But God said unto him, You fool, this night your soul shall be required of you: then whose shall those things be, which you have prepared?
All Commentaries on Luke 12:20 Go To Luke 12
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
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 Prayer of Manasseh ," 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, Moral, lib. xv. xi. II.
Shall be required. (Repetunt, απαιτου̃σιν, Greek). They require: that Isaiah , 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 breathed 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. iii. 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" (v3); 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" (Hom48 , inter50). Well says the wise Prayer of Manasseh , "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 v9.
