24. "And give the ring in his hand; the signet-ring of the likeness of Christ, according to that: In whom believing, you were signed with the Holy Spirit of promise. (Ephes. 1: 13). And to the prince of Tyre, who had lost the likeness of the Creator, it is said: You are the signet-ring of likeness, and the crown of beauty, born in the delights of the paradise of God. (Ezech. 28. 12-13) . Isaiah also speaks of this signet-ring: Then they shall manifest who are signed. This signet-ring is given in hand when the Scripture signifies the works of justice. For there: The word of the Lord was made into the hand of the prophet Haggai, saying to Jerusalem: I adorned you, says he, with ornaments, and I put bracelets around your hands. (Ezech. 16. 11). Again, to him who is clothed in a field, another place of the signet-ring is shown: Walk through the midst of Jerusalem, and give the signet-ring on the foreheads of the men who groan and mourn over all the iniquities that are committed in the midst of them. (Ibid. 9. 4) . Why? So that they may then say: The light of thy face, Lord, is signed upon us." (Psal. 4. 7).
25. "And his footwear on his feet. For the bridegroom had lost his dignity, and he could not celebrate Easter without shoes on his bare feet. These are the shoes that the Lord speaks of: 'And I clothed you with embroidered work, and shod you with seal skin, ... and shod your feet with shoes of badgers' skin' (Ezek. 16:10). .... so that He could be prepared for the Gospel of peace, no longer walking according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. And the prophetic word would come true about him: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those announcing good news, of those announcing peace.’" (Isaiah 52:7)
26. And bring a fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and make merry: Because this my son was dead, and is come to life again: was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. The fatted calf which is sacrificed for the penitent's health is the very Savior Himself, whose flesh we feed on daily, and whose blood we drink. You will understand, O faithful reader, how in our very fullness we burst forth in praise, saying: 'My heart hath uttered a good word, I speak my works to the King' (Ps. xliv. 1); although some, with more superstition than truth, apply these words to the Father's person. Now when it is said, 'Let us eat and make merry, because this my son was dead,' etc., this is connected with the meaning of the above parable, where it is said: 'I say to you, there shall be joy before the angels of God upon one sinner doing penance.'
27. "And they began to feast." This banquet is celebrated daily, and every day the father receives his son; Christ is always offered to believers.
28. Moreover, the elder son was in the field. » Up to now, the debate has been concerning the younger son, whom, in accordance with the present parable, we should take to represent publicans and sinners who were called to repentance by the Lord; but, according to the mystical meaning, the parable also prophesies of the calling of the Gentiles in the future. Now we pass to the elder son, whom many interpret simply as representing all the saints and others more specifically as referring to the Jews. The interpretation is not difficult regarding the saints in the statement, "Never have I disobeyed your command," although this seems to conflict with his unwillingness to welcome back his brother. However, in relation to the Jews, his envy over his brother's salvation conflicts with the statement, "I have never disobeyed your command." We shall try to explain what we think concerning the Jews in its proper place. "Moreover, the elder son was in the field," toiling in earthly works, far from the grace of the Holy Spirit, and banished from his father's counsel. This is the one who says, "I have purchased a field, and must needs go out and see it: I pray thee, have me excused" (Luke 14:18). This is the one who buys five yoke of oxen and, weighed down by the burden of the Law, is enjoying the pleasures of earthly desires. This is the one who, though married, cannot go to the wedding feast, and whose fleshly state cannot be one with the Spirit. In his person, the laborers in that parable also fit, wherein the ones who were called at the first, third, sixth, and ninth hours, that is, through various callings, are sent to the vineyard, and the ones called at the eleventh hour are indignant at being made equal to them.
29. "And when he came near to the house, he heard music and singing." This phrase which is written as the heading of one of the Psalms (Psalm 46), fits this meaning. For Meleth is said to mean chorus singing together. But some Latins mistakenly believe that symphony is a type of instrument, when in fact it signifies a harmonious agreement in the praises of God, expressed in the Latin word, "consonance".
30. "And he called one of the boys and asked what these things were." And now Israel asks why God rejoices in the assumption of the Gentiles, and in envy he cannot know the will of the Father.
31. And he said to him: 'Because thy brother is come, and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe.' The cause of joy, that is sung in the praises of God throughout the whole world, is the salvation of the Gentiles, the salvation of sinners: the angels rejoice: every creature agrees in joy; and of Israel alone it is said:
32. However, he did not want to enter, being angry. He is angry that his brother was received in his absence, he is angry that the one whom he thought was dead is alive. And now Israel stands outside, and now while the disciples listen to the Gospel in the church, his mother and brothers stand outside seeking him (Matthew 12).
33. "But the father of him, having gone out, began to beg him." How kind and gentle the father is; he begs his son to become a partaker of the joy of the house: moreover, the father begs through the Apostles, he begs through the preachers of the Gospel. Among whom Paul says, "For Christ, we urge you to be reconciled to God" (2 Cor. 5:20). And elsewhere, "But because you have rejected it, and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles" (Acts 13:46).
34. But he answering, said to his father: Behold, for many years do I serve thee, and I have never transgressed thy commandment, and yet thou hast never given me a kid to make merry with my friends. The suppliant father entreats for concord, but he who follows the justice which is in the law, is not subject to the justice of God, which is greater than to forgive the penitent, and to receive the returning son. "Behold, for many years do I serve thee, and I have never transgressed thy commandment," as if it were not a transgression of the commandment to envy the salvation of another, to boast of justice before God, when no one is clean before Him. For who will rejoice in having a pure heart even if it is for only one day? David confesses: "Behold I was conceived in iniquities; and in sins did my mother conceive me" (Ps. 50.7). And elsewhere: "If thou, O Lord, wilt mark iniquities, Lord, who shall stand it?" (Ps. 129.3). And here he says that he has never transgressed the commandment, even though he had been delivered to captivity many times for idolatry. "Behold, for many years do I serve thee, and I have never transgressed thy commandment." This is what the Apostle Paul speaks of: "What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who followed not after justice, have attained to justice, even the justice that is of faith." But Israel, by pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works of the law. It can therefore be said of someone who, according to the same Apostle, has lived without censure in the righteousness that comes from the law; although it seems to me that the Jew boasts more than speaks the truth, following the example of the Pharisee who said, 'I thank thee that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector' (Luke 18.11). Do you not think that what he said of the publican, this one says of his brother? This is the one who eats up all his living with prostitutes. But what he says, 'I have never disobeyed your commandment,' does not agree with what the father said. For he did not confirm as true what the son had said, but restrained him as a person who was angry in another way by saying, 'Son, you are always with me.' 'You are indeed with me,' he said, 'but have you really said all that is good and done all that I have ordered?' But you are with me always. You are with me in the law that you are bound by: you are with me, while you are taught to me both in captivity: you are with me not because you have fulfilled my precepts, but because I have not allowed you to go away into distant lands: you are with me until the very end, according to that which I spoke to David: "If his sons forsake My law, and they do not walk in my judgments; if they profane my justifications and do not keep my commandments, I will visit their iniquities with a rod, and their unjust deeds with stripes. But my mercy will not take away from them" (Ps. 88:31 et seq.). By this testimony, and that in which the elder son boasts, is proven false, when he does not walk in the judgments of God and does not keep His commandments. And how can he not keep them, since he is always said to have been with the Father? While sinning, he is corrected with a rod, and mercy is not denied when he is corrected. Nor is it surprising that he dared to lie to his father, who could envy his brother, especially since on the day of judgment some will lie more shamelessly, saying: "Have we not eaten and drunk in your name, and done many wonderful works, and driven out demons?" (Matt. 7:22) What is proper and relevant to its place will be explained.
35. "And you never gave me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends." "So great," he says, "has been the shedding of Israel's blood, so many thousands of men have been slain, and not one of them has arisen to redeem us. Even Josiah, who pleased you--(2 Kings 22)--and, more recently, the Maccabees, who fought for your inheritance, were slain by the swords of our enemies, and no man's blood restores our freedom to us. Behold we are still subject to the Roman power: not Prophet, nor Priest, nor righteous man has been sacrificed for us. And for the prodigal son, that is, for the Gentiles, for sinners, the glorious blood of the whole creation has been shed. And when you have not given smaller blessings to those who have deserved them, You have bestowed greater ones undeservedly. 'And you never gave me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends.' Israel, you err; say rather, that I might make merry with thee. Or can you have any enjoyment, unless your father celebrate the feast with you? At least learn from his present example. Upon receiving his younger son, both father and son are happy. "Let us eat and feast," he says, "Do not eat and feast." But with the same mind in which you envy your brother, in which you turn away from your father's sight, and are always in the field, even now you want to enter a banquet in his absence. "You never gave me a goat." His father never gives worse gifts: you have a fattened calf: come in, eat with your brother. Why do you seek a goat for which a lamb has been sent? And don't pretend not to know what has been sent, John showed you in the desert: "Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world" (John 1:29). And the father, as if merciful and giving penance, urges you to the calf, not sacrificing the goat that he knows to be standing to the left. But you in the end of the world, Antichrist himself will immolate you, and with your friends, unclean spirits, you will feast on his flesh, the prophecy fulfilled: "You have broken the head of the great dragon: you have given him food for the people of Ethiopia” (Psalm 73:14).
36. But when your son, who has devoured his substance with harlots, came, you killed the fatted calf for him." Now also Israel confesses that the calf that was slaughtered was fat; they understand that Christ has come, but they are tormented by envy and do not want to be saved after his death.
37. But he said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.' The son was angry, though not wishing to go in. But how are all things of God the Jews'? Are the angels, thrones, dominations, and other powers? Therefore let us understand all of God's law, prophets, and divine words. These were given to them so that they would meditate on his law day and night, according to that canon which we have often expounded the Scriptures, that all things are not to be referred to the whole, but to the greatest part, as it is said: 'All have turned aside; together they have become worthless' (Ps.13). And elsewhere: 'All who came before me are thieves and robbers' (John 10:8). And Paul to the Corinthians says: 'I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some' (1 Cor. 9:22). And to the Philippians: 'For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ' (Philippians 2:21). Although we must believe that he never denied anything, who urges the eating of the calf.
38. We should feast and be glad, for this brother of yours was dead, and has come back to life. He was lost, and has been found.’ So we too should confidently expect to live by repenting from our dead works, as it were, in the Parable of the Son himself, as well as in the earlier Parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin, all of which end with illustrations of the same kind. ‘For this your brother,’ it says, ‘was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ We are to understand that under different figures, but with the same meaning, is marked the reception of sinners, whether considered as heathen or as Jews.
39. Let us see, however, how this parable can be understood in general about the super saint and the sinner. And it is not disputed that it pertains not only to the just, but also to the non-just. This is what worries the reader who is disturbed, why the just should envy the salvation of the sinner: and to the extent that he is filled with anger, he is not overcome by his brother's mercy, his father's prayers, or the joy of his whole house. To which we will answer briefly: all the justice of this world is not justice compared to God. For just as from the sins of Jerusalem, Sodom is justified, not because it is just, but because greater delinquencies become smaller delinquencies: so also the universal justice of all people is not justice compared to God. Finally, Paul who said, "Therefore, as many as are perfect, let us think this" (Philippians 3:15), confesses and cries out elsewhere: "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are His judgments, and how unsearchable His ways!" (Romans 11:33)? And elsewhere, "We know in part, and we prophesy in part"; and, "Now we see through a glass, in an obscure manner" (1 Corinthians 13:9 and 12). And to the Romans, "Miserable man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Romans 7:24) From all of which we are taught that only God is perfect in justice, who causes His sun to rise on the just and the unjust: He gives rain equally to the deserving and the undeserving; who invites to the wedding guests from the byways, lanes, and plazas, and from them expels some who were seemingly safe; and seeks, finds, and brings back on His shoulders the sheep that could not or would not return itself after the example of the penitent son (Luke 15) for it had greatly erred.
40. But that we may be taught that envy may also fall upon the Saints and that pure godliness alone is left to God, let us consider the example of the sons of Zebedee: for when their mother moved by a feeling of piety, had made too lofty a request, the other ten disciples were indignant. And Jesus calling them, said: "You know that the princes of the Gentiles lord it over them; and they that are the greater, exercise power upon them. It shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be the greater among you, let him be your minister: and he that will be first among you, shall be your servant. Even as the Son of man is not come to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life for the redemption of many." (Matthew 20:25 and following). Let nothing be dangerous, let nothing seem blasphemous, what we said could have crept to the evil in the widow, even about the angels we think this is said. "For even the stars are not pure in his sight, and how much less man, who is but a maggot— a son of man, who is only a worm!” (Job 15:15, 25. 6) And in the Psalms it is said: "No living person will be justified in your presence." It does not say, "no person", but "living person", that is, not Evangelist, not Apostle, not a Prophet. As I ascend to greater things, not angels, thrones, dominions, powers and other virtues. Only God is, in whom sin does not fall: since they are of free will, according to which man is made in the image and likeness of God, they can turn their will in either direction. If you are not led by this sentence, at least be moved by its authority in the parable in which workers are sent to the vineyard throughout the day (Matthew 20); and in the first hour Adam, Abel, Seth are called upon; in the third, Noah; in the sixth, Abraham; in the ninth, Moses; and in the eleventh, the Gentile people to whom it is said: "Why do you stand here all day idle?" And they answered, "Because no one has hired us." But John the Apostle bears witness that the last hour of our Savior's coming is at hand, saying, 'Brethren, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that Antichrist cometh, even now there are become many Antichrists: whereby we know that it is the last hour' (1 John 2:18). If this interpretation is displeasing to you, I will follow wherever you lead, provided only that you acknowledge those who were called first to be just. And when I have obtained that point, I will bring forward what the just themselves have murmured against the householder, saying, 'These last have worked but one hour, and thou hast made them equal to us, who have borne the burden of the day and the heat.' They are, indeed, just in saying that they ought to receive equal wages with him who has labored from the first hour even to the end; and should also receive the same pay as he who has been engaged in toil for one hour only. But this very justice is engendered by envy, which repines at another's happiness. And the Lord rebukes the eye of envy, saying, 'Friend, is your eye evil because mine is good?' Hence, too, while all the angels are said to be just, and all are immortal and free from sin, yet the apostle speaks of One only as being Just and Immortal—not because the angels are unjust or mortal, but because He alone is immortal and just, to whom, when we compare all justice, we find that iniquity itself is injustice.
41. But in this same parable that we have just presented, for you to understand the injustice of the hirelings, pay attention for a moment. He who was hired in the first hour deserves more from him who was sent to the vineyard in the third hour; again, the worker of the third hour precedes the worker of the sixth hour, and the worker of the sixth hour outdoes the worker of the ninth hour. How, then, do they all envy the last one and do not seek the same justice among themselves? You, who were hired in the ninth hour, why do you envy him who was sent into the vineyard in the eleventh hour? Whatever you answer, even if you assert that the work was different so that you may deserve a greater reward for a different work, you will still be subject to the same judgment as the one who worked the sixth hour. And you who were hired at the sixth hour, why do you envy the last? Why does he receive a denarius, that is, an equal salvation with you, even though the glory of salvation may differ for different labor? The same thing can be said of you by the third worker, and of the third by the first. But because of the unequal labor and different periods of calling, they willingly accept the same reward among themselves. Only in the case of the last worker, that is, in the salvation of the Gentiles, do they differ and show disrespect to the Lord, and they are convicted of envy in all the parables.
42. I do not doubt that my speech seems unpolished to you, due to the smallness of my abilities; but I have often given the excuse that words cannot be refined unless one's own hand has polished them. Therefore, forgive my pained eyes, that is, forgive the one dictating, especially since, in matters of the church, meaning is sought, not words; that is, life is to be sustained by bread, not by beanpods.