Church Fathers Commentary Matthew 13

St. John Chrysostom: After He had rebuked the one who told Him of His mother and His brothers, He then did as they requested. He departed from the house, but only after first correcting His brothers for their weak desire for vainglory. He then paid the honor due to His mother, as it is said, "The same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the seaside."

St. Augustine of Hippo: By the words, "The same day," he sufficiently shows that these things either followed immediately upon what had gone before, or that many things could not have intervened; unless, indeed, "day" here signifies a period in the manner of Scripture.¹

Rabanus Maurus: For not only the Lord's words and actions, but also His journeys and the places in which He works His mighty deeds and preaches, are full of heavenly mysteries.

After the discourse held in the house, in which He had been wickedly and blasphemously accused of having a demon, He went out and taught by the sea. This was to signify that, having left Judea because of their sinful unbelief, He would turn to the salvation of the Gentiles. For the hearts of the Gentiles, long proud and unbelieving, are rightly compared to the swelling and bitter waves of the sea. And who does not know that Judea was, by faith, the house of the Lord?

St. Jerome: For it must be considered that the multitude could not enter the house to be with Jesus, nor could they be where the Apostles heard mysteries. Therefore, the Lord, in mercy to them, departed from the house and sat near the sea of this world, so that great numbers might be gathered to Him, and so that they might hear on the seashore what they were not worthy to hear inside. And great multitudes were gathered unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat down; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.

St. John Chrysostom: The Evangelist did not relate this without a purpose, but to show the Lord's will in it, who desired to place the people in such a way that He would have no one behind Him, but all would be before His face.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Moreover, there is a reason in the subject of His discourse for why the Lord sat in the ship and the multitude stood on the shore. For He was about to speak in parables, and by this action, He signifies that those who were outside the Church could have no understanding of the Divine Word.

The ship offers a type of the Church. Within it, the word of life is placed and is preached to those outside, who, being like barren sand, cannot understand it.

St. Jerome: Jesus is in the midst of the waves. He is beaten to and fro by them, yet secure in His majesty, He causes His vessel to come near the land, so that the people, not being in danger and not being surrounded by temptations they could not endure, might stand on the shore with a firm step to hear what was said.

Rabanus Maurus: Or, His going into a ship and sitting on the sea signifies that Christ would, by faith, enter the hearts of the Gentiles and would gather the Church in the sea—that is, in the midst of the nations that spoke against Him. And the crowd that stood on the seashore, being neither in the ship nor in the sea, offers a figure of those who receive the word of God and are by faith separated from the sea (that is, from the reprobate), but are not yet filled with heavenly mysteries.

It follows, And he spake many things unto them in parables.

St. John Chrysostom: He had not done this on the mount; He had not framed His discourse with parables. For there, it was only the multitudes and a mixed crowd; but here, it was the Scribes and Pharisees. He speaks in parables not only for this reason, but also to make His sayings clearer and to fix them more firmly in the memory by bringing things before their eyes.

St. Jerome: And it is to be noted that He did not speak all things to them in parables, but "many things," for if He had spoken all things in parables, the people would have departed without benefit. He mixes plain things with obscure things, so that by the things they understand, they may be motivated to gain knowledge of the things they do not understand.

The multitude is also not of one opinion, but has diverse wills in diverse matters, which is why He speaks to them in many parables, so that each, according to their individual dispositions, may receive some portion of His teaching.

St. John Chrysostom: He first puts forth a parable to make His hearers more attentive; and because He was about to speak enigmatically, He attracts their attention with this first parable, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow.

St. Jerome: This sower typifies the Son of God, who sows the word of the Father among the people.

St. John Chrysostom: From where, then, did He who is everywhere present go out, and how did He go out? Not in place, but by His incarnation, being brought nearer to us by the garment of the flesh. Since we, because of our sins, could not enter in to Him, He therefore came forth to us.

Rabanus Maurus: Or, He went forth when, having left Judea, He passed by the Apostles to the Gentiles.

St. Jerome: Or, He was inside while He was still in the house and spoke mysteries to His disciples. He therefore went forth from the house, so that He might sow seed among the multitudes.

St. John Chrysostom: When you hear the words, "the sower went out to sow," do not suppose that this is a tautology. For the sower often goes out for other ends, such as to break up the ground, to pull up noxious weeds, to uproot thorns, or to perform any other type of labor, but this man went forth to sow.

What then becomes of that seed? Three parts of it perish and one is preserved, but not all in the same way; there is a certain difference, as it follows, And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side.

St. Jerome: This parable Valentinus seizes upon to establish his heresy, introducing three different natures: the spiritual, the natural or animal, and the earthly. But there are four named here: one by the wayside, one on stony ground, one among thorns, and a fourth on good ground.

St. John Chrysostom: Next, how is it reasonable to sow seed among thorns, on stony ground, or by the wayside? Indeed, with the material seed and soil of this world, it would not be reasonable, for it is impossible that rock could become soil, that the path should not be a path, or that thorns should not be thorns.

But with minds and doctrines it is otherwise; there it is possible that the rock be made rich soil, that the path should be no more trodden upon, and that the thorns should be uprooted. That most of the seed perished, therefore, came not from the Sower but from the soil that received it—that is, the mind. For the Sower made no distinction between rich and poor, wise or foolish, but spoke to all alike, fulfilling His own part, even though He foresaw all that would happen, so that He might say, What more could have been done to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? (Isaiah 5:4).

He does not pronounce sentence on them openly and say, "This one the indolent received and lost; this one the rich received and choked; this one the careless received and lost," because He did not want to reprove them harshly, so that He might not alienate them altogether.

By this parable He also instructs His disciples that even though the greater part of those who heard them would perish, they should not therefore be negligent; for the Lord Himself, who foresaw all things, did not, for this reason, stop sowing.

St. Jerome: Note that this is the first parable given with its interpretation. We must be careful, where the Lord explains His own teaching, not to presume to understand anything more or less, or in any way different from how He explained it.

Rabanus Maurus: But those things which He silently left to our understanding should be briefly noted. The wayside is the mind, trodden and hardened by the continual passage of evil thoughts. The rock is the hardness of the self-willed mind. The good soil is the gentleness of the obedient mind. The sun is the heat of a raging persecution. The depth of the soil is the integrity of a mind trained by heavenly discipline. But in explaining them this way, we should add that the same things are not always given the same allegorical meaning.

St. Jerome: And we are prompted to understand His words by the advice that follows: He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

Remigius of Auxerre: These "ears to hear" are the ears of the mind, for understanding and doing those things which are commanded.

Glossa Ordinaria: The disciples, understanding that what the Lord said to the people was obscure, wanted to suggest to Him that He should not speak to them in parables. And his disciples came to him and said, “Why do you speak to them in parables?”¹

St. John Chrysostom: Here, it is admirable that the disciples who desired to learn from Him knew when they should ask Him, for they did not do this in front of the crowd. Matthew declares this when he says, And they came to him; and Mark says more explicitly that they came to him when he was alone (Mark 4:10).²

St. Jerome: We must ask how they could come to Him at that time when Jesus was sitting in the boat. We may understand that they had first entered the boat and, standing there, asked Him this question.

Remigius of Auxerre: The Evangelist, therefore, says they came to him to express that they eagerly questioned Him; or they could have indeed approached Him physically, even though the space between them was small.

St. John Chrysostom: Moreover, observe their goodness and how great their concern is for others, that they ask about what concerns others before what relates to themselves. For they do not say, “Why do you speak to us in parables?” but “to them.” And he answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mystery of the kingdom of heaven.”

Remigius of Auxerre: To you, I say, who hold fast to Me and believe in Me. By the mystery of the kingdom of heaven, He means the Gospel doctrine. “To them”—that is, to those who are outside and who would not believe in Him, namely, the Scribes and Pharisees, and to the rest who continue in unbelief—it is not given. Let us then, with the disciples, come to the Lord with a pure heart, that He may consider us worthy to have the Gospel teaching interpreted for us, according to the scripture: They who draw near to his feet shall receive of his doctrine (Deuteronomy 33:3).

St. John Chrysostom: In saying this, He does not imply any necessity or fate. Instead, He at once shows that those to whom it is not given are the cause of their own miseries, and yet that the knowledge of the divine mysteries is the gift of God and a grace given from above.

Yet this does not destroy free will, as is clear from what follows. To prevent one group from despairing or the other from becoming lazy when they hear that to you it is given, He shows that the beginning of it all lies with ourselves. He then adds, For whoso hath, to him shall be given, and he shall abound; and whoso hath not, from him shall be taken what he hath.

This is as much as to say: Whoever has the desire and the zeal, to him will be given all those things that are from God. But whoever lacks these and does not contribute his own part, to him the things of God are not given; rather, even those things that he has are taken from him. This is not because God takes them away, but because he has made himself unworthy of what he has.

Therefore, if we see someone listening carelessly, and after we have exhorted him to pay attention he still does not heed us, we should be silent. For if we persist in urging him, his laziness will be all the more charged against him.

But we draw onward the one who is zealous to learn, pouring out many things for him. And He said well, according to another Evangelist, That which he seemeth to have (Luke 8:18); for, in truth, he does not have even that which he has.

Remigius of Auxerre: The one who has a desire to read will be given the power to understand. But for whoever does not have the desire to read, even the understanding that he seems to have by nature’s bounty will be taken from him. Alternatively, whoever has charity, to him will the other virtues also be given; and from him who does not have charity, the other virtues will likewise be taken away, for without charity there can be nothing good.

St. Jerome: Alternatively, to the Apostles who believe in Christ, knowledge is given; but from the Jews who did not believe in the Son of God, even whatever good they might seem to have by nature is taken away. For they cannot understand anything with wisdom, since they do not have the head of wisdom.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Because the Jews lacked faith, they also lost the Law that they had. Gospel faith, however, offers the perfect gift; because if it is received, it enriches a person with new fruit, but if it is rejected, it takes away from the riches of their ancient possession.

St. John Chrysostom: So that what He had said might be made clearer, He adds, “Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.” Had this been a natural blindness, He ought to have opened their eyes; but since it is voluntary, He did not say simply, they see not, but, seeing they see not. For they had seen demons going out, and they said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebub.” They heard that He drew all people to God, and they said, This man is not of God (John 9:16).

Therefore, because they spoke the very opposite of what they saw and heard, the ability to see and hear is taken from them, for they gain nothing from it but rather fall under judgment. For this reason, He spoke to them at first not in parables but with great clarity; but because they perverted all they saw and heard, He now speaks in parables.

Remigius of Auxerre: It should be noted that not only what He spoke, but also what He did, were parables—that is, signs of spiritual things. He clearly shows this when He says, That seeing they may not see; for words are heard, not seen.

St. Jerome: He says this about those who were standing on the shore, separated from Jesus, and who, because of the crashing of the waves, did not distinctly hear what was said.

St. John Chrysostom: And so that they could not say, “He slanders us as an enemy,” He brings forth the Prophet declaring the same opinion, as it follows: That there might be fulfilled in them the prophecy of Isaiah, who said, “With the hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see and shall not behold” (Isaiah 6:9).

Glossa Ordinaria: That is, with your hearing you will hear words but will not understand the hidden meaning of those words; seeing, you will see My flesh indeed, but will not discern the divinity.³

St. John Chrysostom: He said this because they had taken away their own sight and hearing by shutting their eyes and hardening their hearts. For not only did they not hear at all, but they heard with dullness, as it follows: The heart of this people is waxed gross, and they have heard hardly with their ears.

Rabanus Maurus: The heart of the Jews is made gross with the grossness of wickedness, and through the abundance of their sins they hear the Lord's words with difficulty, because they have received them ungratefully.

St. Jerome: And so that we do not suppose that this grossness of the heart and heaviness of the ears comes from nature and not from choice, He adds the fruit of their own willfulness: For they have shut their eyes.

St. John Chrysostom: Here He points out how extreme their wickedness and how determined their aversion is. Again, to draw them toward Him, He adds, And be converted, and I should heal them. This shows that if they would convert, they would be healed. It is as if someone were to say, “If he would ask me, I would immediately forgive him,” which would point out how he might be reconciled. So here, when He says, Lest they should be converted and I should heal them, He shows that it was possible for them to convert and, after repenting, be saved.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Alternatively, when the text says, They have shut their eyes lest they should see with their eyes, this means they themselves were the cause that God shut their eyes. For another Evangelist says, He hath blinded their eyes. But is this so that they should never see? Or is it so that they would not see, so that by becoming discontent with their own blindness and lamenting it, they would be humbled and moved to confess their sins and piously seek God? For Mark expresses the same thing this way: Lest they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them. From this we learn that by their sins they deserved not to understand, and yet this was permitted to them in mercy so that they might confess their sins, turn, and so merit forgiveness.⁴

However, when John relates this, he expresses it this way: Therefore they could not believe because Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, that they should not see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them (John 12:39). This seems to oppose the first interpretation and compels us to take the phrase lest they should see with their eyes to mean not that they might eventually see in this way, but that they should never see at all. For John says it plainly: that they should not see with their eyes.

And his statement, Therefore they could not believe, sufficiently shows that the blindness was not inflicted so that, moved by it and grieving that they did not understand, they would be converted through repentance. For they could not do so unless they had first believed, and by believing been converted, and by conversion been healed, and by being healed, understood. Rather, it shows that they were blinded so that they would not believe. For he speaks most clearly: Therefore they could not believe.

But if this is so, who would not rise up in defense of the Jews and declare them free from all blame for their unbelief? For, Therefore they could not believe, because he hath blinded their eyes. But since we must believe God to be without fault, we are driven to confess that they had deserved to be blinded by some other sins, and that this blinding did indeed prevent them from believing. For the words of John are these: They could not believe, because that Isaiah said again, He hath blinded their eyes.

It is in vain, then, to try to understand it as if they were blinded so that they might be converted, since they could not be converted because they did not believe, and they could not believe because they were blinded. Or perhaps we might say this: some of the Jews were capable of being healed, but being puffed up with such great pride, it was good for them at first not to believe. They were meant to hear the Lord speaking in parables, which, if they did not understand, they would not believe. Thus, not believing in Him, they, along with the rest who were beyond hope, crucified Him. At length, after His resurrection, they were converted. Humbled by the guilt of His death, they loved Him all the more because of the heavy guilt that had been forgiven them. For their great pride needed such a humiliation to overcome it.

This might seem like an inconsistent explanation if we did not plainly read in the Acts of the Apostlesⁱ that this is how it happened. Therefore, what John says—Therefore they could not believe, because he hath blinded their eyes that they should not see—is not opposed to our view that they were blinded so that they might be converted. That is to say, the Lord’s meaning was purposely clothed in the obscurity of parables so that after His resurrection, they might turn to wisdom with a healthier repentance. Because of the darkness of His discourse, they, being blinded, did not understand the Lord's sayings. Not understanding them, they did not believe in Him; and not believing in Him, they crucified Him. Thus, after His resurrection, terrified by the miracles performed in His name, they felt greater remorse for their great sin and were more prostrate in repentance. Accordingly, after receiving pardon, they turned to obedience with a more ardent affection. Nevertheless, there were some for whom this blinding did not lead to conversion.

Remigius of Auxerre: In all these clauses, the word “not” must be understood, as follows: That they should not see with their eyes, and should not hear with their ears, and should not understand with their heart, and should not be converted, and I should heal them.

Glossa Ordinaria: So then, the eyes of those who see and will not believe are miserable, but your eyes are blessed, from which it follows: Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.⁵

St. Jerome: If we had not read above the Savior’s invitation for his hearers to understand when He said, He that hath ears to hear let him hear, we might suppose here that the eyes and ears that are now blessed are those of the body. But I think those eyes are blessed that can discern Christ's sacraments, and those ears are the ones of which Isaiah speaks: The Lord hath given me an ear (Isaiah 50:4).

Glossa Ordinaria: The mind is called an eye because it is intently directed upon what is set before it to understand it, and an ear because it learns from the teaching of another.⁶

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Alternatively, He is speaking of the blessedness of the Apostolic times, for their eyes and ears were permitted to see and hear the salvation of God. Many prophets and just men had desired to see and hear that which was destined to appear in the fullness of time, from which it follows: Verily I say unto you, that many Prophets and just men have desired to see the things that ye see, and to hear the things that ye hear, and have not heard them.

St. Jerome: This passage seems to be contradicted by what is said elsewhere: Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and was glad (John 8:56).

Rabanus Maurus: Also, Isaiah and Micah, and many other prophets, saw the glory of the Lord and for that reason were called “seers.”

St. Jerome: But He did not say, “The Prophets and the just men,” but “many,” for out of the whole number, it may be that some saw and others did not. But as this is a dangerous interpretation, because it would seem that we are making a distinction between the merits of the saints regarding the degree of their faith in Christ, we may therefore suppose that Abraham saw as an enigma, and not in substance. But you truly have your Lord present with you, holding Him, questioning Him as you please, and eating with Him.ⁱ

St. John Chrysostom: These things, then, that the Apostles saw and heard were His presence, His voice, and His teaching. And in this, He places them ahead of not only the evil but even the good, pronouncing them more blessed than even the righteous men of old. For they saw not only what the Jews did not see, but also what the righteous men and prophets desired to see and had not seen.

For the prophets had seen these things only by faith, but the Apostles saw them by sight, and even more clearly. You see how He identifies the Old Testament with the New, for if the prophets had been the servants of any strange or hostile Deity, they would not have desired to see Christ.

Glossa Ordinaria: He had said above that it was not given to the Jews to know the kingdom of God, but to the apostles. Therefore, He now concludes, saying, "Hear, then, the parable of the sower, you to whom the mysteries of heaven are committed." ¹

St. Augustine of Hippo: It is certain that the Lord spoke the things the evangelist has recorded. However, what the Lord spoke was a parable, in which it is never required that the events described must have actually taken place. ²

Glossa Ordinaria: He then proceeds to explain the parable: "Every man who hears the word of the kingdom"—that is, My preaching which leads to acquiring the kingdom of heaven—"and does not understand it..." How he fails to understand it is explained by what follows: "...for the evil one"—that is, the Devil—"comes and takes away that which is sown in his heart." Every such person is "what is sown by the wayside."

Note that "what is sown" is taken in different senses. The seed is what is sown, and the field is also what is sown; both meanings are found here. When He says the evil one "carries away that which is sown," we must understand this to mean the seed. But what follows, "is sown by the way side," should be understood not as the seed, but as the place of the seed—that is, the person, who is like a field sown with the seed of the divine word. ³

Remigius of Auxerre: In these words, the Lord explains what the seed is: namely, the word of the kingdom, that is, of the gospel's teaching. For there are some who receive the word of the Lord with no devotion of heart. And so, the seed of God's word sown in their heart is immediately carried off by demons, like seed dropped by the wayside. It follows, "That which is sown upon the rock, is he that heareth the word, etc." For the seed, the word of God, which is sown on the rock—that is, in the hard and untamed heart—can bring forth no fruit, since its hardness is great and its desire for heavenly things is small. Because of this great hardness, it has no root in itself.

St. Jerome: Note what is said: "is immediately offended." There is, then, a difference between one who is driven to deny Christ by many tribulations and torments, and one who is offended and falls away at the first persecution. He proceeds to speak of this latter case: "That which is sown among thorns." To me, He seems here to express figuratively what was said literally to Adam: Amidst briers and thorns thou shalt eat thy bread (Genesis 3:18). This means that whoever has given himself up to the delights and cares of this world eats heavenly bread and the true food among thorns.

Rabanus Maurus: They are rightly called thorns because they lacerate the soul with the piercing stings of thought and do not allow it to bring forth the spiritual fruit of virtue.

St. Jerome: And it is elegantly added, "The deceitfulness of riches chokes the word." For riches are treacherous, promising one thing and doing another. Holding them is a slippery business, as they are carried here and there, and with an uncertain step, they forsake those who have them or return to those who do not. This is why the Lord asserts that rich men can hardly enter the kingdom of heaven, because their riches choke the word of God and weaken the strength of their virtues.

Remigius of Auxerre: It should be known that these three kinds of bad soil represent all who can hear the word of God and yet lack the strength to bring it to fruition for their salvation. The Gentiles are an exception, as they were not considered worthy even to hear it.

It follows, "That which is sown on the good ground." The good ground is the faithful conscience of the elect, or the spirit of the saints, which receives the word of God with joy, desire, and devotion of heart. This good ground manfully retains the word amid both prosperous and adverse circumstances and brings forth fruit from it, as the text says: "And brings forth fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold."

St. Jerome: It should be noted that just as there were three degrees of difference in the bad ground—namely, the wayside, the stony, and the thorny ground—so in the good soil there is a threefold difference: the hundredfold, the sixtyfold, and the thirtyfold. In both cases, it is not the substance but the will that is changed, and the hearts of both the unbelieving and the believing receive the seed. In the first case of bad soil, He said, "Then comes the wicked one, and carries off that which is sown in the heart." In the second and third cases, He said, "This is he that hears the word." Likewise, in the explanation of the good soil, it says, "This is he that hears the word." Therefore, we ought first to hear, then to understand, and after understanding, to bring forth the fruits of this teaching: either a hundredfold, sixtyfold, or thirtyfold.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Some think this means that the saints, according to the degree of their merits, will deliver some thirty, some sixty, or a hundred persons. They usually suppose this will happen on the day of judgment, not after the judgment. However, when this opinion was seen to encourage people to promise themselves impunity—believing that by this means all might attain deliverance—it was answered that people ought rather to live well. In this way, each might be found among those who intercede for the liberation of others. Otherwise, these intercessors might be so few that they would soon exhaust their allotted number, leaving many unrescued from torment. Among these might be all who, in the most vain rashness, had promised themselves they would reap the fruits of others' merits. ⁴

Remigius of Auxerre: The thirtyfold, then, is brought forth by one who teaches faith in the Holy Trinity; the sixtyfold by one who teaches the perfection of good works (for in the number six, this world was completed with all its features);ⁱ and the hundredfold by one who promises eternal life. This is because the number one hundred passes from the left hand to the right, and the left hand denotes the present life, while the right hand denotes the life to come.

Alternatively, the seed of the word of God brings forth thirtyfold fruit when it begets good thoughts, sixtyfold fruit with good speech, and hundredfold fruit when it leads to the fruit of good works.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Alternatively, there is hundredfold fruit from the martyrs because of their fulfillment in life or contempt for death. There is sixtyfold fruit from virgins because they do not rest from warring against the fleshly appetites; for retirement is allowed to those sixty years of age after service in war or public business. And there is thirtyfold fruit from the married, because theirs is the age of warfare, and their struggle is more arduous, so that they are not vanquished by their lusts. ⁵

Or, in another sense, we must struggle with our love for temporal goods so that reason may be master. This love should either be so overcome and subjected to us that when it begins to rise it can be easily repressed, or so extinguished that it never arises in us at all. From this, it comes to pass that death itself is despised for the sake of truth: by some with brave endurance, by others with contentment, and by others with gladness. These three responses are the three degrees of fruit: thirtyfold, sixtyfold, and hundredfold.

And if anyone desires to depart from this life well, they must be found in one of these degrees at the time of their death.

St. Jerome: The hundredfold fruit is to be ascribed to virgins, the sixtyfold to widows and continent persons, and the thirtyfold to chaste marriage. ⁶

For the joining together of the hands, as if in the soft embrace of a kiss, represents husband and wife. The sixtyfold refers to widows who, being set in narrow circumstances and affliction, are denoted by the pressing down of the finger. For the greater the difficulty of abstaining from the allurements of pleasure once it is known, the greater the reward. The hundredth number passes from the left hand to the right, and by turning around with the same fingers, but not on the same hand, it expresses the crown of virginity.^{i 7}

St. John Chrysostom: In the previous parable, the Lord spoke to those who do not receive the word of God; here, He speaks of those who receive a corrupting seed. This is the scheme of the Devil, who always seeks to mix error with truth.¹

St. Jerome: He also set forth this other parable, like a rich householder refreshing his guests with various dishes, so that each person, according to their own constitution, might find food suitable for them. He did not say "a second parable," but "another." For if He had said "a second," we could not have expected a third; but "another" prepares us for many more.

Remigius of Auxerre: Here He calls the Son of God Himself the kingdom of heaven, for He says, The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.

St. John Chrysostom: He then points out the nature of the Devil's snares, saying, While men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares in the midst of the wheat, and went away. He shows here that error arose after the truth, as the course of events indeed testifies: the false prophets came after the Prophets, the false apostles after the Apostles, and the Antichrist after Christ.

For unless the Devil sees something to imitate and someone to ambush, he does not attempt anything. Therefore, because he saw that this person bears fruit a hundredfold, this one sixty, and this one thirty, and that he was not able to carry off or choke what had taken root, he turns to other insidious practices, mixing in his own seed—a counterfeit of the true seed—and thereby deceives those who are prone to be deceived.

So the parable speaks not of a different kind of seed, but of tares, which bear a strong resemblance to wheat. Furthermore, the Devil's malice is shown in this: he sowed when everything else was completed, so that he might do the greatest harm to the farmer.

St. Augustine of Hippo: He says, While men slept, which means that while the leaders of the Church were neglectful, and after the Apostles had entered the sleep of death, the Devil came and sowed among the faithful those whom the Lord, in His interpretation, calls the children of the evil one. But we should inquire whether this refers to heretics or to Catholics who lead evil lives. The fact that He says they were sown among the wheat seems to indicate that they were all of one communion.²

However, since He interprets the field to mean not the Church but the world, we may well understand this to refer to heretics, who are mixed with the good in this world. For those who live wrongly within the same faith might better be considered chaff than tares, since the chaff shares a stem and a root with the grain. Schismatics, in turn, may be more aptly compared to ears of grain that have rotted, or to straws that are broken, crushed, and thrown out of the field.

Indeed, it is not necessary that every heretic or schismatic be physically severed from the Church, for the Church bears many who do not defend their false opinions so publicly as to attract the attention of the multitude; when they do, they are expelled. So when the Devil had sown various evil errors and false opinions upon the true Church—that is, he scattered errors wherever Christ's name had gone before—he himself remained rather hidden and unknown, for the parable says, And went his way. In fact, as we learn from His own interpretation, the Lord may be understood to have signified by the name "tares" all stumbling blocks and those who work iniquity.

St. John Chrysostom: In what follows, He draws a more particular picture of a heretic with the words, When the blade had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. For heretics at first keep themselves in the shadows; but when they have been given free rein for a long time, and when people have engaged with them in discussion, then they pour out their venom.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Alternatively, when a person begins to be spiritual and to discern between things, they then begin to see errors. For they judge whatever they hear or read, determining whether it departs from the rule of truth. But until they are perfected in these same spiritual matters, they might be disturbed that so many false heresies have existed under the Christian name. From this follows the verse: And the servants of the householder came and said to him, "Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?"³

Are these servants, then, the same as those whom He later calls "reapers"? Since in His explanation of the parable He explains that the reapers are the angels, and no one would dare to say that the angels were ignorant of who had sown the tares, we should instead understand that the "servants" here are the faithful.

And it is no wonder if they are also signified by the good seed, for the same thing can have different symbolic meanings according to its different applications. For example, speaking of Himself, He says that He is the door and that He is the shepherd.

Remigius of Auxerre: They came to the Lord not with the body, but with the heart and the soul's desire. From Him they gather that this was done by the Devil's cunning, from which it follows, And he said to them, "An enemy has done this."

St. Jerome: The Devil is called "an enemy who is a man" because he has ceased to be God; and in the ninth Psalm it is written of him, Arise, O LORD; let not man prevail (Psalm 9:19). Therefore, let the one who is set over the Church not sleep, lest through his carelessness the enemy should sow tares in it—that is, the dogmas of the heretics.

St. John Chrysostom: He is called "the enemy" on account of the losses he inflicts on humanity. For the Devil's assaults are made upon us, though their origin is not in his enmity toward us, but in his enmity toward God.

St. Augustine of Hippo: And when the servants of God knew that it was the Devil who had contrived this fraud—whereby, finding he had no power in open warfare against a Master of such a great name, he introduced his fallacies under the cover of that name itself—the desire might readily arise in them to remove such people from human affairs if the opportunity were given. But first, they appeal to God's justice about whether they should do so: The servants said, "Do you want us to go and gather them?"

St. John Chrysostom: In this, observe the thoughtfulness and affection of the servants. They hasten to root up the tares, thus showing their anxiety for the good seed. For this is their only concern: not that anyone should be punished, but that what was sown should not perish. The Lord's answer follows, But he said, "No."

St. Jerome: For room for repentance is left, and we are warned not to hastily cut off a brother, since one who is today corrupted by an erroneous dogma may grow wiser tomorrow and begin to defend the truth. Therefore, it is added, Lest while you are gathering the tares, you also uproot the wheat with them.

St. Augustine of Hippo: In this, He makes them more patient and tranquil. For He says this because the good, while they are still weak, need to be mixed with the bad in some respects, either to be tested by them or to be greatly stimulated and drawn to a better course by comparison with them. Or perhaps the wheat is said to be uprooted if the tares are gathered from it because many who are at first tares will later become wheat. Yet they would never achieve this commendable change if they were not patiently endured while they were evil. In this way, if they were uprooted, the wheat that they would have become in time—if they had been spared—would be uprooted in them.⁴

Therefore, He forbids that such people be taken out of this life, lest in the effort to destroy the wicked, those among them who would have turned out good are also destroyed. This is also so that the benefit that accrues to the good from mixing with the wicked, even against their will, is not lost. But this removal can be done at the proper time, when, at the very end, there is no more time for a change of life or for advancing to the truth by comparison with the faults of others. Therefore, He adds, Let both grow together until the harvest—that is, until the judgment.

St. Jerome: But this seems to contradict the command, Put away from yourselves the evil person (1 Corinthians 5:13). For if uprooting is forbidden, and we are to wait patiently until the harvest, how are we to cast anyone out from among us? But between wheat and tares (which in Latin we call lolium), as long as it is only a blade and before the stalk has produced an ear, there is a very strong resemblance, with little or no difference to distinguish them.

The Lord, then, warns us not to pass a hasty sentence on something ambiguous, but to reserve it for His judgment, so that when the day of judgment comes, He may cast out from the assembly of the saints not on suspicion, but on the basis of manifest guilt.

St. Augustine of Hippo: For when anyone among the Christians in the Church is found in such sin as to incur an anathema, this is done—where there is no danger of schism—with tenderness, not for his uprooting, but for his correction. But if he is not conscious of his sin and does not correct it through penitence, he will, of his own choice, leave the Church and be separated from her communion. This is why, when the Lord commanded, Let both grow together until the harvest, He added the reason, saying, Lest while you gather up the tares, you also uproot the wheat with them.

This sufficiently shows that when that fear has ceased and the safety of the crop is certain—that is, when the crime is known to all and is acknowledged as so detestable as to have no defenders, or at least none who might cause a schism—then the severity of discipline is not idle. Its correction of error is all the more effective because the observance of love had been all the more careful.⁵

But when the same infection has spread to a large number at once, nothing remains but sorrow and groans. Therefore, let a person gently reprove whatever is in their power. What is not, let them bear with patience and mourn over with affection, until He from above corrects and heals. Let them wait until the harvest to root out the tares and winnow the chaff. The multitude of the unrighteous, however, should be confronted with a general reproof whenever there is an opportunity to say something among the people.

This is especially true when a scourge from the Lord provides an opportunity, and they feel they are being punished for what they deserve. For then, the calamity of the hearers opens their ears submissively to the words of their reprover, since a heart in affliction is always more prone to the groans of confession than to the murmurs of resistance.

And even when no tribulation is upon them, if the occasion arises, a word of reproof is usefully spent on the multitude; for when its members are separated, the multitude tends to be fierce, but when they are together as a body, it tends to mourn.

St. John Chrysostom: The Lord said this to forbid any killing. For we ought not to kill a heretic, seeing that this would introduce a never-ending war into the world. Therefore, He says, Lest you also uproot the wheat with them. This means that if you draw the sword and put the heretic to death, it must follow that many of the saints will fall with them.

By this, He does not forbid all restraint upon heretics—such as cutting off their freedom of speech or breaking up their synods and confessions—but only forbids that they be put to death.

St. Augustine of Hippo: This, indeed, was at first my own opinion: that no one was to be driven by force into the unity of Christ. Instead, a person was to be led by discourse, contended with in debate, and overcome by argument, so that we would not have people feigning to be Catholics whom we knew to be declared heretics.⁶

But this opinion of mine was overcome not by the words of those who contradicted me, but by the examples of those who demonstrated the contrary in fact. For the effect of those laws, in the enacting of which princes serve the Lord in fear, has been so good that now some are saying, "We desired this long ago; but now, thanks be to God who has given us the opportunity and cut off our excuses for delay."

Others say, "We have long known this to be the truth, but we were held by a kind of old habit; thanks be to God who has broken our chains."

Still others say, "We did not know this was true and had no desire to learn it, but fear has driven us to pay attention to it; thanks be to the Lord who has banished our carelessness with the spur of terror."

Others say, "We were deterred from entering by false rumors, which we would not have known to be false if we had not entered; and we would not have entered if we had not been compelled. Thanks be to God who has shattered our complacency with the scourge of this pressure and has taught us by experience how empty and false were the things that lying rumor had reported about His Church."

And others say, "We thought it was of no importance in what communion we held the faith of Christ, but thanks be to the Lord who has gathered us from our division and has shown us that it is consistent with the unity of God that He should be worshiped in unity."

Let the kings of the earth, then, show themselves to be servants of Christ by publishing laws on Christ's behalf.

But who among you wishes for a heretic to perish, or even to lose anything? Yet the house of David could have had peace in no other way than by the death of Absalom in the war he waged against his father. This was despite his father giving strict commands to his servants to save him alive and unhurt, so that on his repentance there might be room for a father's affection to pardon. What, then, remained for David but to mourn over him when he was lost, and to console his own domestic affliction with the peace that Absalom's death had brought to his kingdom?⁷

Thus our Catholic mother, the Church, when she gains many by the loss of a few, soothes the sorrow of her motherly heart, healing it with the deliverance of so many people. Where, then, is that slogan which these people are accustomed to cry out: "It is free for all to believe"? To whom has Christ done violence? Whom has He compelled? Let them consider the Apostle Paul. Let them acknowledge in him Christ first compelling and afterward teaching; first striking and afterward comforting. And it is wonderful to see him, who entered the service of the Gospel by the force of a bodily affliction, laboring in it more than all those who are called by word alone (1 Corinthians 15:10).ⁱ

Why, then, should the Church not compel her lost sons to return, when her lost sons compelled others to perish?

Remigius of Auxerre: It follows, And in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, "First gather the tares and bind them in bundles to be burned." The harvest is the season of reaping, which here designates the day of judgment, in which the good are to be separated from the bad.

St. John Chrysostom: But why does He say, First gather the tares? So that the good should have no fear that the wheat might be uprooted with them.

St. Jerome: When He says that the bundles of tares are to be thrown into the fire and the wheat gathered into barns, it is clear that heretics and hypocrites are to be consumed in the fires of hell, while the saints, who are represented here by the wheat, are received into the barns—that is, into heavenly mansions.

St. Augustine of Hippo: It may be asked why He commands more than one bundle or heap of tares to be formed. Perhaps it is because of the variety of heretics, who differ not only from the wheat but also among themselves. Each individual heresy, separated from communion with all the others, is designated as a "bundle." Perhaps they even begin to be bound together for burning when they first sever themselves from the Catholic communion and start to have their own independent church. If so, it is the burning, not the binding into bundles, that will take place at the end of the world.⁸

But if this were so, there would not be so many who become wise again and return from error to the Catholic Church. Therefore, we must understand the binding into bundles to be what will happen in the end, so that punishment will fall on them not indiscriminately, but in proportion to the obstinacy and willfulness of each separate error.

Rabanus Maurus: And it should be noted that when He says, sowed good seed, He intends the good will that is in the elect. When He adds, an enemy came, He implies that we should keep watch against him. When He patiently allows the tares to grow up, saying, An enemy has done this, He recommends patience to us. When He says, Lest perhaps in gathering the tares..., He gives us an example of discretion. When He says, Let both grow together until the harvest, He teaches us long-suffering. And finally, He impresses justice upon us when He says, Bind them in bundles to be burned.

St. John Chrysostom: Since the Lord had said above that three parts of the seed perish and only one is preserved—and of that one part, much is lost because of the tares sown over it—He removes this reason for fear with the parable of the mustard seed, so that no one might ask, "Who then, and how many, will be the ones who believe?"

Therefore it is said, Another parable He put forth to them, saying, "The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed."

St. Jerome: The kingdom of heaven is the preaching of the Gospel and the knowledge of the Scriptures which leads to life, about which it is said to the Jews, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you (Matthew 21:43). It is the kingdom of heaven, understood in this way, that is compared to a grain of mustard seed.

St. Augustine of Hippo: A grain of mustard seed can refer to the warmth of faith or to its property as an antidote to poison.¹

It follows, Which a man took and sowed in his field.

St. Jerome: The man who sows is understood by most to be the Savior, who sows the seed in the minds of believers. Others understand it to be the man himself who sows in his field—that is, in his own heart. Who indeed is the sower but our own mind and understanding, which, receiving the grain of preaching and nurturing it with the dew of faith, makes it spring up in the field of our own breast?

Which is the least of all seeds. The Gospel preaching is the least of all the systems of the schools. At first glance, it does not even appear to be true, announcing a man as God, God put to death, and proclaiming the offense of the cross. Compare this teaching with the dogmas of the philosophers—with their books, the splendor of their eloquence, and the polish of their style—and you will see how the seed of the Gospel is the least of all seeds.

St. John Chrysostom: Or, the seed of the Gospel is the least of seeds because the disciples were weaker than the rest of mankind; yet since there was great power in them, their preaching spread throughout the whole world.

And therefore it follows, But when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs—that is, among dogmas.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Dogmas are the decisions of sectsⁱ, that is, the points that they have determined.

St. Jerome: For when the dogmas of philosophers have grown, they show nothing of life or strength; instead, watery and bland, they grow into grasses and other greens that quickly dry up and wither away. But the Gospel preaching, though it seems small in its beginning, when sown in the mind of the hearer or in the world, grows not into a garden herb but a tree, so that the birds of the air (which we must understand to be either the souls of believers or the powers of God set free from slavery) come and dwell in its branches.

The branches of the Gospel tree, which have grown from the grain of mustard seed, I suppose, signify the various dogmas in which each of the birds (as explained above) takes its rest.ⁱ

Let us then take the wings of a dove, so that flying high we may dwell in the branches of this tree, make ourselves nests of doctrines, and, soaring above earthly things, hasten toward what is heavenly.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Or, the Lord compares Himself to a grain of mustard seed, sharp to the taste and the least of all seeds, whose strength is extracted by bruising.

St. Gregory the Great: Christ Himself is the grain of mustard seed who, planted in the garden of the sepulcher, grew up a great tree. He was a grain of seed when He died and a tree when He rose again; a grain of seed in the humiliation of the flesh, a tree in the power of His majesty.²

St. Hilary of Poitiers: This grain, then, when sown in the field—that is, when seized by the people, delivered to death, and, as it were, buried in the ground by the sowing of His body—grew beyond the size of all herbs and exceeded all the glory of the prophets.

For the preaching of the prophets was given, as it were, like herbs to a sick man; but now the birds of the air lodge in the branches of the tree. By this we understand the Apostles, who, drawing on Christ's power and overshadowing the world with their branches, are a tree to which the Gentiles flee in hope of life. After being tossed for a long time by the winds (that is, by the spirits of the devil), they may find rest in its branches.

St. Gregory the Great: The birds lodge in its branches when holy souls, who raise themselves high above earthly thoughts on the wings of the virtues, find relief from the troubles of this life in their words and comforts.