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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
John Chrysostom
They shall require of thee, for perhaps certain dread powers were sent to require it, since if when going from city to city we want a guide, much more will the soul when released from the body, and passing to a future life, need direction. On this account many times the soul rises and sinks into the deep again, when it ought to depart from the body. For the consciousness of our sins is ever pricking us, but most of all when we are going to be dragged before the awful tribunal. …
Basil of Caesarea
But he was permitted to deliberate in every thing, and to manifest his purpose, that he might receive a sentence such as his inclinations deserved. But while he speaks in secret, his words are weighed in heaven, from whence the answers come to him. For it follows, But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall they require of thee. Hear the name of folly, which most properly belongs to thee which not man has imposed, but God Himself.
Theophylact of Ohrid
It is said thus: "But God said to him" not because God actually conversed with the rich man, but these words have the meaning that when the rich man was thinking so proudly within himself, then "God said to him" (for this is what the parable implies). God calls the rich man a fool because he laid plans in his soul that were most foolish, as we have shown. For every such person is foolish and vain, as David also says: man "bustles about," and the reason for this is that he "heaps up and does not know who will gather it" (Ps. 39:6). …
Western Saints
Gregory the Dialogist
The same night he was taken away, who had expected many years, that he indeed who had in gathering stores for himself looked a long time forward, should not see even the next day. (ubi sup.) But in the night the soul was taken away which had gone forth in the darkness of its heart, being unwilling to have the light of consideration, so as to foresee what it might suffer. But He adds, Then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?
Bede
But God said to him: Fool, this night they will demand your soul from you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? You who promised many delights for yourself foolishly in life, snatched away by death this very night, will leave what you have gathered to others. This is what it means for God to speak to a man, to restrain his wicked schemes with sudden reproof. Alternatively: The soul is taken away in the night, which is in the darkness of the heart, and wretched. …
Bonaventure
Third, with regard to the removal of vain security through the equity of the divine sentence, it is added: But God said to him. The Gloss: "For God to speak to a man is to restrain his wicked schemes by sudden punishment." On account of which he adds the sentence: Fool, this night they shall require your soul of you: 1 Thessalonians 5: "When they shall say: Peace and security, then sudden destruction shall come upon them." He calls him a fool on account of his earthly wisdom, because, 1 Corinthians 1, "God has made foolish the wisdom …
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