things, as though they were unfairly divided. You will hear how it will be said to a certain rich man: "You received what was good during your lifetime" [Luke 16:25], but to the poor man that he received evils in his life. As a consequence, therefore, the latter is consoled, but the former suffers pain.

-- St. Basil, Homily on Ps. 49 (adapted from Saint Basil: Exegetic Homilies, translated by Sr. Agnes Clare Way, CDP, the Fathers of the Church 46 [Washington: CUA, 1963], 328-9)