Here is yet another madness of the rich man. "My grain and all my goods." He does not consider them a gift from God, for otherwise he would have disposed of them as a steward of God, but considers them the fruit of his own labors. Therefore, claiming them for himself, he says: "my grain and... my goods." I, he says, have no partner whatsoever; I will not share with anyone. All these goods are not God's, but mine, therefore I alone will enjoy them, and I will not admit God as a participant in their enjoyment. This is clearly madness. Let us look further.
Lk. 12:19. And I will say to my soul: Soul! you have much goods laid up for many years:
He assigns himself a long life, as if longevity too he received from the land he cultivates. Is this really your product as well? Is this really your good as well?
Lk. 12:19. Rest, eat, drink, be merry.
How fine are the goods of the soul! To eat and drink is a good of the irrational soul. However, since you yourself also have such a soul, you rightly offer it such goods. But the good of the rational soul consists in understanding, reasoning, and delighting in the Law of God and in good contemplations. Is it not enough for you, fool, to eat and drink — you offer your soul also the shameful and sordid pleasure that follows? For it is obvious that the Lord by the word "be merry" indicated the passion of debauchery, which usually follows after surfeit of food and drink (Phil. 3:19; Eph. 5:18).
Lk. 12:20. But God said to him: Fool! This night your soul shall be required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose shall they be?
It is said thus: "But God said to him" not because God actually conversed with the rich man, but these words have the meaning that when the rich man was thinking so proudly within himself, then "God said to him" (for this is what the parable implies). God calls the rich man a fool because he laid plans in his soul that were most foolish, as we have shown. For every such person is foolish and vain, as David also says: man "bustles about," and the reason for this is that he "heaps up and does not know who will gather it" (Ps. 39:6). For how is he not foolish who does not know that the measure of life is in the hands of God alone and that no one can determine the length of his own life?
Pay attention also to the word: "they will require." The fearsome Angels, like cruel tax collectors, "will require of you... your soul" against your will, since out of love of living you appropriated the goods of this world for yourself. From the righteous man the soul is not taken by force, but he surrenders it to God and the Father of spirits with joy and gladness and feels no distress at the laying aside of the body, for he bears the body as though it were a light burden. But the sinner, having made the soul fleshly, having turned it into body and earth, makes the separation of it exceedingly difficult. Therefore it is said that the soul will be "required" from him, as from some obstinate debtor handed over to cruel collectors. Note this also. The Lord did not say: I will require your soul from you, but "they will require." For "the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God" (Wis. 3:1). And truly from such a one "in the night" they will require the soul, for he does not have the illuminating light of the knowledge of God, but is in the night of love of riches, and being darkened by it he is seized by death.
Lk. 12:21. So it is with him who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.
Thus, "whoever lays up treasure for himself" is justly called a fool and does not manage to carry out his intentions, but at the very time of making plans is utterly snatched from the midst of the living. But if he had been gathering for the poor and for God, he would not have been treated this way. Therefore let us strive to "be rich toward God," that is, to place our hope in Him, to consider Him our wealth and the storehouse of wealth. Let us not say: "my" goods, but God's goods. And if they are God's goods, then let us not alienate God from His own goods. To be rich toward God means to believe that even if I give away and exhaust all that I have, I will still lack nothing that is necessary. For the treasury of my goods is God: I open it and take what I need.
Lk. 12:22. And He said to His disciples: therefore I say to you,
Little by little the Lord ascends to the teaching on the highest perfection. Note the order. He taught to guard against covetousness and added the parable of the rich man as proof that he who desires very much is foolish. Extending the teaching further, He does not allow us to be anxious even about necessities. Just as the devil, beginning with small sins, plunges us into great ones as well, which is why he is called in Job (Job 4:11) "a mighty lion," so, on the contrary, the Lord, destroying his works, teaches first to flee great sins, and then points out their very beginnings. Having commanded us to guard against covetousness, He reaches its very root as well, that is, anxiety, so as to cut off the root too, and says: "therefore I say to you."
Lk. 12:22. – do not worry for your soul, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on:
Since, He says, the one who assigns himself a long life and, being deceived by this, desires more, as was the aforementioned rich man, is foolish, therefore I say to you: "do not worry for your soul, what you shall eat." He said this not because the rational soul eats, but because the soul apparently remains bound to the body only on the condition that we consume food. And in another way: the body, even when dead, is clothed, but no longer nourished. Since being nourished is characteristic of an ensouled body, He rightly attributed the consumption of food to the soul. Or: is the nutritive power not also called soul? Therefore, with the nutritive part of the irrational soul, do not worry about what you shall eat, nor with the body, about what to wear. After this He presents the reason.
Lk. 12:23. The soul is more than food, and the body more than clothing.
He Who gave the greater thing, namely the soul, will He not also give food? He Who gave the body, will He not also give clothing? Then He proves this by the example of the ravens.
Lk. 12:24. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap; they have neither storehouses nor barns, and God feeds them. How much more are you better than the birds?
He points to the birds in order to shame us all the more. He could have brought forward as an example the holy prophets, such as Elijah and Moses, but for greater reproach He points to the birds. Then He presents yet another reason.
Lk. 12:25. And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his stature?
Lk. 12:26. If, then, you are not able to do even the smallest thing, why are you anxious about the rest?
Tell me, pray, what profit do you gain from worrying? Do you add to your stature even the smallest measure? No, on the contrary, you even exhaust your body, for worry withers it. And if you cannot add even the least thing, why do you worry about the rest? It is obvious that just as God grants growth in stature, so too will He provide the rest.
Lk. 12:27. Look at the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of them.
Lk. 12:28. If God so clothes the grass of the field, which today exists and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith!
And the Lord put forth the example of the lilies for our greater instruction. For if God so clothes the lilies that the glory of Solomon could never compare with any one of them, and this when beauty is not necessary for the lilies, will He not much more clothe us—His most honored creation—when moreover clothing is necessary for our body?
What then — they will say — do You command us not to cultivate the land? I did not say: do not cultivate the land, but do not be anxious. I do not forbid working, but I forbid worrying, that is, placing hope in yourselves. And whoever works and places his hope in God, that person lives without anxiety. It is clear that He uproots anxiety because it draws one away from God.