Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
When the Pharisees murmured that Christ received sinners, He showed by three parables how praiseworthy, delightful, and pleasing to God and the angels it is to convert sinners. The first is the lost sheep found, verse 4. The second is the lost coin found, verse 8. The third is the prodigal son, verse 12, whom the father, when he repented, received back into his former grace with a kiss and public rejoicing.
We heard the first parable in Matthew 18:12, where I explained it.
Vulgate Text: Luke 15:1-32
1. Now the tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to Him to hear Him. 2. And the Pharisees and Scribes murmured, saying: This man receives sinners and eats with them. 3. And He spoke to them this parable, saying: 4. What man among you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does he not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that was lost until he finds it? 5. And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing; 6. and coming home he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them: Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. 7. I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. 8. Or what woman, having ten drachmas, if she loses one drachma, does she not light a lamp and sweep the house and search diligently until she finds it? 9. And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying: Rejoice with me, for I have found the drachma which I had lost. 10. Likewise I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one sinner who repents. 11. And He said: A certain man had two sons; 12. and the younger of them said to his father: Father, give me the portion of the estate that falls to me. And he divided his property between them. 13. And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his estate by living luxuriously. 14. And after he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that region, and he himself began to be in need. 15. And he went and attached himself to one of the citizens of that region. And he sent him to his farm to feed pigs. 16. And he longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, and no one gave him anything. 17. But coming to himself, he said: How many hired servants in my father's house have bread in abundance, and here I am perishing with hunger! 18. I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; 19. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants. 20. And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and running to him fell on his neck and kissed him. 21. And the son said to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son. 22. But the father said to his servants: Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; 23. and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate: 24. for this son of mine was dead and has come back to life; he was lost and has been found. And they began to celebrate. 25. Now his elder son was in the field; and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing; 26. and he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. 27. And he said to him: Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has received him back safe and sound. 28. But he was angry and refused to go in. So his father came out and began to plead with him. 29. But he answered his father: Behold, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends; 30. but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him. 31. But he said to him: Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours; 32. but it was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this brother of yours was dead and has come alive; he was lost and has been found.
Verses 1-2: The Tax Collectors and Sinners Drew Near
1. NOW THE TAX COLLECTORS AND SINNERS WERE DRAWING NEAR TO HIM TO HEAR HIM. 2. AND THE PHARISEES AND SCRIBES MURMURED, SAYING: THIS MAN RECEIVES SINNERS AND EATS WITH THEM. — "Tax collectors," the Greek adds πάντες, that is "all," meaning many, nearly all flocked to Christ, drawn indeed by His holiness and kindness, by which He called sinners to Himself and promised pardon and salvation to the repentant. For this was His preaching: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," Matthew 3 and 4.
AND THE PHARISEES MURMURED, — who just as they avoided contact with unclean bodies, so also with unclean souls, that is, sinners; therefore they did not deign to speak with sinners, much less to eat with them. This then was the Pharisaic spirit and pride, for they considered themselves pure and holy according to the law, and therefore they avoided the impure lest they be contaminated by them. Entirely opposed to this was the spirit of Christ, who had come into the world for this very purpose — to purify and sanctify sinners from their sins, and therefore He sought their conversation and accepted their invitations to meals, because nothing is more pleasing to God than to convert sinners. "From this gather," says St. Gregory, Homily 34, "that true justice (of Christ) has compassion, false justice (of the Pharisees) has loathing:" indeed "the mark of the apostolic life is to thirst for the salvation of souls," says St. Chrysostom.
Verses 3-4: What Man Among You, Having a Hundred Sheep
3. And He spoke to them this parable, saying:
4. WHAT MAN AMONG YOU, HAVING A HUNDRED SHEEP, IF HE LOSES ONE OF THEM, DOES HE NOT LEAVE THE NINETY-NINE IN THE WILDERNESS AND GO AFTER THE ONE THAT WAS LOST UNTIL HE FINDS IT? — "He goes after it." For a sheep is a simple and foolish animal, which therefore, following its food, easily strays from the path and the flock, and once it has strayed, does not know how to return to the way: therefore it needs a shepherd to seek it and go to it. Thus we through sins and lusts were like sheep going astray and heading toward ruin and hell, nor did we think of God or of salvation and heaven; therefore Christ descended from heaven to seek us and lead us back from the way of hell to the way of heaven. Hence Isaiah, chapter 53, verse 6: "All we, he says, like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all." And St. Peter, Epistle I, chapter 2, verse 25: "You were, he says, like sheep going astray, but you have now returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls."
Verse 5: He Lays It on His Shoulders, Rejoicing
5. AND WHEN HE HAS FOUND IT, HE LAYS IT ON HIS SHOULDERS, REJOICING. — The Arabic says: he carries it on his shoulders joyfully, so that he may quickly bring it back to the rest of the flock; for the sheep cannot do this by walking, since it is slow-footed. Christ did the same, when, as Isaiah says, He took our sins upon His own shoulders to atone for them. Hence Gregory of Nyssa, in the Catena: "When, he says, the shepherd found the sheep, he did not punish it, did not drive it to the flock by force, but placing it on his shoulder and carrying it gently, he numbered it among the flock." O wonderful condescension, clemency, and charity of Christ the Lord! So that in former times bishops might represent this to the faithful, they used to depict Christ in churches with the lost sheep placed upon His shoulders, carrying it back to the flock. Thus Carloman, the son of Charles Martel, King of Austria and Swabia, in the year of the Lord 730, having spurned both kingdoms, embraced the monastic life at Monte Cassino, and with the zeal of humility and obedience, when by the command of Abbot Petronax he was pasturing sheep, he carried a lame sheep back to the flock upon his shoulders, and drenched with its filth he rejoiced. For Christian humility and the imitation of Christ is the true glory of Christians and kings. So the Annals of Monte Cassino relate, and from them Hieronymus Platus, Book II, On the Good of the Religious State, chapter 26.
Verse 6: Rejoice with Me, for I Have Found My Sheep
6. AND COMING HOME HE CALLS TOGETHER HIS FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS, SAYING TO THEM: REJOICE WITH ME. — In Greek συγχάρητε μοι, that is, rejoice together with me, be glad with me. It signifies an immense joy that the mind cannot contain without pouring it out upon friends. Again it indicates that the matter is so joyful that not only he himself, but all the neighbors too should rejoice over it. "With me" — He does not say: with the sheep, but "with me"; for our life is His joy, says St. Gregory.
For I have found my sheep which was lost. — In Greek τὸ ἀπολωλός, that is, the one that had perished. It suggests that Christ so rejoices over the conversion of one sinner that He cannot contain the joy within Himself, but shares it with the Angels and Saints. The follower of Christ and the apostolic man who converts a soul does the same.
Verse 7: Joy in Heaven Over One Sinner Who Repents
7. I SAY TO YOU THAT LIKEWISE THERE WILL BE JOY IN HEAVEN OVER ONE SINNER WHO REPENTS, MORE THAN OVER NINETY-NINE RIGHTEOUS PERSONS WHO NEED NO REPENTANCE. — "Joy," namely, greater joy; for this is what the comparative particle "more than," which follows, requires. Wonderfully, then, the Angels and the Blessed in heaven rejoice over the conversion of any sinner: they know of it through God's revelation, as pertaining to themselves. For the sinner through repentance passes into the lot of the Saints in heaven, because this is a great good: first, for the sinner; second, for the angels; third and especially, for God Himself. For the sinner passes from sin to righteousness, from hell to heaven. The angels therefore rejoice over this good for man, because they themselves are benevolent toward men, says Euthymius; and because man through repentance is made like them, namely pure and holy. "For the angels," because through men who are justified and sanctified, their ruin is repaired, and the seats in heaven from which Lucifer and his followers fell are restored and filled. "For God," because God is φιλόψυχος, that is, a lover of souls, and thirsts for their salvation, says Euthymius. For the angels rejoice that the desire of God, whom they supremely love, is fulfilled, and that He is affected by this joy as well as by the honor of the penitent. On this matter there exists the notable vision of Carpus, to whom Christ showed that He so desires the conversion of the sinner that He is ready to be crucified and die again for it. See it in St. Dionysius, Epistle 8 to Demophilus.
By this argument Christ convinced the Pharisees that they were murmuring wrongly when they saw Christ associating with sinners in order to convert them. Because this work is most pleasing to God and the angels: therefore the Pharisees ought to rejoice with them over it and cooperate in it and put on a similar zeal for souls. For this is the whole "fruit" of the incarnation, passion, and death of Christ, "that sin be taken away," Isaiah 27:9; "and everlasting righteousness be brought in," Daniel 9:24; and that the honor, worship, and kingdom of God be spread and extended as widely as possible, Matthew 6:9. This should be an immense stimulus for every religious, priest, and faithful person to arouse in themselves a zeal for souls. Hence St. Gregory, hearing that the English had been converted to Christ through Augustine whom he had sent, exulted in spirit; and so he writes to him, Book 9, Epistle 58: "And if over one penitent there is great joy in heaven, what joy do we believe was produced over so great a people converted from their error — who, coming to the faith, condemned by repentance the evil things they had done! In this joy of heaven and the angels, then, let us repeat the very words of the angels that we foretold: let us say, then, let us all say: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will."
MORE THAN OVER NINETY-NINE RIGHTEOUS PERSONS. — God and the angels therefore rejoice more over one penitent than over one innocent person, indeed more than over ninety-nine righteous and holy persons: because, namely, a new joy actually comes upon them, which seems more perceptible and is indeed more actually felt than that old continuous joy over the ninety-nine just, which by its very duration seems to human perception to diminish its own sense, although it is truly greater in itself. For the newness of the desired thing stirs up a great and fresh joy, which because of its novelty is felt more keenly, as we experience when news of victories and conversions is brought. For then we exult and, as it were, leap with a new jubilation of the mind. For Christ often speaks according to human custom and the habits and perception of men, especially in parables. To this belongs the saying of St. Bernard: "The tears of penitents are the wine of the angels." This joy is therefore greater actually and perceptibly, says Emmanuel Sa. For otherwise, that a man rejoices more over ninety-nine sheep than over one, and God over ninety-nine just than over one penitent, one may not doubt.
St. Gregory adds that God and the angels rejoice more, because penitents tend to be more fervent than the innocent. "For the most part," he says elsewhere, "a life that is fervent after guilt is more pleasing to God than an innocence that grows sluggish through security." Here, however, in Homily 34, he proves it by comparisons: "Because," he says, "even a general in battle loves more the soldier who, after fleeing, returned and vigorously pressed the enemy, than the one who never turned his back and never did anything brave. Likewise a farmer loves more that land which after thorns brings forth abundant crops, than that which never had thorns and never produced a fertile harvest." He brings at the end the example of Victorinus, who, having fallen into a sin of the flesh, entered a monastery and performed in it a remarkable penance. "For he strove, he says, with every effort of his mind to mortify his flesh, to break his own will, to seek secret prayers, to wash himself with daily tears, to seek contempt for himself, to fear the veneration offered by the brothers. And so he was accustomed to anticipate the brothers' nightly vigils." And shortly after: "So that each day he might slay himself in the weeping of penance, the more secretly the more freely: for he contemplated the strictness of his coming Judge, and already in agreement with that same Judge, he punished in tears the guilt of his crime." Hence he deserved to be flooded with heavenly light and to hear the voice of God: "Your sin has been forgiven." From this passage St. Gregory infers: If penance is of such great efficacy in a sinner, how great will it be in a just man! "For many," he says, "are conscious of no evils in themselves, and yet they exercise themselves in such ardent affliction as if they were weighed down by every sin: they reject even all lawful things, they gird themselves sublimely for contempt of the world, they refuse to permit themselves everything that pleases, they cut off from themselves even permitted goods, they despise visible things, they are inflamed by invisible things, they rejoice in lamentations, they humble themselves in all things; and just as some deplore the sins of their deeds, so they deplore the sins of their thoughts."
How great is the mercy and kindness of God! how great is His compassion! So it is recorded in the Lives of the Fathers, Book 7, chapter 23. Palladius, in the Lausiac History, chapter 46, relates that a certain hermit who had fallen into sin repented in sackcloth, ashes, and continual tears. Thereupon an angel appeared to him and said: "The Lord has accepted your repentance and has had mercy on you: but henceforth see that you are not deceived."
Hence St. Paul the Simple, a disciple of St. Anthony, in a vision saw a certain sinner, as he entered the church, to be dark and cloudy, with demons pulling him this way and that toward themselves, having placed a bridle in his nostrils, and his holy angel following sadly from afar. But the same man, going out after he had done penance, he saw with a bright face and a white body, and the demons following him from far away; but his holy angel near him, cheerful and rejoicing over him exceedingly. Whereupon Paul exclaimed with joy: O angels, etc.
Verses 8-10: The Woman with Ten Drachmas
8. OR WHAT WOMAN, HAVING TEN DRACHMAS, IF SHE LOSES ONE DRACHMA, DOES SHE NOT LIGHT A LAMP AND SWEEP THE HOUSE AND SEARCH DILIGENTLY UNTIL SHE FINDS IT?
9. AND WHEN SHE HAS FOUND IT, SHE CALLS TOGETHER HER FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS, SAYING: REJOICE WITH ME, FOR I HAVE FOUND THE DRACHMA WHICH I HAD LOST?
10. LIKEWISE I SAY TO YOU, THERE IS JOY IN THE PRESENCE OF THE ANGELS OF GOD OVER ONE SINNER WHO REPENTS.
SHE SWEPT. — Read it thus with the Roman and Greek texts, and the Arabic, which translates it as "she cleans"; not "she overturns," as some read with St. Gregory.
Drachma. — A drachma was a type of silver coin, having the weight of a drachm (which is the eighth part of an ounce) and therefore worth a Roman julio, or a Spanish real. Hence mystically Cyril says: "In the preceding parable of the sheep, we were taught that we are creatures of God who made us, and whose sheep of His pasture we are: now we are shown to be made in the image and likeness of God; for the image of the king is stamped on the drachma."
More fully, St. Gregory, in Homily 34, applies and explains the whole parable thus: "He who (Christ) is signified by the shepherd, is also signified by the woman. For He is God, He is the wisdom of God. And because an image is stamped on the drachma, the woman lost the drachma when man, who had been created in the image of God, departed by sinning from the likeness of his Creator: but the woman lit a lamp, because the wisdom of God appeared in human form: for a lamp is a light in an earthen vessel; and a light in an earthen vessel is divinity in flesh. But when the lamp was lit, she turned over the house; because as soon as His divinity shone through the flesh, our whole conscience was shaken. For the house is turned over when the human conscience is disturbed by the consideration of its guilt. And this word 'turned over' does not disagree with what is read in other manuscripts, 'she cleans': because indeed a depraved mind, if it is not first overturned by fear, is not cleansed from accustomed vices. Therefore when the house is turned over, the drachma is found, because when man's conscience is disturbed, the likeness of the Creator is restored in man." And after some intervening words: "Who are these friends or neighbors, if not those heavenly powers already mentioned above? Who are so near to the supreme wisdom as they approach it through the grace of continual vision." Hence he concludes: "The woman therefore had ten drachmas, because there are nine orders of angels; but so that the number of the elect might be completed, man was created as a tenth, who did not perish from his Creator even after the Fall, because eternal wisdom, shining with miracles through the flesh, restored him from the light of the earthen vessel."
Furthermore, Theophylact says: The friends are all the Angels; but the neighbors are the Thrones, Cherubim, and Seraphim; for these are nearest to God.
Finally, St. Gregory of Nyssa says in the Catena: The ten drachmas are as many virtues, of which none should be lacking to us, and therefore they are ten like the Decalogue; the lamp is the divine word or the lamp of penance; the neighbors are the appetites — the concupiscible, the irascible, and the rational.
Verse 11: A Certain Man Had Two Sons
11. AND HE SAID: A CERTAIN MAN HAD TWO SONS. — The Syriac says: And Jesus said to them again: A certain man, etc. This is the third parable, of the prodigal son; for the first was about the lost and found sheep, the second about the lost and found drachma. The purpose of this parable, as of the two preceding ones, is that through it Christ might show how great a good and joy there is in heaven over the conversion of sinners, and consequently that the Pharisees were murmuring wrongly because Christ associated with sinners to convert them: that this is the purpose is clear from verses 2 and 3.
Now, there are three principal characters in this parable, namely the father and two sons; that is, the elder who was of good conduct, and the younger who was prodigal. The father is God, who created all; or Christ as man, who redeemed and regenerated all by His blood, and daily regenerates in baptism. The two sons, according to St. Gregory, Jerome, Augustine, and other ancient authorities throughout, are understood as the Jews and the Gentiles. The elder, who always remained with the father, signifies the Jews, who always adhered to God and to His faith and worship. The younger signifies the Gentiles, who from God, whom they had worshipped in the time of Adam and Noah, turned aside to idols and the vices of the flesh. Nor is this unfitting: for to the Jews properly belongs the murmuring about the Gentiles being received into faith and grace through Christ, verse 25. More aptly, however, according to Christ's purpose, the two sons signify the righteous and sinners, whether they be Jews or Gentiles: for the sinners with whom Christ associated in Judea amid the murmuring of the Pharisees were Jews, not Gentiles, as is evident. The elder son signifies the righteous, that is, both those who were truly righteous and those who considered and advertised themselves as righteous, such as the Scribes and Pharisees. The younger, prodigal son signifies manifest and public sinners, such as tax collectors and prostitutes, with whom Christ ate in order to win them over. So St. Jerome, Epistle 146 to Damasus, volume 3, where he extensively and learnedly treats the entire parable, and interpreters generally, and this will become clear from the course of the parable.
Verse 12: Father, Give Me the Portion of the Estate
12. AND THE YOUNGER OF THEM SAID TO HIS FATHER: FATHER, GIVE ME THE PORTION OF THE ESTATE (the Syriac says, possession) THAT FALLS TO ME. AND HE DIVIDED HIS PROPERTY BETWEEN THEM. — "The younger" signifies sinners and prostitutes. For youth tends to be more free, more foolish, more fickle, and more prone to gluttony and luxury. The substance, according to St. Jerome, Epistle 146, and St. Augustine, Book II of Gospel Questions, Question 33; Bede and Euthymius, is free will, which in Greek is called βίος, that is, life; because through it each person lives freely as he pleases, says St. Jerome. Theophylact says: "Man's substance is rationality, which is accompanied by freedom of the will." More aptly, St. Ambrose and others understand "substance" as God's grace and virtues and good conduct: for these are properly what are lost and squandered by a sinner, since free will cannot be lost, as is evident from this very parable; most fully one may take it as all the gifts of God, both of body and soul, both of nature and grace; for the younger son demands that these be given to him, that is, handed over to his own power and freedom, no longer willing to be ruled and directed by the father, but to be his own master, and to govern himself and to use or abuse God's gifts at will. And so all these opinions converge into virtually the same thing.
Hear St. Augustine, Book II of Gospel Questions, Question 33: "To live, to understand, to remember, to excel in keen intelligence — all these are divine gifts, which man receives into his power through free will," etc. Likewise St. Jerome, Epistle 146 to Damasus: "All that we live, know, think, and burst forth into words is the substance of God: these things God has equally and in common bestowed upon all," etc. And shortly after: "He gave them free will, He gave them the freedom of their own mind," etc. Titus says: "The Father handed over to him all creation as a possession." Finally Euthymius says: The substance, or riches, are the charisms of God, that is, the gifts which He distributed to the faithful.
AND HE DIVIDED HIS PROPERTY BETWEEN THEM, — when He entrusted the aforementioned gifts to the freedom and free will of each; "for He placed man in the hand of his own counsel," Sirach 15:14.
Verse 13: He Traveled to a Distant Country
13. AND NOT MANY DAYS LATER, HAVING GATHERED EVERYTHING TOGETHER, THE YOUNGER SON TRAVELED TO A DISTANT COUNTRY, AND THERE HE SQUANDERED HIS ESTATE BY LIVING LUXURIOUSLY. — The Arabic adds: in a luxurious life.
Having gathered everything together, — that is, having packed up all his substance that he had received from his father; the Syriac says, he collected whatever had come to him; the Arabic says, and after a few days the younger son gathered everything and traveled to a distant region: "Not a separation of place, but of virtue," says Euthymius. This is the state of lust and sin; for the sinner by sinning goes far from God and heaven, because he passes from holiness and the kingdom of God into the kingdom of the devil, of sin and of hell — which is a great folly. Hence "the elder son remained with his father as one who was wise," says Euthymius. Thus St. Augustine, Book II of Gospel Questions, Question 33: "The distant region, he says, is the forgetfulness of God" — a reciprocal forgetfulness, by which the sinner forgets God, and in turn God as it were forgets the sinner, so that He neglects to visit him with His light, grace, and inspiration. And St. Jerome, Epistle 146: "We must know, he says, that it is not by distance of places, but by affection that we are with God, or depart from Him." Furthermore, "when a man goes out from God," says Theophylact, "and distances himself from the fear of God, he spends, squanders, and dissipates all divine gifts."
AND THERE HE SQUANDERED HIS ESTATE, — that is, all the gifts of nature and grace. For the sinner, by indulging in pleasure and license, squanders God's grace, charity, and virtues; he dulls his intellect so that he recognizes neither God nor the good of virtue; he takes from himself the memory of God's law and benefits; he corrupts his will so that he prefers vice to virtue, pleasure to reason, earth to heaven, the devil to God, and instead of the habits of virtues he puts on the habits of vices, and an inclination to every evil. Hence he becomes destitute of counsel, reason, mind, and every good. Finally, all the powers of soul and body that should have served the Creator, he compels to serve the creature, for example, the belly and sensuality — which is spiritual fornication, of which the Psalmist says: "All who distance themselves from You will perish; You have destroyed all who fornicate away from You," Psalm 72:27. Therefore the prodigal son first "consumed all the adornments of nature," says Euthymius: "by misusing natural gifts," says St. Augustine. Second, "he spent his substance, that is, the innate light of the soul," says Titus, "temperance, knowledge of truth, and memory of God." Third, "he corrupted the gift," says Euthymius, "which he had received in baptism, namely the nobility of the soul and the aptitude for virtues; for these and similar things were his substance and riches."
BY LIVING LUXURIOUSLY. — In Greek ἀσώτως, that is, prodigally, intemperately, libidinously, wantonly. Therefore "luxury" here signifies not only lust, but also every kind of excess that occurs in banquets, drinking bouts, games, songs, lavish spending, etc. The prodigal life, says the Gloss, loves to pour out and parade in outward display, abandoning God who is interior to it.
Verse 14: A Severe Famine Arose in That Region
14. AND AFTER HE HAD SPENT EVERYTHING (in Greek δαπανήσαντος, that is, he had consumed, squandered), A SEVERE FAMINE AROSE IN THAT REGION, AND HE HIMSELF BEGAN TO BE IN NEED — of money, food, and bread; the Arabic says, and he became poor, as young men who are free and prodigal do, who in one year consume all the resources left to them by their parents in feasting, drinking, gambling, and whoring, so that thereafter for their whole life they must live wretchedly on begged bread: and they squander not only their resources but also their strength and health, together with their reputation, so that, putrid, scabby, and syphilitic from diseases contracted by drunkenness and debauchery — sallow and foul-smelling — they are a burden and a horror to everyone as well as to themselves. Literally: luxury and excess consume even the greatest wealth and reduce a man to extreme destitution and hunger.
Mystically: the sinner suffers a want of all things natural and supernatural, because he does not know how to use rightly any thing, any sense, any power of the soul — neither memory, nor intellect, nor will — for his own benefit, so as to derive from them a taste and fruit worthy of a human being; but like a fool he spends everything to his own harm and to the increase of hell: which is just as if he did not have them, indeed far worse. Finally, the sinner who lacks God lacks all things; for all things depend intimately on God, indeed exist and live in God. Hence the Interlinear Gloss says: "Every place, without the father, is a place of want." For he who does not have God has nothing, even if he were king of the whole world; but he who has God has everything, even if he has not a penny, according to the saying of St. Francis: "My God and my all;" for God is Being itself, and the ocean of being, so that He alone is said to exist, while all other things compared to Him do not exist and are nothing, according to the words: "I am who I am," Exodus 3. See what was said there. Finally the Gloss says: "Pleasure always has a hunger for itself;" for the more one indulges in pleasure, the more pleasure is kindled: just as the one with dropsy, the more he drinks, the more he thirsts; for nothing can quench his thirst. Hence Cicero says, Book 6 of the Republic: "Grave mistresses, the lusts of thoughts, compel and command certain infinite things which can in no way be satisfied or sated."
St. Jerome, on Hosea, says: "Strength fails in fornication, and the desire for fornication does not rest, and as someone beautifully described these lusts of pleasure:
Sport is craved in sport, the garden is lacking within the garden."
Verse 15: He Attached Himself to One of the Citizens
15. AND HE WENT AND ATTACHED HIMSELF (as a servant) TO ONE OF THE CITIZENS OF THAT REGION, AND HE SENT HIM TO HIS FARM TO FEED PIGS. — This citizen of the region far from God is one from among the demons. So St. Augustine, Book II of Gospel Questions, Question 33: He attached himself, he says, to a certain aerial prince belonging to the army of the devil; whose farm is the extent of his power, the pigs are the unclean spirits who are under him; to feed them is to do the things in which unclean spirits delight. Much the same says St. Ambrose: This citizen, he says, is the prince of this world. And the Gloss: This citizen, it says, is the prince of this world set over earthly lusts.
Hear St. Peter Chrysologus, Sermon 2: "Behold," he says, "what greed does, rushing headlong toward riches: it changed a citizen into a foreigner, a son into a hired servant, a rich man into a pauper, a free man into a slave; it joined to pigs the one whom a most loving father had set apart, so that he might serve filthy cattle who had scorned to obey holy piety." Furthermore, St. Ambrose rightly weighs the word "attached himself" and from it draws not only a laborious but also a dangerous servitude: "He who sticks," he says, "is in a snare;" for just as a sparrow, where it seeks food, there it finds a snare: so the unhappy sinner, where he had hoped for pleasant freedom, there he encounters dangerous servitude.
AND HE SENT HIM TO HIS FARM. — To be sent to the farm, says Bede, is to be enslaved by the desire for worldly goods.
TO FEED PIGS. — That is, says St. Chrysostom in the Catena, to nourish sordid and unclean thoughts in his soul. See here the wondrous metamorphosis of the sinner and his state, but the just chastisement and vengeance for his foolish freedom. He who did not want to be treated generously as a son by his father is forced to be a slave and chattel of a foreign citizen; he who did not want to be ruled by God is compelled to serve the devil; he who did not want to remain in his father's royal palace is sent to a rustic farm; he who did not want to associate with brothers and princes is driven to be the slave and companion of pigs; he who did not want to eat the bread of angels, out of hunger begs for the pods of pigs.
Verse 16: He Longed to Fill His Stomach with the Pods
16. AND HE LONGED TO FILL HIS STOMACH WITH THE PODS THAT THE PIGS WERE EATING; AND NO ONE GAVE HIM ANYTHING. — This is the fitting and just punishment of the prodigal: that he who foolishly poured out his own goods on others afterward finds no one who would give him even pods. Hear St. Chrysologus, Sermon 1: "The famine of luxury is set as a torturer, so that avenging punishment may rage where the guilt deserving punishment had flared up." And shortly after: "How cruel," he says, "is the service! Because he does not even live with the pigs, he who lives for the pigs. Wretch, who fails and hungers for the fattening of pigs. Wretch, who craves the quality of filthy food and does not obtain it." As if to say: He indeed lived a swinish life, and yet he is not even satisfied with swine's food.
St. Jerome notes, in Epistle 146, that the devil, once he has deceived a man and driven him to sin, so that he might now subjugate him to himself as a slave and bondsman, to inflame his soul with various desires, but to defraud him of the desired objects and pleasures, so that by longing for them he might sin to the increase of his guilt, but be frustrated in their taste and enjoyment to his punishment and torment. This is the fraud and tyranny of the devil.
You love husks; if you desire gold, you desire husks; if you pursue sensual pleasures, you desire the husks of swine, because you court what is swinish. Truly the Satirist says:
Where pleasure reigns, there virtue is exiled.
Brief is the pleasure, long the repentance.
To have conquered pleasure is the greatest pleasure.
The pleasure of beasts is the ruin of men.
Scarcely is it pleasure, which comes and goes like a flash of lightning.
He who serves pleasure serves a harsh master.
Pleasure is the cause of all sorrows and evils.
Therefore as another says:
Despise pleasures: pleasure bought with pain brings harm:
Despise the husks of earth, and God will give you the manna of heaven.
There exists an emblem of Cupid, drawing the covetous into his servitude and sorrow, with this motto:
When the boy Cupid steals honey from the hive,
A bee pierced the stealing finger with its sting.
So also for us the brief pleasure that will perish,
Which we seek, mixed with sad pain, does harm.
Husks are the empty pods and coverings of beans, peas, and other legumes, in which their flour and pith is wrapped and enclosed; therefore husks are empty within, soft without, by which the body is not refreshed but filled, so that they burden the stomach more than they nourish. Therefore they are food for cattle rather than for men, as Pliny testifies, Book XVII, chapter XII. Hence Horace, Book II, Epistle 1:
He lives, he says, on husks and coarse bread.
For rustics mix husks with flour or bran, and thus they make dark, second-grade bread on which they feed. But the nobility, having separated the husks through a sieve and sent them off to the rustics, take care to have white, first-grade bread made from pure flour, and feed on that.
Jansenius understands by "husk" here the Greek carob pod, which is a tree producing a woody fruit, covered with a pod like a bean, of a dark color, floury, a finger's length, a thumb's breadth, containing four seeds, which are called ceratia from their resemblance to a horn (for κέρας means horn), an excellent food for swine; even humans eat them. The Spanish call it Algarroba; it grows in great abundance in the kingdom of Valencia, says Emmanuel Sa. Hence in the Greek here it is κεράτιον, that is, a little horn. Hear Columella, Book V, chapter x: "The Greek carob, which some call ceratium, and the Persian: it is sown before the winter solstice in autumn." Pliny, Book XV, chapter xxiv, calls these husks sweet, because when they are eaten, they taste sweet, and have a flavor resembling cassia.
By "husks" St. Augustine, St. Jerome, St. Ambrose, and Bede understand worldly and empty sciences, displaying vanity, such as the odes and songs of poets, the pompous words of rhetoricians. Where, says St. Augustine, this one wanted to find something solid and right, pertaining to the blessed life, but could not. More fully and plainly, by "husks" you may understand carnal things and pleasures, which like husks do not satisfy the appetite of man, but inflate, distend, and torment, so that they become the pangs and torments of the soul. So St. Chrysostom, in the Catena. If therefore you love Falernian wines,
Verse 17: And Returning to Himself, He Said: How Many Hired Servants in My Father's House Abound with Bread, and I Here Perish with Hunger?
"To himself;" the Syriac has, to his soul, that is, returning to his heart, to his mind, and beginning to be wise; the Arabic, and he was thinking within himself; Euthymius: "having come to his senses, that is, as if waking from drunkenness and a heavy sleep;" Theophylact: "returning from his outward wandering;" the Interlinear: "he rightly returns to himself, who had departed from himself." For he had been as if beside himself, and out of his mind, delirious and insane, but affliction gave him understanding, and hunger taught him wisdom. So Gregory of Nyssa, treatise On Prayer: "He did not, he says, return to his former happiness until, returning to himself, he felt the presence of the oppressing calamity." St. Augustine, Book XXI of Questions on the Gospels: "From those things, he says, which entice and seduce from without, he redirected his attention to the interior of his conscience." For, as St. Ambrose says, "he who returns to that, restores himself to himself; he who departs from Christ, renounces himself."
HOW MANY. — In Greek πόσοι, that is, how many. For multitude is discrete quantity, as magnitude is continuous quantity.
THE HIRED SERVANTS (workers and servants, who labor for daily wages in my father's house) ABOUND WITH BREAD (indeed with meats and delicacies), but I (who am a son) here perish with hunger — I scarcely fill my belly with husks. So God is accustomed to take away pleasures from the pleasure-seekers; to send hunger, diseases, and miseries, so that they may return to their senses and see from how great a happiness to how great a misery they have fallen, as if from heaven to the underworld — which is the first step of repentance. Hence Titus says: "Having returned to himself, that is, he says, comparing his former happiness with his subsequent misery, and pondering in his mind what kind and how great he was when he still dwelt with his father, how foul and wretched he had finally become after, having abandoned God, he began to be subject to demons, examining it again and again." From the example of this prodigal son learn this: "Repentance is the follower of rash counsel. A bad beginning has a bad end." And this: "Lest you be conquered by a shameful enemy, look at pleasures as they depart. Pleasure is the bait of evils."
Mystically: the hired servants are those who serve God and virtue out of hope for temporal goods; the slaves are those who serve out of fear of punishment; the sons, those who obey God out of filial love. As if to say, says the Interlinear: How many are the Jews who observe the law only for the sake of present goods, and therefore obtain them from God; but I who neglect the law of God am destitute of both temporal and spiritual goods. But St. Augustine, Book II of Questions on the Gospels, says: This reflection, he says, is of one coming to his senses and recognizing that among the preachers there are some who proclaim the truth not led by love of truth but by desire for worldly advantages. More sublimely, the Gloss says: The hired servants, he says, are those who strive to work worthily in view of a future reward: these abound with bread, that is, they are refreshed with the daily nourishment of heavenly grace.
Therefore a slave is one who abstains from vices out of fear of punishment; a hired servant, one who does so out of hope and desire for the kingdom of heaven; a son, one who does so out of love of the good. Hear Theophylact: There are three orders of those who are saved: for some, like slaves, do good fearing judgment; which David also suggests, saying: "Pierce my flesh with Your fear, for I was afraid of Your judgments." But those who desire good things and wish to please God appear to be hired servants, just as David himself says: "I have inclined my heart to perform Your statutes forever, for the sake of the reward." But the sons are those who fulfill the commandments out of love for God, as David again testifies: "How I have loved Your law, O Lord? It is my meditation all the day." And again: "I lifted up my hands to Your commandments which I loved;" not which I feared. Gregory Nazianzen teaches exactly the same, in his Oration on Holy Baptism. Moreover, the Interlinear and others, who understand by the elder son the Jews, and by the younger the Gentiles, explain it thus: The Jews, who serve God as hired servants in hope of temporal goods, abound in them; but I, who am the Gentile people, together with the idolaters am destitute of all truth.
Verse 18: I Will Arise, and Go to My Father.
"I will arise," says the Interlinear, because I recognized that I was lying down, for I had fallen into vices and idols; "I will go," I who have gone far away, "to my father," I who waste away in wretched destitution under the prince of swine. I will arise from this unhappy life: I will abandon my vices, I will renounce my habit of sinning, I will change my ways, I will repent, and I will humbly beg God for pardon of my offenses. Beautifully he says: I will arise, says St. Jerome, Epistle 146, "for while his father was absent he had not stood upright: to lie down belongs to sinners, to stand upright belongs to the righteous."
For, as Blessed Peter Chrysologus says, Sermon 1: "With the father there is a sweet condition, a free servitude, an absolute custody, a joyful fear, a gentle punishment, a rich poverty, a secure possession." And shortly after: "He seeks this, because he who had experienced enslaved freedom with the stranger, believes that with his father there will be free servitude.
AND I WILL SAY TO HIM: FATHER, I HAVE SINNED AGAINST HEAVEN, AND BEFORE YOU. — These few words, says Titus, will be sufficient for my salvation; I know the kindness of my father, I know his readiness to pardon; he will have mercy on me repenting and returning to a sound mind, whom he did not destroy when I was wallowing in the filth of sin."
FATHER, I HAVE SINNED. — "This is the first confession," says Ambrose, "before the author of nature, the guardian of mercy, the judge of fault; but, although God knows all things, He nevertheless awaits the voice of confession, because whoever burdens himself lightens the weight of his error; and he excludes the reproach of accusation who anticipates the accuser by confessing. Moreover, you would vainly wish to conceal from Him whom you cannot deceive at all; and you may reveal without peril what you know is already so well known."
Moreover, God justly and fittingly requires confession of sin from the sinner. First, because the accused must humble himself and acknowledge his guilt, if he wishes to be absolved from it. Second, because just as a stomach full of undigested food or humors must be purged by vomiting, so also a soul full of sinful defilements must be cleansed by confession; for through it one vomits out his offenses and digests every cause of the disease, says Origen, Homily 2 on Psalm 37. Third, because the majesty of God, offended by the sinner, requires repentance as a kind of satisfaction and reparation of His honor. For repentance restores to God the honor taken away by sin and glorifies God. Finally, the penitent professes that God is most holy, and that he himself is a sinner. Fourth, the confession of the sinner is therefore a great praise and glory of God the Creator, as well as of Christ the Savior. St. Cyprian, or whoever is the author, gives the reason in his treatise On the Passion: "Because when the sinner assumes the role of judge and executioner, pursuing himself, while he honors his confession with shame, the burning of this holocaust obtains pardon in the sight of God. For God does not judge twice for the same thing."
I HAVE SINNED AGAINST HEAVEN. — That is, first, I have sinned most grievously, so that my sins cry out as if for vengeance to heaven. Or second, by a Hebraism, "against heaven," that is, against God who dwells in heaven, whom the Hebrews designate by the name "heaven" as the king and ruler of heaven, as I showed at Matthew 21:25. Third, properly "against heaven," because called by God to heaven and destined for heaven, I preferred earth to heaven, flesh to spirit, earthly things to heavenly. Which is a great injury to heaven and contempt of heavenly things, so that if heaven were endowed with reason and voice, it would cry out against me, and accuse me before God that I had preferred idols and the vices of earth to heaven and the sun. Fourth, "I have sinned against heaven," because heaven is my homeland, but earth is an inn and a place of pilgrimage: therefore I have lost, squandered, and betrayed heaven as my homeland. So Gregory of Nyssa, treatise On Prayer: "He would not have added, he says, to his confession the sin against heaven, unless he was persuaded that heaven was his homeland which he had left behind when he sinned." And St. Jerome: "He had sinned against heaven, who had abandoned the heavenly Jerusalem." Fifth, "against heaven," that is, against the angels and the other saints and inhabitants of heaven, in whom, as in heaven, God resides, says the Interlinear. So also St. Augustine, Book II of Questions on the Gospels. Sixth, St. Ambrose says "against heaven," because I squandered heavenly gifts. "By sin, says Ambrose, the heavenly gifts of the spirit bestowed on the soul are signified as diminished, and the deviation from the bosom of mother Jerusalem, which is in heaven."
Symbolically St. Chrysostom, in the Catena: "He sins against heaven, he says, who sins against the humanity of Christ, which like heaven is lofty and visible. For the sinner squanders and tramples upon the blood of Christ and as it were crucifies Him again," as the Apostle teaches, Hebrews 6:6.
AND BEFORE YOU, — first, "who alone are the beholder of all things," says St. Chrysostom, "from whom not even things meditated in the heart can be hidden." Again second, "before you," that is, with you seeing and watching. For great is the shamelessness of the sinner, that he dares to sin in the sight of the living and seeing God, whom he knows is supremely offended by sin, and is able to avenge and strike with lightning, as He will do on the day of judgment, and sometimes does in this life to the terror of others.
Third, St. Jerome, Epistle 146: "He had sinned before the Father, he says, who, having abandoned his Creator, had venerated wood (idols)."
Symbolically St. Augustine, Book II of Questions on the Gospels, Question XXXIII: "Before you," he says, that is, in the very sanctuary of conscience. For the sinner, even when sinning in secret, ought to be ashamed of himself and of his own conscience, which he defiles, wounds, kills, and delivers over to the devil and hell.
Verse 19: I Am No Longer Worthy to Be Called Your Son.
"I who preferred to be a slave of idols," says St. Jerome, and of vices. Hence he does not presume to aspire to the affection of a son, says Bede; "because I have lived unworthily of such a father," says Euthymius.
MAKE ME AS ONE OF YOUR HIRED SERVANTS. — As if to say: Since I have fallen from the rank of the firstborn, deign to receive me even in the second rank; at least do not reject me as a servant, says Euthymius. As if to say: Make me one of the lowest of the faithful, for example, of the public penitents. For formerly those who performed public penance were not mingled with the other faithful in the church, but lay at its doors on their knees as suppliants, begging the prayers and pardon of all. Such a penance was performed by St. Fabiola, as St. Jerome testifies in her Epitaph, Epistle 30: "Who would have believed, he says, that after the death of her second husband she would put on sackcloth, and publicly confess her error, and with all Rome watching, before Easter day, in the basilica of the former Lateran, who was cut down by the Caesarean sword, she would stand in the rank of penitents, while the Bishop, the Priests, and all the people wept together; that she would let down her disheveled hair, present her pallid face, her filthy hands, and submit her soiled neck? What sins would such weeping not cleanse? What ingrained stains would such lamentation not wash away?" And below: "O happy penance, which drew the eyes of God to itself, which by the confession of error changed the raging sentence of God (against the impious Ahab)!"
Moreover, "these words, says St. Augustine, Book II of Questions on the Gospels, Question XXXIII, are the words of one meditating on repentance, not yet performing it. For he does not yet speak to the Father, but promises that he will speak when he has come." Finally, just as smoke precedes the fire, so the confession of sins precedes the flame of faith and charity, says Primasius on chapter 5 of the Apocalypse. Wherefore, just as smoke by the force of fire immediately bursts into flame and is turned into flame, so confession by the force of contrition blazes up and passes into the flame of charity.
Verse 20: And Rising Up He Came to His Father. And When He Was Yet a Great Way Off, His Father Saw Him, and Was Moved with Compassion, and Running to Him, Fell Upon His Neck, and Kissed Him.
"When he was yet a great way off" from his father, before he could express in words and fulfill in deed the repentance conceived in his mind, his father anticipated him. Here note the wonderful clemency of God toward penitent sinners and the swiftness of His forgiveness. "Because God is accustomed to anticipate the repentance of men with His mercy and kindness," says Titus; and Gregory of Nyssa: "The meditation of confession, he says, had already appeased his father for him."
HE SAW HIM — ragged, filthy, wasted with hunger, weeping and wailing.
AND HE WAS MOVED WITH COMPASSION. — More expressively in Greek ἐσπλαγχνίσθη, that is, he was moved in his inmost bowels, and grieved most deeply over his son's misery as if it were his own.
RUNNING TO HIM. — "Out of exceeding joy, says Euthymius; he did not wait for him to arrive, but went to meet him first, and not in any ordinary way, but ran to meet him, so that the vehemence of his love might be manifest."
HE FELL UPON HIS NECK, AND KISSED HIM. — To fall upon the neck is to humble oneself in an embrace, says St. Augustine, in the place cited. The arm of God, that is Christ, giving a kiss, is to console with the word of grace unto the hope of forgiveness of sins. But St. Chrysostom says: He kisses the mouth, he says, through which the confession issuing from the heart of the penitent had gone forth. The embraces and kisses are signs both of pardon and reconciliation, and of singular love and benevolence, and of joy and exultation, with which God and the angels rejoice wonderfully over one sinner doing penance. For this is what Christ wishes to demonstrate here, as I have already frequently noted.
Verse 21: And the Son Said to Him: Father, I Have Sinned Against Heaven, and Before You: I Am No Longer Worthy to Be Called Your Son.
He desires to become by grace what he confesses himself unworthy of being by merit, says the Interlinear. See what was said at verse 18. Moreover, he omits here the words "make me as one of your hired servants," either because the father out of love and joy interrupted and anticipated his words, saying to the servants: "Quickly bring out the best robe;" or because the father's embrace and kiss shook this desire from him, and the hope of sonship inspired. Hence St. Augustine, Book II of Questions on the Gospels, Question XXXIII: "He does not add, he says, what he had said: Make me as one of your hired servants, for after the father's kiss he now most nobly disdains this." Titus however thinks that he did say this, but it was omitted by Luke, as sufficiently understood from what had been said.
Verses 22-23: And the Father Said to His Servants: Bring Forth Quickly the First Robe, and Put It on Him, and Put a Ring on His Hand, and Shoes on His Feet; 23. And Bring the Fatted Calf, and Kill It, and Let Us Eat and Make Merry.
The "servants" are angels or priests, says Theophylact; or preachers, as St. Augustine holds, in the place cited; for these are the servants and ministers of the reconciliation of the sinner with God.
THE FIRST ROBE, — that is, the former robe, which he used to wear before his departure in his father's house, which was a precious garment reaching to the ankles; for that a specific and former robe, and indeed an outstanding one, is indicated here, is clear from the double Greek article, τὴν στολὴν τὴν πρώτην: therefore this former robe was a full-length toga reaching to the ankles, which belonged to noble sons, which he had left behind in his father's house when he departed, assuming the garb of a traveler.
Hence in the Lives of the Fathers, Book VI, booklet 1, no. 16: A certain bishop saw in spirit two women who were sinners, but penitent, after their confession in Holy Communion being clothed in a white robe, having radiant faces and their whole body shining with a great light. He asked the reason from an angel appearing to him, and from him heard that "those women through confession and tears had merited a place in the divine number." Confession therefore enrolls penitents in the divine number of the saints of heaven.
A RING — a golden one, which is a sign of a free and wealthy man, or of a nobleman, as also are shoes; for slaves went without shoes, barefoot, but free men wore shoes.
THE FATTED CALF. — In Greek, that calf, namely the particular one which I had ordered to be fattened for some solemn feast and banquet, such as now presents itself.
Moreover all these things — the first robe, the ring, the shoes, and the fatted calf — signify first, the joy of the father, that is, the exultation of God and the angels over a penitent and converted sinner; second, that the sinner is restored by a most merciful God to the same, or even a better state than he had before his sin.
Nevertheless each item can be individually adapted thus with St. Augustine, Jerome, and Bede, so that by the "first robe" we understand, not innocence — for this, like virginity, once lost, can be repaired by no power of God — but the former grace and charity. Hence the Interlinear interprets the first robe as the garment of the Holy Spirit, which assures us of the inheritance of immortality to be received; St. Ambrose, as the garment of wisdom; St. Augustine, as the dignity which Adam lost.
By the "ring" understand the expressed image of God, which various authors place in various virtues. "The ring, says Bede, is the seal of sincere faith." "The ring, says St. Chrysostom in the Catena, is the symbol of the saving seal, and the badge of betrothal, and the pledge of marriage." "The ring, says the Gloss, is the seal of faith, by which the promises are sealed in the hearts of believers." And the Interlinear: "The ring is the seal of the likeness of Christ and the expression of truth." "The ring, says St. Augustine, is the pledge of the Holy Spirit; for the participation of grace is signified by the finger." See what I said about the symbols of the ring at Genesis 41:42; Jeremiah 22:24, and Haggai 2:24. "On his hand," that is, in his works, says the Interlinear, so that through works faith may shine, and through faith works may be confirmed; for works are done by hands.
By "shoes on his feet" is signified the readiness and running toward acts of virtue, especially toward the preaching of the Gospel. For penitents especially thirst for the repentance and salvation of others. So St. Jerome, Ambrose, Bede, and St. Augustine, Book II of Questions on the Gospels. The shoe, he says, is the haste to evangelize, so as not to touch earthly things; so that through the slippery world, says St. Chrysostom, he may walk firmly; the course of life in Scripture is called the foot. Again, "shoes" are the examples of the pious, which while showing, as it were, the step of the foot, fortify and strengthen one to imitate the same.
The "fatted calf" is Christ, both in the Eucharist feeding and nourishing the righteous as well as sinners after their repentance with His flesh; and with His holy inspirations and a thousand other ways delighting and soothing penitents and the recently converted with wonderful consolations. So the Interlinear. "Christ, he says, is the fatted calf, rich in every spiritual virtue, so as to suffice for the salvation of the whole world." And Chrysostom: "Christ is called a calf, because of the offering of His immolated body; fatted, because He suffices for the salvation of the whole world." Augustine, Book II of Questions on the Gospels: Christ, he says, is the fatted calf, that is, sated with reproaches: the father commands Him to be brought, that is, to be preached; and killed, that is, His death to be announced: for He is killed for each one when that person believes He was killed.
AND LET US EAT AND MAKE MERRY. — God, says Euthymius, "is said to eat, with reference to the communication of joy." "For there can be no delight, says St. Jerome, Epistle 146, unless the Father celebrates the feast with us." "But the food of the Father, says Bede, is our salvation." Hear St. Ambrose: "The paternal food is our salvation, and the joy of the Father is the redemption of our sins." And the Gloss: "The refreshment of God and the Saints is the salvation of sinners; and note that after the robe, the ring, and the shoes have been given, the calf is slain; for unless one has put on the hope of the first immortality, and fortified his works with the ring of faith, and preached the faith by confessing it, he cannot participate in the heavenly Sacraments."
Verse 24: Because This My Son Was Dead, and Has Come Back to Life: He Was Lost, and Is Found. And They Began to Feast.
"Dead," through the fault of prodigality and luxury; "he has come back to life," through the grace of repentance. This feast, as I said, signifies nothing other than the immense joy of God and the angels over a converted sinner. For carnal men place their joys in banquets; for they know not heavenly delights, because they have never tasted them.
Verses 25-28: Now His Elder Son Was in the Field: and When He Came and Drew Near to the House, He Heard Music and Dancing; 26. And He Called One of the Servants, and Asked What These Things Meant. 27. And He Said to Him: Your Brother Has Come, and Your Father Has Killed the Fatted Calf, Because He Has Received Him Safe. 28. And He Was Angry, and Would Not Go In. His Father Therefore Came Out, and Began to Entreat Him.
27 and 28. "This feast, says St. Jerome, Epistle 146, is celebrated daily, daily the father receives his son, always Christ is immolated for believers."
HIS FATHER THEREFORE CAME OUT, AND BEGAN TO ENTREAT HIM. — Symbolically, this notes that God through Christ and the Apostles invited and entreated the Pharisees and the Jews who were unbelieving in Christ, to enter into the Church of Christ and there enjoy the common feast and joy of the faithful; but they refused to do this out of hatred and envy, both of Christ whom they had crucified, and of the Gentiles who believed in Christ: but they will do the same thing at the end of the world when they are to be converted by Elijah. So St. Augustine. Marvel here at the goodness of God toward the Jews. "How kind, says St. Jerome, Epistle 146, and merciful is the father! He entreats his son to share in the joy of the house."
— This indignation and murmuring of the elder son, that is, of the righteous, is an emblem of the parable, to show the equity of this joy of God and the angels over a converted sinner; or what God can justly answer to those who murmur about such great grace and glory given to penitents. "For such indignation shows, says Euthymius, that He demonstrates such great grace and joy toward those who repent, that it could stir envy in others." So also Theophylact, and Titus, and St. Chrysostom in the Catena; for otherwise it is certain that the righteous do not envy penitent sinners their grace and glory, but rather rejoice and exult wonderfully in it.
Matthew shows something similar, 20:11, in the murmuring of the workers who came first to the vineyard. Or rather, this indignation and murmuring of the elder son signifies the envy and murmuring of the Pharisees, who thought themselves righteous, and murmured against Christ because He received and favored sinners. For this was the entire occasion and purpose of this parable, as is clear from the beginning of the chapter. So St. Jerome, Jansenius, and others.
In like manner is signified here the envy and murmuring of the Jews against the Apostles, who transferred the Gospel from the unbelieving Jews to the Gentiles. So St. Ambrose: The Jews, he says, envied the Gentiles the benefit of the paternal blessing. And St. Augustine, Book II of Questions on the Gospels, Question XXXIII and following: He is indignant, he says, even now, and does not wish to enter. But when the fullness of the Gentiles has entered, the father goes out, so that all Israel also may be saved. So also St. Jerome. "He is called the elder, says Ambrose, because one quickly grows old through envy." For the elder brother envied his younger brother, as is clear from what follows. Moreover, envy devours and corrodes a man, and thus causes him to age quickly. Love does the same, but for a different reason, namely because it dissipates and pours out the vital spirits. Hence the proverb: "Lovers suddenly grow old;" and, as Theocritus says: "Lovers grow old day by day."
HE HEARD MUSIC. — The Arabic has, a musical concert. That is, as St. Augustine explains in the place already often cited, he heard the Apostles, full of the Holy Spirit, preaching the Gospel with harmonious voices: he reads some of the Prophets, and seeking in them he in a way asks: Whence are these feasts celebrated in the Church, in which he does not see himself?
But St. Ambrose says: He heard, he says, the harmony of the Christian people singing together, and resounding with the sweetness of joy over the saved sinner: he stands outside, because ill-will excludes him. And the Gloss: The symphony of the Church, he says, is the harmony of diverse ages and virtues, and thence the choir, that is, the exultation and, as it were, a spiritual dance.
Tropologically: see Salmerón, volume VII, treatise.
Verse 29: But He Answering, Said to His Father: Behold, for So Many Years Do I Serve You, and I Have Never Transgressed Your Commandment, and Yet You Never Gave Me a Kid, that I Might Make Merry with My Friends.
"I serve you;" the Syriac adds, a servitude, namely the Jews served in the burdens of the law, in so many purifications, oblations, sacrifices, ceremonies, etc.
AND I HAVE NEVER TRANSGRESSED YOUR COMMANDMENT. — This response marks the lying arrogance and ingratitude of the Jews, who boasted of their works of the law and forgot the many benefits of God bestowed upon them: for they lie in saying they never transgressed God's commandment, when they transgress very many, and "as if it were not transgressing a commandment to envy a brother's salvation," says St. Jerome, Epistle 146. With similar arrogance the Pharisee justifies himself and despises the Publican, Luke 18:11. So St. Ambrose. Nevertheless it is true that the Jews did not transgress the commandment of worshiping one God, because they did not worship idols, as the Gentiles did, as St. Augustine explains, in the place cited, and the Interlinear.
AND YOU NEVER GAVE ME A KID. — This kid the Fathers explain symbolically in various ways. First, St. Jerome, Epistle 146, as if to say: No blood of a Prophet or priest freed us from the empire and yoke of the Romans; and for the prodigal son, that is, for the Gentiles, for the sinners of all creation, the glorious blood was shed. Second, Theophylact: "A kid," he says, that is, you never decreed on my account that the sinner persecuting me should be slaughtered. Third, St. Augustine, as if to say: You never gave Yourself, O Christ, to me for refreshment, because I considered You a kid, that is, a sinner, and a transgressor of the Mosaic law. Fourth, St. Ambrose: The Jew, he says, demands a kid, the Christian a lamb: therefore Barabbas is released to them, but the lamb (Christ) is immolated for us.
Verse 30: But as Soon as This Your Son Came, Who Has Devoured His Substance with Harlots, You Have Killed for Him the Fatted Calf.
(In Greek τοῦ, that is, your substance; so also the Syriac: which you, namely, gave to him.)
The Pharisees accuse God and Christ of the fault of respect of persons, that He prefers the unworthy to the worthy, namely the Gentiles and sinners to the Jews and Pharisees; but falsely: for the Gentiles and sinners through faith in Christ and repentance made themselves worthy of the Gospel and the grace of Christ; but the Pharisees through unbelief, pride, and envy made themselves unworthy of it; hence the former were chosen by Christ, the latter were rejected, Matthew 20:16.
Verse 31: But He Said to Him: Son, You Are Always with Me, and All I Have Is Yours.
The Arabic has: all things that are mine are yours; they are in your power, common to you with me. "All things" — understand the law, the Prophets, the divine oracles, says St. Jerome. Add: the true faith and worship of the one God, the true Church and all its goods, etc., for Israel possessed these, and the Gentiles before Christ lacked them.
The sense is, as if to say: You, in my house as a son, use and enjoy all my goods with me at your pleasure: therefore you ought not to envy your brother, nor take it amiss that I, from all the goods common to me and you, have killed one calf in honor of your brother returned from a distant region, especially since I have invited you also to the same feast. Hence St. Ambrose and the Interlinear add: All that is mine is yours, namely, if you cease to envy your brother. For, as St. Augustine says, in the place cited: "Cupidity holds nothing without anxiety, charity holds nothing with anxiety: when we have obtained that blessedness, all higher things will be ours for living, all equal things will be ours for sharing, all lower things will be ours for ruling." He gave the reason above, saying: "For thus all things are held by the perfect and purified, and now immortal sons, so that all things belong to each one, and everything belongs to all." For this communion of all goods and joys will be granted to the Blessed in heaven, both by the most perfect mutual love and charity, and by full beatitude and glory.
Verse 32: But It Was Fitting that We Should Make Merry and Be Glad, for This Your Brother Was Dead, and Is Come to Life Again; He Was Lost, and Is Found.
The reason is most just, as if to say: He is a son to me, a brother to you; recently overflowing with vices, and therefore condemned to death and hell. Now repentant, he is restored to God, to grace, to salvation, and to heaven: therefore we ought not to envy him and murmur, but rather I and you together with the whole household ought to feast, congratulate, and rejoice together. Now Christ leaves this parable for the Pharisees to apply to themselves. "For this, says Theophylact, is the purpose of the parable: on account of the Pharisees who murmured that He received sinners, to teach that even if we are righteous, sinners should not be repelled, nor should we murmur when God receives them." And a little above: "Therefore the Lord says through the present parable to the Pharisees, as if in this manner: Granted that you are righteous, like that son who pleased his father; I beseech you who are righteous and clean, do not murmur at the salvation of sons; for he too is a son. And so He instructs the minds of the Pharisees that, even if they themselves were righteous and had fulfilled all the commandments of God, they ought not to take it amiss that sinners are received."