Lectio Divina – Quotes related to the 25th Sunday

This week we resume our Lectio Divina series. Each week we post lectio divina aids in the form of quotes from the Church Fathers and other notable authors in relation to the Sunday Gospel. This week there quotes are in relation to the 25th Sunday in Ordinary time (year A).

Catena Aurea, Mt 20:1-16, Sunday 25A

Pope St. Gregory the Great (540-614), Hom. in Evang., xix, 1: The morning is that age of the world which was from Adam and Noah, . . . The third hour is the period from Noah to Abraham; . . . The sixth hour is that from Abraham to Moses, the ninth that from Moses to the coming of the Lord. . . .

The Master of the household, that is, our Maker, has a vineyard, that is, the Church universal, which has borne so many stocks, as many saints as it has put forth from Abel the Just to the very last saint who shall be born in the end of the world. To instruct this His people as for the dressing of a vineyard, the Lord has never ceased to send out His labourers; first by the Patriarchs, next by the teachers of the Law, then by the Prophets, and at the last by the Apostles, He has toiled in the cultivation of His vineyard; though every man, in whatsoever measure or degree he has joined good action with right faith, has been a labourer in the vineyard.

Origen (182-253/4): For the whole of this present life may be called one day, long to us, short compared to the existence of God.

Remigius of Auxerre (841-908): A denarius was a coin anciently equal to ten sesterces, and bearing the king’s image. Well therefore does the denarius represent the reward of the keeping of the Ten Commandments. And that, “Having agreed with them for a denarius a day,” is well said, to show that every man labours in the field of the holy Church in hope of the future reward.

St. Jerome (340/2-420): A denarius bears the figure of the king. You have therefore received the reward which I promised you, that is, my image and likeness; what do you desire more?

St. Augustine (354-430): Because that life eternal shall be equal to all the saints, a denarius is given to all; but forasmuch as in that life eternal the light of merits shall shine diversely, there are with the Father many mansions (Jn 14:2); so that under this same denarius bestowed unequally one shall not live longer than another, but in the many mansions one shall shine with more splendour than another.

St. John Chrysostom (c. 347-407): That He called not all of them at once, but some in the morning, some at the third hour, and so forth, proceeded from the difference of their minds. He then called them when they would obey; as He also called the thief when he would obey. Whereas they say, “Because no man has hired us,” we ought not to force a sense out of every particular in a parable. Further, it is the labourers and not the Lord who speak thus; for that He, as far as it pertains to Him, calls all men from their earliest years, is shown in this, “He went out early in the morning to hire labourers.”