121. An Answer to One Asking About a Division, and Teachings Concerning It:

Someone in the crowd said to the Lord: Teacher! Tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. But He said to him: Man, who made Me a judge or an arbiter over you?

And He said to them: Take heed and beware of all covetousness, for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. And He told them a parable: The land of a rich man produced abundantly; and he thought to himself, saying: What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops. And he said: I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul: Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry. But God said to him: Fool! This very night your soul will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?

So is it with the one who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

And He said to His disciples: Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious for your life, what you will eat, nor for your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap; they have no storehouse or barn, and yet God feeds them. How much more valuable are you than the birds!

And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?

Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith!

And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek His Kingdom, and these things will be added to you.

Fear not, little flock, for it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide for yourselves purses that do not grow old, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Let your loins be girded and your lamps be burning. And you yourselves be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from a wedding, so that when he comes and knocks, they may open to him at once. Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Truly I tell you, he will gird himself and have them sit at table, and he will come and serve them. And if he comes in the second watch, or in the third watch, and finds them so, blessed are those servants.

Understand this: if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would have watched and would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready; for the Son of Man comes at an hour you do not expect.

Then Peter said to Him: Lord! Are You telling this parable to us or to everyone? The Lord said: Who then is the faithful and wise steward, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom the master, when he comes, will find so doing. Truly I tell you, he will set him over all his possessions.

But if that servant says in his heart, “My master will delay in coming,” and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, then the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him, and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful.

And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will shall receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know and did what deserved a beating will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be demanded; and from the one to whom much was entrusted, even more will be asked.