HOMILY 19. Delivered to the people in the basilica of the blessed martyr Lawrence, on Septuagesima Sunday.
READING FROM THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. At that time, Jesus told his disciples this parable: The kingdom of heaven is like a man, a householder, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. And having made an agreement with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and he said to them: Go also into my vineyard, and whatever is just, I will give you. And they went. And again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. But about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing, and he said to them: Why do you stand here idle all day? They said to him: Because no one has hired us. He said to them: Go also into my vineyard. And when evening had come, the lord of the vineyard said to his steward: Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning from the last even to the first. When therefore those who had come about the eleventh hour came, they received each a denarius. And when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more. But they also received each a denarius. And upon receiving it, they murmured against the householder, saying: These last worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who have borne the burden of the day and the heat? But he, answering one of them, said: Friend, I do you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go. But I wish to give to this last one even as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish? Or is your eye evil because I am good? So shall the last be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few are chosen.
In its explanation, the reading of the holy Gospel demands much to be said, which I wish, if I can, to cover briefly, lest both an extended procession and a lengthy exposition seem to burden you. The kingdom of heaven is said to be like a householder who hires workers to cultivate his vineyard. But who more fittingly holds the likeness of a householder than our Creator, who rules those whom he created, and possesses his elect in this world just as a master possesses his subjects in a house? He has a vineyard, namely the universal Church, which, from righteous Abel to the last elect who will be born at the end of the world, has sent forth as many branches as it has produced saints. This householder, therefore, hires workers to cultivate his vineyard at dawn, the third hour, the sixth, the ninth, and the eleventh, because from the beginning of this world until its end he has not ceased to gather preachers to instruct the faithful people. For the morning of the world was from Adam to Noah, the third hour from Noah to Abraham, the sixth from Abraham to Moses, the ninth from Moses to the coming of the Lord, and the eleventh from the coming of the Lord to the end of the world. In this last hour the holy apostles were sent as preachers, who received their full wage though they came late. Therefore the Lord has never ceased to send workers to instruct his people, as if to cultivate his vineyard, because both earlier through the patriarchs, and afterward through the teachers of the law and the prophets, and finally through the apostles, while he cultivated the character of his people, he labored, as it were, through workers in the cultivation of the vineyard. Although, in whatever measure or degree, whoever lived with right faith and good action was a worker of this vineyard. The worker at dawn, the third, sixth, and ninth hour designates that ancient Hebrew people, who among their elect from the very beginning of the world, while they strove to worship God with right faith, did not cease, as it were, to labor in the cultivation of the vineyard. But at the eleventh hour the Gentiles are called, to whom it is also said: Why do you stand here idle all day? For those who, after so long a time of the world had passed, had neglected to labor for their life, stood idle, as it were, all day. But consider, brothers, what they answer when questioned: For they say: Because no one has hired us. Indeed, no patriarch, no prophet had come to them. And what does it mean to say: No one has hired us for labor, except: No one has preached to us the ways of life? What then shall we, who cease from good work, say in our excuse, we who came to the faith almost from our mother's womb, who heard the words of life from the very cradle, who from the breasts of holy Church have drunk the draught of heavenly preaching along with the milk of the flesh?
We can indeed also distinguish these same diversities of hours according to the stages of ages for each individual person. For the morning of our understanding is childhood. The third hour can be understood as adolescence, because the sun, as it were, advances higher as the heat of age increases. The sixth hour is youth, because the sun is fixed as if at its center, while in that age the fullness of strength is established. The ninth hour is understood as old age, in which the sun descends as if from its high axis, because that age declines from the heat of youth. The eleventh hour is that age which is called decrepit or advanced. Hence the Greeks call the very elderly not γέροντας but πρεσβυτέρους, to indicate that those whom they call more advanced are more than old. Therefore, since one person is led to a good life in childhood, another in adolescence, another in youth, another in old age, another in decrepit age, workers are called to the vineyard at different hours, as it were. Examine your ways, therefore, dearest brothers, and see if you are already workers of God. Let each one weigh what he does, and consider whether he labors in the Lord's vineyard. For he who in this life seeks his own things has not yet come to the Lord's vineyard. For they labor for the Lord who think not of their own things but of the Lord's gains, who serve with zeal of charity, with eagerness of piety, who are watchful for gaining souls, who hasten to lead others along with themselves to life. For he who lives for himself, who feeds on the pleasures of his flesh, is rightly reproached as idle, because he does not pursue the fruit of divine work. 3. He who has neglected to live for God even until the last age has stood idle until the eleventh hour, as it were. Hence it is rightly said to those who are sluggish until the eleventh hour: Why do you stand here idle all day? As if it were openly said: If you did not wish to live for God in childhood and youth, at least come to your senses in the last age, and come to the ways of life, even if late, when you will not have much labor ahead. And such ones, therefore, the householder calls, and often they are rewarded first, because they depart from the body to the kingdom before those who seemed to have been called from childhood. Did not the thief come at the eleventh hour, who, even if he did not have time through age, yet had it late through punishment, who confessed God on the cross, and breathed out the spirit of life almost with the voice of his sentence? The householder began to give the denarius from the last, because he led the thief to the rest of paradise before Peter. How many fathers were there before the law, how many under the law, and yet those who were called at the Lord's coming arrived at the kingdom of heaven without any delay. Therefore those who labored until the eleventh hour receive the same denarius that those who labored from the first hour awaited with all their desire, because those who came to the Lord at the end of the world obtained an equal reward of eternal life with those who had been called from the beginning of the world. Hence those who had preceded in labor also say, murmuring: These last worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the heat? For those have borne the burden of the day and the heat whom it befell from the beginning of the world, because they happened to live here for a long time, to endure also longer temptations of the flesh. For to bear the burden of the day and the heat is for each one to be wearied by the heat of his flesh through the times of a longer life.
But it can be asked how those who are called to the kingdom even at a late hour are said to have murmured. For no one who murmurs receives the kingdom of heaven, and no one who receives it can murmur. But because the ancient fathers, up until the coming of the Lord, no matter how justly they had lived, were not led to the kingdom unless He descended who would open the gates of paradise to men by the interposition of His death, their murmuring was this very thing: that they both lived rightly for the sake of receiving the kingdom, and yet were long delayed in receiving the kingdom. For those whom the places of hell, however tranquil, received after their righteousness was completed, for them indeed it was both to have labored in the vineyard and to have murmured. Therefore they receive the denarius as if after murmuring, who after long periods in hell arrived at the joys of the kingdom. But we who come at the eleventh hour do not murmur after our labor and receive the denarius, because after the coming of the Mediator, coming into this world, we are led to the kingdom as soon as we depart from the body, and we receive without delay what the ancient fathers deserved to receive with great delay. Hence the same householder says: "I wish to give to this last one even as to you." And because the very reception of the kingdom is the goodness of His will, He rightly adds: "Or is it not lawful for me to do what I wish?" For it is a foolish complaint of man against the kindness of God. For there would be no cause for complaint if He does not give what He does not owe, but only if He did not give what He owed. Hence it is fittingly added: "Or is your eye evil because I am good?" But let no one exalt himself on account of his work, let no one exalt himself on account of time, since with this statement completed, the Truth subsequently cries out: "So the last shall be first, and the first last." For behold, even if we already know what and how great the good things we have done are, we still do not know with what subtlety the heavenly Judge examines these things. And indeed each one should rejoice greatly to be even the last in the kingdom of God.
But after these things, what follows is very terrible: "For many are called, but few are chosen," because many come to faith, yet few are led to the heavenly kingdom. For behold, how many of us have gathered for today's feast, we fill the walls of the Church, yet who knows how few there are who are numbered in that flock of God's elect? For behold, the voice of all proclaims Christ, but the life of all does not proclaim Him. Most follow God with their voices, but flee from Him by their conduct. Hence Paul says: "They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him." Hence James says: "Faith without works is dead." Hence through the Psalmist the Lord says: "I have declared and spoken, they have multiplied beyond number." For when the Lord calls, the faithful are multiplied beyond number, because sometimes even those come to faith who do not attain to the number of the elect. For here they are mingled with the faithful through confession, but because of their reprobate life they do not deserve to be numbered there in the lot of the faithful. This fold of holy Church receives goats together with lambs; but, as the Gospel attests, when the Judge comes, He separates the good from the wicked, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. For those who here serve the pleasures of their flesh cannot be numbered there in the flock of sheep. There the Judge separates from the lot of the humble those who here exalt themselves in the horns of pride. Those who here, though established in heavenly faith, seek the earth with all their desire, cannot receive the kingdom of heaven.
And you see many such people within the Church, dearest brothers, but you ought neither to imitate them nor to despair of them. For we see what someone is today, but what each one will be tomorrow we do not know. Often one who is seen to come after us surpasses us through the swiftness of good work, and tomorrow we scarcely follow him whom today we seemed to precede. Certainly when Stephen was dying for the faith, Saul was guarding the garments of those who were stoning him. Therefore he himself stoned with the hands of all who were stoning, since he rendered them all free to stone, and yet in the holy Church he surpassed in labors that very one whom by persecuting he made a martyr. There are therefore two things which we ought to consider carefully. For since many are called but few are chosen, the first is that no one should presume too much of himself, because even if he has already been called to the faith, he does not know whether he is worthy of the eternal kingdom. The second is that no one should dare to despair of his neighbor, whom he perhaps sees lying in vices, because he does not know the riches of divine mercy.
I am relating a matter that happened recently, brothers, so that if you recognize yourselves to be sinners from the heart, you may love the mercy of almighty God more abundantly. In the present year, a certain brother came to conversion in my monastery, which is situated near the Church of the blessed martyrs John and Paul; he was devoutly received, but he himself lived even more devoutly (Dialogues, Book IV, Chapter 38). His brother followed him to the monastery in body, not in heart. For greatly detesting the life and habit of conversion, he dwelt in the monastery as a guest, and while fleeing the life of the monks by his conduct, he could not depart from dwelling in the monastery, because he had neither anything to do nor means to live. His wickedness was burdensome to all, but everyone bore with him patiently out of love for his brother. For, proud and dissolute, he did not know whether any life followed after this world, and indeed he mocked anyone who wished to preach this to him. And so he lived in the monastery in secular dress, frivolous in speech, unstable in movement, puffed up in mind, refined in clothing, dissolute in action. But in the month of July just past, he was struck by the plague of that pestilence which you know, and coming to his end, he began to be pressed to surrender his soul. And with the lower part of his body already dead, vital strength remained only in his chest and tongue. The brothers were present and were protecting his departure with prayer as much as they could with God's help. But he, suddenly seeing a dragon coming to devour him, began to cry out with loud voices, saying: "Behold, I have been given to a dragon to be devoured, who cannot devour me because of your presence. Why do you cause me delay? Give way so that he may be permitted to devour me." And when the brothers urged him to make the sign of the cross upon himself, he responded with what strength he could, saying: "I want to sign myself, but I cannot, because I am pressed by the dragon. The foam of his mouth smears my face, my throat is suffocated by his mouth. Behold, my arms are compressed by him, who has already swallowed my head in his mouth." And while he, pale and trembling and dying, was saying this, the brothers began to press more vehemently with prayers, and to aid him who was oppressed by the dragon's presence with their supplications. Then suddenly freed, he began to cry out with loud voices, saying: "Thanks be to God; behold, he has departed, behold, he has gone out, the dragon who had seized me has fled before your prayers." Soon he vowed that he would serve God and be a monk, and from that time until now he is pressed by fevers, worn out by pains. He has indeed been withdrawn from death, but he has not yet been fully restored to life. For because he was pressed by long and lasting iniquities, he is worn out by long illness, and a harder fire of purgation burns his hard heart, because it is brought about by divine dispensation that a more prolonged sickness may burn away more prolonged vices. Who would ever have believed that he would be preserved for conversion? Who can sufficiently consider such mercy of God? Behold, a wicked young man saw in death the dragon whom he served in life, yet he did not see him so as to lose his life utterly, but so that he might know whom he had served, by knowing might resist, and by resisting might overcome him, and he who was formerly held by him without seeing later saw him so as not to be held. What tongue, then, can sufficiently narrate the depths of divine mercy? What spirit does not stand amazed at the riches of such great kindness? The Psalmist considered these riches of divine kindness when he said: "My helper, to you I will sing praise, for you, O God, are my protector, my God, my mercy." Behold, perceiving in what labors human life is placed, he called God his helper; and because he receives us from present tribulation into eternal rest, he also calls him protector. But considering that he looks upon and bears our evils, tolerates our faults, and yet reserves us through penitence for rewards, he did not wish to call God merciful, but called him mercy itself, saying: "My God, my mercy." Let us therefore recall before our eyes the evils we have done, let us weigh with how great benignity of God we are tolerated, let us consider what are the depths of his kindness, so that he not only pardons faults but also promises the heavenly kingdom to the penitent even after their faults. And from all the depths of our heart let us say individually, let us all say: "My God, my mercy," who lives and reigns, three in unity and one in trinity, through infinite ages of ages. Amen.