CHAPTER 15 Ver. 1. _Then drew near under Him all the publicans and sinners_. _πάντες_, all, that is, many came together to hear Christ, attracted by His sanctity and by the loving-kindness with which He called sinners to Himself, and promised pardon and salvation to the penitent. For His preaching... [ Continue Reading ]
_And the Pharisees and Scribes murmured._ For as they avoided the touch of unclean bodies, so did they avoid that of sinful souls. Hence they did not deign to speak to sinners, much less to eat with them. This constituted the proud spirit of the Pharisees, who thought themselves pure and holy in all... [ Continue Reading ]
_What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he 1ose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?_ For a sheep is a simple and foolish animal, which, in search of pasture, easily loses its way and wanders from the fold, and wh... [ Continue Reading ]
_And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing._ Or as the Arabic renders it, "He carries it on his shoulders joyfully," that he may the more quickly return it to the flock. In like manner on Christ "was laid," as saith the prophet Isaiah, the iniquity of us all." Hence Gregory... [ Continue Reading ]
_Either that woman having ten pieces of silver_, &c. "Sweep," or as the Arabic renders it, "cleanse;" not "overturn," as some read with S. Gregory. The "piece of silver," or drachma, was a coin weighing the eighth part of an ounce. Hence S. Cyril explains, that by the parable of the lost sheep we a... [ Continue Reading ]
_And He said, A Certain man had two sons_. This parable is the third of the series, and like the two preceding ones, is designed to show the joy which is in heaven over the conversion of a sinner. And so there are three principal persons in the parable, the father and his two sons, the elder careful... [ Continue Reading ]
_And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me._ The younger, _i.e._ sinners and harlots. For youth is less restrained, more foolish, more inconstant, and more prone to indulgences of every kind. According to the Fathers, the "goods," "substantia... [ Continue Reading ]
_And when he had spent all_... _he began to be in want._ Or, according to the Arabic, "he became destitute," as those who lose by one year's debauchery all that their parents have left them; and after that are reduced to misery and to begging their bread. Nor do they lose their property only, but th... [ Continue Reading ]
_And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country_, i.e., to an evil spirit, for the devils are the citizens of the country far off from God. So S. Augustine (_Quæst. Evang. lib._ ii. _q._ 33.) says, "He joined himself to a certain prince of the air belonging to the army of the devil, who... [ Continue Reading ]
_And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat._ So those who foolishly squander their possessions on others, find none to give them even husks in their misery and want. S. Chrysostom (_Serm._ 1) says, "Hunger, to luxury a torment, is now his lot, that where his guilt... [ Continue Reading ]
_And when he came to himself_, or, as the Arabic renders it, "when he was considering within himself." Euthymius says, becoming master of himself, and as it were waking up from the deep sleep of the drunken." "Returning from his wanderings abroad." Theophylact. "For," says the Interlinear, "he who h... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will arise and go to my father._ "I will arise," says the Interlinear, "because I perceive that I have fallen prone before idolatry and vice. I will go to my father, for I have wandered far from him, and am wearing away my life in misery and want. I will rise from this wretched life. I will break... [ Continue Reading ]
_And am no more worthy to be called thy son._ Because, says S. Jerome, I preferred to serve idols, and to be the slave of vices. "He does not presume," says Bede, "to ask to be treated as a son," because, adds Euthymius, "his life had been unworthy of such a father." _Make me as one of thy hired se... [ Continue Reading ]
_And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned_, &c. He desires, says the Interlinear, that to be done by grace, which he acknowledges himself to be unworthy of by any merit of his own. (See above on ver. 18.) He omits to say, "make me as one of thy hired servants," either because his father, out... [ Continue Reading ]
_But the father said to his servant_, &c. "The servants," says Theophylact, "are the angels or the priests," or, according to S. Augustine, the preachers, for by their ministry God reconciles sinners to Himself. _The best robe._ The "first" robe, that which he was wont to wear before he left his fa... [ Continue Reading ]
_And bring hither the fatted calf_. _τον μόσχον_, that particular calf which I ordered to be fattened for such a solemn occasion as this. All these things, the robe, the ring, the shoes, and the fatted calf, show the delight of the father, _i.e_. the joy of God and His angels at the conversion of a... [ Continue Reading ]
_For this my son was dead, and is alive again._ He was dead by reason of his sins; he is alive again because of his repentance. VER. 28. _And he was angry, and would not go in._ The anger and the murmuring of the elder son is the application of the parable, and is intended to show how justly God re... [ Continue Reading ]
_And he answering said, Lo, these many years do I serve thee._ The Syriac has _"servio tibi servitutem,"_ so the Jews were in bondage to the observance of the law. _Neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment._ This answer shows the lying arrogance and the ingratitude of the Jews, who boaste... [ Continue Reading ]
_This thy son._.. _which hath devoured thy living with harlots._ The Pharisees accuse God of sin, in preferring the unworthy to the worthy, _i.e._, Gentiles to the Jews, sinners to themselves, as if He had regard to the persons of men; but their accusation is false. For the Gentiles, though sinners,... [ Continue Reading ]
_And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. "_ The law, the prophets, the oracles of God," says St. Jerome. To this we must add, the worship of the one true God, and faith in Him, in the teachings of the Church, and the benefits arising therefrom. For all these b... [ Continue Reading ]
_It was meet that we should make merry and be glad._ For the most convincing of reasons, because this my son, thy brother, who was dead in trespasses and sins, is now restored to grace and favour, wherefore it behovest thee to take part in our rejoicing, and not to be envious and to murmur against h... [ Continue Reading ]