Catena Aurea on Luke
Lecture 6
22. And he said to his disciples, Therefore I say to you, Take no thought for your life, what you shall eat: neither for the body, what you shall put on.
23. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment.
TheophylThe Lord carries us onward by degrees to a more perfect teaching. For He taught us above to beware of covetousness, and He added the parable of the rich man, intimating thereby that the fool is he who desires more than is enough. Then as His discourse goes on, He forbids us to be anxious even about necessary things, plucking out the very root of covetousness; whence he says, Therefore I say to you, Take no thought. As if He said, Since he is a fool, who awards to himself a longer measure of life, and is thereby rendered more covetous; be not you careful for your soul, what you shall eat, not that the intellectual soul eats, but because there seems no other way for the soul to dwell united to the body except by being nourished. Or because it is a part of the animate body to receive nourishment, he fitly ascribes nourishment to the soul. For the soul is called also a nutritive power, as it is so understood. Be not then anxious for the nourishing part of the soul, what you shall eat. But a dead body may also be clothed, therefore he adds, Nor for your body, what you shall put on.
ChrysNow the words, Take no thought, are not the same as do no work, but, “Have not your minds fixed on earthly things.” For it so happens, that the man who is working takes no thought.
CYRIL; Now the soul is more excellent than food, and the body than clothing. Therefore He adds, The life is more than meat, &c. As if He said, “God who has implanted that which is greater, how will He not give that which is less?” Let not our attention then be stayed upon trifling things, nor our understanding serve to seek for food and raiment, but rather think on whatever saves the soul, and raises it to the kingdom of heaven.
AMBROSE; Now nothing is more likely to produce conviction in believers that God can give us all things, than the fact, that the ethereal spirit perpetuates the vital union of the soul and body in close fellowship, without our exertion, and the health-giving use of food does not fail until the last day of death has arrived. Since then the soul is clothed with the body as with a garment, and the body is kept alive by the vigor of the soul, it is absurd to suppose that a supply of food will be wanting to us, who are in possession of the everlasting substance of life.
Lecture 7
24. Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them: how much more are you better than the fowls?
25. And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit?
26. If you then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take you thought for the rest?
CYRIL; As before in raising our minds to spiritual boldness, He assured us by the example of the birds, which are counted of little worth, saying, You are of more value than many sparrows; so now also from the instance of birds, He conveys to us a firm and undoubting trust, saying, Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which neither have storehouse nor barn, and God feeds them; how much more are you better than fowls?
BEDE; That is, you are more precious, because a rational animal like man is of a higher order in the nature of things than irrational things, as the birds are.
AMBROSE; But it is a great thing to follow up this example in faith. For to the birds of the air who have no labor of tilling, no produce from the fruitfulness of crops, Divine Providence grants an unfailing sustenance. It is true then that the cause of our poverty seems to be covetousness. For they have for this reason a toiless and abundant use of food, because they think not of claiming to themselves by any special right fruits given for common food. We have lost what things were common by claiming them as our own. For neither is any thing a man’s own, where nothing is perpetual, nor is supply certain when the end is uncertain.
CYRIL; Now whereas our Lord might have taken an example from the men who have cared least about earthly things, such as Elias, Moses, and John, and the like, He made mention of the birds, following the Old Testament, which sends us to the bee and the ant, and others of the same kind, in whom the Creator has implanted certain natural dispositions.
TheophylNow the reason that he omits mention of the other birds, and speaks only of the ravens, is, that the young of the ravens are by an especial providence fed by God. For the ravens produce indeed, but do not feed, but neglect their young, to whom in a marvelous manner from the air their food comes, brought as it were by the wind, which they receive having their mouths open, and so are nourished. Perhaps also such things were spoken by synecdoche, i.e. the whole signified by a part. Hence in Matthew our Lord refers to the birds of the air, but here more particularly to the ravens, as being more greedy and ravenous than others.
EusebiusBy the ravens also he signifies something else, for the birds which pick up seeds have a ready source of food, but those that feed on flesh as the ravens do have more difficulty in getting it. Yet birds of this kind suffer from no lack of food, because the providence of God extends every where; but he brings to the same purpose also a third argument, saying, And which of you by taking thought can add to his stature?
ChrysObserve, that when God has once given a soul, it abides the same, but the body is taking growth daily. Passing over then the soul as not receiving increase, he makes mention only of the body, giving us to understand that it is not increased by food alone, but by the Divine Providence, from the fact that no one by receiving nourishment can add any thing to his stature. It is therefore concluded, If you then be not able to do that thing which is least, take no thought for the rest.
EusebiusIf no one has by his own skill contrived a bodily stature for himself, but can not add even the shortest delay to the prefixed limit of his time of life, why should we be vainly anxious about the necessaries of life?
BEDE; To Him then leave the care of directing the body, by whose aid you see it to come to pass that you have a body of such a stature.
AugBut in speaking concerning increasing the stature of the body, He refers to that which is least, that is, to God, to make bodies.