Ambrose of Milan

In his own words on Baruch

• Baruch 3:24-25

  The elements have been given to all in common, the ornaments of the world are open equally to the rich and the poor. Are not the faces of the heavens, adorned with shining stars, more beautiful than the most precious gold-leaf ceilings of luxurious houses? Are the riches of the rich wider than the expanses of the earth? Whence it was said to those who join house to house and villa to villa: Will you alone dwell upon the earth? You have a larger house: the poor, in which you cry out and are heard. O Israel, says the prophet, how great is the house of God and its vast place of possession! It is great and boundless. The house of God is common to the rich and the poor, yet it is difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.

  The Six Days of Creation

• Baruch 4:26

  How great is the providence of the Lord! Where there is a fruit of a softer quality, the thickness of the leaves offers a more protective covering for its defense, as we see in the example of the fig tree. Therefore the more delicate creatures must be protected from the other sturdier ones, as the same Lord teaches by the mouth of Jeremiah, saying, "Like these good figs, thus I will regard the deported ones of Judah that I have sent from this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good and will fix my eyes on them for their good." In fact, when they were exposed to offenses he encircled them, so to speak, with a more protective covering of his mercy so that those tender fruits would not perish prematurely. Moreover, he later on also says about them, "The creatures of my possession have walked rough ways," and he says more to them further on, "Be brave, my children, and cry to the Lord." This is the sole inviolable protection, the impregnable defense against all the storms and the injuries. Where there are delicate fruits, the protection and the defense of the leaves is thicker; on the contrary, where there are more resistant fruits, there the leaves are more delicate, as in the case of the apple.

  The Six Days of Creation