Commentary on Luke (Greek fragments) 12.16–12.41

“The land of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully. And he reasoned within himself, saying: What shall I do, for I have nowhere to gather my crops?” (12:16–17). Attend carefully, I pray, so that you may admire the skill of the saying. For he did not show us one field bearing well, but said that a whole country became fruitful for its owner, so that you may learn the depth of his wealth. What then? The rich man, surrounded by so many and measureless goods, is straitened with care and speaks the words of the poor man. For “What shall I do?” says the poor man, being in want of necessities; he is always spitting out such a wretched word. But see, the rich man uses the same words, grieving and suffering greatly: “And he said: I will pull down my barns, and gather there all my produce and my goods.” He thought of building larger storehouses; he wished to enjoy alone what he had; he does not love the poor, he does not aspire to the glory that comes from that; but he says, “I will pull down my barns.” See also another foolish word of his: “I will gather,” he says, “my produce.” He did not think he had these from God, as Job did; for then he would have been disposed toward them as God’s steward; but he thought them the produce of his own labours. That he thinks his prosperity is not from God he shows clearly from what he says: “I will gather my produce, and I will share my goods with no one, but will store up everything for myself and my belly.” For who, knowing God as the giver of what he possesses, would think so about those in need? For it belongs to the same people both to have something from God and to use what they have according to God. But this rich man builds not the storehouses that abide but those that are destroyed; and, still more unreasonable, he fixes for himself a length of life, as if he had reaped this too from the earth; for he says: “And I will say to my soul: Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years.” — “But, rich man,” one might say, “you have the crops in your storehouses; but where will you get many years?” Such too is the rich man now, bent over his belly, possessing a gullet instead of reason, and not living according to the image of the only Good; therefore he entertains his own soul with the foods of the flesh and imposes on the soul the foul pleasure that follows them. For by “be merry” the Lord delicately indicated the passions of the lower belly that attend satiety; for sexual indulgence follows surfeit. Yet one ought to eat in order to live, not live in order to eat—as do those who make a god of the belly and say, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die,” when one ought to say the opposite: Since tomorrow we die, let us not eat and drink. — What did his great anxiety profit this rich man? He belongs wholly to the flesh. But do you see how great a loss he suffered, he who was good to no one else but rich for himself alone? He took thought to become rich; he kept awake to gather much; he rejoices with his belly as having much provision; he belongs wholly to earthly things. He does not look up to God; he does not see what is to come; he does not reckon with God who judges from the divine tribunal; he does not see death his neighbour. For the rich man who hated the poor was condemned to an unexpected end, planning at evening his morning meal and not reaching the ray of dawn. For hear that his life was cut short by the sentence of God.

“Fool, this night they demand your soul from you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” (12:20). That is, having the enjoyment for an instant and for a wholly short and narrow time; for like dust it will pass away, sent to others—sometimes to those we do not know, or perhaps even to enemies. — It is true, then, that one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. But thrice blessed and in bright hopes is the one who is rich toward God. For the one consumed with earthly cares has a harmful end and will go away poor to God; but the one who cares for the things of the Lord will be rich in good works and will have an inviolable treasure in the heavens.

“Do not be anxious for your life, what you will eat,” and so on (12:22). The law given through Moses was laid down for those of Israel, guiding them in each thing to be done and making plain what was for their benefit. And they made the thing an occasion of the highest joy, saying: “Blessed are we, O Israel, for what is pleasing to the Lord is known to us.” But I would say: Thrice blessed are we, who are taught by the Saviour of us all himself his good and saving will, so that, having lived the evangelical life, we may reign with him. For see how he removes us from superfluous anxiety, not simply saying “Do not be anxious,” but adding “for your life”; that is, “Do not spend earnest care on these things, but give your zeal to higher things.” And the life is higher than food, and the body than clothing. And see how he does not simply lay down “Do not be anxious,” but here too stirs reasonings from what has already been given us: “For he who gave the greater,” he says, “how will he not give the less? He who fashioned the flesh that is fed, how will he not provide food?” Since, then, a contest lies before us for soul and body, and punishment and penalty hang over those who will not live rightly, let care for clothing and food be cast away. And besides, how is it not shameful for lovers of virtue to delight childishly in garments and costly tables? For the savage multitude of other desires will at once follow these; and this is a slipping away from God. We must rather aim at what pleases God; for he will supply what is needed and sufficient; and the Master is trustworthy, promising you this clearly, and assuring us from lesser things about greater ones.

“Consider the birds of the air,” and so on (12:24). As though raising us to spiritual courage, he gave assurance from the birds, which are of no account, saying, “You are worth more than many sparrows”; so now too, from the birds or the flowers in the fields, he works in you a settled and unshakeable faith. He does not let us doubt at all that in every way he grants his care, giving freedom from want in all things. — It is true that even Solomon was surpassed by the clothing of the lilies; for the bloom of colours, varied and manifold, in lilies and in some other things that grow in the fields, has an admirable beauty; but what is crafted by anyone in imitation of them falls altogether short of them and barely comes near the truth. If, then, this is so, how is it not true that not even Solomon, though he was so lavish, was clothed in all his glory like one of these? It is enough for the wise, then, to have clothing decent and easily obtained, for need alone, and a simplicity of food that does not exceed sufficiency; and for the saints the food in Christ will suffice—the spiritual, divine and intelligible food—and the glory that follows. And in another way too it would have been unfitting for those who were to be a pattern and model of holy life for others to fall carelessly into what they ought to advise them to depart from, being the world’s tutors. And for the disciples to take up worldly care would have done no small harm to the zeal for and the need of the sacred proclamations. Let us cast our care, then, on the Lord; let us not be anxious what we shall eat or what we shall drink or what we shall wear; let not our great reason be spent on small and worthless things; let us not make the free mind a slave of clothing and food; let it rather care for what saves the soul, what bears us up to the kingdom of heaven, what procures crowns for us; this work is most fitting for the human mind. For if anyone were to ask us what is greater in us, and what we have supposed to be better—food, or body, or soul—who is so silly, who so slow to understand what is useful, as not to answer at once, the soul? Since, then, the soul is greater than both food and clothing, why do we not rather spend our care on the greater things, while we so honour the lesser and give it our whole mind? You are anxious about clothing and food; why are you not rather anxious how you may be saved? You are anxious for the body; why are you not anxious for the soul? — … the good Lord, who feeds the most worthless bird, will he not nourish the one made in his own image? For this reason and very fittingly Christ wisely discredits care for these things, saying that the nations of the world seek them. And he raises them to an invincible faith that they will in every way be free of want, since their Father, the one in heaven clearly, knows well what they need; for he says: “And do not seek what you will eat,” and so on, “but your Father knows,” and so on. Very aptly he calls God Father, so that they may know that he would not forget his own children, but will be kind and fond of them. Let us seek, then, not food beyond reason and superfluous, but what looks to the salvation of the soul; not costly clothing, but how we may deliver our own body from fire and penalty, seeking his kingdom.

“Fear not, little flock,” and so on (12:32). He calls the saints a little flock, since smallness in the world goes with those who are voluntarily without possessions and without money; for to these the Father was pleased to give the kingdom. Hence he at once taught, adding: “Sell your possessions, and give alms,” and what follows. Or a little flock in comparison with the great number of unbelievers, or else because of the voluntary humility of such a flock. He commands them not to fear the want of bodily needs. For if he gives so great and exceptional an enjoyment, namely the kingdom of heaven, he will certainly give also what is necessary and sufficient for the flesh. — That is, “Do not disbelieve that the Father in heaven will in every way supply what is sufficient for life to those who love him. For he will not overlook his own; rather he will open to them his hand, which always fills all things with kindness.” And what is the proof of these things? “Your Father,” he says, “has been pleased to give you the kingdom.” He who gives things so great and exceptional, how will he hesitate to be kind to us and richly to provide the good things on earth? “So that you may gain the kingdom of heaven,” he means, “despise earthly riches.” He calls those on earth a little flock; for we are outnumbered by the multitude of the angels, which is measureless and incomparably surpasses our condition. And the Saviour himself taught us this again, having composed very well the parable in the Gospels; for he said: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if one of them goes astray, will not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and seek the one that is straying? And if he finds it, amen I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray.” See, then, how, when the number of rational creatures is extended to ten tens, the flock on earth is as one in the hundred; but though this is small, in nature, number and glory, compared with the measureless flocks of the spirits above, yet the goodness of the Father, surpassing all reason, has given it too the lot of the higher spirits, that is, the kingdom of heaven.

“Sell your possessions, and give alms” (12:33). The commandment is perhaps burdensome for those in wealth; for, as he himself says again somewhere, those who have riches will enter the kingdom of God with difficulty. Yet for the sound of mind the commandment is not without profit: they store up for themselves the hope of what is to come. For the present life is temporary, short and narrow, while the life after this is boundless and long. He who stores up treasure in the heavens will have the kingdom in heaven, not caught by the hands of robbers, not destroyed by the moth; since heavenly wealth is inviolable and remains free of harm. Come, then, without hesitation; acquire eternal things with temporary ones; give what does not remain, and become rich in what is kept safe; give earthly things, and gain those in the heavens; entrust your wealth to God, and you will find it stored up abundantly. The blessed David too will teach you this, singing and saying in the Spirit of everyone good and merciful: “He has scattered, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures for ever and ever.” “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (12:34).

This too is true: those who mind temporary things have all their hope in them, and those who seek the things in the heavens send the eye of their mind there. “Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning” (12:35). He speaks to them as to spiritual men, but again depicts spiritual things through manifest and visible things. For no one would say that he wishes us to have the loins of the body girded and burning lamps in our hands; rather, having the loins girded would indicate the mind’s readiness for diligence in all that is praiseworthy, and the lamp seems to signify the wakefulness of the mind and its spiritual brightness, and that we must be prepared daily for our departure from here and await the Master’s nod with eyes fixed. We say that the human mind is awake when it shakes off nodding into carelessness, through which it usually descends to every kind of wickedness, all but extinguished. Christ, then, bids us be awake; and his disciple sharpens us for this too, saying: “Be sober, be watchful.” Yes, and the all-wise Paul: “Awake, O sleeper.” For we must have the mind sober and awake and illumined by the knowledge of the truth, so that, rejoicing in this very thing, it may say: “You will light my lamp, O Lord my God; you will lighten my darkness.” — One should know that through the all-wise Moses too he is found to have commanded something of this kind to those of Israel, when he ordered the lamb to be slaughtered as a type of Christ, as the most holy Paul bore witness, saying: “For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed.” To those who ate its flesh the hierophant Moses—or rather God through him—called out, saying: “Let your loins be girded, and your sandals on your feet, and your staffs in your hands.” For I say that those who have come to share in Christ must be ready to go to the works that befit saints and to walk eagerly wherever the divine law wishes. Most fittingly, therefore, he invested them with a traveller’s dress. — For the traveller’s dress is most fitting for those who preach the divine Gospel. So too God says through one of the prophets to the captives in Babylon, announcing their return beforehand and urging them to make ready for it: “Watch the road, gird your loins, be very strong in your might.” For, as to men about to set out for Judea at once, he bids them gird their loins, that is, to be ready and fit for the toils of the journey and to play the man against every toil with invincible eagerness. That we must expect Christ to return from heaven (for he will descend in the glory of the Father with the holy angels) he taught, saying: “And you be like men who are waiting for their master,” and so on (12:36). And consider this again, I pray: Christ will return as from a festival; by which it is clearly shown that the Divine is always in the festivals befitting it; for there gloom is nowhere at all, since nothing grieves the undefiled nature. — “When he comes,” he says, “and finds them girded and awake, with their hearts enlightened, then indeed he will declare them blessed.” “For he will gird himself and serve them.” From this we may learn that he will repay us in kind, and, as it were, refresh us after our toil, setting spiritual delights before us and spreading a bountiful table of his gifts.

“And if he comes in the second watch,” and so on (12:38). Here, I pray, see the breadth of the divine gentleness and the excess of his kindness toward us. For he knows, he knows our frame, and how easily the human mind slips into sin. He knows that the power of love of the flesh has tyrannized over us, and that the distraction of the present life all but forces us even against our will, carrying the mind off to every kind of unseemliness. But since he is good, he does not let us despair; rather he has pity, and has given us repentance as a remedy of salvation. Therefore he says: “And if he comes in the second or in the third watch and finds them so doing, blessed are those servants.” You will certainly wish to know clearly what this means. Some divide the night into three or four watches; for those who sit on the walls of cities and guard against the attacks of enemies keep awake three or four hours and then hand the guard and the watching on to others. So among us too there are three ages: first, when we are still children not yet grown; second, when we are young men; and third, when we are old. The first, when we are still children, is not called to account by God, but deemed worthy of pardon; but the second and the third owe God obedience and a holy life according to what pleases him. So if someone is overtaken while watching and, as it were, girded, whether still young or having reached old age, he will be blessed; for he will obtain what Christ has promised. — That not being awake is harmful he shows very well by this example; for as his disciple says: “The day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the elements will be dissolved with burning, and the earth and all that is in it will be burned up; but we look for new heavens and a new earth according to his promises.” And he adds to this: “Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people must you be found to be, holy and blameless before him?” For no one at all knows the time of the end. “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to all?” (12:41).

Peter asks whether the Lord spoke the parable of the lamps to all. “Is the law general,” he means, “and does it come upon all in equal measure, or would it suit only those set apart from the others?” What, then, disturbed the most wise disciple, or what moved him to wish to learn such things from Christ? We shall say this first of all: of the commandments, some befit the apostolic dignities, others those who hold the lesser rank. And one can see that this is true and is as I said, since the blessed Paul wrote to some: “I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able, and even now you are not yet able.” For solid food belongs to the mature, who by practice have their faculties trained to distinguish good and evil; to those who have a strong mind the great and exceptional commandments befitting saints would fittingly belong, but to those who have not yet reached such spiritual strength, those free of all difficulty. The blessed Peter, then, having understood the force of what Christ said, fittingly inquires. What, then, does Christ say to this? He uses a clear and most plain example, showing that the commandment befits those who are most eminent and have been taken into the rank of teachers of the mysteries. “Suppose,” he says, “a man, master of a house, who, about to set out on a journey, entrusted to one of his true servants the management of his whole house, to give his household, that is, his servants, their portion of food in due season. When he returns and comes home again and finds him so doing, as he commanded, that servant will be thrice blessed; for he will set him over all his possessions.” — The faithful and wise servant, then, who knowingly distributes to the servants their portion of food, that is, spiritual nourishment, at the right time and as needed, will be blessed, according to the Saviour’s word; for he will obtain still greater things and receive the rewards befitting true servants. But if someone becomes contemptuous and careless, indulging in greed against his fellow servants, eating and drinking and carried away into dissolute excesses, he will be cut in pieces; that is, he will undergo the utmost penalty, when the Master comes upon him unexpectedly. This, then, is the simple and obvious force of what was said. But let us learn exactly what is signified by it. The Saviour has appointed as stewards, as it were, of his own servants—that is, of those called through faith to the knowledge of his glory—faithful and most understanding men, skilled in the sacred doctrines, to give their fellow servants their portion of food; and not simply and without consideration, but rather at the proper time, that is, the food that is sufficient and fitting for each, clearly spiritual food. For the saying about these things would not suit all who have believed in Christ, without distinction. It is written, then: “You shall know well the souls of your flock.” For in one way we lead the catechumen still being instructed into the paths of the truth, using a simple word with nothing deep in it; and in another way those more mature in mind, able to understand the height of theology. He, then, who has used rightly what he received will be set over all the Master’s possessions. And the Saviour himself taught us this, elsewhere praising the diligent and true servant and saying: “You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your Lord.” “But if,” he says, “he lets go of being diligent and true, and makes his own mind drunk with worldly cares, and is carried away to what is unlawful, doing violence to and defrauding those placed under him, and not giving them their portion of food, he will be in every evil; and his lot,” he says, “will be with the unbelievers.” For he who has at all plotted against the glory of Christ, and dared to neglect the flocks entrusted to him, will differ in no way from those who do not know him. And indeed Christ once said to the blessed Peter: “Simon son of Jonah, do you love me? Shepherd my sheep, feed my lambs.” But if he who shepherds loves, surely he who despises this hates; and if he hates, he is also punished, and is brought under the penalty of unbelievers—such as was the one who received the talent to trade with spiritually, and then did not do so, but brought back what was given unmultiplied. But those who received the five, or even more, having toiled and worked diligently, were honoured with the most illustrious dignities; for one heard, “Be over ten cities,” and the other, “over five.” But the insolent and slothful servant underwent the utmost penalty. Carelessness in the teaching of the mysteries, then, is everywhere dangerous; hence the blessed Peter writes to some: “Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, so that when the chief shepherd of all appears you may receive the reward.” And knowing that carelessness is the gate of destruction, Paul said: “Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.” That a bitter, painful and hard-to-escape punishment hangs over those who are slothful in teaching the mysteries the Saviour shows at once, adding two further examples to the first. For he said: “That servant who knew his master’s will and did not make ready or act according to his will will receive many blows; but he who did not know, and did what deserved blows, will receive few.” — For what reason, someone might say? How is he who did not know held to account? Because he did not wish to know, though he could have learned. And if he who did not know is not wholly free of wrath because, though he should have known, he neglected to learn, what argument will free from having to suffer many blows the one who knew and was careless? — The judgment of teachers, then, is heavier; and the disciple of Christ teaches this, saying: “Do not many of you become teachers, my brothers, knowing that we shall receive a greater judgment.” For the giving of spiritual gifts is rich among the leaders of the peoples; so the most wise Paul writes somewhere to Timothy: “The Lord will give you understanding in all things,” and, “Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given you by the laying on of my hands.” To such the Saviour, having given much, requires much of them. And what are these things? Steadiness in faith, freedom from error in teaching the mysteries, firmness in hope, unshakeable patience, unbreakable spiritual strength, eagerness and vigour for every one of the best brave deeds, so as to be for others too a pattern of the angelic life. “I came to cast fire on the earth, and what do I wish if it is already kindled?” (12:49).