Verse 22.—When he shall be filled, he shall be straitened. 26. The anguish of the rich arising from surfeit.—For first he pants through avarice to gather together the things he coveted; and when he has heaped up much, as it were in a certain belly of avarice, being filled, he is straitened, because while he is anxious how to guard what has been acquired, his very surfeit constrains him. For the field of a certain rich man had brought forth abundant fruits, but because he had not where to lay up so great a store, he said: «What shall I do, because I have no room where to gather my fruits?» And he said: «This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater» (Luke 12:17). He therefore who, straitened out of abundance, said, «What shall I do?» was as it were burning under the pressure of much food.
Let us weigh with how many wishes he longed that the field might bring forth abundant fruits for him. But behold, his wishes are fulfilled, for the field had brought forth abundant fruits. Yet because the places do not suffice for storing them, the rich man, multiplied in wealth, knows not what to do. O anguish born of surfeit! From the abundance of the field the soul of the covetous is straitened. For in saying, «What shall I do?» he plainly shows that, pressed by the affections of his own wishes, he labored under a certain burden of possessions. Well therefore is it said: When he shall be filled, he shall be straitened. Because the mind of the covetous, which before had sought rest out of abundance, afterward labored more grievously in the keeping of it. Whence here also it is still further added: