The Vineyard And The Workers

Simile est regnum coelorum homini patrifamilias qui exiit primo mane conducere operarios in vineam suam. Conventione autem facta cum operariis ex denario diurno, misit eos in vineam suam. Et egressus circa horam tertiam, vidit alios stantes in foro otiosos, et dixit illis: Ite et vos in vineam meam, et quod justum fuerit, dabo vobis. Illi autem abierunt. Iterum autem exiit circa sextam et nonam horam, et fecit similiter. Circa undecimam vero exiit, et invenit alios stantes, et dicit illis: Quid hic statis tota die otiosi? Dicunt ei: Quia nemo nos conduxit. Dicit illis: Ite et vos in vineam meam. Cum sero autem factum esset, dicit Dominus vineae procuratori suo: Voca operarios, et redde illis mercedem, incipiens a novissimis usque ad primos. Cum venissent ergo qui circa undecimam horam venerant, acceperunt singulos denarios. Venientes autem et primi, arbitrati sunt quod plus essent accepturi. Acceperunt autem et ipse singulos denarios. Et accipientes murmurabant adversus patrem familias, dicentes: Hi novissimi una hora fecerunt, et pares illos nobis fecisti, qui portavimus pondus diei et aestus? At ille, respondens uni eorum, dixit: Amice, non facio tibi injuriam. Nonne ex denario convenisti mecum? Tolle quod tuum est, et vade. Volo autem et huic novissimo dare sicut et tibi. Aut non licet mihi quod volo facere? An oculus tuus nequam est quia ego bonus sum? Sic erunt novissimi primi, et primi novissimi. Multi enim sunt vocati, pauci vero electi. Possumus vero et easdem diversitates horarum, etiam ad unumquemque hominem per aetatum momenta distinguere. Mane quippe intellectus nostri pueritia est. Hora autem tertia adolescentia intelligi potest, quia quasi jam sol in altum proficit, dum calor aetatis crescit. Sexta vero juventus est, quia velut in centro sol figitur, dum in ea plenitudo roboris solidatur. Nona autem senectus intelligitur, in qua sol velut ab alto axe descendit, quia ea aetas a calore juventutis deficit. Undecima vero hora ea est aetas quae decrepita vel veterana dicitur. Unde Graeci valde seniores, non gerontos sed presbiteros appellant, ut plus quam senes esse insinuent quos provectiores vocant. Quia ergo ad vitam bonam alius in pueritia, alius in adolescentia, alius in juventute, alius in senectute, alius in decrepita aetate perducitur, quasi diversis horis operarii ad vineam vocantur. Mores ergo vestros, fratres charissimi, aspicite, et si jam Dei operarii estis videte. Penset unusquisque quid agat, et consideret si in Domini vinea laboret. Qui enim in hac vita ea quae sua sunt quaerit adhuc ad Dominicam vineam non venit. Illi namque Domino laborant, qui non sua, sed lucra dominica cogitant, qui zelo charitatis, studio pietatis inserviunt, animabus lucrandis in vigilant, perducere et alios secum ad vitam festinant. Nam qui sibi vivit, qui carnis suae voluptatibus pascitur, recte otiosus redarguitur, quia fructum divini operis non sectatur. Qui vero et usque ad aetatem ultimam Deo vivere neglexerit, quasi usque ad undecimam otiosus stetit. Unde recte usque ad undecimam torpentibus dicitur: Quid hic statis tota die otiosi? Ac si aperte dicatur: Et si Deo vivere in pueritia et iuventute noluistis, saltem in ultima aetate resipiscite, et ad vitae vias cum iam laboraturi multum non estis, vel sero venite. Et tales ergo paterfamilias vocat, et plerumque ante remunerantur, quia prius ad regnum de corpore exeunt quam hi qui iam a pueritia vocati esse videbantur. An non ad undecimam horam venit latro, qui etsi non habuit per aetatem, habuit tamen sero per poenam, qui Deum in cruce confessus est, et pene cum voce sententiae spiritum exhalavit vitae? A novissimo autem reddere denarium paterfamilias coepit, quia ad paradisi requiem prius latronem quam Petrum perduxit. Quanti patres ante legem, quanti sub lege fuerunt, et tamen hi qui in Domini adventu vocati sunt ad coelorum regnum sine aliqua tarditate pervenerunt. Eumdem ergo denarium accipiunt qui laboraverunt ad undecimam quem exspectaverunt toto desiderio qui laboraverunt ad primam, quia aequalem vitae aeternae retributionem sortiti sunt cum his qui a mundi initio vocati fuerant, hi qui in mundi fine ad Dominum venerunt. Unde et hi qui in labore praecesserant, murmurantes dicunt: Hi novissimi una hora fecerunt, et pares illos nobis fecisti qui portavimus pondus diei et aestus? Pondus enim diei et aestus portaverunt hi quos a mundi initio, quia diu hic contigit vivere, necesse fuit etiam longiora carnis tentamenta tolerare. Unicuique enim pondus diei et aestus ferre est per longioris vitae tempora carnis suae calore fatigari. Sanctus Gregorius Magnus, Homiliarum in Evangelia Liber I, Homilia XIX Source: Migne PL 76.1155b-1152b

The kingdom of heaven is like to a householder who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. And having agreed a price with the labourers, he sent them to his vineyard. Then going out about the third hour, he saw others standing about idle in the market place and he said to them, 'Go also to my vineyard and I will give you what will be fair,' and they went. Then again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour and did the same. But about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around, and he said to them, 'Why stand here idle all day long?' They said to him, 'Because no man has hired us. 'He said to them, 'Go also into my vineyard.' When evening had come, the lord of the vineyard said to his steward, 'Call the labourers and pay them their hire, beginning from the last even to the first.' When therefore they had come, each one of those who came about the eleventh hour received a coin. And when the first also came, they thought that they should receive more, but each one of them also received a coin. And receiving this they murmured against the master of the house, saying, 'These who came last have worked but one hour and you have made them equal to us who have endured the burden of the day and the heat. But in answer he said to one of them, 'Friend, I do you no harm. Did you not agree to come with me for a price? Take what is yours and go. I will give to those who come last even as I give to you. Or is it not permitted that I may do as I wish? Is your eye evil because I am good? So the last shall be first and the first shall be last. For many are called, but few are chosen. 1 In these different hours of the parable we can distinguish the different times of a man's life. Certainly the morning is to be understood as our childhood. The third hour can be understood as youth, because as the sun advances toward its height, so the heat of the time grows. The sixth hour is manhood, because the sun is fixed at its peak and there is firmness in an abundance of strength. The ninth hour is understood as middle age, when the sun is as declining from its height, because in that time the youthfulness of the heart declines. The eleventh hour is that time which is called decrepitude or advanced old age. In Greek such men are not called 'aged,' but 'elders,' so that there it is more than mere old age that is alluded to in those who have advanced so far. Because, then, as regards the good life, some are in childhood, and some are in youth, and some are in manhood, and some are in middle age, and others have reached old age, so the workers are called to the vineyard at different times. Look, therefore, to the ways of your life, most dearest brothers, and see if you are now workers for the Lord. Let each one think on how he conducts himself and consider if he labours in the vineyard of the Lord. He who seeks out the things of this life has not yet come to the vineyard of the Lord. For they who labour for the Lord do not think of their own advantage but the Lord's, and those who serve with a zeal for charity and an eagerness of piety, watching over their soul's enrichment, hasten to lead others to life with them. For he who lives for himself, he feeds on the pleasures of his own flesh, and rightly he is reproved as an idle fellow, because he does not seek the fruit of Divine work. So those who neglect to live for God until final old age are as those who stand idle at the eleventh hour. Whence rightly it is said to those lazy ones at the eleventh hour, 'Why stand here idle all day long?' As if it were said more plainly, 'Even if you were unwilling to live for God in your childhood and when you were younger, now look to yourselves in your old age, how you have not laboured in the ways of life at all, or how lately you come.' Yet the master calls such fellows, and many of them receive the reward first, because they first went out of the body to the kingdom before those who were seen to have been called from childhood. The thief did not come until the eleventh hour, who even if not advanced in age was made late by his punishment, he who confessed God on the cross, and indeed with the voice of understanding exhaled the spirit of life. 3 The master begins to give reward from the last, because the thief came to the rest of paradise before Peter. How many fathers there were before the law, and how many under the law, and how many who were there at the coming of the Lord, who were called to the kingdom of heaven and went without any delay. Therefore those who laboured at the eleventh hour receive the same payment which they hoped for with all their hearts, and it is the same as those who laboured from the first hour, because they are all given the equal reward of eternal life, they who were all called from beginning of the world, 3 who at the end of the world have come to God. Whence those who went first to their labours, murmuring said, 'These who have come last have worked only for an hour, and you have given the same to them as those who bore the burden and the heat of the day?' Yet even these who came last have borne the burdens of the heat of the day from the beginning of the world, because while they lived there it was necessary that they endure the long trials of the flesh. Each type has his burden and bears the heat, struggling in the sweat of his flesh through life's duration. Saint Gregory the Great, Homilies On The Gospels, Book 1, from Homily 19 1 Mt 20.1-16 2 Lk 23.39-43 3 Ephes 1.4