So is he that lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.
All Commentaries on Luke 12:21 Go To Luke 12
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
So is he that layeth up treasure for himself. Such an end and such a death did the rich covetous man meet who had not laid up treasure toward God. It will be asked, Who is rich towards God? I answer—He who has by alms and other good works many merits and safeguards hidden up as treasures before God, and who day by day hides more, as the apostle teaches at length, 1 Timothy 6:17 and following. See what is said thereon.
Secondly, "He is rich in God who studies to please God alone, who fixes all his hope and love on God, who rests wholly on Him, that he may be blessed by Him and made eternally happy." "He is rich," says the Gloss, "whose expectation is the Lord, and whose substance is with God." "The rich in God," says S. Augustine, "is poor in gold" (Serm. xxviii. de verb. Apostoli)—that Isaiah , poor in spirit, as St. Peter was when he said to the lame Prayer of Manasseh , "Silver and gold have I none; but what I have, that I give thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk," Acts 3:6 On Ps. xl. he says, "When Christ was rich He became poor, that by His poverty He might make you rich. He enriches the truly poor, He brings the falsely rich to poverty. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,"" Matthew 5:3. "Let us endeavour," says Theophylact, "to be made rich in God, that Isaiah , to have trust in Him, that He may have our wealth and the granary of it, and not call our goods our own but God"s, and if they are God"s, let us not deprive Him of His own. This is to be rich in God, to believe that if I give Him all things and empty myself, nothing that is needful for my good shall ever fail me. God is my storehouse, which I will open and take from it all of which I have need."
Thirdly, He who is rich, that is liberal, in God, is charitable to the poor. For what is done to them God holds to be done to Himself and rewards it. "Let him," says Bede, "who wishes to be rich in God, not lay up treasure to himself, but distribute his possessions among the poor." The meaning is good, but it is not complete: for Christ is not speaking here exclusively of almsgiving, but of the true riches, which He declares to be not the fruits of the ground and the wealth of mines, but virtues and good works, for these procure us long life and blessing, as well in this world as in the world to come.
Fourthly, S. Augustine, in his44th Discourse on the Temptation, teaches that "he is rich to God who is full of love and therefore of God." "God is love and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God abideth in him," 1John iv16. "If you have love you have God. What has the rich man if he have not love? If a poor man have love, what has he not? You think him rich perhaps whose chest is full of gold; and is he not so whose conscience is full of God? He is truly rich in whom God deigns to dwell." S. Augustine.
Lastly, The rich man toward God is one who abounds in every virtue. So S. Ambrose explains at length (lib. iv. epis27), to Simplicianus, whose words I have cited on1Peter iii4 , "That which is not corruptible, the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price."
In allegory. The rich toward God are the blessed who enjoy God and all His works. S. Augustine (Serm74de Temp.) teaches that the blessed alone are happy, both because they possess God, and want nothing. " Hebrews ," he says, "is truly rich who wants nothing, but the blessed alone want nothing—the blessed alone are truly happy." He says in the preface of Psalm xli, "Christ was rich to the Father, and poor to us—rich in heaven, poor on earth—rich as God, poor as man."
S. Ambrose in his Epistle to Demetrias, wisely says, "By what price can the repose of this world be more fitly purchased than by the restoration to the world itself of all riches, all dignities, and all desires; and the purchase of Christian liberty by a holy and happy community by which the sons of God, from having been poor will be made rich, from patient will become brave, from humility be exalted?"
