Fathers

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What the Fathers say

Matthew 25:42

Eastern Fathers

John Chrysostom

"For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat." For though He that came to thee had been thine enemy, were not His sufferings enough to have overcome and subdued even the merciless? hunger, and cold, and bonds, and nakedness, and sickness, and to wander everywhere houseless? These things are sufficient even to destroy enmity. But ye did not these things even to a friend, being at once friend, and benefactor, and Lord. …

Homily on the Gospel of Matthew 79 ↗

Theophylact of Ohrid

Tremble, then, O man, and understand from this that these men were not punished as fornicators, or robbers, or perpetrators of any other vice, but for not having done good. For indeed, if you consider things well, the robber is he who has much and does not give alms, even if he does no obvious injury. For whatever he has in excess of his needs, he has stolen from those who are in need and who have not received anything from him. For if he had shared these things with them, they would not be in need. …

Commentary on Matthew ↗

Western Saints

Thomas Aquinas

I was hungry. Here nothing else need be said except that he speaks differently to the good and to the wicked: because above he stated each thing separately, here he joins many together; hence sick and in prison. And because he joins these two, it should be said that he proceeds in the manner of a good judge who condemns reluctantly and rewards generously: hence he expands the words of reward and abbreviates the words of condemnation.

Commentary on Matthew ↗