Matthew 6:30 — Community Reflections

MATTHEW 6:30 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?”

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? The grass-to-disciples argument: the grass that burns in an oven tomorrow is clothed gloriously today. If the Father lavishes beauty on something so transient, the a fortiori conclusion is that he will much more clothe those who are his children and who are not transient. The O you of little faith is gentle rebuke: little faith is not no faith, but faith that is insufficient to carry the weight of the anxiety that the disciples are bearing. The little faith that calculates tomorrow's provision and finds it uncertain is the faith that has not yet rested in the Father's established track record with the transient grass.

Church Fathers on Matthew 6:30

Hom., xxii: Having shewn that it is not right to be anxious about food, He passes to that which is less; (for raiment is not so necessary as food;) and asks, 'And why are ye careful wherewith ye shall be clothed?' He uses not here the instance of the birds, when He might have drawn some to the point, as the peacock, or the swan, but brings forward the lilies, saying, 'Consider the lilies of the field.' He would prove in two things the abundant goodness of God; to wit, the…
Chrysostom · 4th century

The things instanced are not to be allegorized so that we enquire what is denoted by the birds of the air, or the lilies of the field; they are only examples to prove God’s care for the greater from His care for the less.
Augustine · 4th century · Serm. in Mont., ii, 15

For lilies within a fixed time are formed into branches, clothed in whiteness, and endowed with sweet odour, God conveying by an unseen operation, what the earth had not given to the root. But in all the same perfectness is observed, that they may not be thought to have been formed by chance, but may be known to be ordered by God’s providence. When He says, 'They toil not,' He speaks for the comfort of men; 'Neither do they spin,' for the women.
Pseudo-Chrysostom · 5th century

Read all 16 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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