Then he said, I pray you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father's house:
All Commentaries on Luke 16:27 Go To Luke 16
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
But it is too late for the rich man to begin to be master, when he has no longer time for learning or teaching.
In this place our Lord most plainly declares the Old Testament to be the ground of faith, thwarting the treachery of the Jews, and precluding the iniquity of Heretics.
Or else, Lazarus is poor in this world, but rich to God; for not all poverty is holy, nor all riches vile, but as luxury disgraces riches, so holiness commends poverty. Or is there any Apostolical man, poor in speech, but rich in faith, who keeps the true faith, requiring not the appendage of words. To such a one I liken him who ofttimes beaten by the Jews offered the wounds of his body to be licked as it were by certain dogs. Blessed dogs, to whom the dropping from such wounds so falls as to fill the heart and mouth of those whose office it is to guard the house, preserve the flock, keep off the wolf ! And because the word is bread, our faith is of the word; the crumbs are as it were certain doctrines of the faith, that isto say, the mysteries of the Scriptures. But the Arians, who court the alliance of regal power that they may assail the truth of the Church, do not they seem to you to be in blue and fine linen? And these, when they defend the counterfeit instead of the truth, abound in flowing discourses. Rich heresy has composed many Gospels, and poor faith has kept this single Gospel, which it had received. Rich philosophy has made itself many gods, the poor Churchhas known only one. Do not those riches seem to you to be poor, and that poverty to be rich?
