Friday of the Second week in Lent
Matthew 21:33-43, 45-46
“The kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and it shall be given to a people who shall produce its fruits.”
Listen to another parable. There was a man, the father of a family, who planted a vineyard, and surrounded it with a hedge, and dug a press in it, and built a tower. And he loaned it out to farmers, and he set out to sojourn abroad.
Then, when the time of the fruits drew near, he sent his servants to the farmers, so that they might receive its fruits.
And the farmers apprehended his servants; they struck one, and killed another, and stoned yet another. Again, he sent other servants, more than before; and they treated them similarly. Then, at the very end, he sent his son to them, saying: ‘They will revere my son.’
But the farmers, seeing the son, said among themselves: ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and then we will have his inheritance.’ And apprehending him, they cast him outside the vineyard, and they killed him.
Therefore, when the lord of the vineyard arrives, what will he do to those farmers?”
They said to him, “He will bring those evil men to an evil end, and he will loan out his vineyard to other farmers, who shall repay to him the fruit in its time.”
Jesus said to them: “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders have rejected has become the cornerstone. By the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes?’
Therefore, I say to you, that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and it shall be given to a people who shall produce its fruits.
And when the leaders of the priests, and the Pharisees had heard his parables, they knew that he was speaking about them. And though they sought to take hold of him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.
What do the Fathers say?
St JEROME. He has planted a vine of which Isaiah says, The vine of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel. (Isa. 5:7.) And He hedged it round about; i.e. either by the wall of the city, or by the guardianship of Angels.
PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. Or, by the hedge understand the protection of the holy fathers, who were set as a wall round the people of Israel.
ORIGEN. Or, the hedge which God set round his people was His own Providence; and the winepress was the place of offerings.
St HILARY. Or, He set forth the Prophets as it were winepresses, into which an abundant measure of the Holy Spirit, as of new wine, might flow in a teeming stream.
St John CHRYSOSTOM. He calls the Prophets servants, who as the Lord’s Priests offer the fruits of the people, and the proofs of their obedience in their works. But they showed their wickedness not only in refusing the fruits, but in having indignation against those that come to them, as it follows, And the farmers took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another.
St JEROME. Beat them, as Jeremiah, killed them, as Isaiah, stoned them, as Naboth and Zacharias, whom they slew between the temple and the altar.
St HILARY. By the Son sent at last, is denoted the advent of our Lord.
PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. He sent His Son not as the bearer of a sentence of punishment against the guilty, but of an offer of repentance; He sent Him to put them to shame, not to punish them.
St John CHRYSOSTOM. The Lord proposed this parable to them with this intent, that not understanding it they should give sentence against themselves; as was done by Nathan to David. (2 Samuel 12: 1-10)
St RABANUS. Morally; a vineyard has been let out to each of us to dress, when the mystery of baptism was given us, to be cultivated by action. Servants one, two, and three are sent to us when Law, Psalm, and Prophecy are read, whose instructions we are to follow. He that is sent is beaten and cast out when the word is condemned, or, which is worse, is blasphemed.
ORIGEN. By the kingdom of God, He means the mysteries of the kingdom of God, that is, the divine Scriptures, which the Lord committed, first to that former people who had the oracles of God, but secondly to the Gentiles who brought forth fruit. For the word of God is given to none but to him who brings fruit thereof, and the kingdom of God is given to none in whom sin reigns. How came it to be then that it was given to them from whom it was afterwards taken away? Remember that whatever is given is given as a free gift. To those to whom then He let out the vineyard, He let it out not to those elect already believing; but to those to whom He gave it, He gave it with a sentence of free will
PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. Here is the difference between good and bad men. The good man when taken in a sin has sorrow because he has sinned, the bad man is grieved not because he has sinned, but because he is found out in his sin; and he not only does not repent, but is indignant with him that reproved him. Thus they being taken in their sins were stirred up to still greater wickedness; And they sought to lay hands on him, but feared the multitude, because they took him for a Prophet.
Every wicked man also, as far as his will is concerned, lays hands on God, and puts Him to death. For whoso tramples upon God’s commandments, or murmurs against God, or raises a sullen look to heaven, would not he, if he had the power, lay hands on God, and kill Him, that he might sin without restraint?