Lucas 20
Ambrose of Milan · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Lucas 20:9
[(as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)] Now many derive different meanings from the name vineyard, but Esaias clearly relates the vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth to be the house of Israel. (Isa. 5.) This vineyard who else but God planted? Not that our Lord journeys from place to place, seeing that He is ever present in every place, but that He is more present to those who love Him, while He removes Himself from those who regard Him not. But He was absent for a long time, lest His coming to require His fruit might seem too early. For the more indulgent it is, it renders obstinacy the less excusable. — Catena Aurea by Aquinas
Lucas 20:9
[(as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)] The vineyard is also our type. For the husbandman is the Almighty Father, the vine is Christ, but we are the branches. (John 15:5.) Rightly are the people of Christ called a vine, either because it carries on its front the sign of the cross, or because its fruits are gathered in the latter time of the year, or because to all men, as to the equal rows of vines, poor as well as rich, servants as well as masters, there is an equal allotment in the Church without distinction of persons. And as the vine is married to the trees, so is the body to the soul. Loving this vineyard, the husbandman is wont to dig it and prune it, lest it grow too luxuriant in the shade of its foliage, and check by unfruitful boastfulness of words the ripening of its natural character. Here must be the vintage of the whole world, for here is the vineyard of the whole world. — Catena Aurea by Aquinas
Lucas 20:9
Very many derive various meanings from the word vineyard, but Isaiah clearly stated that the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel. Who else but God founded this vineyard? He leased it and set out to foreign places. The Lord, who is always everywhere, does not journey from place to place, but he is present to those who love him and absent from those who neglect him. He was absent for many seasons, fearing that the foreclosure might seem premature. The more indulgent the generosity, the more inexcusable is the stubbornness.… He thus leased to the Jews his fortified, prepared and beautified vineyard. — EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 9.23-24
Lucas 20:11-12
[(as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)] And it came to pass that He ordained many others, whom the Jews sent back to him disgraced and empty, for they could reap nothing from them; as it follows, And again he sent another servant. — Catena Aurea by Aquinas
Lucas 20:14-15
[(as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)] When then the only-begotten Son was sent to them, the unbelieving Jews, wishing to be rid of the Heir, put Him to death by crucifying Him, and rejected Him by denying Him. Christ is the Heir and the Testator likewise. The Heir, because He survives His own death; and of the testament which He Himself bequeathed, He reaps as it were the hereditary profits in our advances. — Catena Aurea by Aquinas
Lucas 20:15-16
[(as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)] He rightly puts a question to them, that they may condemn themselves by their own words, as it follows, What then will the Lord of the vineyard do to them? He says, the Lord of the vineyard will come, because in the Son is present also the Father's majesty; or because in the last times He will be more graciously present by His Spirit in the hearts of men. — Catena Aurea by Aquinas
Lucas 20:16
The vineyard prefigures us, because the people of God, founded on the root of the eternal Vine, appear above the earth, bordering the lowly ground. They now grow ripe with budding flowers. They now are clothed with dense greenery and take on a gentle yoke when they worship with mature branches as if with the twigs of the vine. The Father Almighty truly is the Vinedresser, and Christ is the Vine. We, not vine sprouts, are pruned by the sickle of the eternal cultivator if we do not bear fruit in Christ. The people of Christ then is correctly named a vineyard, either because the sign of the cross is woven on its forehead or its fruit is gathered in the last season of the year. It may also be called a vineyard because there is equal measurement in the church of God for rich and poor, humble and powerful, servants and masters. There is no difference in the church, as in all the rows of the vineyard. As the vine clings to trees, so the body is joined to the soul and the soul to the body. When the vine clings, it is raised up. When it is pruned, it is not diminished, but it increases. The people of God is stripped when it is bound, uplifted when it is humbled, crowned when it is cut back. The tender shoot cut from an old tree is grafted onto the progeny of another root. When the scars of the old shoot are cut away, the people of God likewise grow into the wood of the cross. It is as if they are cherished in the arms of a pious parent. The Holy Spirit comes as if cast down into the deep ditches of the earth and poured into this prison of the body. With the flow of saving water, the Holy Spirit washes away whatever is filthy and raises the posture of our members to heavenly discipline. — EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 9.30
Lucas 20:24
When they questioned him about the penny, he asks about the image, because there is one image of God and another image of the world. The apostle also admonishes us, "As we have borne the image of the earthly, let us bear also the image of the heavenly." Christ does not have the image of Caesar, because he is the image of God. Peter does not have the image of Caesar, because he said, "We have left all things, and have followed you." The image of Caesar is not found in James and John, because they are the Sons of Thunder. It is found in the sea, where there are dragons with crushed heads upon the water. The large dragon itself, with its head broken, is given there as food to the Ethiopian people. — EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 9.35
Lucas 20:25
If he did not have the image of Caesar, why did he pay the tax? He did not give from his own but gave back to the world what was of the world. If you would not be indebted to Caesar, do not possess what belongs to the world. You have wealth; therefore you are indebted to Caesar. If you want to owe nothing to an earthly king, leave all that you have and follow Christ. — EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 9.35
Lucas 20:25
[(as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)] Our Lord here teaches us, how cautious we ought to be in our answers to heretics or Jews; as He has said elsewhere, Be ye wise as serpents (Mat. 10:16). Be unwilling then, if thou wouldest not offend Cæsar, to possess worldly goods. And thou rightly teachest, first to render the things which be Cæsar's. For no one can be the Lord's unless he has first renounced the world. Oh most galling chain! To promise to God, and pay not. Far greater is the contract of faith than that of money. — Catena Aurea by Aquinas
Lucas 20:28
[(as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)] According to the letter of the law, a woman is compelled to marry, however unwilling, in order that a brother may raise up seed to his brother who is dead. The letter therefore killeth, but the Spirit is the master of charity. — Catena Aurea by Aquinas
Lucas 20:29-33
[(as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)] Mystically, this woman is the synagogue, which had seven husbands, as it is said to the Samaritan, Thou hadst five husbands, (John 4:18.) because the Samaritan follows only the five books of Moses, the synagogue for the most part seven. And from none of them has she received the seed of an hereditary offspring, and so can have no part with her husbands in the resurrection, because she perverts the spiritual meaning of the precept into a carnal. For not any carnal brother is pointed at, who should raise seed to his deceased brother, but that brother who from the dead people of the Jews should claim unto himself for wife the wisdom of the divine worship, and from it should raise up seed in the Apostles, who being left as it were unformed in the womb of the synagogue, have according to the election of grace been thought worthy to be preserved by the admixture of a new seed. — Catena Aurea by Aquinas
Lucas 20:41-42
[(as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)] They are not blamed here because they acknowledge Him to be David's Son, for the blind man for so doing was thought worthy to be healed. (Luke 18:42.) And the children saying, Hosanna to the Son of David, (Matt. 21:9.) rendered to God the glory of the highest praise; but they are blamed because they believe Him not to be the Son of God. Hence it is added, And David himself saith in the book of Psalms, The Lord said unto my Lord. (Ps. 110:1.) Both the Father is Lord and the Son is Lord, but there are not two Lords, but one Lord, for the Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father. He Himself sits at the right hand of the Father, for He is coequal with the Father, inferior to none; for it follows, Sit thou at my right hand. He is not honoured by sitting at the right hand, nor is He degraded by being sent. Degrees of dignity are not sought for, where is the fulness of divinity. — Catena Aurea by Aquinas
Lucas 20:41-42
Before summarizing his commandments, the Lord included the faith and mercy preceding his passion at the end of his testament. Faith is that we believe Christ is our Lord and God and sits at the right hand of God. … He rebukes those who say that Christ is the Son of David. How then did that blind man deserve healing by acknowledging the Son of David?44 How did the children, saying "Hosanna to the Son of David," give the glory of their lofty proclamation to God? Here Jesus did not rebuke them because they acknowledged the Son of David but because they do not believe him to be the Son of God. The true faith does not confess one versus the other but both. Although at the beginning we judged to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified, yet now since we are near the judgment, we already do not know Christ only crucified but also wait for him coming in the clouds. The unbeliever looks on the wounds. The faithful one is taken up and runs to meet Christ in the air. Let us therefore believe that Christ is God and man. — EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 10.1-3
Lucas 20:43-44
[(as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)] We must believe then that Christ is both God and man, and that His enemies are made subject to Him by the Father, not through the weakness of His power, but through the unity of their nature, since in the one the other works. For the Son also subjects enemies to the Father, in that He glorifies the Father upon earth. (John 17:6.) — Catena Aurea by Aquinas