Luke 12:16 — Community Reflections

LUKE 12:16 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:”

Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these — the flowers receive their splendid clothing from God's creative provision without any effort of their own, and Solomon's active pursuit of splendor cannot match what God freely gives to the grass. The comparison reaches its absurd limit when the disciples' anxiety about clothing is placed next to divine generosity toward grass.

Church Fathers on Luke 12:16

Having said that the life of man is not extended by abundance of wealth, he adds a parable to induce belief in this, as it follows, And he spoke a parable to them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully.
Theophylact · 11th century

Not indeed about to reap any good from his plenty of fruits, but that the mercy of God might the more appear, which extends its goodness even to the bad; sending down His rain upon the just and the unjust. But what are the things wherewith this man repays his Benefactor? He remembered not his fellow-creatures, nor deemed that he ought to give of his superfluities to the needy. His barns indeed bursting from the abundance of his stores, yet was his greedy mind by no means…
Basil the Great · 4th century

O adversity, the child of plenty. For saying, What shall I do, he surely betokens, that, oppressed by the success of his wishes, he labors as it were under a load of goods.
Gregory the Great · 6th century

Read all 18 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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