Fathers

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What the Fathers say

Luke 12:17

Eastern Fathers

Theophylact of Ohrid

Look also at the rich man's pleasures. "What shall I do?" Are these not the very same words that the poor man also utters? What shall I do? I have nothing to eat, nothing to wear. Consider, if you will, the words of the rich man as well: "What shall I do? I have... nowhere... to store my" many "crops." What fine tranquility! The poor man too says: what shall I do? I do not have... And the rich man says: what shall I do? I do not have... So what do we gain from gathering so very much? …

Commentary on Luke ↗

Western Saints

Gregory the Dialogist

O adversity, the child of plenty. For saying, What shall I do, he surely betokens, that, oppressed by the success of his wishes, he labours as it were under a load of goods.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas ↗

Bonaventure

And because riches so make one secure that they render him anxious, therefore he adds: And he thought within himself saying: What shall I do, because I have no place where I may gather my fruits? Ecclesiastes four: "There is another vanity which I saw under the sun: there is one alone and he has not a second, and yet he ceases not to labor, nor are his eyes satisfied with riches," nay rather they are certainly made anxious; Ecclesiastes five: "The fullness of the rich man does not allow him to sleep."

Commentary on Luke, Chapter 12 ↗