Saint Matthew - Chapter 21
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| Vineyards with their watchtower. J-J Tissot |
Hear ye another parable. There was a man an householder, who planted a vineyard, and made a hedge round about it, and dug in it a press, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen; and went into a strange country.
[34] Cum autem tempus fructuum appropinquasset, misit servos suos ad agricolas, ut acciperent fructus ejus.
And when the time of the fruits drew nigh, he sent his servants to the husbandmen that they might receive the fruits thereof.
[35] Et agricolae, apprehensis servis ejus, alium ceciderunt, alium occiderunt, alium vero lapidaverunt.
And the husbandmen laying hands on his servants, beat one, and killed another, and stoned another.
[36] Iterum misit alios servos plures prioribus, et fecerunt illis similiter.
Again he sent other servants more than the former; and they did to them in like manner.
[37] Novissime autem misit ad eos filium suum, dicens : Verebuntur filium meum.
And last of all he sent to them his son, saying: They will reverence my son.
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| The son of the master of the vineyard. J-J Tissot |
But the husbandmen seeing the son, said among themselves: This is the heir: come, let us kill him, and we shall have his inheritance.
[39] Et apprehensum eum ejecerunt extra vineam, et occiderunt.
And taking him, they cast him forth out of the vineyard, and killed him.
[40] Cum ergo venerit dominus vineae, quid faciet agricolis illis?
When therefore the lord of the vineyard shall come, what will he do to those husbandmen?
[41] Aiunt illi : Malos male perdet : et vineam suam locabit aliis agricolis, qui reddant ei fructum temporibus suis.
They say to him: He will bring those evil men to an evil end; and will let out his vineyard to other husbandmen, that shall render him the fruit in due season.
(Verses 33–41). Christ turns the point of this parable against the Scribes and Pharisees, His adversaries; but borrows it from Isaiah (5:1), that He may add weight to it, so as to press and convince them. For Isaiah there made use of it, and predicted that Christ would use it. For Isaiah begins his fifth chapter thus: “I will sing to my beloved (Christ Incarnate) a song of my kinsman of his vineyard. A vineyard has been made for my beloved in the horn of a son of oil” (Vulg.)—i.e., in a horn of olives, meaning in Judæa, which was strong and lofty like a horn, and fertile and rich like an olive. I have expounded this at length on Isaiah 5; from whence I will repeat summarily what has been there said, and will go through the whole parable in a few words.
1. The man planting a vineyard is God founding the Church, or synagogue, according to Psalm 80:9. “Thou hast transplanted a vine out of Egypt, Thou hast cast out the nations (from Canaan), and there planted the vine,” i.e., the Synagogue, or Temple of the Jews.
2. The hedge, the wine press and the tower erected in the vineyard signify that God provided abundantly for His Church all things necessary. Literally however by the hedge you may understand, with S. Jerome, the wall of Jerusalem; or strong princes like David and the Maccabees, with the Interlinear; or the Law, with Auctor Imperfecti, and S. Irenæus (lib. 4. cap. 70). Whence instead of hedged it round about, the Syriac has, protected it on all sides by a wall.
The wine press is the Altar where the blood of the victims was poured out. So Origen, S. Jerome, Bede, Theophylact, Euthymius. The wine press is said to be dug, because formerly small lakes were cut out, or dug, for the purpose. Or as Mark says (12:1) a lake: where they received the new wine pressed from the grapes by the press. This is plain from Isaiah 5:2. Tropologically, the wine press says S. Jerome, denotes the martyrs, Whence the Psalms 8, 81 and 84 are entitled, For the wine presses. But S. Hilary thinks the prophets are meant, into whom the richness of the Holy Ghost very warmly flowed. S. Chrysostom by the wine press understands the word of God, which presses and torments man, through the opposition of the flesh.
The tower of the vineyard, i.e., of the synagogue was the temple of Jerusalem, and God’s worship there. So Origen, the Chaldee, S. Hilary, Bede, Theophylact, Euthymius. Mystically, the prophets, pastors and teachers, together with the kings and princes of the people were the tower. For they as from a tower were the watchmen of the people. So the same. Whence S. Hilary says,” A tower denotes the eminence of the law, which towered towards heaven, and from which the Advent of Christ might be watched for.
3. The inhabitants of the vineyard were the princes of the people: for it is their part to rule and guide the people. To work in the vineyard, is to do justice, says S. Chrysostom.
4. God went into a far country, because, as Origen says, when He had given His law and covenants to the Jews, appearing to them on Mount Sinai, He did not afterwards appear to them, as though He had gone elsewhere.
5. The time of fruits, i.e., of the observance of the law and worship of God was in the time of David, Solomon, Josaphat, Hezekias, Josias, &c., when the Jews were able to live quietly to themselves and to God, as they ought. Or rather this time was always; because they were always bound to serve God, and bring forth the fruit of good works. Whence Maldonatus thinks this pertains to the figures and adornment of the parable.
6. The servants sent by God to the vineyard, i.e., the synagogue, to gather its fruits were Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the rest of the prophets, whom the Jews killed, because they reproved their vices, stoning some of them, as Jeremiah. And He sent them a second time, and more than the first, that by His diligence and His love He might overcome the wickedness of the husbandmen. Whence S. Chrysostom says, “Through all the grades of wickedness the mercy of God went on increasing, and through all the steps of God’s mercy, the wickedness kept increasing.” Wherefore at length God sent unto them His Son, that is Christ, now Incarnate, whom as the Heir of the Synagogue, the Scribes both slew and crucified without the city, i.e., outside of Jerusalem, on Mount Calvary, that they themselves might preside over and rule the synagogue, and enrich and magnify themselves by means of it. Instead of they will reverence My Son, the Syriac has, they will be ashamed on account of My Son.
Lastly, every one’s vineyard that he must till is his soul. To a pastor it is his parish: to a bishop, his diocese: to a magistrate, the state; that they may bring forth the fruit of good works and virtues. The hedge is the laws and statutes: the keepers are the angels: the tower is meditation, reason, forethought: the wine press is tribulation, mortification, the cross. “A servant is sent,” says Rabanus, “when the law, a psalm, or a prophecy is read: he is cast out when they are blasphemed or despised. He kills the heir, who tramples on the Son of God, and does despite to the Spirit of grace. The vineyard is given to another when the humble receive the grace which was despised by the proud.”
Moreover, The man planting the vineyard is God, who is called a man, says S. Chrysostom, by similitude, not reality. By nature He is Lord, by kindness Father, according to the words in Isaiah “The vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth is the house of Israel.”
They (the Scribes) say unto Him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men. You will say, Mark and Luke assert that Christ said this; how then does Matthew attribute the same words to the Scribes? I may reply with S. Chrysostom and Euthymius, that the Scribes said it first, and afterwards Christ repeated and confirmed the same, in such manner and gesture that from thence, and from what preceded and followed (as Abulensis rightly observes, quæst. 20), the Scribes sufficiently understood that it was spoken of them; and then they added, God forbid, as Luke has (c. 20:16).
He will miserably destroy the wicked: namely, the wicked ones of the vineyard, i.e., the husbandmen of the Church, or the Scribes, with their followers, who killed the prophets and Christ. God will destroy them by Titus and Vespasian in this life, and by the devils in hell.
And will let out His vineyard to other husbandmen (viz., the Apostles and their successors), who shall render to Him the fruits in their seasons. This fruit of the vineyard, i.e., of the Church of God, is made manifest in the conversion of the whole world to the faith and holiness of Christ, and especially in the constancy of so many thousands of virgins and martyrs. The rejection of the Jews and the conversion of the Gentiles are here foretold, as Christ teaches, verse 43.
Moraliter: learn from hence that, like as a vineyard produces good grapes even if those who till it be evil, so does the Church and her faithful members produce the good works of virtues, even though her pastors and teachers be sometimes evil, like the Scribes. Yet will they bring forth more and larger fruits if the pastors are good, as is plain from the Apostles, whose Apostolic virtues the primitive believers imitating, excelled in chastity, charity, patience, and all virtues. Zeuxis, a famous painter, is an illustration of this emblem. He painted a boy with a basket of grapes so skilfully and beautifully as to deceive the birds; for the birds flew to these grapes as though they were real, and pecked at them, to try to eat them. Then Zeuxis said, modestly, “I have painted the grapes better than I have the boy; for the birds fly to the grapes, and do not fear the boy, who stands there, as being only a picture.” Thus the shepherds and keepers of the Church are frequently depraved, and badly depicted; but the grapes, i.e., the works of the people, are better and more beautiful. By the carelessness of the keepers—i.e., of the pastors—it comes to pass that they become the prey of the birds—that is, of the demons—by whom they are devoured.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam
Ad Jesum per Mariam
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