Wisdom And Meaning

Simile est regnum coelorum homini patrifamilias qui exiit primo mane conducere operarios in vineam suam ... Vere, dilectissimi, multiformis est, cum sit tamen simplicissima Dei sapientia, et cum sit uniformiter una, multipliciter tamen multiplex invenitur. Pertransibunt, inquit prophet, plurimi, et multiplex erit scientia. Ipsa nimirum est, quae jure dicitur fons hortorum, et puteus aquarum viventium; fons ob inexhaustam jugitatem; puteus ob incomprehensibilem profunditatem. Et hoc aquarum viventium, id est sensuum semper scatentium. Unde eadem parabolem, vel etiam quae evidens videtur Scriptura, ab aliis et aliis aliter atque aliter recte exponitur ac disseritur, neque tamen ab ullis funditus exhauritur, quasi totum quod inde dici potest sic dixerit prior, ut praeter hoc quid dicat, nequeat invenire posterior. Quidquid enim dici de aliqua re sapienter ac veraciter potest aliquo modo, totum in aeterna sapientia et veritate simul et semper omnimodis ab aeterno est. Quare cum per aliquem loquitur Spiritus, qui profunda Dei non investigando, sed continendo scrutatur, de quo dictum est: Qui continet omnia, scientiam habet vocis, omnia quidem, quae voce illa aliquatenus veraciter ac utiliter dici possunt, simul sentit, intelligit, intendit, eo per quem loquitur, quandoque ab ipso intellectu vacuo, quandoque uno sensu contento, nonnunquam pluribus simul illustrato, nunquam tamen omnibus repleto. Unde possibile factu saepe est, in eadem Scriptura dissentientes vel diversa sentientes, Spiritui sancto posse optime convenire, vel consentre, dum a fide veritatis, et aedificatione charitatis, ac subversione cupiditatis, quibus omnis oculus Scripturae sanctae invigilat, constiterit non dissentire. Nam et unusquilibiet de eodem aliter atque aliter, alias atque alias, nec tamen alio atque alio spiritu sentit, dum utrobique, ut dictum est, veritati charitatique consentit. Neque enim veritas asserenda est contra charitatem: aut charitas tenenda est contra veritatem. Haec ideo quasi in praefatiuncula paucis perstrinximus, ne cum secus ac alias audistis, aut penes alios legistis, aliqua nos audere noveritis, quispiam suspicetur, vel vetera nos prorsus ignorare, vel agnita temnere, vel novis propriisque inaniter gaudere. Attendenda magis ubique diligenti auditori erit ratio dicti ex causa dicendi. Non enim sancti Evangelii lectiones tam suscepimus exponere, quam accepta abinde occasione ad aedificationem fratrum, et nostram, aliquid pro tempore, loco, et personis dicere, quem non sinitis vobiscum silere. Hortatur tamen Apostolus, ne ullam Dei gratiam in vacuum accipiamus, imo et David, ne ipsam animam, dicens: Qui non accepit in vanum animan suam, id est intellectum rationalem. Apud Evangelium quoque omne talentum duplicatum reposcitur. Filius etiam promissionis et paternos puteos coluit, ac sibi novos effodit. Isaac, Cisterciensis Abbas, Sermo XVI Source: Migne PL 194.1741a-1742a

The kingdom of heaven is like a rich man who went out at dawn to hire workers for his vineyard... 1 The wisdom of God, most beloved, is indeed multifaceted and yet most simple, and is found to be both uniformly one and yet manifold. The prophet says, 'Many will pass through and knowledge will be multiplied.' 2 Wisdom is indeed rightly said to be 'a fountain amid gardens, and a well of living waters.' 3 A fountain because it always flows, a well because of its inconceivable depth. And this well of living waters is ever bubbling up with meaning. Whence this parable seems to be a straightforward piece of Scripture, but it is rightly expounded and commented on by different authors in different ways, and yet none of them exhaust its depths so that all that is possible to say of it was said before, because of which no one at a later time is able to say anything more. Whatever may be said of anything in wisdom and truth, whatever form it has, at once in every possible way, is wholly contained in eternal truth and wisdom and exists from eternity. When the Spirit speaks through someone, he is not investigating the deep things of God but scrutinizing what is contained, 4 concerning which it is said, 'He who contains everything has the knowledge of the voice,' 5 everything which with that voice it is possible to speak in truth and usefully, He knows, understands, intends. Now sometimes the one through whom He speaks has no understanding at all, and sometimes he grasps one meaning, and sometimes he is enlightened by many meanings at the same time, but no one is filled with all the meaning. Whence it is often possible that the same passage of Scripture with contrasting or differing meanings may truly be ascribed to the Holy Spirit and find agreement there, while there is no dispute with the true faith and the edification of love and the overthrow of lust, over which whole the eye of Scripture watches. For anyone who treats the same piece in different ways at different times, not however understanding it in a different spirit, conforms to truth and love. For truth never makes claims against love and love never holds out against truth. We have made this little introduction so that if you have heard differently, or read differently, you are aware that in whatever is taken up, I do not venture to scorn those of old, or disdain what is known, or foolishly rejoice in my own novelties. Rather it is for the diligent listener to attend to the meaning of what is said and the cause of saying it. For we do not so much take all readings from the Gospel to expound them, but to make use of the occasion for the edification of brothers, and ourselves, speaking according to the time, the place and the persons, you who will not allow us to be silent. The Apostle exhorts us not to receive the grace of God in vain, 6 and David speaks similarly of our own souls when he says: 'He who does not receive his soul in vain.' 7 Also in the Gospel there is the demand for talents to be doubled. 8 And the son of the promise guarded the wells of his father and dug new ones for himself. 9 Isaac of Stella, from Sermon 16 1 Mt 20.1 2 Dan 12.4 3 Song 4.15 4 1 Cor 2.10 5 Wis 1.7 6 2 Cor 6.1 7 Ps 24.4 8 Mt 25.20 9 Genes 26.18