The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: S. Luke
Take thine ease . To the plague of avarice is joined that of sloth, says the Gloss. “ If you had the soul of a sow,” says S. Basil, “what else could you propose for yourself? — you are so brutish, so ignorant of the soul’s good, that you indulge it in carnal gratification.” Being wholly of the flesh, you make yourself a slave to its lusts. An appellation worthy of you, was bestowed upon you, “ Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee.”
S. Ambrose (Lib. ii. de Interpell. in Job c. 5) says wisely, “ A great incitement to fall away is an influx of prosperity. It makes us supine, puffs us up, causes forgetfulness of its author.”
Ver. 20. — But God said unto him. God said this, not in word but in deed, sending him a fever or some other mortal disease, and causing his conscience by this means to speak thus to him. “ God said this to the rich man,” says Euthymius, “ through his conscience, which, as he felt death coming upon him, said this to him.”
Thou fool. Because in thy plan, in which thou appearedst to thyself wise, thou now perceivest that thou wast a fool.
This night. “ His soul, which would take no heed of light, and which was tending on to Gehenna, was taken in the night.” Gregory.
Shall be required. (Repetunt, ἀπαιτοῦσιν, Greek). They require : that is, God and His angels, who are His instruments, not by misfortune but by the just judgment of God, as if against His will.
Thy soul. “ That thou mayest give account of all thy fruits and of the riches and other property which God has given to thee.” So Toletus. They seek it again, because thy soul does not die with the body, but is immortal ; thy soul, too, is not thy own, but God’s, who put it into thee and entrusted it to thee as a sacred gift. Rightly, therefore, does He now seek it of thee again by a sudden death. Hear S. Jerome on the death that is imminent on all (Ep. iil to Heliodorus ) : “ Xerxes, that most mighty king, who overthrew mountains , who controlled seas, when he had viewed from a lofty place an infinite multitude of men and an immense army, is said to have wept, because after a hundred years none of those whom he then saw would be surviving. Oh, if we could ascend such a tower from which we could see the whole earth under our feet ! I would show you the ruins of the world — nations in strife with nations — kings with kings — and, not the army of Xerxes alone, but the inhabitants of the entire globe, who are now alive, in a short space of time passed away.” And the things which thou hast prepared, whose shall they be?
“ They shall not only not belong to thee,” says Euthymius, “ they shall not be thine ; but thou dost not know whose they will be — whether thy heir’s or a stranger’s, a friend’s or an enemy's ; — and this increases thy grief.” S. James says, “ They shall eat your flesh as fire” (v. 3) ; and S. Ambrose, “ The things that we cannot carry with us are not our own. Virtue alone is the companion of the dead. Mercy alone follows us — and mercy alone gains abodes for the departed.” S. Augustine: “The purse contains that which Christ receives not” (Hom. 48, inter. 50). Well says the wise man, “ What fortune has lent let her take, what nature has changed let her seek again, what virtue has gained she will retain.” See what I have collected from the Fathers on vanity and the perniciousness of riches on Isaiah v. 9.
Ver. 21. — So is he that layeth up treasure for himself. Such an end and such a death did the rich covetous man meet who had not laid up treasure toward God. It will be asked. Who is rich towards God ? I answer — He who has by alms and other good works many merits and safeguards hidden up as treasures before God, and who day by day hides more, as the apostle teaches at length, 1 Tim. vi. 17 and following. See what is said thereon.
Secondly, “He is rich in God who studies to please God alone, who fixes all his hope and love on God, who rests wholly on Him, that he may be blessed by Him and made eternally happy.” “ He is rich,” says the Gloss, “ whose expectation is the Lord, and whose substance is with God.” “The rich in God,” says S. Augustine, “ is poor in gold ” ( Serm . xxviii. de verb. Apostoli) — that is, poor in spirit, as St. Peter was when he said to the lame man, “ Silver and gold have I none, but what I have, that I give thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk,” Acts iii. On Ps. xl. he says, “When Christ was rich He became poor, that by His poverty He might make you rich. He enriches the truly poor, He brings the falsely rich to poverty. ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,’” Matt. v. 3. “ Let us endeavour,” says Theophylact, “ to be made rich in God, that is, to have trust in Him, that He may have our wealth and the granary of it, and not call our goods our own but God's, and if they are God's, let us not deprive Him of His own. This is to be rich in God, to believe that if I give Him all things and empty myself, nothing that is needful for my good shall ever fail me. God is my storehouse, which I will open and take from it all of which I have need.”
Thirdly, He who is rich, that is liberal, in God, is charitable to the poor. For what is done to them God holds to be done to Himself and rewards it. “ Let him,” says Bede, “ who wishes to be rich in God, not lay up treasure to himself, but distribute his possessions among the poor.” The meaning is good, but it is not complete : for Christ is not speaking here exclusively of almsgiving, but of the true riches, which He declares to be not the fruits of the ground and the wealth of mines, but virtues and good works, for these procure us long life and blessing, as well in this world as in the world to come.
Fourthly, S. Augustine, in his 44th Discourse on the Temptation, teaches that “ he is rich to God who is full of love and therefore of God.” “ God is love, and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God abideth in him,” 1 John iv. 16. “ If you have love you have God. What has the rich man if he have not love ? If a poor man have love, what has he not ? You think him rich perhaps whose chest is full of gold ; and is he not so whose conscience is full of God ? He is truly rich in whom God deigns to dwell.” S. Augustine.
Lastly, The rich man toward God is one who abounds in every virtue. So S. Ambrose explains at length (lib. iv. epis. 27) to Simplicianus, whose words I have cited on 1 Peter iii. 4, “ That which is not corruptible, the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.”
In allegory . The rich toward God are the blessed who enjoy God and all His works. S. Augustine ( Serm . 74 de Temp.) teaches that the blessed alone are happy, both because they possess God, and want nothing. “ He,” he says, “ is truly rich who wants nothing, but the blessed alone want nothing — the blessed alone are truly happy.” He says in the preface of Psalm xli., “ Christ was rich to the Father, and poor to us — rich in heaven, poor on earth — rich as God, poor as man.”
S. Ambrose in his Epistle to Demetrias, wisely says, “ By what price can the repose of this world be more fitly purchased than by the restoration to the world itself of all riches, all dignities, and all desires ; and the purchase of Christian liberty by a holy and happy community by which the sons of God, from having been poor will be made rich, from patient will become brave, from humility be exalted ? ”
Ver. 29. — Neither be ye of doubtful mind (The Greek and the Vulgate say, “ Be ye not lifted up on high.”) Cornelius comments on this reading, this passage is explained in many different ways. S. Clement of Alexandria (Paed. lib. ii. 10) says, “ Be not led away from the truth to wish for a higher wisdom than faith teaches.”
Secondly, S. Augustine (Lib. ii. Queest. 29, Evang. Quasi.) : “Be not puffed up with pride because you have much food and clothing. For to be proud of having abundance of provision, is like a wounded man boasting that he has many plasters at hand, when it would have been well for him not to have needed any.”
Euthymius : “ Be not dragged down from lofty and heavenly concerns to earthly ones, so as to study and pursue not the former but the latter.” Theophylact : “ Be not unstable, always imagining what is above you, as they do who are not content with the present but are always looking on to something greater.”