Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
First, Christ on Palm Sunday, as King Messiah riding on a donkey, enters Jerusalem in triumph. Second, verse 12, He drives out the sellers and buyers from the temple. Third, verse 19, by cursing He withers and kills the unfruitful fig tree. Fourth, verse 23, He answers the Scribes who demand an account, saying that He does these things by God's power and command; and therefore, verse 28, He gives them the parable of the two sons: one obedient to his father, the other disobedient; and, verse 33, the parable of the vine-dressers who rent the vineyard and kill the master's son, and consequently the vineyard's heir. Both parables signify the Church of God, to be transferred from the Jews (who will kill Christ) to the Gentiles.
Vulgate Text: Matthew 21:1-46
1. And when they drew near to Jerusalem, and had come to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2. saying to them: Go into the village that is over against you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them to Me; 3. and if any man say anything to you, tell him that the Lord has need of them, and forthwith he will let them go. 4. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet, saying: 5. Tell the daughter of Sion: Behold your King comes to you, meek, and sitting upon a donkey, and a colt the foal of her that is used to the yoke. 6. And the disciples going did as Jesus commanded them. 7. And they brought the donkey and the colt, and laid their garments upon them, and made Him sit thereon. 8. And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; and others cut boughs from the trees, and strewed them in the way; 9. and the multitudes that went before and that followed, cried, saying: Hosanna to the Son of David: blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest! 10. And when He was come into Jerusalem, the whole city was moved, saying: Who is this? 11. And the people said: This is Jesus the prophet, from Nazareth of Galilee. 12. And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all those who sold and bought in the temple; and He overthrew the tables of the money-changers and the chairs of those who sold doves, 13. and He said to them: It is written: My house shall be called the house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves. 14. And there came to Him the blind and the lame in the temple, and He healed them. 15. And when the chief priests and the Scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying: Hosanna to the Son of David, they were indignant, 16. and said to Him: Do You hear what these say? And Jesus said to them: Yes; have you never read: Out of the mouth of infants and sucklings You have perfected praise? 17. And leaving them, He went out of the city into Bethany, and remained there. 18. And in the morning, returning into the city, He was hungry. 19. And seeing a certain fig tree by the wayside, He came to it, and found nothing on it but leaves only, and He said to it: May no fruit grow on you henceforward forever. And immediately the fig tree withered away. 20. And the disciples seeing it, wondered, saying: How is it presently withered away? 21. And Jesus answering, said to them: Amen I say to you, if you shall have faith, and stagger not, not only this of the fig tree shall you do, but also if you shall say to this mountain, Take up and cast yourself into the sea, it shall be done. 22. And all things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive. 23. And when He was come into the temple, there came to Him as He was teaching, the chief priests and ancients of the people, saying: By what authority do You these things? and who has given You this authority? 24. Jesus answering, said to them: I also will ask you one word, which if you shall tell Me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. 25. The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven or from men? But they thought within themselves, saying: 26. If we shall say, from heaven, He will say to us: Why then did you not believe him? And if we shall say, from men, we are afraid of the multitude: for all held John as a prophet. 27. And answering Jesus, they said: We know not. He also said to them: Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things. 28. But what think you? A certain man had two sons; and coming to the first, he said: Son, go work today in my vineyard. 29. And he answering, said: I will not. But afterwards, being moved with repentance, he went. 30. And coming to the other, he said in like manner. And he answering, said: I go, sir; and he went not. 31. Which of the two did the father's will? They said to Him: The first. Jesus said to them: Amen I say to you, that the publicans and harlots shall go into the kingdom of God before you. 32. For John came to you in the way of justice, and you did not believe him; but the publicans and harlots believed him; but you, seeing it, did not even afterward repent, that you might believe him. 33. Hear another parable: There was a man, a householder, who planted a vineyard, and made a hedge around it, and dug in it a winepress, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a strange country. 34. And when the time of the fruits drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits thereof. 35. And the husbandmen, laying hands on his servants, beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. 36. Again he sent other servants more than the former; and they did to them in like manner. 37. And last of all he sent to them his son, saying: They will reverence my son. 38. 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. And taking him, they cast him forth out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40. When therefore the lord of the vineyard shall come, what will he do to those husbandmen? 41. They said to him: He will bring those evil men to an evil end, and will let out his vineyard to other husbandmen, who shall render him the fruit in due season. 42. Jesus said to them: Have you never read in the Scriptures: The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: by the Lord this has been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes? 43. Therefore I say to you, that the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and shall be given to a nation yielding the fruits thereof. 44. And whoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it shall grind him to powder. 45. And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard His parables, they knew that He spoke of them. 46. And seeking to lay hands on Him, they feared the multitudes, because they held Him as a prophet.
Verse 1: And When They Drew Near to Jerusalem, and Had Come to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, Then Jesus Sent Two Disciples
Mark xi, 1, has: "And when they drew near to Jerusalem and Bethany, to the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples." Luke chap. xix, 29: "When He drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, etc., He sent two disciples." But Mark and Luke speak in general terms and in a summary fashion, because Bethphage, Jerusalem, and Bethany were all close to one another. For otherwise it is clear from Saint John specifically, chap. xii, verses 1 and 12, that on the preceding Sabbath Christ dined and spent the night in Bethany, and on the following day (which was Palm Sunday) He drew nearer to Jerusalem, namely to Bethphage, and from there sent disciples to bring the donkey with the colt: for Bethphage was closer to Jerusalem. Hence from Bethany one went to Jerusalem by way of Bethphage, the Mount of Olives, and the Valley of Josaphat; for the Valley of Josaphat lies immediately adjacent to the city of Jerusalem, through which the torrent Cedron flows; after the valley follows the Mount of Olives, after the mountain the village of Bethphage, and then Bethany.
Bethphage. — In Hebrew it is the same as "house of the mouth," or "at the mouth of the valley" (for Beth means house; pha, mouth; ge, valley), says Franciscus Lucas and Pagninus in Nomin. Hebr., because this village of Bethphage is situated in the valley at the foot of the Mount of Olives, in a certain hollow of the mountain, and as if in its "mouth." Again, this village was situated as at the mouth of the Valley of Josaphat, which mouth is formed by a short and narrow road through which one went from Bethphage, by way of the Mount of Olives, into the Valley of Josaphat, and thence through the Golden Gate into the temple. Whence it is probable, as Jansenius and Adrichomius say, that Bethphage was a village of the priests, and in it sheep, goats, and oxen were accustomed to be fed for the temple sacrifices: for which reason the priests were accustomed to lead out from Bethphage the paschal lambs and other victims to be offered in the temple (to which Bethphage was adjacent). For this reason Christ wished to be led in triumph from Bethphage through the Golden Gate into Jerusalem and the temple, in order to show that He was the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world, whom the paschal lambs prefigured.
Again, triumphing, He willed to pass through the Valley of Josaphat, to signify that in the same valley He would, on the day of judgment, carry out that dreadful judgment of absolutely all mankind; and would adjudge the faithful and obedient to heaven, but the unfaithful and disobedient to hell, as I have shown at Joel chapter iii, 2. Now therefore, riding in triumph as the Messiah through this valley towards Jerusalem, as its king and lord, He as it were takes possession of His kingdom, which He will afterwards gloriously complete on the day of judgment. As if to say: Acknowledge Me, O Jews, as your Messiah, and believe and obey Me, so that on the day of judgment, which I shall carry out in this Valley of Josaphat, I may adjudge you to heaven: for if you persist in your unbelief, I shall then condemn you to hell. For this reason I come from Bethany, where a few days ago I raised Lazarus from the dead, as you all saw and were amazed at, so that from this miracle (which through this journey of Mine I silently rub home and call to your memory) and the other like deeds done by Me, you may know Me to be your Messiah, the Savior and Redeemer of the world.
And Immediately You Will Find a She-Ass Tied, and a Colt With Her: Loose Them, and Bring Them to Me. — Christ here was seeing absent things, namely the she-ass and colt tied up, as if present: wherefore He certainly revealed them to the Apostles through the gift of prophecy, which the same divinity had conferred upon His humanity. Therefore here He gave evidence of His divinity, for it is of the same power — namely the divine — to predict future things and reveal hidden things, such as absent things are. By the same power Christ saw and revealed what Nathanael had secretly done under the fig tree, John i, 48.
Hear Blessed Peter Damian, who tropologically applies each of these to the conversion of the sinner, in his homily on Palm Sunday: "Bethphage is interpreted 'house of the cheek' [house of the mouth], and signifies the understanding of the priests, by which confession is designated. To this the Lord comes, because He inflames hearts to confession. The castle that is opposite the Lord and His disciples is the obstinate soul given over to its own will. The two disciples sent to it are hope and fear. The she-ass and colt tied up are humility and simplicity. For such a soul at times knows what humility is, what simplicity is, and that one ought to live simply and humbly; but as it were it ties them up and puts them aside when it does not want to exercise them in deed. Fear terrifies it when it has turned from evil, threatening torments. Hope comforts it, if it repents, by promising rewards. By these two the soul is pricked. The she-ass and colt are loosed when, going to meet the Lord, at Bethphage the soul confesses that it has sinned, and promises henceforth to live humbly and simply. And thus what was formerly the castle of the devil becomes the city of our strength, Sion. The Savior is set in it as wall and outer-wall. The wall is humility, the outer-wall is patience. Let us then go out, dearly beloved, to meet the Lord at Bethphage, pricked with fear of punishment and strengthened by hope of heavenly life, confessing our sins humbly and simply, walking with the garments of our carnality strewn beneath, that the Lord may deign to sit upon us, and lead us with Him into the heavenly Jerusalem."
Then Jesus Sent Two Disciples. — St. Hilary, the Author of the Opus Imperfectum, Bede, and the Gloss think that these two were Peter and Philip. Origen and Theophylact hold that they were Peter and Paul, namely typologically — that is, that these two, sent by Christ, signified and represented Peter, who was to be the Apostle of the Jews, and Paul, who was to be the Apostle of the Gentiles. For Paul had not yet been converted to Christ, but was converted after Christ's ascension into heaven, Acts IX. More probably Jansenius is of the opinion that these two were Peter and John, because a little later Christ sent these two ahead to prepare the Paschal Lamb: yet nothing certain can be determined here.
Verse 2: Saying to Them: Go Into the Village That Is Opposite You
In Greek εἰς κώμην κατέναντι ὑμῶν, that is, into the village that is over against or in the region opposite you: whence it is clear that Jerusalem is not signified here, as Lyranus maintains, but either Bethphage (as Jansenius holds), or else some village opposite Bethphage (as Adrichomius holds); for Christ had already come to Bethphage, as I said at verse 1 — unless you explain the phrase "when He had come" at that place as "When He had drawn near to Bethphage."
Verse 3: And if Anyone Says Anything to You, Say: That the Lord Has Need of Them; and He Will Immediately Send Them
3. And if anyone says anything to you, say: That the Lord (namely I, who am the Messiah, God and Lord of all) has need of them (for His solemn entry into Jerusalem, that He may be inaugurated there as its king); and He will immediately send (Arabic, will send) them. — Christ did not wish the she-ass and colt to be taken from unwilling owners, which by His supreme right He could have done, since His providence works as powerfully so also sweetly: therefore by the same power of His divinity He bent their minds, so that when the Apostles loosed the she-ass with the colt, they consented — indeed cooperated.
Christ, who up to this time had for three continuous years gone on foot, walking about the whole of Judaea, willed to show that He was the king of Judaea — namely, the Messiah, son and heir of David — and therefore enters Jerusalem, which was the metropolis of Judaea, in royal pomp: yet He is not borne on a richly caparisoned horse, or on a gilded chariot with a crowd of nobles riding alongside, with blaring trumpets, gleaming in purple, as the kings of the earth do: but He is borne on a she-ass, to show that His kingdom is of another order — namely spiritual and heavenly — and therefore meek and humble, set in contempt of pomp; although in Judaea the asses were better and stronger than ours, like our mules. Whence the sons of princes rode on asses, as is clear from Judges xii, 14, where 70 sons and grandsons of Abdon, prince of Israel, are said to have been borne on as many asses. Christ sits, says the Author of the Opus Imperfectum, "upon the she-ass of tranquility and peace, most patient of burden and labor. But you do not see around Him glittering swords or the other ornaments of terrible arms. But what? Leafy branches, testimonies of piety. He comes therefore meek, not that He might be feared on account of His power, but that He might be loved on account of His meekness."
Verse 4: Now All This Was Done, That What Was Spoken Through the Prophet Might Be Fulfilled
4. Now all this was done, that what was spoken through the Prophet (Zechariah, chap. ix, 9) might be fulfilled, saying:
Verse 5: Tell the Daughter of Sion: Behold Your King Comes to You, Meek, and Sitting Upon a She-Ass, and a Colt the Foal of One Used to the Yoke
Tell the Daughter of Sion. — Some think that these words are taken from Isaiah chap. lxii, 11, as if Matthew were combining this testimony from Isaiah and Zechariah. More simply, Francis Lucas and others hold that Christ cites only Zechariah, yet not so much in his words as in his meaning. "Tell therefore the daughter of Sion" is the same as "Rejoice greatly (Hebr. מאד meod, that is, exceedingly), daughter of Sion, shout for joy, daughter of Jerusalem," as Zechariah has it, chap. ix, 9, because your king the Messiah enters you, to save you, as follows. For Zechariah exhorts the citizens of Jerusalem eagerly to receive Jesus, borne on a she-ass, as their Messiah and Savior.
Note: Jerusalem is called "daughter of Sion," either by synecdoche, whereby from Sion — the higher and mountainous part of the city — the whole city is called Sion; or by metaphor, in that the city of Jerusalem, lying at the foot of Mount Sion and protected by it, resting as it were like a daughter in its bosom, is called the daughter of Sion. Moreover, by "Jerusalem" he understands the citizens and inhabitants of Jerusalem by metonymy: for He invites them to rejoice and exult at Christ's coming. Mystically these things are true in the Christian Church, which, like Jerusalem and the daughter of Sion, is a "vision of peace," and therefore continually rejoices with her Christ.
Behold Your King (the Messiah) Comes to You Meek; Sitting Upon a She-Ass, and a Colt the Foal of One Used to the Yoke. — Zechariah has "the foal of a she-ass": for this [ass] is "of the yoke," because she bears the yoke of a man, or of a prince sitting and riding on her or driving her. The rest of what belongs to this prophecy I have explained at Zechariah ix, 9, whence they are taken.
Verse 6: And the Disciples Going, Did as Jesus Commanded Them
The prompt obedience of the disciples is noted, which earned a prompt compliance from the owner, so that he allowed them to lead away his she-ass with the colt, as Christ had foretold, not doubting that they would be returned to him. Whence Mark, chap. xi, 4, and Luke, chap. xix, 33, express this same thing sufficiently.
Verse 7: And They Brought the She-Ass and the Colt, and Laid Their Garments Upon Them, and Made Him Sit Thereon
7. And they brought the she-ass and the colt; and they laid their garments (Greek ἱμάτια, that is, cloaks or outer garments, as it were coverlets for adornment and pomp) upon them, and made Him sit thereon. — The translator reads τὰ ἱμάτια; but now many, along with the Syriac, read ἐκάθισεν, that is, "he sat"; the Syriac has "he sat upon him," namely the colt. Truer is it that Christ sat on both the she-ass and the colt, not at the same time but successively, as I said at Zechariah ix, 9. Jesus first used the she-ass, says Francis Lucas, then the colt: the colt perhaps would not have been equal to bearing a rider in the ascent and descent of the mountain, while the she-ass would have been less suitable for the entry into the city; so that outside, He was borne on the she-ass with the colt following, and into the city on the colt with the she-ass following. But chiefly for mystical reasons He willed to use these two beasts, in order to signify that He would reign not only over those to whom He had been promised — namely the Jews — but over the whole world, that is, over the two peoples of which the world consists: the Jews, accustomed to the yoke of the Mosaic law, whom the she-ass prefigured; and the Gentiles, who had up until now lived without God's law, whom the colt would prefigure. For, "as sinners are the devil's horses," says the Author of the Opus Imperfectum, "so also the saints are called Christ's horses"; although Christ loves the meek asses more than the fierce and proud horses.
These disciples, as well as the multitude of the people, prompted and moved by the Holy Spirit, or rather by the very Godhead of Christ, adorned this whole royal procession, and strewed the she-ass with their cloaks as with royal coverlets, and made Christ sit upon them; so that they themselves, as it were, might pay homage to the Messiah, and inaugurate Him at Jerusalem as king of Judaea: for this whole procession was carried out with Christ as its agent, prompter, and director — Christ who here willed, contrary to His custom, to ride, in order to give some display of His kingdom, yet joined with poverty and humility; and therefore He was borne on a mean and lowly she-ass.
Here note: Christ willed to adorn this royal procession and entry into Jerusalem — unaccustomed for Him — for various reasons. The first was that He might give some token and display of His royal power and magnificence, because the Jews thought and still think their Messiah would come as it were another Solomon. By this appearance and pomp, therefore, He presented Himself to them, lest they should oppose and despise Him as a pauper (as they did); yet in such a way that by mingled signs of humility and meekness He might show that the Messiah's kingdom was more spiritual than temporal. Therefore He willed that all these things should be foretold by Zechariah, lest the Jews scorn this king who came without royal pomp. So St. Chrysostom, the Author of the Opus Imperfectum, and Eusebius, book viii of the Demonstration, chap. iv.
The second and accompanying cause was that Christ might, in this royal entry, present Himself to the Pharisees and Scribes — whom they could and ought by this deed to recognize as the Messiah, as the one promised and foretold in this place by Zechariah. Yet He knew that they would thereby be all the more exasperated and would plot the death of the cross against Him, which He determined to allow, so that He might obtain the death He so much desired, and through it redeem us: thus the Author of the Opus Imperfectum.
The third was that He might answer to the type of the Paschal lamb. For this lamb was brought into the city with solemn pomp on the tenth day of the first month, to be sacrificed on the fourteenth. So also Christ, as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, on the tenth day — that is, on Palm Sunday — entered Jerusalem, to be sacrificed on the fourteenth. And He entered with pomp and joyful acclamations of the crowd, so that — because He was sure of His victory over death, sin, hell, and demons — He might take the triumph ahead of the combat, and enter the combat triumphant.
The fourth cause was tropological, namely, that by this act He might laugh at the world's glory and propose it as something to be laughed at, since He knew that five days later He was to be crucified by the very same people who in this entry were so honoring Him — and that those who were now crying "Hosanna to the Son of David" (as if to say, "Long live our king Messiah, the son and heir of David") would four days later cry before Pilate's tribunal, "Crucify, crucify Him!" — and consequently that the city would be utterly destroyed by Titus and the Romans. For this reason, during this entry of His — joyful though it was — He wept on seeing the city and foreseeing its disaster, as Luke relates, chap. xix, 41. Again, He did this to teach that His kingdom and that of His followers in this life consists in suffering and the cross, and that therefore the cross is not to be turned away from, but to be sought after, and approached with joyful heart and solemn pomp. Wherefore the Martyrs, the followers of Christ, went to their martyrdoms as to banquets — nay, to a kingdom and a triumph, rejoicing, clothed in white and attended by a choir of the faithful: as went St. Agatha, St. Cecilia, St. Agnes, St. Laurence, St. Vincent, and the rest.
Verse 8: And a Very Great Multitude Spread Their Garments in the Way; and Others Cut Down Branches From the Trees, and Strewed Them in the Way
8. And a very great multitude spread their garments (cloaks) in the way (so that He might go with His foot unhurt); and others cut down branches from the trees (of palms, olives, and other fruit-bearing trees, with which the Mount of Olives is full, says St. Jerome), and strewed them in the way — just as for an incoming king the streets are commonly spread with carpets, branches, and foliage in his honor; but this crowd, since they had no carpets, spread their cloaks for Christ, stripping and denuding themselves of them, which was a great sign of their reverence and devotion toward Christ. This occurred on the 20th of March, when in Palestine — being a hot region — the trees were already green and adorned with branches and leaves; for Christ suffered and was crucified on March 25, that is, on the Friday following Palm Sunday.
Tropologically: Remigius, and from him St. Thomas in the Catena: "The Lord," he says, "sitting on an ass, makes for Jerusalem, because, presiding over the holy Church or the faithful soul, He rules her in this world and, after this life, leads her into the vision of the heavenly homeland. But the Apostles and other doctors put their garments on the ass, because the glory they received from Christ they gave to the Gentiles. The crowd, however, strewed their garments in the way, because those who believed out of the circumcision despised the glory they had from the law; but they cut down branches from the trees, because from the Prophets they took examples of Christ as if from a flourishing tree. Or the crowd which strewed garments in the way signifies the Martyrs, who handed over their garments — that is, their bodies, which are the coverings of their souls — for Christ to martyrdom; or it signifies those who tame their bodies by abstinence. But those who cut branches from trees are those who seek the sayings and examples of the holy Fathers for their own salvation or that of their children."
Verse 9: And the Crowds, Which Went Before and Which Followed, Were Shouting, Saying: Hosanna to the Son of David
9. And the crowds, which went before and which followed, were shouting, saying: Hosanna to the Son of David! — St. John, chap. xii, 12, says: "On the morrow (that is, the day after the Sabbath on which Jesus had come to Bethany, namely on Palm Sunday), a great crowd which had gathered for the feast day (the approaching Passover), when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palms and went out to meet Him, and were shouting: Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel!" — that is, the Messiah, whom as a divine king we have for so many thousands of years until now been eagerly awaiting. Whence the crowd goes out to meet Him with branches of palms, as one would greet a victor and conqueror; for of old victors in the games were given palms. So the Church explains it when, in the blessing of the palms, she sings: "The branches of palms therefore await triumphs over the prince of death; while the olive twigs in a certain manner proclaim the coming of the spiritual anointing — proclaim. For that blessed multitude already understood it at that time to be prefigured, because the Redeemer, compassionate to human miseries, was about to fight for the life of the whole world with the prince of death, and by dying to triumph. And for this reason He caused such ministrations to be rendered, which in Him would show forth both the triumphs of victory and the fatness of mercy." For Christ was, after four days, on Good Friday, going to triumph on the cross over sin, death, the devil, and hell; which, although the crowd did not know, Christ knew, and therefore willed that this triumph of His should be prefigured by the crowd with palms, and that openly and with solemn pomp — namely, on the fifth day before the feast of Passover, when a very great multitude, which had gathered to Jerusalem from everywhere to celebrate it, was going out in a great procession to Bethphage, in order to bring from there the paschal lambs to Jerusalem, to be sacrificed and eaten on the Passover (which that year fell on the evening of Thursday). For this reason this inauguration of Christ as king of Judaea was gloriously celebrated with a great company of people, zeal, and devotion. For they were leading Christ as the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world, to be sacrificed on the following Friday on the cross for the salvation of the world, of which the paschal lambs were figures and types. And even if they themselves were ignorant of this mystery at the time, still God — who foresees all things — was directing and ordering these things for Christ's glory and our salvation, and so that the Jews might turn their attention to this pomp of Christ and from it acknowledge Him as the Messiah. For Zechariah had foretold, chap. ix, verse 9, and David in Psalm cxvii, 25, that the Messiah would enter Jerusalem with this pomp; and therefore Matthew here cites both of them, so that the Jews who refuse to believe in Christ might be without excuse. All these things were done according to the law, Exodus chap. xii, verses 3 and 6, where the paschal lamb is commanded to be chosen and prepared on the tenth day of the first month, in order to be sacrificed on the fourteenth. For the tenth day of Nisan, that is, of the first month, was that year Palm Sunday, which by our reckoning was the 20th of March: for we use solar months, but the Jews lunar ones.
Hosanna to the Son of David! — So also the Egyptian and the Arabic; but the Syriac, "Ouschano to the Son of David"; the Ethiopic, "Husanna to the Son of David"; the Persian, "Husiana to the Son of David." You will ask: what is "Hosanna"? First, St. Hilary here, and from him St. Ambrose on chap. xix of Luke, hold that "Hosanna" signifies the redemption of the house of David: but St. Jerome refutes this, in his epistle to Damasus; for "Hosanna" does not mean redemption, though it is a kind of indication of it; for the salvation brought by Christ was our redemption, and this only is what St. Hilary and Ambrose seem to have meant.
Secondly, St. Augustine, in his 51st treatise on John, thinks that "Hosanna" is an interjection of rejoicing and supplication, like "euge," "eia."
Thirdly, Euthymius says that "Hosanna" means praise, being derived from עז "hoz," that is, strength, which Our Translator and the Septuagint elsewhere render as "praise," and חנה "channa," that is, grace. Whence also the Greeks utter "Hosanna" as two words.
Fourthly, I say truly, with St. Jerome, Theophylact, Pagninus, Caninius, Jansenius, Francis Lucas, Barradius, and others, that "Hosanna" is compounded and fused together (which Abulensis wrongly denies, Question cxxxiv) from הושיעה "hoschia," that is, save, and נא "na," that is, "I beseech"; so it ought to be said "hoscana," that is, "save, I pray," or "save now"; but in place of "hoscana," it is commonly said "hosanna," because the letter ע ain, which is the last in "hoscha," is turned into γ gamma, and γ gamma into ν nu (that is, into the letter n) on account of the following ν nu in the word "na," as is done among the Greeks for euphony. "Hosanna," therefore, is an acclamation and invocation of salvation, that is, of prosperity and happiness; for it is the mark of that, just as with us in victory we say "io Paean, io triumphe." Whence also the very name "Hosanna," although it is Hebrew, has remained in use among the Greeks and Latins.
He alludes to, nay rather cites, Psalm cxvii, 25: "O Lord, save me (the word 'me' is not in the Hebrew, for it seems to be not Christ's voice, but that of the people invoking salvation upon Christ) make me safe; O Lord, prosper well, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord." Symmachus translates: "I beseech, O Lord, save me, I beseech." The Hebrew is אנא יהוה הושיעה נא אנא יהוה הצליחה נא "anna Iehovah hoscia na: anna Iehovah hatslicha na," that is, O Lord, save, I pray: O Lord, prosper, I pray, our king David and his antitype the Messiah: grant Him a happy beginning of His kingdom, a yet happier progress, and a most happy end. Therefore "Hosanna" is acclaimed to the Messiah, as to the new king of Israel, at His inauguration, just as we cry: Long live the king, long live the prince.
Hence too in that same Psalm cxvii, verse 24, there precedes: "This is the day which the Lord has made: let us rejoice and be glad in it." The cause precedes in verse 21: "The stone which the builders rejected, this has become the head of the corner. By the Lord this was done, and it is wonderful in our eyes." Where the Chaldean paraphrases of David: David, at first rejected, was afterward made king of the people, as if a cornerstone binding to himself Judah and Jerusalem — that is, both the two and the ten tribes. Better does St. Matthew explain this of Christ — as if to say: Christ, rejected and crucified by the Jews in life and death, became the cornerstone of the Church after His resurrection, inasmuch as He holds together and binds the whole building of the Church, uniting Jews and Gentiles in the same bosom of His Church; and therefore we sing and invoke upon Him "Hosanna."
Some think that "Hosanna" is taken from the feast of Tabernacles, at which the Jews, rejoicing with tree branches, repeatedly doubled and shouted "Hosanna," and in the prayers and litanies to God the whole people again and again responded: "Hosanna," that is, save us; just as Christians in their litanies, at each evil and scourge of plague, famine, war, and so forth, respond: "Deliver us, O Lord." For this reason the Jews also called the branches themselves "Hosannas," as Angelus Caninius shows from Chaldean, Talmud, and Elias (in his treatise De Nominibus Hebraicis, ch. IV), and from him Jansenius, Franciscus Lucas, and others. But this "Hosanna" of the Chaldean and Talmudists is later than our "Hosanna" of Christ: for the Talmudists and the Chaldean were later than Christ; hence this one is rather derived from that than that from this. Add that the "Hosanna" of the Feast of Tabernacles was a "Hosanna" of affliction and supplication, whereas the "Hosanna" of Christ here is one of exultation, jubilation, and triumph: this therefore differs from that as much as a litany differs from a triumph.
This crowd, therefore, by God's prompting, breaks forth into this acclamation "Hosanna," which is that of those rejoicing and triumphing, in praise of Christ, just as the infants do in verse 15, although the occasion of it was the memory of that great miracle, namely the raising of Lazarus, which shortly before had been performed by Christ in that same place, namely in Bethany, as is clear from John XI, 15, and XII, 9, 17.
To the Son of David. — That is, to the Messiah or Christ, the son and heir of King David. First, many of the ancients refer this to the crowd, as though the crowd itself were asking salvation from its Messiah, as if to say: "Hosanna to the Son of David," that is, our salvation is from the Son of David, or may salvation come to us from the Son of David, namely from this our Messiah. So Origen, St. Jerome, Bede, Hilary here, St. Ambrose on Luke XIX, and Irenaeus, book IV, ch. IV.
Secondly, others refer the phrase "to the Son of David" not to "Hosanna" but to "saying," as if to say: They were saying to the Son of David, that is, to Christ, "Save me, who am Thy people, O Son of David," that is, O Messiah our King. For the Latin codices have the word "me" in Psalm CXVII, 25. So St. Jerome, Theophylact, Eusebius, and Genebrardus on Psalm CXVII.
But I say that the people here directly acclaim "Hosanna" not for themselves, but for Christ their King, and invoke salvation upon Him, yet indirectly and consequently begging the same for themselves as well; for the king's safety is the people's safety.
Therefore "Hosanna to the Son of David" is the same as "Save, I pray, the Son of David." For so it would have had to be rendered according to Latin syntax; but the Greek Interpreter, as well as the Latin, followed the Hebraism. For the Hebrews sometimes construe the word הושע hosha, that is, "save," with ל lamed, which is the article of the dative case, and at times of the accusative. The crowd therefore asks and begs God to save and prosper the Messiah, so that under Him all may live saved and happy; and the people acclaim their new king: "Long live the king!" Or rather, more simply, "Hosanna to the Son of David," that is, let that solemn Davidic "Hosanna" of Jesus, whom we acknowledge as the promised and hitherto awaited Son of David, be sung, formed, and acclaimed unanimously by us. This is the voice and acclamation of the people, by the prompting of the Holy Spirit, acknowledging Jesus as the Son of David, that is, the Messiah, and congratulating Him as upon the kingdom of His father David, whose restoration through Him had long been awaited, as He now enters upon it; and finally asking from God for Him salvation, prosperity, and every happy thing, and joyfully promising the same to themselves through Him. For wherever Christ is called the Son of David, there regard is had to the restoration of the Davidic kingdom. So Franciscus Lucas.
Furthermore, Caninius, in the place already cited, thus expounds it: "Hosanna to the Son of David," that is, we bear in our hands "hosannas," that is, palm branches, "to the Son of David," so that we may honor Him as king and Messiah, and accompany Him with ovations as a victor and triumpher. Or "Hosanna to the Son of David," that is, break off the branches which you are to offer to the Son of David as hosannas, as the Poet said: "Manibus date lilia plenis" — "Give lilies with full hands." But the "hosanna" of the Feast of Tabernacles was one thing, namely, something like a litany; the "hosanna" of the crowd here, acclaiming and congratulating Christ's triumph, was another, as I said a little earlier.
More plainly and fully, you may say that the people here acclaim Christ with "Hosanna to the Son of David," as if to say: O Lord, not only save our Messiah, the son and heir of David, but also grant Him the power of saving all the faithful who believe in Him and are His subjects, so that Thy divine salvation may be so abundantly derived from Thee to Christ that He may in turn pour it forth and cause it to flow out upon us. For the verbs of the Hiphil conjugation are supremely active, whence they often signify a double action; so hosea, that is "save," signifies "save Christ," and at the same time "that He Himself may save His subjects," so that He, as He is called, may truly be Jesus, that is, the Savior of the world.
For "Jesus" is derived from ישע yasha, that is, "He saved," which in the Hiphil with its augmented action is הושע hoshea. For this reason the Interpreter renders it "to the Son of David" in the dative, when otherwise it would have to be rendered "the Son of David" in the accusative. For the dative signifies the salvation given by God to Christ, that is, the power of saving all men, as though belonging to Him alone. Note this, since, so far as I know, it has been observed by no one.
Here then Christ, as the glorious, mighty, and triumphant king of Israel, whom no one is able to resist, is as it were inaugurated in Jerusalem, the royal city in which David and Solomon, the fathers of Christ, had once gloriously reigned, that He Himself might restore their fallen kingdom, nay, perfect it, and make it from earthly heavenly, from human divine, from temporal eternal. For this reason the people by their "hosanna" partly applaud Him and partly invoke salvation upon Him, that is, happiness and every good. This is what Mark says in ch. XI, 9: "And those who went before, and those who followed, cried out, saying: Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord: blessed is the kingdom of our father David that comes, hosanna in the highest."
Moreover, Christ as it were entered upon this kingdom of His, the Church, on the fifth day after, namely on the Preparation of the Passover, when on the cross He triumphed over sin, the world, the devil, and hell, and all the nations from their power, so far as lay in His part, He delivered and subjugated: wherefore the Church in the votive Mass of the Passion of Christ sings to Him: "To Thee glory, hosanna; to Thee triumph and victory; to Thee the crown of highest praise and honor, alleluia." For then "God shall reign from the wood." Hence again the Church in the blessing of the palms prays to God, "that bearing palms and olive branches, we may meet Christ with good deeds, and through Him enter into eternal joy."
Blessed (supply, be He) Who Comes (in Greek, ὁ ἐρχόμενος, that is, He who is coming, who namely was to come, or was awaited) In the Name of the Lord. — As if to say: May God bless, favor, prosper, and make glorious the kingdom of the Messiah our King, for He Himself comes to us "in the name of the Lord," that is, authorized, sent, and given by the Lord. So in Jeremiah ch. XXVI, 16, it is said: "Thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord," that is, by the command, authority, and in the place of God; and ch. III, 17: "All nations shall be gathered to it (Jerusalem) in the name of the Lord." He alludes to Psalm XLIV, 4, where David, prophesying of Christ, says: "Gird Thy sword upon Thy thigh, O most mighty, etc.; set out, prosperously advance, and reign." For Christ is the King of Israel, says St. Augustine on ch. XII of John, 23, in that He rules minds, in that He provides for them eternally, in that He leads those who believe, hope, and love into the kingdom of heaven.
Tropologically Remigius says: "Christ came in the name of the Lord, because in all His good works He sought not His own glory, but the Father's."
Hosanna in the Highest! — Jansenius explains it as if to say: Save the Messiah, Thou Lord who art and dwellest in the highest heavens. Better, Franciscus Lucas, Maldonatus, and others take the preposition ἐν, "in," for מן min, "from," in the Hebrew manner, as if to say: Thou, O Lord, from heaven, nay from the loftiest summit of the heavens, save and make fortunate the king Messiah. For they invoke for the Messiah salvation, not earthly and fleeting from man, but divine, heavenly, and eternal from God, namely that God would divinely save Him and grant Him the power of saving others: so that Christ by His grace might bring all His faithful and saints to eternal salvation, happiness, kingdom, and glory.
Hence Origen explains "Hosanna" as the restoration to eternal life; for this is what "in the highest" intimates, or, as he reads, "in the heights," namely that this salvation is to be sought not on earth, but in heaven. Again St. Jerome: "The coming of Christ is shown," he says, "to be the salvation of the whole world, joining earthly things to heavenly." The Gloss adds: "in the highest," because Christ is the salvation also of the angels, whose number He fills. Whence Emmanuel Sa adds that even the angels who are in the highest are here invited to the triumph and praise of the Messiah. Wherefore Luke, ch. XIX, 38, in place of "Hosanna" has "peace in heaven," that is, salvation, prosperity, and every good (for this is what "peace" denotes among the Hebrews) from heaven upon the Messiah and through Him from God flow and rain down upon us; "and glory in the highest," supply, be to God the giver of the Messiah. Or rather "glory," namely of kingdom, firm, great, and continuous, that is, a glorious kingdom; "in," that is, from on high, namely from heaven divinely granted to our Messiah. So Franciscus Lucas. Again more sublimely: "Peace (be) in heaven," namely that God, hitherto offended by men, may be propitious to Christ and through Christ to us, and may reconcile the angels to men, heaven to earth, God to the Synagogue. "Hence some," says St. Chrysostom, "interpret Hosanna as glory, others as resurrection; for both glory is owed to Him, and redemption is fitting for Him, who redeemed all," as if to say: Glory and praise be to the God of all, who is in the highest. The angels sang the same at Christ's nativity. But "Hosanna" strictly signifies not glory but salvation: yet our salvation through Christ was the glory of God.
In another sense, in the preface of the Sacrifice of the Mass, after the Trisagion, Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, is added: "Hosanna in the highest: blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord," namely that we pray salvation not for Christ but for ourselves through Christ, petitioning that He Himself also be blessed, venerated, and praised by all, and in turn pour out His blessings and graces abundantly upon us. Luke adds, ch. XIX, 41: "And as He drew near, seeing the city, He wept over it, saying: If thou hadst known, even thou," etc., because He foresaw and foretold its dreadful punishment and destruction by Titus and Vespasian.
Verse 10: And When He Had Entered Jerusalem, the Whole City Was Moved, Saying: Who Is This?
He who with such great honor, applause, and congratulation enters Jerusalem as it were the King of Israel, and that too while the Scribes and Pharisees, and even the Roman soldiers of Tiberius Caesar, looked on — men who would not bear that anyone but Caesar should be called king of Judea. Wherefore Christ, here bearing Himself as a king, would have certainly incurred the peril of His head, had He not by the power of His divinity so stupefied all, both Jews and Romans, and rendered them as it were thunderstruck, that no one dared to lay hands on Him, nor even thought of laying hands. So Abulensis and others.
Verse 11: And the Peoples Said: This Is Jesus the Prophet From Nazareth of Galilee
11. And the peoples said: This is Jesus the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee. — In Greek ὁ προφήτης, that is, "the Prophet," namely by excellence, who far surpasses and transcends all the Prophets in preaching, sanctity, power, and miracles, and therefore is the Messiah, the King of Israel. "From Nazareth": for although Jesus had been born in Bethlehem, yet He had been brought up in Nazareth. Christ by this glory of His gave occasion to His death; for the Scribes, stirred up by it to envy and hatred of Him, after four days crucified Him. Doubtless God, foreknowing all things, ordained all these things partly positively, partly permissively, in order to draw from them a greater good, namely the redemption of the world to be accomplished through Christ's death. The malice of the Scribes therefore fulfilled the counsel and decree concerning the death of Christ and the redemption of the world, as St. Peter teaches in Acts II.
Verse 12: And Jesus Entered Into the Temple of God, and Cast Out All That Were Selling
Jesus, entering Jerusalem, went not to the citadel of Sion, as though another David, but to the temple, to show that He was the Son of God the Father, who was worshipped in the temple, and to refer to Him the honor here paid to Himself by the people and all His glory as something received, since He had undertaken that glory for no other purpose than this, that He might bring men to God. Wherefore it is not to be doubted that Christ in the temple gave thanks to God the Father, because He had disclosed Himself as the Messiah to the whole city, and indeed had glorified Him by the applause of the whole people. Again, the first care of Jesus, being High Priest and Messiah, was for the temple. Hence, entering the city, He went first to the temple, that He might teach us to do the same. For this reason He arranged His journey through Bethany (where He had raised Lazarus) and Bethphage, which lay over against the temple, so that through them He might proceed directly to the temple. For, as I said at verse 1, Christ passing over the Mount of Olives from Bethphage went thence straight through the valley of Josaphat to the Golden Gate (which belonged as much to the temple as to the city), near which stood a golden eagle set up by Herod: wherefore through this gate He at once entered the temple. See Adrichomius in his description of Jerusalem, who graphically traces this journey of Christ, and adds that it is handed down by some that this Golden Gate used to be closed, but that at the coming of Christ it was as it were miraculously opened.
Note: by "temple" here is understood not the Holy Place, nor the Holy of Holies (for it was lawful for the High Priest alone to enter the latter, and for the priests alone to enter the former), but the court of the temple; for into it laypeople went to pray and to view the sacrifices that were offered in the court of the priests before the Holy Place. For this court was as it were the temple of the people. For Christ was not a Levitical priest, since He was not descended from Levi and Aaron: wherefore He could not enter the Holy Place, nor the court of the priests, but only the court of the people.
Wherefore the things which Faustus the Manichaean fabricated about the genealogy of Christ, as if He had sprung from the tribe of Levi and its Levitical priesthood (as reported by St. Augustine, book XXIII Against the same Faustus), and likewise Theodosius, a prince of the Jews in the time of the Emperor Justinian, whose words Suidas relates under the heading "Jesus Christ" — things too rashly believed by Suidas and some others — no learned man nowadays does not laugh at as dreams and most fabulous errors. Nay more, Villalpando (vol. II, book III, ch. IX) judges that this court was the Court of the Gentiles. For who would believe that these traders penetrated the innermost parts, when in the outermost parts they could conveniently sell their goods? Especially since Christ on the same day and in the same place dealt with Gentiles, as is clear from John XII, 20. Now the Gentiles could not enter the court of the Jews, but only the court of the Gentiles, which lay before the court of the Jews. This court, then, was the portico of Solomon — namely the eastern part of the portico of Solomon in the court of the Gentiles, in which were sold doves, sheep, and lambs to be offered in sacrifice in the temple, whom Christ cast out from it. For the Court of the Gentiles was as it were the temple of the Gentiles, in which therefore it was not fitting that buying and selling should be done.
And He Was Casting Out All Who Were Selling and Buying in the Temple — not on Palm Sunday itself, but on the following day. For Mark, ch. XI, vers. 11, who exactly and in detail records the acts of Christ day by day from Palm Sunday to the Friday on which He suffered and was crucified, says that on the day after Palm Sunday, on which this solemn entry of Christ into the city took place — that is, on the second weekday, or Monday — these things were performed by Christ in the temple. Christ therefore on Palm Sunday with solemn pomp entered the city and the temple, and in it prayed and gave thanks to God; then towards evening He went out of the city to Bethany with the twelve Apostles; and on the following Monday, returning to the city and the temple, He cast out of it the buyers and sellers, as Mark narrates in XI, 11, 12, and 15. Wherefore here in Matthew there is a hyperbaton, or inverted order of history; for he wished to join the casting out of the buyers from the temple to Christ's entry into the temple, for brevity's sake, lest he should be compelled to narrate again Christ's entry into the temple made on the following day.
Moreover, Christ cast them out of the temple, that is, out of the court of the temple, for two reasons. The first is that it was not fitting that those things should be sold in the temple, but in the marketplace. For the temple is a house of prayer, not of business, as Christ says. The second was the avarice and usury of the priests. For they, through their own servants or agents, were selling sheep, kids, and doves at a high price to those who wished to offer them in the temple, especially to foreigners and the poor, from whom, on account of the delay of payment, they extorted profit by usury. Whence Christ calls them robbers. So St. Chrysostom and others. Finally, Christ twice cast out the buyers from the temple: first, at the beginning of His preaching, John II, 14; second, towards the end of the same, four days before His death, as is clear from this passage. So St. Chrysostom, Augustine, Euthymius, Theophylact, Jansenius, Maldonatus, Toletus, and others.
And He Overturned the Tables of the Money-Changers (Syriac: of the bankers) and the Seats of Those Selling Doves. — "Of the money-changers," in Greek κολλυβιστῶν; now "collyba," as St. Jerome says, are called what we call "tragemata," or cheap little gifts: for example, fried chickpeas and raisins, and fruits of various kinds. Therefore, because the "collybistae" who had lent money could not take interest, in place of interest they received various kinds of goods, so that what was not permitted in money they might exact in these things which are bought with money; as though Ezekiel had not preached this very thing, saying: "You shall not take usury and increase," Ezek. XXII.
More plausibly, Jansenius and others, from Hesychius and Pollux, judge that these "collybistae" did not exchange money in the sense of altering it, but only converted coinage, so that for a gold coin they would give a silver one, for a larger a smaller, for a foreign one a domestic one: and this with added premium and profit; the collybistae therefore were money-changers, so called from κόλλυβος, that is, a small coin, or the coin which they gave for adjusting money.
Tropologically: the money-changers are simoniacs, or rather any kind of sinners, who profane their own soul, which is the temple of God, by their lusts and crimes, according to the saying: "Do you not know that your members are the temple of the Holy Spirit?" 1 Cor. VI, 19; and: "If anyone shall violate the temple of God, God shall destroy him," 1 Cor. III, 17. So St. Jerome, Origen, and the Author of the Opus Imperfectum.
And the Seats. — That is, the chairs, as the Syriac renders it, on which were sitting the male and female sellers of doves: for these were wont to be sold by women, who, because they are weak and cannot stand for long, therefore procure seats for themselves, according to that line of Martial: "Inter femineas tota quae luce cathedras desidet" — "She who sits the whole day long among the women's chairs."
It is marvelous that no one withstood Christ, a single poor man, overthrowing all the gains of the priests in the temple. Whence St. Jerome judges that this was the greatest miracle of Christ, that He alone should have been able, "by the blows of a single whip, to cast out so great a multitude, to overturn the tables and to break the seats, and to do other things which a vast army could not have done. For something fiery and starlike shone forth from His eyes, and the majesty of divinity gleamed in His face." Thus far St. Jerome. Christ therefore here showed His enormous zeal for religion and for the temple, and fulfilled that saying of Psalm LXVIII, 10: "The zeal of Thy house hath eaten me up," as John says in II, 17.
Mystically: those sell doves who sell for money the grace of the Holy Spirit, that is, ordination, priesthoods, and benefices: for the dove is the symbol of the Holy Spirit. So Origen.
Verse 13: And He Said to Them: It Is Written: My House Shall Be Called a House of Prayer, But You Have Made It a Den of Thieves
13. And He said to them: It is written (Isaiah LVI, 7): My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves. — The Arabic has: a den for robbers. "For he is a robber," says St. Jerome, "and turns the temple into the likeness of a den of thieves, who pursues gains from religion, and whose worship of it is not so much the worship of God as an occasion for trade"; because these priests, namely, wholly intent on gain, under the honorable appearance of the temple, as though lurking in a den, by dear selling, by usury, and by other fraudulent ways and arts, stripped and indeed plundered foreigners and the poor, as robbers do.
"For latro (robber)," says St. Isidore, Etymologies bk. X under letter L, "is one who waylays roads, so called from latendo (hiding); but better, latro is as it were latero (side-lurker), because he lies in wait for the road from the side." And Varro, in On the Latin Language bk. VI: "Robbers, he says, are called so from latus (side), because they had iron weapons about their sides." And Sextus Pompeius, in De Verborum Significatione under letter L: "Robbers, he says, the ancients called those who were hired as soldiers, are called robbers, because they attack from the side, or because they lie in wait secretly."
He alludes to Jeremiah VII, 11, where God says: "Is then this house, in which My name has been invoked, become a den of thieves in your eyes? I, I am He: I have seen it, saith the Lord." For these half-atheists thought that they could hide themselves and their crimes, that they might not be seen by God, just as robbers hide themselves and lurk in caves.
Note: The temple is called the house of God, not as though God corporeally dwelt in it as in a house (for this St. Paul denies, Acts XVII, 24), but because the temple is a place set apart for worshipping and praying to God, in which God hears the prayers of those who pray: the temple of Christians, however, is specially called the house of God, because in it Christ the Lord dwells corporeally in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, as St. Thomas says.
Tropologically: the temple is a house, not of gossip, not of sightseeing, not of drinking, not of feasting, but of prayer. Let those therefore see how they deserve to be scourged by Christ, who profane it by chattering, by gazing about, by wantonness, and by drinking. For, as Bede says on John ch. II: "It seemed that those things were lawfully sold in the temple, which were bought with a view to being offered to the Lord in that same temple; but the Lord Himself, not wishing that anything of earthly trafficking — not even that which might be thought honorable — be exhibited in His house, drove out the unjust traders, and cast forth all along with what they were trafficking. What then, my brethren, what do we think the Lord would do, if He found men entangled in quarrels and disagreements, or engaged in idle talk, or dissolved in laughter, or caught in any other sin — He who, seeing men buying the victims that were to be sacrificed to Him in the temple, made haste to cast them out?" Especially since these buyers and sellers were not properly in the temple itself, but only in the court of the temple, and indeed in the court common to all nations, and yet they were cast out thence by Christ; what then will He do to Christians who in the temple itself, before the Most Holy Sacrament, perpetrate these same things and worse?
From this learn how great reverence is owed to the temple, namely that which is owed to the house of God; for of it Christ says: "My house"; wherefore, just as a master pursues and avenges an injury done to his house as though done to himself: so too Christ regards an injury done to the temple as done to Himself, and as such punishes and avenges it. Wherefore St. Augustine fittingly warns in his Rule: "Let no one," he says, "do anything in the oratory, except that for which it was made, whence also it takes its name." See my remarks on Isaiah LVI, 7, and Leviticus XIX at the end of the chapter.
Verse 14: And the Blind and the Lame Came to Him in the Temple, and He Healed Them
14. And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them, — that by these miracles He might show Himself to be the Messiah, nay God, and therefore that He had deservedly been honored by this acclamation and procession of the people. For Isaiah ch. XXXV, 5, foretold that the Messiah would work these miracles; and these things were worthy of Christ, as well as of the temple: which accordingly in place of the greedy sales and trafficking of cattle Christ substituted.
Verse 15: But When the Chief Priests and the Scribes Saw the Marvels Which He Wrought, and the Children Crying in the Temple, They Were Indignant
15. But when the chief priests and the Scribes saw the marvels which He wrought, and the children crying in the temple and saying: Hosanna to the Son of David, they were indignant, — both because they envied Christ this glory, and because they took it hard that their trafficking and profits had been driven out of the temple.
Verse 16: And They Said to Him: Dost Thou Hear What These Are Saying? Out of the Mouth of Infants and of Sucklings Thou Hast Perfected Praise
16. And they said to Him: Dost Thou hear what these are saying? Jesus said to them: Yea; have you never read, Out of the mouth of infants and of sucklings Thou hast perfected praise? — Psalm VIII, 3. The Hebrew is יסדת עז yissadta oz, that is, "Thou hast founded strength." Aquila: "Thou hast laid the foundations of the mighty." The Sixth Edition: "Thou hast established strength." Tertullian, in De Anima ch. XIX: "Thou hast produced praise." The Syriac: "Thou hast directed praise." The Arabic: "Thou hast prepared praise," that is, Thou hast proved, confirmed, perfectly made praiseworthy Thy power, when out of the mouth of infants, who are tongueless and not yet able to speak or talk, Thou dost express Thy praise and glory. For Thou hast brought it to pass that on Palm Sunday infants, along with the people, acclaimed Christ: "Hosanna to the Son of David."
St. Hilary and the Author of the Opus Imperfectum take "infants" to mean children already able to speak and talk. More truly, St. Chrysostom, Euthymius, and Theophylact judge that these were truly infants unable to speak, as is here expressly said. Whence the Syriac renders it: "Out of the mouth of little children and infants Thou hast directed praise"; and therefore Luke adds in ch. XIX, 40, that Christ said: "If these shall hold their peace, the stones will cry out," by which it is signified that the infants were moved and impelled by a divine prompting and miracle, equally with the children, to acclaim "Hosanna" to Christ — something which they did not understand, nay, which infants cannot naturally utter. The cause was what the Psalmist adds in Psalm VIII: "That Thou mayest destroy the enemy and the avenger," namely that through the mouths of infants Thou mayest confound the Scribes and Pharisees, the enemies of Christ, and mayest teach them that they are more mindless and foolish than the infants who acknowledge, praise, and glorify Jesus as the Christ. But Christ deliberately suppressed these last words of the Psalm, lest He exasperate the Scribes too much.
At the same time Christ here intimates that infants should be trained beforehand, so that, when they begin to speak, they may be taught to utter pious words, and their first voice may be: "Hosanna, Jesus, Mary," etc. Here St. Jerome writes to Blaesilla that she should teach her little daughter Paula (the granddaughter as it were of St. Paula) to utter and pronounce "alleluia" as soon as she begins to speak; just as our Blessed Francis Borgia was taught, when he was an infant, to sound the first words "Jesus, Mary," as Ribadeneira testifies in his Life. So too the Trisagion, namely "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts," was revealed to a boy caught up into the air, while an earthquake was raging at Constantinople — which soon ceased when the people, taught by the boy, cried out the Trisagion, in the year of Christ 446, under the Emperor Theodosius, as Damascene testifies in his treatise De Trisagio.
For God delights in the pure praises of children: for children (pueri) are so called from purity (puritas), says Varro, because they are not yet of age and are pure like earthly angels.
Arias Montanus, on Psalm II, observes that infants in every nation produce the sound "iah," which is the name of God, the abbreviated Jehovah, and thus God claims for Himself the beginnings and foundations of His admirable name, laid firmly from the very mouths of infants. In the same place Arnobius denies that there is any man who has not entered the day of his first birth with a notion of God; nay, that even brutes, trees, and stones, if they could speak, would cry out the Lord God of all. So Plato in book X of the Republic, and Cicero in book I of De Natura Deorum, teach that we suck in the knowledge and praise of God with our mother's milk.
Lyra distinguishes a threefold order of children who praise God. The first are those who praise God by death, not by mouth, as were the Innocents slain by Herod for Christ. The second, who praise by mouth, not by death, as were these who sang "Hosanna" to Christ. The third, who praised God both by mouth and by death, as were St. Agnes at 12 years old, St. Pancratius at 12, St. Vitus, Celsus, and others. See our Philip Barlaymont in Paradisus Puerorum, ch. XIII and XIV, where he catalogues the eulogies and oracles of God uttered from the mouths of infants.
Note: the Eighth Psalm, although at the letter it seems to speak of the magnificence of God which He showed in the creation of the whole universe, in which He made man the lord of all things, nevertheless more properly and profoundly speaks at the letter of the magnificence of God which He showed in the re-creation and redemption of the world, in which He made Christ the victor over sin and death, the redeemer of the world, and the Lord of all, who accordingly is the first man and the noblest of all men. This is clear: first, from the fact that Christ here so explains it, as also Paul in Hebrews II, 7; second, because so great a magnificence, as the Psalmist there celebrates, does not so well fit the misery of man, who after his fall into sin lost his dominion over beasts, as it does Christ; third, because this verse: "Out of the mouth of infants and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise," fits Christ much more clearly and truly than others. A similar case is Deuteronomy XVIII, 18, as I said there. For as to what Maldonatus explains of David, as though he — in view of Goliath, whose head he cut off — should call himself an "infant," it is certain that he was not then truly an infant, but a spirited and warlike young man. Hence Nicephorus on Psalm VIII: "The magnificence of God," he says, "is the Incarnation of the Word."
Verse 17: And Leaving Them, He Went Outside the City to Bethany, and Remained There
17. And leaving them, He went outside the city to Bethany, and remained there. — The Syriac and Arabic: He passed the night in Bethany. See here the ingratitude and fickleness of the people: for those who that very morning had acclaimed "Hosanna" to Christ, already in the evening of the same day, out of fear of the Scribes, abandoned Christ, so that no one was found who would invite Him to lodging. And therefore Christ was compelled to leave the city, to Martha and Magdalene, His hostesses, in Bethany.
Verse 18: But in the Morning, Returning Into the City, He Hungered
18. But in the morning, returning into the city, He hungered. — This therefore happened on the day after Palm Sunday, on the second weekday, or Monday: that is, on the 11th day of the first month, Nisan, which by our reckoning is the 21st of March; for after three days, namely on the Friday in the Passover, which then fell on the 25th of March, Christ was crucified and immolated.
He Hungered, — not with a natural hunger, but with a hunger spontaneously aroused in Himself, say St. Chrysostom and Abulensis in Question CIII; for it was morning, and the previous evening Christ had dined at Martha's house, so that He could not so quickly have been hungry. He therefore roused this hunger in Himself, that through it He might have occasion to curse the barren fig tree; whence also He sought figs on it, although He knew that it was not then the season of figs, as Mark has in ch. XI, 14, for it was March 21, as I said, when figs do not yet appear.
Note, this hunger of Christ, and the withering of the fig tree, happened before He cast out the buyers and sellers from the temple; for this He did on the same Monday, but after the withering of the fig tree, as is clear from Mark ch. XI, 14 and following, where he records the acts of Christ day by day in detail.
Verse 19: And Seeing a Certain Fig Tree by the Wayside, He Came to It and Found Nothing on It But Leaves Only; and the Fig Tree Withered at Once
19. And seeing a certain fig tree by the wayside, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves only, and said to it: May no fruit ever come from thee forever. And the fig tree withered at once. — Christ cursed the fig tree and withered it, to show His power, by which He could likewise crush and wither up the Scribes and the Jews, His enemies, if He willed; hence that He was soon to suffer from them the cross and death, not unwillingly, but willingly. Note that this cursing by Christ was not a proper curse, but an abusive one by catachresis; for this curse only signifies that Christ prayed evil upon the fig tree, namely its withering, which for a just cause is permitted to be prayed upon inanimate things, especially to Christ, to whom all the trees and estates of all men belong. See my remarks on Jeremiah XX, 14, and Job III, 1.
In like manner St. Francis cursed a juniper tree planted by Blessed Juniper, one of his first companions, as a punishment for his disobedience; and therefore it grew not so much as a nail's breadth from the day it was set in the ground, and is still to be seen at Carinola, or Cales, a city of Campania Felix near Mondragone, in the monastery of the Friars Minor. For while Blessed Juniper was intent on planting this juniper, and was summoned by St. Francis, he refused to obey until he had finished the work he had begun; whereupon St. Francis cursed the tree, because it had been the occasion and object of disobedience, and commanded it that it should grow no more in future — and this at once came to pass, so that the tree, obedient to the Saint, by its own hurt might teach men obedience. So Wadding in the Annals of the Friars Minor, in the year of Christ 1222, no. 11.
Mystically: Christ hungered in order to show the spiritual hunger He had for the salvation of the Jews, indeed of sinners. But since they did not satisfy this hunger and wish of Christ, therefore they were to be dried up, by withdrawal of the moisture of grace, and cursed by God. So St. Jerome, Chrysostom, Hilary, Bede, and Abulensis in Question CXVII.
Verse 20: And the Disciples, Seeing It, Wondered, Saying: How Has It Withered at Once?
20. And the disciples, seeing it, wondered, saying: How has it withered at once — this fig tree? as the Greek and Syriac add. This happened on the following day: for Christ on Monday, returning from Bethany to Jerusalem, cursed the fig tree; thence casting the buyers out of the temple, He taught there; in the evening He returned from the city to Bethany; on the following morning of Tuesday, when the disciples were returning with Him from Bethany to Jerusalem, they saw the fig tree withered, and marveling then they said: "How has it withered at once?" That this happened in this order is clear from Mark XI, 19 and 20.
Symbolically: Christ cursed the fig tree, because the fig tree was the tree forbidden by God, by eating from which Adam destroyed himself and his posterity, as learned men probably opine, whom I cited on Genesis II, 9.
Allegorically: the withered fig tree signifies the Jews, who, when Christ came, being unbelieving, lost the moisture of faith and grace, and therefore bring forth no fruits of good works. So Origen.
Tropologically: the fig tree covered with leaves but lacking figs signifies the faithful who have the leaves of the profession of faith but lack the solid fruits of virtues, and therefore will be cursed by Christ. So Origen.
Verse 21: Amen, I Say to You, if You Have Faith and Do Not Hesitate, Not Only Shall You Do to a Fig Tree, But Also if You Say to This Mountain: Take and Cast Thyself Into the Sea, It Shall Be Done
21. And Jesus answering, said to them: Amen, I say to you, if you have faith (that excellent and effective faith like a grain of mustard seed, of which ch. XVII, 19) and do not hesitate, not only shall you do to a fig tree (which you see has already been done by Me, as is clear from the Greek), but also if you say to this mountain: Take (namely thyself, as follows; in Greek ἄρθητι, that is, as the Syriac has, be taken up, be rooted up from the earth) and cast thyself (in Greek βλήθητι, that is, be cast; Syriac, fall) into the sea, it shall be done. — "And do not hesitate"; in Greek μὴ διακριθῆτε, that is, you shall not dispute as though doubtful and hesitant: you shall not distinguish whether what you ask is easy or difficult to be done. For many, because they think what they ask is arduous and difficult, therefore distrust that they will obtain it from God, and so do not obtain it; but those who do not distinguish between easy and difficult, reckoning that what is difficult for them is easy for God, and therefore trust in the divine omnipotence, goodness, and promise, whereby He has promised that we shall obtain all things which we ask of Him with certain faith and confidence — they raise their mind and hope above their own weakness and place it in God, surely expecting from Him the end and fruit of their prayer; these obtain whatever and however much they ask of Him.
"This mountain" is the Mount of Olives; for Christ said these things passing beside it on His way to Jerusalem. So Abulensis, Question CXXXIV, Franciscus Lucas, and others. The other matters that pertain here, I have discussed at ch. XVII, 19.
So on account of the infidelity of the Turks, who rule the Holy Land, the angels in the year of the Lord 1291 transferred the house of the Blessed Virgin — in which she herself, at the angel's announcement, conceived the Son of God — from Galilee and Nazareth to Dalmatia; and thence in the year of the Lord 1294 to Italy (Loreto), where is the seat and head of the faith and of the faithful; and therefore, on account of that faith, He works innumerable miracles there, which our Horatius Tursellinus recounts in his Historia Lauretana.
Verse 22: And All Things Whatsoever You Shall Ask in Prayer Believing, You Shall Receive
22. And all things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer believing, you shall receive. — "Believing," that is, if you shall believe and trust that you will obtain these things from God, according to that word of James I, 6: "Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering." See what is said there.
Excellently St. Bernard, in sermon 45 on the Psalm Qui habitat, tropologically explaining that word of God to Joshua, chapter I: Whatever place the sole of your foot shall tread upon shall be yours: "Your foot," he says, "is surely your hope; and however far that hope shall advance, it shall obtain, provided it be wholly fixed upon God, so that it be firm and waver not." The reason a priori is God's liberality and munificence, which does not suffer itself to be overcome by our hope, but far surpasses and transcends it.
Verse 23: And When He Had Come Into the Temple, the Chief Priests and Elders of the People Came to Him as He Was Teaching, Saying: By What Authority Do You Do These Things?
23. And when He had come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to Him as He was teaching, saying: By what authority do You do these things? And who gave You this authority?
By What Authority. — In Greek ἐξουσίᾳ, that is, by authority, as if to say: Who gave You the right and authority to teach in the temple, and from it to cast out the buyers and sellers, and to convoke the people so that they acclaim Hosanna to You as to their teacher and Messiah?
Verse 24: Jesus Answering, Said to Them: I Also Will Ask You One Word, Which if You Shall Tell Me, I Will Also Tell You by What Authority I Do These Things
24. Jesus answering, said to them: I also will ask you one word, which if you shall tell Me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. —
It is commonly said: He does not solve a suit who resolves a suit by a suit. For so, bad-faith advocates, when they distrust their own cause, weave in another cause and lawsuit, that they may evade and escape condemnation. So also heretics, when they cannot answer the arguments of Catholics, throw other arguments at them to seek a refuge for their heresy and ignorance. But Christ does not act thus here, but interposes another question on which depended the solution of the question proposed by the Scribes; as if to say: You do not believe Me when I say I have received authority from God: believe therefore John the Baptist, who bore witness to Me that I was sent by God to carry these things out.
Verse 25: The Baptism of John, Whence Was It? From Heaven, or From Men?
25. The baptism of John, whence was it? From heaven, or from men? — By the baptism of John, Christ understands John's testimony concerning Himself, his teaching and his whole preaching. It is a synecdoche. This is Christ's argument, fitted to the Scribes and irrefragable, as if to say: You ask by whose authority I have this power, whether from God or from men? I in turn ask you, by whose authority did John the Baptist have the power of preaching and baptizing, from God or from men? If he had it from God, as all confess, then I also have the same from God; for this John testified concerning Me, teaching that he himself was a servant, but that I was the Messiah, the Son of God — and that too, when you had sent formal delegates to him about this matter, to inquire of him whether he himself were the Messiah. John I, 20 and 26.
From Heaven, — proceeding from God. Note here: the Hebrews, by a metonymy in which the container is put for the thing contained, call God שמים scamain, that is, heaven. Following this, the Greek poets called the father of Saturn Οὐρανόν (Ouranos), as the Latins called him Cœlum (Heaven). So Caninius, De Nominibus Hebraicis, chapter II. Hence the Jews worshiped heaven and the stars in place of God: whence Christians who once apostatized from Christianity to Judaism were called Cœlicolæ (Heaven-worshipers); against whom there exist the rescripts of the emperors Theodosius and Honorius, book XVIII De Judæis et Cælicolis. See Baronius, under the year of the Lord 408. Hence also the poet sings of the Jews: "Qui puras nubes et cœli numen adorant" — "Who worship the pure clouds and the divinity of heaven."
For heaven, by its vastness, beauty, motion, ornament, and curvature, draws all men into admiration of itself: whence heaven is said to be, as it were, cælatum (engraved) with stars and constellations, says Sipontinus — although Varro, in book IV On the Latin Language, derives cœlum from κοῖλον, that is, hollow, because by its hollowness it embraces all created things. Hence God is, as it were, the Atlas of heaven and the world, of whom Virgil, Æneid VI: "Ubi cœlifer Atlas / Cœlum humeris torquet, stellis ardentibus aptum" — "Where heaven-bearing Atlas / turns upon his shoulders heaven, studded with burning stars."
Wherefore many nations worshiped heaven as God. Hence Cicero, book II On Divination: "I have always said, and shall say, that the genus of God belongs to the Celestials." The same, in the Dream of Scipio: "And I give thee thanks, most high Sun, and you other Heaven-dwellers." And Pliny, book VI, chapter XXXIII: "Divinity," he says, "and a certain most noble society of Celestials was found among women in the Sibyl." Hear also St. Augustine, book X On the City of God, chapter 1: "And they call the very gods Cœlicolæ (heaven-worshipers) for no other reason than that they worship heaven — not indeed by venerating it, but by inhabiting it as certain colonists of heaven." Finally, heaven is the throne of God, and the seat of His majesty and glory, as also of the holy Angels and of blessed men.
Hence learn to seek after heaven, to sigh for heaven, to despise earth and earthly things, and to say with our St. Ignatius: "How sordid the earth appears to me, when I gaze upon heaven!" For he who seeks heaven seeks paradise, seeks felicity, seeks blessed eternity, seeks the God of the Celestials: "O Israel, how great is the house of God, and how vast the place of His possession!" Baruch III, 24. See what is said there.
But They Thought Within Themselves, Saying. — In Greek διελογίζοντο, that is, they reasoned and conferred among themselves, deliberating what they should answer to Christ, as if anxious and perplexed.
Verse 26: If We Shall Say, From Heaven, He Will Say to Us: Why Then Did You Not Believe Him?
26. If we shall say, From heaven, He will say to us: Why then did you not believe him? But if we shall say, From men, we fear the multitude; for all held John as a prophet.
Why Then Did You Not Believe Him — who asserted that I am the Messiah, and who urged that through penitence you should prepare yourselves for My grace and salvation?
"We fear the multitude," namely, "lest they stone us," as Luke adds, chapter XX, verse 5. "As a Prophet": the word "as" here is a mark of truth, not of similitude — that is, all held John as truly and really a great Prophet, and therefore sent from God: for a prophet is an envoy, seer, and interpreter of God. So in John I it is said of Christ: "We have seen His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father"; where "as" marks truth, not similitude, as if to say: We have seen His glory, as of one truly the Only-begotten Son of God, that is, of Him who was truly and uniquely begotten of God.
Verse 27: And Answering Jesus, They Said: We Do Not Know. He Also Said to Them: Neither Do I Tell You by What Authority I Do These Things
27. And answering Jesus, they said: We do not know. — They lie, because they had seen John's life, and his most holy and divine preaching, sealed already by a death undergone for chastity and by martyrdom; but wickedness would rather lie than be convicted of falsehood and of wickedness.
He Also Said to Them: Neither Do I Tell You by What Authority I Do These Things. — As if to say: You do not wish to answer My question, therefore neither will I answer yours; because the solution of yours depends on Mine. But you say that you do not know, and you lie. I say that I know and am unwilling to say, and I speak the truth, that I may confound and crush your impudence. For by this answer Christ stopped the mouths of the Scribes, so that they were silent like mice, and dared to open their mouths no further. Whence St. Jerome: "He shows," he says, "that they knew but would not answer; and that He knew but did not say, because they keep silent what they know."
Verses 28-32: But What Do You Think? A Certain Man Had Two Sons. The Parable of the Two Sons
28. But what do you think? — By the following parable, Christ convicts the Scribes and Pharisees (who said they did not know whether John's baptism was from heaven or from men) of the highest wickedness and obstinacy; because, when they wished to be held as sons of God, yet they refused to receive John as sent by God, nor believed his preaching nor did penance. Furthermore, Christ here, says Chrysostom, "makes the defendants themselves the judges, with great confidence of justice, where the case is committed to the adversary; and He uses a parable so that they do not understand how they are pronouncing sentence against themselves."
A certain man had two sons, and coming to the first, he said: Son, go today and work in my vineyard. 29. And he answering said: I will not; but afterwards, moved by repentance, he went. 30. And coming to the other, he said in like manner. And he answering said: I go, sir; and he did not go. 31. Which of the two did the will of the father? They say to Him: The first. Jesus saith to them: Amen I say to you, that publicans and harlots go before you into the kingdom of God. 32. For John came to you in the way of justice, and you did not believe him: but the publicans and harlots believed him; but you, seeing it, did not even afterwards repent, that you might believe him.
This parable scarcely needs explanation, because Christ applies and explains it. To wit, the first son, at first unwilling to obey his father, but soon repenting of the deed and going obediently to work in the vineyard, denotes the publicans and harlots, who first by their crimes repulsed the will and law of God, but afterwards came to their senses at John's preaching, and did penance, and lived chastely and justly according to the law of God. The second son, who told his father he would go into the vineyard, but deceived him and did not go, denotes the Scribes and Pharisees, who always had the law of God on their lips, as though most zealous and most religious observers of it — while in reality they did not fulfill it, but rather, contrary to it, committed lusts, rapines, usuries, and so on. Whereupon they provoked upon themselves the grievous offense and wrath of God, both by their very crimes and by their hypocrisy and feigned pretense of the law. For they wished to appear zealots of the law, when they were its transgressors. And this hypocrisy and duplicity of mind greatly exasperates God.
They Shall Go Before. — In Greek προάγουσιν, in the present tense, that is, they go before; as if to say: The publicans and harlots, O Scribes, go before you, that is, they precede you on the path of God and virtue, and strain toward heaven through the example of faith, penitence, and change of life; and therefore in fact they shall go before you, and enter the kingdom of heaven before you — which you, wicked ones, shall never enter. Yet you could enter, if you were willing to repent and change your ways. So in chapter V, 20, the "least in the kingdom of heaven" are called the impious and reprobates who are to be excluded from it.
In the Way of Justice. — The Syriac: walking in the way of rectitude; that is, leading a life perfectly just, upright, holy, and blameless.
You Did Not Even Repent — that is, did penance; in Greek οὐ μετεμελήθητε, that is, you did not repent, you did not come to your senses.
Mystically: the publicans and harlots denote the Gentiles, who first served idols and vices; then, converted through the preaching of the Apostles, worshiped God and practiced the virtues. The Pharisees and Scribes denote the Jews, who seemed to worship God, but in reality spurned Him, when they disdained Christ sent by Him, and obstinately hardened their minds in this perfidy. Whence St. Jerome, Chrysostom, Origen, St. Athanasius, Bede, Euthymius, Maldonatus, Jansenius, and others variously interpret this parable of them.
Tropologically: Christ shows, says St. Chrysostom, that the common folk and plebeians, who sometimes are converted, are better than the priests, who never are.
Tropologically: Like the first son are ordinary Christians and laymen, who, driven by the desire for sanctity, keep the Evangelical counsels, even though they are not obliged to them by vow or profession. Like the second son are priests, monks, and religious, who have vowed to God the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, but afterwards violate them.
Verses 33-41: The Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen of the Vineyard
33. Hear another parable: There was a householder who planted a vineyard, and surrounded it with a hedge, and dug a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country. 34. And when the time of fruits drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive its fruits. 35. And the husbandmen, laying hold of his servants, beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36. Again he sent other servants more than the former, and they did to them in like manner. 37. Last of all, he sent to them his son, saying: They will reverence my son. 38. But the husbandmen, seeing the son, said within themselves: This is the heir, come, let us kill him, and we shall have his inheritance. 39. And laying hold on him, they cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40. When therefore the lord of the vineyard shall come, what will he do to those husbandmen? 41. They say to Him: He will bring those evil men to an evil end, and will let out his vineyard to other husbandmen, who shall render him the fruit in their seasons.
Christ, turning this parable against His adversaries the Scribes and Pharisees, borrows it from Isaiah chapter V, 1, in order to add weight to it that will press and convict them. For Isaiah used it in that place, and foretells that Christ will use the same, as Christ uses it here. For thus Isaiah begins chapter V: "I will sing to my beloved (to Christ to be incarnate) a canticle of my kinsman's vineyard: a vineyard was made for my beloved on the horn of the son of oil," that is, on the oiled horn, which is Judaea, which is strong and lofty as a horn, and fertile and rich like oil. I have explained these things at length at Isaiah V, and therefore I will briefly repeat here what was said there, and run through the whole parable in a few words.
First, the man planting a vineyard is God founding the Church, or Synagogue, according to that of Psalm LXXIX, 9: "Thou hast brought a vineyard out of Egypt, Thou hast cast out the Gentiles (from Canaan, and there), Thou hast planted a vineyard," that is, the Synagogue, or the people of the Jews.
Secondly, the hedge, the winepress, and the tower set up in the vineyard signify that God has abundantly provided His Church with all necessary things; but distinctly: by "the hedge," understand grammatically, with St. Jerome, the wall of Jerusalem; likewise the strong princes, as were David and the Maccabees, says the Interlinear Gloss; theologically, understand the guardianship of the angels, with Origen, St. Ambrose, and Jerome; or the law, with the Author of the Opus Imperfectum and St. Irenaeus, book IV, chapter LXX. Whence, instead of "he surrounded it with a hedge," the Syriac translates, he walled it about on every side with a rampart.
The winepress is the altar on which the blood of the victims was pressed out. So Origen, St. Jerome, Bede, Theophylact, Euthymius. He is said to have "dug" a winepress, because of old they used to cut out or dig pits; or, as Mark says, chapter XII, verse 1, the "lacum" (vat), in which they caught the new wine pressed out of the grapes in the winepress, as appears from Isaiah V, 2.
Tropologically: The winepress, says St. Jerome, denotes the Martyrs. Whence Psalms VIII, LXXX, and LXXXIII are inscribed in their titles "For the winepresses." But St. Hilary judges that the Prophets are meant, into whom the abundance of the Holy Spirit flowed more fervently. St. Chrysostom, however, takes the winepress to be the word of God, which presses and torments the man whose flesh contradicts it.
The tower of the vineyard, that is, of the Synagogue, was the Temple at Jerusalem, and the worship of God in it. So Origen, the Chaldee, St. Hilary, Bede, Theophylact, Euthymius. Mystically: the tower represents the Prophets, doctors, and pastors, as well as the kings and princes of the people; for these were, as it were, watchmen of the people from a tower. So the same authors. Whence St. Hilary: "The tower," he says, "denotes the eminence of the law, which both advances one toward heaven and from which Christ's coming may be watched for."
Thirdly, the husbandmen of the vineyard were the princes of the people: for it is their task to rule and cultivate the people; and to work in the vineyard, says St. Chrysostom, is to do justice.
Fourthly, God went into a far country, because, as Origen says, when He had given the law and covenants to the Jews, appearing to them on Mount Sinai, afterwards He did not appear to them, as though He had gone elsewhere.
Fifthly, the time of fruits, that is, of observance of the law and worship of God, was in the time of David, Solomon, Josaphat, Hezekiah, Josiah, etc., when the Jews could and ought to live quietly for themselves and for God. Or rather this time was pursued continually, because they were bound continually to serve God and to produce fruits of good works. Whence Maldonatus considers that this pertains merely to the emblem and ornament of the parable.
Sixthly, the servants sent by God into the vineyard, that is, to the Synagogue, to gather its fruits, were Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the other Prophets, whom the Jews, as chastisers of their vices, killed, and some of whom, like Jeremiah, they stoned. He sent them a second time, and more than the former, that by His diligence and charity He might overcome the wickedness of the husbandmen. Whence St. Chrysostom: "With every degree of wickedness, God's mercy was added; and with every degree of God's mercy, the wickedness of the Jews grew." Wherefore God at last sent to them His Son, namely Christ now incarnate, whom the Scribes in like manner killed, as the heir of the Synagogue, and crucified outside the city — that is, outside Jerusalem, on Mount Calvary — so that they themselves might rule the Synagogue and lord it over it, and from it enrich and magnify themselves. Instead of "they will reverence My Son," the Syriac translates: they will be put to shame on account of My Son.
Tropologically: the vineyard to be cultivated by each man is his own soul; for the pastor it is his parish, for the bishop his diocese, for the king his kingdom, for the magistrate the commonwealth, that it may bring forth the fruits of good works and virtues. The hedges are laws and statutes; the guards are the angels; the tower is reason, meditation, providence; the winepress is mortification, tribulation, the cross. "A servant is sent," says Rabanus, "when the Law, a Psalm, or a prophecy is read; he is cast out when it is despised or blasphemed; he slays the heir who tramples upon the Son of God and offers insult to the spirit of grace; the vineyard is given to another when the humble receives the grace that has been scorned by the proud."
Further, the man who plants the vineyard is God, who, says St. Chrysostom, is called man by similitude, not by truth: by nature He is Lord, by benevolence Father, according to that of Isaiah chapter V: "The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel."
They Say to Him (the Scribes): He Will Bring Those Wicked Men to an Evil End. — You will say: Mark and Luke assert that Christ Himself said this; how then does Matthew attribute the same to the Scribes? The answer, with St. Chrysostom and Euthymius, is that the Scribes said it first, then Christ repeated and confirmed the same in such a manner and gesture that from it, and from the preceding and following context (as Abulensis rightly notes, Question CC), the Scribes well enough understood that this was being said of themselves, and at that point added, "God forbid," as Luke has in chapter XX.
He Will Destroy Those Wicked Men Wickedly. — Namely, the wicked of the vineyard, that is, the husbandmen of the Church — namely, the Scribes with their followers, who killed the Prophets and Christ — God will destroy by Titus and Vespasian in this life, and by demons in Gehenna.
And He Will Let Out His Vineyard to Other Husbandmen (the Apostles and their successors) Who Shall Render Him the Fruit in Their Seasons. — This fruit of the vineyard, that is, of God's Church, is manifest in the conversion of the whole world to the faith and sanctity of Christ, and especially in the constancy of so many thousands of Martyrs and Virgins; for here is foretold the reprobation of the Jews and the conversion of the Gentiles, as Christ teaches in verse 43.
Morally: learn here that, just as a vineyard produces good grapes even if its husbandmen are bad, so the Church and her faithful produce good works of virtue even though at times her pastors and doctors are bad, as the Scribes were. They will bring forth more and greater fruits, however, if the pastors are good, as was seen in the Apostles, whose Apostolic virtues the first faithful imitated and excelled in chastity, charity, patience, and every virtue. This is represented by the emblem of Zeuxis, the famous painter. For he painted a boy with a basket of grapes so skillfully and beautifully that he deceived the birds: for the birds flew to those grapes as though to real grapes, and pecked at them to feed themselves; then Zeuxis modestly said: "I painted the grapes better than the boy, because the birds fly at the grapes, but do not fear the boy standing there as if painted." So the pastors and guardians of the Church are sometimes depraved and poorly painted; but the grapes — that is, the works of the common people — are better and more comely: and by the carelessness of the guardians — that is, of the pastors — it comes about that they become the prey of the birds, that is, the demons, and are devoured by them.
Verse 42: The Stone Which the Builders Rejected, the Same Is Become the Head of the Corner
42. Jesus saith to them: Have you never read in the Scriptures: The stone which the builders rejected, this has become the head of the corner: by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes. — Christ cites Psalm CXVII, verse 22, where David speaks and prophesies of Christ, and the Scribes knew this; whence they understood that by this saying they, no less than by David, were marked out and censured: for the sense is, as if to say: The Scribes, priests, and Pharisees, as it were the architects of the Synagogue, that is, of the Judaic Church, rejected Christ as a useless stone from her — nay, condemned and killed Him as opposed to her. For the Scribes, whom He earlier called laborers and husbandmen, He now calls builders, says St. Jerome. But this stone, rejected by the Jews, was "by God made the head of the corner," that is, placed at the head of the corner, and was made the capital and wholly fundamental stone of the Church, and that a cornerstone, namely, that He might join and connect in Himself as in a corner the two walls of the Gentiles and the Jews, in the same fabric and house of the Church. So St. Augustine, St. Basil, Euthymius, Cassiodorus, Abulensis, Jansenius, Maldonatus, and the other Fathers and interpreters, either here or on Psalm CXVII, 22; and especially St. Peter, first epistle, chapter II, verses 6 and following, where I have explained this passage at length. For often in Scripture the fabric of the Church is compared to the building of a house, which is built upon a solid foundation, such as a rock. For so the Church is built upon and leans on Christ; Christ, then, is the first rock of the Church, who shared this name in very deed with St. Peter, that after Christ he might be the rock of the Church, and thereafter with the other Apostles, whom He likewise constituted foundations of the Church, as appears from Apocalypse XXI, 19; Ephesians II, 20, and elsewhere.
Furthermore, arrogantly as well as ineptly and impiously Calvin asserts that he himself is this stone, inasmuch as, being rejected by the Pope and the Roman Church, he became the foundation of the Calvinist sect. So that proud braggart dares to put himself on a level with Christ — nay, to steal from Christ His own title and oracle. But let him himself give the signs by which he may show he has been sent by God for this purpose: let him, I say, give the miracles, prophecies, and Scriptures which Christ gave. But he has never given them, nor ever will; therefore he is not a reformer of the Church, but a deformer.
Verse 43: Therefore I Say to You, That the Kingdom of God Shall Be Taken From You, and Shall Be Given to a Nation Yielding the Fruits Thereof
43. Therefore I say to you, that the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and shall be given to a nation yielding the fruits thereof. — The kingdom of God in the Gospel is everywhere called the Church, because in her God reigns in the faithful through faith and grace, and leads them to the heavenly kingdom, that He may reign in them through glory.
Behold, here is, as it were, the epimythium, or the concluding moral and afterword, in which Christ clearly explains and applies to the Scribes themselves and to the Jews their followers the three parables He has already delivered — namely, the first, concerning the two sons, one obedient, the other disobedient; the second, concerning the vineyard whose husbandmen killed the servants and the son of the master; the third, concerning the stone rejected, which was made the head of the corner — as if to say: You, O Scribes, are sons disobedient to God the Father, because you persecute Me His only-begotten Son sent by Him; you likewise are the husbandmen of the vineyard, who will kill Me His heir; you, finally, are the builders of the Synagogue, who reject Me as it were a stone — but God will make Me the base and foundation of His Church, who shall take her away from you and transfer her to the Gentiles, who will eagerly receive and worship Me, and therefore shall be endowed by Me with grace and glory. For all these parables of Christ tend to signify the reprobation of the Jews and the election of the Gentiles, because the Jews rejected Christ, whom the Gentiles accepted. By these parables Christ so stung the Scribes that they prepared the cross for Him.
Verse 44: And Whoever Shall Fall Upon This Stone Shall Be Broken; But on Whomsoever It Shall Fall, It Shall Crush Him
44. And whoever shall fall upon this stone, shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it shall crush him. — The Syriac: it shall scatter him, as if to say: He who resists Christ and persecutes Him, as you do, O Scribes, will do so in vain, and will bring upon himself ruin in soul as well as in body; yet in such a way that he can still be repaired and restored through penance.
But on Whomsoever It Shall Fall — this stone: that is, one upon whom Christ shall come down in the whole weight of His grave vengeance, for example upon those to be condemned on the day of judgment (just as you, O Scribes, unless you do penance, shall be condemned) — for such a one there remains no hope of being repaired and restored; just as, if a great stone falls upon a clay vessel, it shatters it into the smallest fragments, so that it can in no way be repaired and put back together. Christ therefore here threatens the Scribes with eternal and irreparable destruction, that is, with the fire of hell. So St. Augustine, book II Quaestiones Evangeliorum, Question XXX; Abulensis, Barradius, Jansenius, Maldonatus, and others. Hear St. Augustine: "They fall upon Him who now despise or treat Him with injuries; but He shall fall upon them, when He shall come to judgment to destroy them, that the wicked may be as dust which the wind drives away."
Verses 45-46: And When the Chief Priests and Pharisees Had Heard His Parables, They Knew That He Spoke of Them
45. And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard His parables, they knew that He spoke of them. 46. And seeking to lay hold on Him, they feared the multitudes: because they held Him as a prophet. — The Scribes recognized, partly from the very words of the psalm, partly from Christ's sayings and gestures, that these things were being said by Him against them; whence, raging and gnashing their teeth at Him, they wished to seize and torment Him, but fearing the crowd, they did not dare to do it. Behold, thus gradually Christ, through His rebukes of the Scribes, paved for Himself the way to the cross and to death: for the Scribes inflicted these upon Him three days later. Thus was fulfilled the counsel of God concerning the redemption of men through the death of Christ.