Luke 12:17 — Community Reflections

LUKE 12:17 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?”

If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you — you of little faith! — the conditional argument: if temporary grass receives such clothing, the disciples whose lives matter eternally receive how much more? The little faith rebuke does not condemn the disciples but names the gap between their actual security and their experienced anxiety.

Church Fathers on Luke 12:17

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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