If you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 12. And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s: so again is called false worldly wealth, which passeth from one to another; so that it cannot be called a man’s own, who will give you that which is your own? that is how can you hope that God will bestow upon you, or commit to your care, spiritual riches or gifts, which, when rightly managed, would by your own for all eternity? See Saint Augustine l. ii. qq. Evang. q. 35. p. 263. Witham.—That which is another’s. Temporal riches may be said to belong to another, because they are the Lord’s; and we have only the dispensing of them: so that when we give alms, we are liberal of another’s goods. But if we are not liberal in giving what is another’s, how shall we be so in giving our own? Nothing one would have thought so properly belonged to the Jews, as the kingdom of heaven, the preaching of the gospel, and the knowledge of heavenly things. But they were deprived of all for their infidelity in the observance of the law, which was first intrusted to them. Calmet.