Homiletics of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

WE SHOULD REFLECT MORE ON THE SIN OF WASTING TIME

However you want to understand them, since every parabolic tale is open to a plurality of interpretations, talents will remain a free gift that cannot be kept for oneself, nor does it hide, but it must be multiplied. They reveal that God, more than a master, he shows himself to be a Father towards us children and over time offers many of these graces to each of us and to our communities.

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Hermit Monk

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A gift can be offered with a thousand reasons, even non-noble ones at times. But it has an unmistakable characteristic on its side: it reveals the identity of the one who offers and the one who receives it. The Gospel of this Sunday presents a very special Donor, who does not bestow a single gift, but rather all his good. Let's read:

"During that time, Jesus told his disciples this parable: «It will happen as to a man who, going on a trip, he called his servants and gave them his goods. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, According to the capacity of each; then he left. Immediately the one who had received five talents went to use them, and earned five more. So did the one who had received two, he earned two more. The one who had received only one talent, he went and made a hole in the ground and hid his master's money there. After a long time the master of those servants returned and wanted to settle accounts with them. The one who had received five talents showed up and brought five more, saying: "Man, you gave me five talents; there, I earned five more”. "Good, good and faithful servant - his master told him -, you were faithful in little, I will give you power over much; take part in your master's joy". Then he who had received two talents came forward and said: "Man, you gave me two talents; there, I earned two more”. "Good, good and faithful servant - his master told him -, you were faithful in little, I will give you power over much; take part in your master's joy". Finally the one who had received only one talent also showed up and said: "Man, I know you are a hard man, who reap where you have not sown and gather where you have not scattered. I got scared and went to hide your talent in the ground: here is what is yours". The master answered him: «Evil and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered; you should have entrusted my money to the bankers and so, returning, I would have withdrawn mine with interest. So take away his talent, and give it to him who has the ten talents. Because anyone has, it will be given and will be in abundance; but to those who don't have, even what he has will be taken away. And throw the useless servant outside into the darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth". (Mt 25,14-30).

This Sunday's evangelical song adds a specification to the meaning of vigilance which had already been presented in the parable of the ten virgins (Mt 25,1-13). There, being vigilant meant being foresighted, to be ready, preparations, equip yourself with what you need, taking into account a long wait. Now, in the parable of the talents, vigilance is specified as attention and responsibility in everyday life and expressed as loyalty in small things ("you were faithful in a little": Mt 25,21.23).

First of all, let's remember what function the parabola has. This form of communication often involves the use of hyperbolic language, a paradoxical setting, with deliberate exaggerations that can even scandalize due to the violence involved. It affects us, who, the punishment of the wicked servant. But the ending is also surprising, as often happens in fictional parabolic tales, presents a real twist: talent is taken away from those who only have one and given to those who already have many. The question arises in the reader: what a master is he who allows himself to humiliate his servant in this way, who ultimately acted prudently?

It was said that vigilance it does not only concern the eschatological expectation but fully affects the relationship with everyday life, with its everyday realities. Matthew's parable, which has a somewhat different and more complex parallel with Luca 19,11-27, it is certainly inserted in an eschatological context - the v.30 places it on the horizon of the final judgement: «Throw the useless servant into the darkness, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth" - but this only reiterates that this final judgment is being prepared here and now, in the present day of history, something that will be shown in all its evidence in the parable of the Last Judgment (Mt 25,31-46) next Sunday. There the eschatological authority of the little ones and the poor will clearly appear. The final judgment will be based on the actions of charity and justice carried out in their favor or omitted. The everyday thus reveals itself as the eschatological place par excellence, because it is the time we are given. Thus the parable after the distribution of talents[1] in a personalized way, commensurate with the capabilities of the recipients, unfolds between the "immediately" (v.15) of those who make them profitable and the after "a long time" (v.19) of the master's return. Besides, it doesn't seem important, at least in this story, the quantity of gifts received, since the two hard-working servants, although they received talents to varying degrees, however, they will receive the same reward. Rather, what is important is the time whose duration brings out the truth of people, of their behaviors, of their estate and their responsibility. The passage of time is revealing; in fact the first two servants were able to immediately grasp that it was the first great gift they could take advantage of and did not waste it by throwing it away.

We should reflect more on the sin of wasting time. If the third servant had thought about this he would have taken advantage of it, because in the end the reward would be the same as the first two servants who had received more. But as was said above, the gift is, as well as the time spent, revealing the characters in this parable. So does the donor, even if Jesus initially hides it behind an anonymous man (v.14), it is clearly God who will in fact later be called 'Lord' (Kyrie, Lord God v.20.22.24). Only He is capable of giving all of his things as a gift [2], in a preventative and unexpected way, especially towards recipients who, however enterprising, are still servants. Some church fathers wanted to see behind the gift of talents that of the Word of God, in memory of the parable of the good seed that bears fruit according to the soil it finds. Irenaeus of Lyons, d. 202 d.C., he saw there the gift of life, granted by God to men. However you want to understand them, since every parabolic tale is open to a plurality of interpretations, talents will remain a free gift that cannot be kept for oneself, nor does it hide, but it must be multiplied. They reveal that God, more than a master, he shows himself to be a Father towards us children and over time offers many of these graces to each of us and to our communities. The ability to recognize them and make them bear fruit is the quality of fearless servants who also know how to take risks.

The point of the parable but it is not of an economic nature, that is, in the ability to derive profits from the investment of capital, because the reward, in this sense, it should have been commensurate with the merit and size of the accumulated assets. Instead, it focuses on acting instantly and not remaining inert in the time given. Taking into account that the master-Lord will return and ask for reason («he sets out the reason» translates the Vulgate) of how the servants will have acted. They will discover that in his eyes what mattered was goodness and faithfulness in action and what seemed like a lot was actually very little compared to the reward: "Good, good and faithful servant - his master told him -, you were faithful in little, I will give you power over much; take part in your master's joy".

The parable thus becomes an invitation to the disciples and for communities not to remain immobile and enchanted in the face of the difficulties of the current times, ready to act at any moment, aware of the gifts received and that this which is given to us is the propitious time. The challenges it poses and the changed cultural conditions should not frighten us or make us remain happy only with what is already done or intoxicated by activism as an end in itself. The parable asks Christians for awareness, responsibility, audacity and above all creativity, all realities condensed in words: be good and faithful.

Finally we asked ourselves first because the master, protagonist of the parable, he treated the third servant so badly. What is striking in this story is precisely the idea that the servant had of him. While the first two servants didn't need to think about this, almost as if it were automatic for them that if the owner gives you a gift it should immediately be made profitable, the other servant instead develops his own idea, we could say his theology, which blocks its action, because the idea of ​​fear dominates it. Trapped in this image he has of his master, that of a hard and pretentious man, despite having the great gift of a talent at his disposal, he is unable to trust him. And this will be his real drama.

His inaction he will be judged in a parallel way to the good and faithful, but as evil and lazy. If he had at least opened a savings account he would have received the interest income, but he preferred to bury his gift and for this reason, when there is no more time to act, at the time of judgment, it will be delivered to weeping and gnashing of teeth, a biblical expression that indicates the failure of one's life[3].

Faith that works is important in the vocabulary of the first Gospel. Jesus speaks of the faith of those who believe in him to be healed, that of the centurion (8,10), of the paralytic (9,2), of the hemorrhaging woman (9,22), of the two blind men (9,29), della Cananea (15,28), and encourages his team, never criticized for having "little faith", to have more (cf.. 6,30).

Our parable it could therefore mean something about believing or not believing in God in the intermediate time that separates from judgment. The third servant, evil, he no longer has faith, he lost it over time: he forgot that what had been entrusted to him had to be invested so that it would bear fruit for the master, but also in his favor: it has therefore become useless (v.30). That the parable deals with the gift of faith, it can also be indirectly deduced from another text of the New Testament, where St. Paul says that this gift is mysteriously personalized, just like in the parable that Jesus tells:

«For the grace that was given to me, I say to each of you: do not value yourself more than is appropriate, but evaluate yourselves wisely and justly, each according to the measure of faith that God has given him" (RM 12,3).

To conclude we could ask ourselves: What vision do we have of God? The vindictive one, demanding and harsh that instills fear or the liberating one, positive that makes us act with trust and without fear, how Jesus lived it and taught us?

From the Hermitage, 19 November 2023

NOTE

1 The talent, which also meant «that which is weighed, it was a unit of weight of approximately 30-40 kg. corresponding to six thousand denarii. Because a denarius, according to what Matthew himself explains in 20,2 (Matteo is very precise in his use of coins, and in his gospel several types are listed), it is the amount of pay for one day of work, here we mean a large sum given to the servants for management

2 In the parable of the murderous tenants He does not hesitate to also send his Son (Mt 21,37)

3 "Still, the kingdom of heaven is like a net cast into the sea, which collects all kinds of fish. When it's full, the fishermen haul it ashore, they sit down, they collect the good fish in the baskets and throw away the bad ones. So it will be at the end of the world. The angels will come and separate the evil from the good and throw them into the fiery furnace, There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth " (Mt 13,47-50).

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Homiletics of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

«YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF» ALL THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS DEPEND ON THESE TWO COMMANDMENTS

Jesus immediately went further with the surprising novelty which has no parallels in ancient Jewish literature: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”. They, going back to the will of the Legislator, discerns that love of God and neighbor are inseparable from each other: one does not exist without the other.

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In the lectionary, the discussion with the Sadducees regarding the resurrection was omitted, we arrive, with the gospel of this XXX Sunday in Ordinary Time, to a new diatribe that opens with Jesus questioned by his adversaries, ma, Once again, to test it.

"During that time, i farisei, having heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together and one of them, a doctor of the law, he questioned him to test him: «Maestro, in the Law, what is the great commandment?». She answered him: «You will love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind". This is the great and first commandment. The second one is similar to that one: "You will love your neighbor as yourself". On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets ". (Mt 22,34-40)

These are the last days of Jesus in the holy city of Jerusalem, before the arrest and passion, and he knows that the circle around him is increasingly narrowing. The Pharisees enter the scene again on our Gospel page, and among them a doctor of the law, a theologian we would say, an expert in the Holy Scriptures, who once again addresses him by calling him: Rabbi (Maestro, teacher). In fact, something like this had never been seen before, that a carpenter had taken it into his head to teach and give advice on the Torah, on how to honor God, on what is permissible and what is prohibited. This was not well received as Ben Sira attested at the beginning of the third century BC: «He who is free from toil will become wise»¹; and in the Gospels there is never mention of an exegetical school of Jesus. The surprising interpretations of the Torah, which allow him to counter the dialectical pitfalls of his adversaries, they will not be replicated by his disciples. If Jesus is called rabbi (maestro) it is because of his authority and ability to delve into Scripture creatively. However, he is not the kind of teacher who trains students, to transmit their exegetical methods to them. While in rabbinic Judaism, which will assert itself after the destruction of the second Temple in 70, the student is destined to replace e, if possible, to surpass the master in wisdom, Jesus' disciples will remain such forever, without the possibility of emulating him in the intellectual field.

It was precisely the rabbis who had identified it in the Law, tor, more than ten words (Is 20,2-17), ben 613 precepts, so the question posed to Jesus seems relevant and was about simplification: «Maestro, in the Law, what is the great commandment?». It was a debated topic as evidenced by this rabbinical response: «Rabbi Simlaj these:

«On Mount Sinai they were announced to Moses 613 commandments: 365 negative, corresponding to the number of days of the solar year, e 248 positive, corresponding to the number of organs in the human body… Then came David, who reduced these commandments to 11, as it is written [in Ps 15]… Then came Isaiah who reduced them to 6, as it is written [in Is 33,15-16]… Then came Micah who reduced them to 3, as it is written: «What does the Lord ask of you, if not to practice justice, love pity, walk humbly with your God? » (Me 6,8) … Then Isaiah came again and reduced them to 2, as it is written: «Thus says the Lord: Observe law and practice justice" (Is 56,1) … Finally Habakkuk came and reduced the commandments to just one, as it is written: «The just will live by his faith» (Ab 2,4)» (Babylonian Talmud, Makkot, 24a).

Jesus replied highlighting, Once again, his ability to refer to what is fundamental and then propose a surprising novelty, tying a second commandment to the main one, declaring them similar and making both a rope on which the entire structure of the remaining commands is balanced, indeed the entire complex of the Word of God. If they detach from it they fall to the ground. This is the meaning of the verb Creamy ― I hang ― del verso v.40, that is, being hung, suspended, penzolare; which was made with depend: «On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets».

Where Jesus found the foundation to justify the greatness of the first commandment? In prayer, in this case that of Shemà (Listen) which opened and closed the day of the religious Jew and in particular that of shabbat, Saturday:

«Listen, Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is only one. You will love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your life and with all your mind" (Dt 6,4-5). And he said: «This is the great and first commandment».

Then Jesus immediately went further with the surprising novelty that it has no parallels in ancient Jewish literature: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lv 19,18). They, going back to the will of the Legislator, discerns that love of God and neighbor are inseparable from each other: one does not exist without the other. The command to love your neighbor is, in the Gospel of Matthew, the most cited Old Testament text: it is also found in Mt 5,43 e 19,19. It means that Jesus insisted on this precept, but also that for Matthew it was particularly necessary to remind believers in Christ, when they will no longer be understood and welcomed by their own people; Unfortunately, even from their own Jewish brothers.

Not surprisingly in our text the second commandment is defined as equal - ὁμοία - to the first, with the same importance and the same weight, while the evangelist Luke even unites them in one great commandment: «You shall love the Lord your God… and your neighbor» (LC 10,27). Jesus thus makes a bold and decisive innovation, and he does it with the authority of someone who knows that you cannot love God without loving people.

Love being a human feeling it cannot be said to represent a proper of the christian, instead, faith in Jesus is, the Christ, Son of the Father who revealed himself. And at the heart of this process is the manifestation of God as love. As everyone knows, the authors of the New Testament who explored the depth of this mystery are Paul and John. Precisely the latter, in one of his letters he stated that "God is love" (1GV 4,8.16) and who "loved us first" (1GV 4,19). Saint Paul will give us the gift of the hymn to charity (1Color 13). All these words addressed in the first instance to the disciples of Jesus of all times, they are now the distinctive sign of those who believe in him, so much so that Giovanni himself affirmed it: «If one says: I love God and hate his brother, he's a liar. For whoever does not love his brother whom he sees, he cannot love God whom he does not see. And this is the commandment we have from him: who loves God, you love your brother too" (1GV 4,20-21). And this is because the reference will always be to Jesus who placed himself as a point of comparison: «From this everyone will know that you are my disciples: if you have love for each other " (GV 13,35); that is, that love that puts "the new commandment" into practice, that is, last and definitive, left to us by him: “Love one another as I have loved you” (GV 13,34; 15,12).

To return to the example of the suspended rope the Christian will always find himself walking on this subtle path, avoiding leaning too much on one side and losing the balance of the other. Love towards God and towards others remains in constant balance and both do not constitute the emblem of a season. Even now, in the Church, greater emphasis is placed on solidarity and welcoming the poor and miserable, the Christian will always be a “man for all seasons”². And according to the teaching of Jesus there will always be someone who, walking down the unsupervised slope from Jerusalem to Jericho, could run the risk of finding themselves half dead: compassionate love will be the answer (LC 10,25-37).

Saint Augustine also seems to think so:

«Enunciating the two precepts of love, the Lord does not recommend that you love your neighbor first and then love God, but he puts God first and then his neighbor. But since you still don't see God, you will deserve to see it by loving your neighbor. Therefore love your neighbor, and look within yourself at the source from which love of neighbor flows: you'll see us, as much as possible, It gave. So start by loving your neighbor. Break your bread with those who are hungry, and bring the homeless into your home; if you see a naked person, news, and do not despise those who are of your flesh. By doing so, what will happen? Then your light will burst forth like a dawn (Is 58,7-8). Your light is your God. He is the morning light for you, because it comes to you after the night of this world. He neither rises nor sets, always shines… By loving your neighbor and taking an interest in him, you will walk. What path will you take, except that which leads to the Lord God, to the one we must love with all our heart, with all my soul, with all your mind? We have not yet arrived at the Lord, but we always have our neighbor with us. Therefore bring the one with whom you walk, to reach the One with whom you wish to remain forever"³.

from the Hermitage, 29 October 2023

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NOTE

¹ [Farmers, blacksmiths, potters, and all the manual laborers who toil day and night for wages] «Without them a city cannot be built, no one could stay or move around there. But they are not sought for the council of the people in the assembly they do not have a special place, they do not sit in the judge's seat and do not know the provisions of the law. They make neither education nor law shine,
they do not appear among the authors of proverbs, but they consolidate the construction of the world,and the job they do is their prayer" (Sir 38,24. 33-34)

² Sylvester R. S., The “Man for All Seasons” Again: Robert Whittington’s Verses to Sir Thomas More, Huntington Library Quarterly, Vol. 26, no 2,1963, pp. 147-154.

³ Augustine of Hippo, Commentary on the Gospel of Saint John, Homily 17, 7-9 (see WHO)

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Homiletics of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

DALL’A wise man TO THE MURDERING PEASANTS IN THE LORD'S VINEYARD

Our ancestors sapiens when they began to domesticate those animal species and those few seeds that we still find on our table, they could not imagine the particular bond that would be created between man and the cultivation of vines. A relationship that smells of alliance and therefore of passion, of care and even love. I remember the farmers I met, when they wanted to express the effort of their specific job they said: «The land is low!». Because not only do you have to lean towards it, but also to support it and work on it with great effort.

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Historians of evolution they say that the transition to agriculture for our species began in a period ranging from 9500 all’8500 a.C. in a hilly region located between south-eastern Turkey, western Iran and the Near East. It started slowly and in a rather limited geographical area. Wheat and goats were domesticated approximately around 9000 a.C.; peas and lentils around 8000 BC.; the olive trees in 5000 a.C.; the horses in the 4000 a.C.; and the screw in the 3500 a.C. It is precisely about the soil that will take the name of vineyard from the vine that Jesus will speak in the Gospel passage about it twenty-seventh Sunday of ordinary time.

"During that time, Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: Listen to another parable: there was a man, who owned land and planted a vineyard there. He surrounded it with a hedge, he dug a hole for the wine press and built a tower. He rented it to some farmers and went far away. When the time came to reap the fruits, he sent his servants to the farmers to collect the harvest. But the farmers took the servants and beat one of them, they killed another, they stoned another. He sent more servants again, more numerous than the former, but they treated them equally. Finally he sent his son to them saying: «They will have respect for my son!». But the farmers, saw his son, they said to each other: «This is the heir. His, Let's kill him and we will have his inheritance!». They took him, they chased him out of the vineyard and killed him. So when will the owner of the vineyard come?, what will he do to those farmers?». They answered: «Those wicked people, he will make them die miserably and will rent the vineyard to other farmers, who will deliver the fruits to him in due time". And Jesus said to them,: «You have never read in the Scriptures: «The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was done by the Lord and it is a marvel in our eyes"? Therefore I tell you: the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce its fruits" (Mt 21,33-43).

Our ancestors sapiens when they began to domesticate those animal species and those few seeds that we still find on our table, they could not imagine the particular bond that would be created between man and the cultivation of vines. A relationship that smells of alliance and therefore of passion, of care and even love. I remember the farmers I met, when they wanted to express the effort of their specific job they said: «The land is low!». Because not only do you have to lean towards it, but also to support it and work on it with great effort. However, when they started talking about the vineyard and the wine they had tapped, the conversation changed, the memory of the effort and dedication disappeared: they appeared repaid, they became proud of the fruit obtained from the vine and therefore jealous of their vineyard. It is possible that this primordial experience inspired the biblical authors, especially the prophets, when they sang on several occasions the special bond between the farmer and the vineyard as an allegory of the alliance between God and his people Israel. The undoubtedly most famous passage is the one reported in this Sunday's first reading taken from the prophet Isaiah:

«I want to sing for my beloved my song of love for his vineyard. My beloved owned a vineyard on a fertile hill. He had dug it up and cleared it of stones and had planted valuable vines there; in the middle he had built a tower and also dug a vat. He waited for it to produce grapes; it produced, instead, unripe grapes. And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, be you judges between me and my vineyard. What else should I have done to my vineyard that I haven't done??» (Is 5,1-4).

So when Jesus began to tell the listeners instantly understood what he was talking about, unlike us who have lost that immediacy and need many explanations. In fact, the understanding of the parable called "of the murderous winegrowers" represented a significant moment in the history of Christian exegesis. There was a time, not very far from ours, in which it was thought that the verse «Therefore I say to you: the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce its fruits" constituted a real punishment for Israel and an attack by Jesus on Judaism, so that the Church was not to be considered as a new Israel that replaced the old, but the real one¹, as God had intended from the beginning. But throughout the Gospel of Matthew this attack is not evident and so that interpretation is today considered obsolete. As well as the idea descending from the previous one that Israel as a people had been rejected by God. Certainly Jesus was speaking in the temple addressing the elders and chief priests and his words reported the heavy punishment caused by the refusal of the emissaries of the owner of the vineyard. They were those envoys who will be spoken of in Mt 23,34: «So here, I send prophets to you, wise men and scribes: of these, some you will kill and crucify, others you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute them from city to city.". Above all, Jesus announced the killing of his son. But he was addressing the leader religious, what he will call blind guides (cf.. Mt 23,16) and since the parable is now present in the Gospel those words will always be valid for the Church and its leaders. In particular the vineyard which is the holy Israel of God, the chosen people, it will not be burned or devastated like the city spoken of in the following parable (Mt 22,7) but rather it is there ready to bear good fruit; solo, the current winemakers will not be the ones to pick them: the vineyard, the people of the alliance, will be entrusted to other farmers. Therefore all the parables of Jesus and this one in particular must be considered as open works. Enclose them within a single interpretation, as a Procrustean bed, it would do them an injustice because the value lies in the concern that they will continue to arouse, combined with the questions that will press the faith of the disciples and their following, so that they are continually encouraged.

Jesus began the story by saying that there was a man, an owner – the term oikodespotes (host) it can also mean a family man, in fact the Vulgate translated: The man was the father of the family - who planted a vineyard and equipped it with everything necessary, then he entrusted it to some winemakers and left. The verb apodemeo (I'm emigrating from which resigned the v.33) indicates someone who goes outside the homeland, all’estero, moving away from your home. This man left taking with him the thought and memory of the vineyard, so when the time came for the fruits he sent servants to ask for them, but they were brutally treated by the foster carers. Evidently they were convinced in their hearts that the owner, having left, had also forgotten about the vineyard and that it was now theirs., so they grabbed it, replacing the real owner. But ultimately he only claimed the fruits, he wasn't claiming ownership. With a patience that would seem incredible if it were not ascribed to God, he again sent servants in greater numbers and these too suffered the same fate as the previous ones.. The readers of the Gospel who at this point will already feel the anger at the abuse building, hoping to see the re-establishment of justice even with the use of force, they will find themselves unprepared and shocked to read that the father is about to jeopardize the life of his own son. But the owner of the vineyard, we know it by now, he is an extraordinary father, as this Sunday's collection prayer will say: He adds "what prayer does not dare to hope for". So he did not send any more emissaries as representatives, but he sent his son directly, moved by an intimate hope: «They will have respect for my son!».

We know how things ended, it is useless to repeat it. The detail of the murder committed outside the vineyard remained engraved in the memory of the authors of the New Testament and so they mentioned it when it came to recounting the death of Jesus (cf.. MC 15,20; Mt 27,31, EB 13,12) or Stefano's (cf.. At 7,58). The son expelled from the vineyard was the tangible sign of the rejection of divine will and of the substitution that those farmers wanted to pursue: «This is the heir. His, Let's kill him and we will have his inheritance!».

The next words of Jesus introduced by the question about the fate of those murderous winemakers will take all the attention and, as we reported above, also that of future exegesis, passing over in silence a not insignificant detail that Jesus had mentioned and which could instead represent the heart of the parable, what illuminates it and gives it meaning, even more so than the very elimination and replacement of evil tenants. This detail refers to the thought of the owner of the vineyard who expected respect towards his sent son. The verb warehouse, I allow the v. 37 in the active form it means to change, to change, return to one's senses and into the passive one, as it is in the Gospel: be moved, bring respect, hesitate. The Vulgate chose to fear and reported: “They will fear my son“. In whatever way you want to translate that explicit desire, it is clear that the owner of the vineyard did not expect the violent death of his son. That was his dream, God's dream. In the Gospel of Matthew already Joseph and then the Magi (cf.. Mt 1,20; 2,12-13) by listening to a dream they were able to save Jesus. They had thus accomplished God's will. What would have happened if Pilate had listened to his wife's dream (cf.. Mt 27,19) narrated in the tale of the passion: he would have spared Jesus from condemnation? That phrase from the parable, apparently innocent, it undermines some easy and inappropriate theologies of redemption. In it we read not only the hope that Israel will convert, but also that the son is spared.

Of course without forgetting that three times Jesus will show that he ascends voluntarily, freely and knowingly in Jerusalem (cf.. Mt 16,21-23), where he would have met the death that he would accept even more decisively in Gethsemane: "Thy will be done" (Mt 26,42). Matthew even reread his delivery in the light of the Scriptures: «All this happened so that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled» (Mt 26,56). However, one could not think so, always in the logic of Matthew's story, that the initial project was not this, but rather what Jesus himself will talk about - in truth after all three announcements of the passion - hinting at a palingenesis (cf.. Mt 19,28² e 25,31-46); that he would have liked to advance by restoring the Israel of God? However, when the plan began to deteriorate, then Jesus, like the son in the parable, he will show that he loves his vineyard so much to the point of dying for it. St. Ambrose's comment comes to mind: «Hi, vineyard worthy of such a great guardian: not the blood of Naboth alone but that of countless prophets has consecrated you, and indeed that, all the more precious, poured out by the Lord"³. The parable, so, who insisted on the master's mercy, he also let his son's free offer emerge in the background.

This parable certainly resonates as a judgment from God, but not on the people of Israel, but on those leaders of the people who rejected and condemned Jesus. Matteo, indeed, will record their reaction immediately afterwards; they tried to capture him but were afraid of the crowd and therefore postponed their plan for a few days, waiting for a more favorable situation (in the night and in Gethsemane, where there will be no crowd of his followers; cf.. Mt 26,47-56). In fact, they had understood that that parable identified them as the murderous winemakers. But the parable says that this will also be the judgment on the Church, especially on his bosses. The vineyard was taken away from those leaders of Israel and given a new human community (ethnos, without article of v.43): the community of the poor in spirit, of the myths that, according to the promise of the Lord, they will inherit the earth (cf. Mt 5,5; Shall 37,11), to that humble and poor people constituted heirs forever by the Lord (cf. Sof 3,12-13; Is 60,21; Gives 30,3).

It is very important on a theological level understand that the function of the Matthean form of the parable is not to exalt Christianity over Judaism, but rather to leave open the response to the renewed offer of reconciliation made by the raised Christ. In a sense, the Church finds itself in a similar position to that of Israel. In another sense, however, she has already experienced the miraculous intervention of God. The discarded stone now constitutes the corner header. It will be this generation of Christians who welcome the kingdom of God and produce fruits of justice, or it will be taken away from her to be entrusted to another? The aforementioned Ambrose of Milan saw that the danger of incurring punishment is for everyone, also for Christians: «The vinedresser is without any doubt the almighty Father, the vine is Christ, and we are the branches: but if we do not bear fruit in Christ we are cut off by the sickle of the eternal cultivator"⁴. Said this, it is clear that the parable is Christological and theological. The son of the owner of the vineyard is characterized with those attributes, like the idea of ​​inheritance, which are typical of Jesus' language when he wanted to talk about himself and his relationship with his father; his death outside the city walls will obviously remember the end of the Messiah. But the parable also says a lot about the Father: his judgement, strangely, late in arriving; God is even represented as far too patient. Any listener of the story, in the time of Jesus, he would have been struck by what might appear to be a weakness of character. That God, however, knows how to wait and continues to hope for a change in his winemakers who might even "respect his son" (cf.. Mt 21,37). Unlike what we do, God does not allow himself to be demoralized by a rejection, he persists in his proposal of salvation, He never wants the death of the sinner, but that he converts and lives.

I would like to conclude by remembering that the significance of this parable was grasped in a particular way by Benedict XVI, in a moment that we imagine was full of emotion and great fear for him. From the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica on the evening of his election he spoke thus of himself:

«They elected me, a simple and humble worker in the Lord's vineyard. I am consoled by the fact that the Lord knows how to work and act even with insufficient tools and above all I entrust myself to your prayers"⁵.

Happy Sunday everyone.

from the Hermitage, 8 October 2023

¹ Trilling W., The real Israel. Studies on the theology of the Gospel of Matthew, Piemme, 1992

² "And Jesus said to them,: “«Truly I say to you: you who followed me, when the Son of man sits on the throne of his glory, to the regeneration of the world, you will also sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.".

³ Sant'Ambrogio, Exposition of the Gospel according to Luke, New City 1978.

⁴ Sant'Ambrogio, on. cit.

⁵ See: https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/it/speeches/2005/april/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20050419_first-speech.html

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Homiletics of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

THAT COMMUNIST PROLETARIAN SPIRIT OF THE OWNER OF THE LORD'S VINEYARD

This Sunday's Gospel will please the communists, at least to the hard and pure if there are still any. Those of everyone working but working less. If anything, the problems will eventually arise when it is discovered that the pay will be the same for everyone. The parable will give others a stomach ache, the behavior of the owner of the vineyard will appear so senseless and unjust.

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Hermit Monk

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The Gospel this Sunday Communists will like it, at least to the hard and pure if there are still any. Those of everyone working but working less. If anything, the problems will eventually arise when it is discovered that the pay will be the same for everyone. The parable will give others a stomach ache, the behavior of the owner of the vineyard will appear so senseless and unjust. Aside from these cheap jokes of mine, what does Jesus say? Let's read it.

"During that time, Jesus told his disciples this parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a householder who went out at dawn to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed with them for a denarius a day and sent them into his vineyard. He then left around nine in the morning, he saw others standing in the square, unemployed, and told them: “Go into the vineyard too; I will give you what is right". And they went. He went out again around noon and around three, and he did the same. Went out again around five, he saw others standing there and said to them: “Why do you sit here all day doing nothing?”. They answered: “Because no one hired us”. And he said to them: “You too go into the vineyard”. When it was evening, the owner of the vineyard said to his farmer: “Call the workers and give them their wages, starting from the last to the first". The five in the afternoon ones came, they each received a denarius. When the first ones arrived, they thought they would receive more. But they also each received a denarius. When picking it up, But, they murmured against the master saying: “The latter only worked for an hour and you treated them like us, that we have borne the weight of the day and the heat". But the master, replying to one of them, he said: “Amico, I don't do you wrong. Have you not agreed with me for a denarius?? Take yours and go. But I also want to give to the latter as much as to you: I can't do what I want with my things? Or you're jealous because I'm good? So the last will be first and the first, last”» (Mt 20,1-16).

First of all it must be said that this story is parabolic It's Matteo's own, that is, it is not found in the other Gospels. It seems to have been used by the Evangelist to detach himself for a moment from Mark's plot and make it become an explanation of what he was writing in this section of his work. It should also be noted that the parable has had a varied interpretative history. From those who have read the history of salvation and election from the beginning of biblical events (Adamo, Abraham, Moses) up to Jesus to those who have grasped an allegory of human and Christian life so that even those who will be called to the end of their lives will be able to save themselves, no more and no less than those who responded promptly from a young age. Modern exegesis has seen in it a metaphor for the justification of Jesus' behavior in the face of his detractors who accused him of preferring or colluding with sinners and the excluded who thus became the first in the Kingdom of heaven. However, there is another hermeneutic that can be followed on the basis of what has been mentioned, namely that Matthew wanted to respond with this parable to some dynamics that had already arisen in the primitive group of Jesus' followers and which would have recurred in the Christian communities to which the Gospel will be addressed.

It is no coincidence that the evangelical passage above begins, in the Greek text, with the preposition gar – gar, which means 'in fact'¹, as if to say that now we will explain what had previously been reported. What immediately precedes is the phrase that we will find almost identical at the end of this Sunday's passage: “Many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first” (Mt 19,30). This expression of Jesus was in turn linked to a question from Peter: "There, we left everything and followed you; what then will we have??», to which Jesus replied that he would receive along with the power to judge, also a hundredfold and eternal life, but always taking into account the possible interchangeability between the first and the last. Shortly before he had also stated: «This is impossible for men, but with God everything is possible".

We therefore have a background to this Sunday's passage which corresponds to the request for reward on Peter's lips. Now, like in films that recreate a saga, in addition to prequel we also have a sequel. Because later (Mt 20,17-19), immediately after the parable, Jesus will announce his passion for the third time, Death and Resurrection. Faced with such a solemn announcement, much to the reader's dismay, Matteo will report back soon (vv. 20-24) that two brother disciples, sons of Zebedee, they will make this request to Jesus through the mouth of their mother: «Say that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom»; provoking an indignant reaction from the rest of the group. If before then we had with Peter a request for reward, here we have a claim of merit with which the first places were claimed. We note that making these requests, except Andrea, Pietro's brother, they are the very first disciples called by Jesus (Mt 4,18-22)! We understand why Matteo, breaking away from Marco, wanted to add something from one of his sources. Perhaps the measure was full or perhaps he was aware of the pre-emption rights, careerism or profit and privileges will be temptations that will always attack the disciples of Jesus in the Church and forever, which means even today. The parable will then be Jesus' response to these exquisitely human logics and a reminder of the foundation on which everything is possible, which does no wrong because it is good and an invitation to the community to draw from it the consequences of authentic Christian life.

The parabolic tale proceeds with the scanning of some hours of the day starting from the first light of dawn, until the evening around the eleventh hour, seven in the afternoon, when there is only one hour left to get off work. The owner of a vineyard who needed workers went out very early for the first time and made an agreement with some workers for a penny a day. Then he showed up again at nine, the third hour, and he called others, telling them that he would give them what was right. At this point, the reader's perception and expectation come into play and he will begin to fantasize about how much this fair amount will amount to.. It will be, as it is reasonable to imagine, commensurate with the actual hours of work? But the owner of the vineyard is very strange because he will go out again at midday and then at three, surprised to find idle workers he will call them too. In the end, one hour before the end of the working day, at five in the afternoon, when it was now useless - who calls workers to work for just one hour? — will come out again and say: «Because you sit here all day doing nothing?». They replied: «Because no one hired us». And he said to them: «You too go into the vineyard». It is clear that Jesus is not talking about a naive or crazy entrepreneur, but of God who in his great freedom calls anyone at any time without paying attention to work needs or compensation, but driven by the sole desire that people be part of this work. His will is that everyone has the opportunity to stay and work in his allegory vineyard of the people of God, beloved plantation, as attested more than once in the Bible: «I want to sing for my beloved my song of love for his vineyard. My beloved owned a vineyard on a fertile hill" (Is 5,1); «On that day the vineyard will be delicious: sing it! the, the Sir, I am its guardian, I water it every moment; for fear of damaging it, I take care of it night and day" (Is 27, 2-3); «My vineyard, exactly mine, is in front of me" (Cantico 8,12a).

The second part of the parable it will take place almost at sunset as foreseen by the law in Deuteronomy: «You will give the worker his wages on the same day, before the sun goes down" (Dt 24,15). The release of wages according to the order given by the owner took place starting from the last workers called, a reference perhaps to that "the last will be first" (Mt 19,30) of the end of the chapter preceding ours. The expectation that, we had said above, took the reader will now involve the 'first' workers themselves since seeing a money delivered to the last arrivals they will expect to receive more than agreed upon. However, when they finally get their due, they will realize that it will be the same one that was given to the workers called last and this is where the resentment and grumbling will begin.: «The latter only worked for an hour and you treated them like us, that we bore the weight of the day and the heat" (v.12). In the resentful words of the workers called since dawn who could be the disciples of Jesus mentioned above, but also anyone in the Church who feels deserving of some privilege, you feel all the annoyance at what the master has just done. Indeed they say: we are not equal to them, “you lie”You have made them equal to us» — as the Vulgate translates v 12, in Greek You have done the same as us — which is more scathing than 'you treated them like us'; this equality is intolerable.

The response of the owner of the vineyard to the person who appears to be some sort of union representative he will first reiterate that he has been respectful of the contract, since they had been agreed upon a denarius a day and therefore there was no injustice in him, but he also added that what had moved him was a goodness that aimed directly at the good of people without paying attention to calculations of time or money: «Amico, I don't do you wrong. Have you not agreed with me for a denarius?? Take yours and go. But I also want to give to the latter as much as to you: I can't do what I want with my things? Or you're jealous because I'm good?» (v.15). The master's action, behind which, in the eyes of Jesus, lies that of God, appeared unjust to the workers at the first hour, not conforming to the worldly norm, scandalous, even the reader perceived it that way, annoying and unsettling. The evangelist Matthew, in the words of the owner of the vineyard, defines the disgruntled and envious worker as someone who has a bad eye, wicked’, as opposed to those who act because they are good. The expression "you are envious" is the translation of the Greek: Your eye is evil (Or ophthalmos your putting this – thine eye is wicked). The organ of vision of these workers, perhaps tired from working hours — pride (pain) in Greek it is fatigue, work — he had lost sight of God's goodness towards everyone. He will affirm: I am good (I took the actions of him, I am good).

The climax of the parable it will be precisely in this revelation: "I am good". And since in Mt 19,17 ², a few verses earlier, it was said that "only one is good", in reference to God, the theological allusion of our parable is evident. Here emerges the essence of this metaphor which glimpses the escape from the iron logic of correspondence between work and pay, performance and remuneration, and allows us to glimpse a world marked by liberality and generosity, by relationships regulated not only by law, but also by being free; not only by the rigor of what is due, but also from the unexpected gratuitousness. In which merit is not the element that must decide the hierarchy of people, but the goodness of God.

I would conclude with two quotes. The first is a very well-known short phrase, taken from a text that had a great influence, Letter to a teacher at the Barbiana School³: “There is nothing as unjust as giving equal shares to unequals”. I choose this sentence that eight boys from Barbiana wrote under the supervision of the prior Don Milani because apparently it seems to go against the teaching of the parable. In my opinion it is the mirror of it because it was precisely the background evangelical, together with the ability to read the society and culture of the time, who guided those kids towards a new concept of merit and judgment within the educational institution. Thanks to the Gospel, for the first time the last were seen and no longer despised or downgraded. If there had not been the Gospel Don Lorenzo would never have gone house to house to remove the boys from the stables to take them to his school.

I chose the other quote for its ecclesial scope and for the sense of joy and faith that pervades it. It is by Pseudo-John Chrysostom:

«Who has worked from the first hour, receive the right salary today; who came after the third, give thanks and celebrate; who arrived after the sixth, don't hesitate: will not suffer any damage; who was late until the ninth, come without hesitation; who has only reached the eleventh, Don't worry about your delay. The Lord is generous, welcomes the last as the first, grant rest to those who have reached the eleventh hour as well as to those who have worked since the first. Show mercy to the last as well as to the first, grant rest to those who have reached the eleventh hour as to those who have worked since the first."⁴.

from the Hermitage, 24 September 2023

NOTE

¹ «So is the kingdom of heaven – For the kingdom of heaven is like it." (Mt21,1)

² "And here, a man approached him and told him: «Maestro, what good must I do to have eternal life? ». She answered him: «Why do you question me about what is good? There is only one good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments ".
³ The Barbiana school, Letter to a teacher, Florentine publishing bookshop, 1990

⁴ Pseudo John Chrysostom, With death he defeated death. Homily on Easter, LEV, 2019

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Homiletic of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

FORGIVING IS NOT GOODNESS BUT A SIGN OF CHARITY AND DIVINE JUSTICE

«I forgive him for exploiting me, ruined, humiliated. I forgive him everything, because I loved". With these words Eleonora Duse called "the muse", summarizes his tormented relationship with Gabriele D'Annunzio, his only love of life, from a secular and humanistic point of view.

Author:
Gabriele Giordano M. Scardocci, o.p.

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Dear Readers of the Island of Patmos,

one of the most difficult teachings of Jesus to accept is that on forgiveness. When we are wronged, indeed, we more easily remember the person who committed it, generating a division and a total detachment between us and her. It's a totally natural feeling of revenge. This is why Jesus asks us to go further. And there are those who make this teaching of Jesus their own. For example:

«I forgive him for exploiting me, ruined, humiliated. I forgive him everything, because I loved".

With these words Eleonora Duse called "the muse", summarizes his tormented relationship with Gabriele D'Annunzio, his only love of life, from a secular point of view and humanistic.

Forgiveness is one of the main cores of Christianity, as we saw on summer Sundays; the Lord often decides to offer parables to convey important concepts. The parable of the evil servant explains in narrative form a beautiful theme of Jesus' message. We find the summary at the beginning of the article evangelical song of today.

«Jesus answered Peter: “I don't tell you until seven times, but up to seventy times seven"".

The number seven evoked by Jesus and led to its maximization (seventy times seven) it is not a random number for the Jewish mentality in which Jesus lived. In fact, it represents fullness, the seventh day on which God rested, the seven ritual sprinklings with blood (Lv 4,6-17; 8,11; Nm 19,4; 2Re 5,10); the immolation of seven animals (Nm 28,11; This 45,23; Gb 42,8; 2Color 29,21), the seven angels (Tb 12,15); the seven eyes on the stone (Zc 3,9). But Jesus especially mentions seven and seventy in reference to the prophet Daniel (Dn 9,2-24), in which seventy weeks are mentioned. Simplifying we can say that according to the prophet these seventy weeks will end on the day of salvation, because in its own way, seventy times seven, it is an infinite number. So here is Jesus, in summary, affirms the presence of the fullness of the Lord's salvation, through the forgiveness that He, the God-man, gives to men.

The parable of the wicked servant narrates a situation of injustice: the same servant who was forgiven a huge debt - practically impossible to cover in a lifetime by the standards of the time - does not offer the same forgiveness for a smaller debt, before which the master becomes severe in the face of a lack of love and justice towards his neighbor. The center of the dynamic of forgiveness is contained in this: learn to offer an act of love to another sinner. Just like we are forgiven and ask God for forgiveness, in the confessional and when we recite the Our father.

Forgiving is the extreme act of love and the most difficult: because it frees the sinner from the anger and sadness that we can bring him following a sin suffered, freeing ourselves from the memory of those wrongs. And that's why it's hard to forgive: it is a spiritual and existential journey that requires time at the same time, patience, prayer and above all the grace of the Lord. Grace, indeed, it helps us imitate Jesus who forgives his tormentors while on the cross.

We ask for the Lord's help to learn to be sinners who ask for and grant forgiveness, we ask for the seven gifts of the Spirit, because in welcoming others we can see the very meaning of the love of charity and love until the end.

Amen!

Santa Maria Novella in Florence, 16 September 2023

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