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Translation
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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
Cyril of Alexandria
Now this promise is worthy of our admiration and full of all praise, but to bid farewell to those who are at home, to get leave from them, shows that he was still somehow divided from the Lord, in that he had not yet resolved, to make this venture with his whole heart. For to wish to consult relations who would not agree to his proposal betokens one somewhat wavering. Wherefore our Lord condemns this, saying, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. …
Irenaeus
And they teach that He pointed out the three kinds of men as follows: the material, when He said to him that asked Him, "Shall I follow Thee?" "The Son of man hath not where to lay His head;"-the animal, when He said to him that declared, "I will follow Thee, but suffer me first to bid them farewell that are in my house," "No man, putting his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of heaven" (for this man they declare to be of the intermediate class, even as they do that other who, though he professed to have …
Western Saints
Augustine of Hippo
Our Lord spoke this to the man to whom He had said, Follow me. But another disciple put himself forward, to whom no one had spoken any thing, saying, I will follow thee, O Lord; but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at home, lest perchance they look for me as they are wont. (Serm. 100.) As if he said to him, The East calls thee, and thou turnest to the West.
Bede
And another said: I will follow you, Lord, but first allow me to say farewell to those who are at home. If a disciple of the Lord, because he wishes to say this farewell at home, is reproved, what will happen to those who, with no purpose of usefulness or of building faith, often do not fear to revisit the homes of those relatives they left in the world?
Bonaventure
And another said: I will follow you etc. After the repulsion of the double-minded and the calling of the simple, he here subjoins the rebuke of the inconstant, concerning which two things are introduced: the first is the vacillation of the will, the second is the rebuke of inconstancy. First, therefore, with regard to the vacillation of the will, he sets forth: And another said: I will follow you; behold, the will to cleave to God as to a master. …
Translation