The Lazy Man

Quis est ille piger, de quod dicit: Propter frigus piger arare noluit, mendiabit ergo aestate, et non dabitur? Quid? Si piger tempore frigoris arare noluerit, nunquid, aestatis tempore, qui sibi aliquid tribuat invenire non poterit Saepe namque pigri, et frigoris et aestatis tempore inveniunt qui sibi tribuant eleemosynam fideles: sed piger in hoc loco illum significat qui propter desidiam et hujus mundi adversitatem, quae per frigus designatur, in Dei servitio negligit laborare, et idcirco in futuro die judicii mendicabit, quia non habebit opera bona pro quibus mereatur accipere beatitudinem, quoniam quidquid seminaverit homo, hoc et metet Honorius Augustodunensis, Quaestiones Et Ad Easdem Responsiones In Duos Salomonis Libros, In Proverbia, Caput XX Source: Migne PL 172.321c-d

Who is the lazy man, concerning whom it is said, 'The lazy man will not plough because it is cold, therefore he shall beg in summer and nothing shall be given to him.' 1 What? If the lazy man will not plough when it is cold, shall it be that he shall find no one to give him anything in the time of heat? Lazy men in the time of cold and in the time of heat often find faithful folk who will give alms to them, but the lazy man in this passage signifies him who because of sloth and the opposition of the world, which is designated as cold, neglects to labour in the service of God, and therefore he shall beg on the future day of judgment, because he shall not have any good works through which he might merit beatitude, because whatever a man sows, he reaps. 2 Honorius of Autun, Questions and Answers on Two Books of Solomon, On Proverbs, Chapter 20 1 Prov 20.4 2 Galat 6.8