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Homilies on the Gospels

St Gregory the Dialogist, tr. Burke, 1960; selections

2. The Labourers in the Vineyard

The kingdom of heaven is like to an householder who went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. And, having agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And, going out about the third hour, he saw others standing in the market place idle. And he said to them: Go you also into my vineyard and I will give you what shall be just. And they went their way. And again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour and did in like manner. But about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he saith to them: Why stand you here all the day idle? They say to him: Because no man hath hired us. He saith to them: Go you also into my vineyard. And, when evening was come, the lord of the vineyard saith to his steward: Call the labourers and pay them their hire, beginning from the last even to the first. When therefore they were come that came about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But, when the first also came, they thought that they should receive more; and they also received every man a penny. And, receiving it, they murmured against the master of the house, saying: These last have worked but one hour; and thou hast made them equal to us that have borne the burden of the day and the heats. But he answering said to one of them: Friend, I do thee no wrong. Didst thou not agree with me for a penny? Take what is thine and go thy way. I will also give to this last even as to thee. Or is it not lawful for me to do what I will? Is thy eye evil, because I am good? So shall the last be first and the first last. For many are called but few chosen.
Mt. xx, 1-16.

Homilia XIX in Evangelia.

This passage of the holy Gospel calls for considerable explanation, which, lest I should burden your attention, I shall make as brief as possible. The kingdom of heaven is compared to a householder who hires labourers to work in his vineyard. Whom can this householder represent if not our Creator, who governs all those whom he made, who is master of his elect in this world as a householder is master of the servants in his house? He is owner of the vineyard, that is, the universal church which, from the just Abel to the last of the elect to be born at the end of the world, has produced many saints, like so many vine-branches. This householder sends workers to his vineyard in the morning, at the third, sixth, ninth and eleventh hours, because from the beginning of the world to the end he has not failed to send teachers to instruct the faithful. The morning of the world was from Adam until Noah: the third hour from Noah to Abraham: the sixth from Abraham to Moses: the ninth from Moses to the coming of Jesus Christ and the eleventh from the coming of Christ until the end of the world. At this last hour he sent the apostles who, coming so late, nonetheless received the full reward. God has never ceased to send labourers to instruct the faithful, as it were to cultivate his vineyard: for first through the patriarchs, then through the prophets and doctors of the law and lastly through the apostles, according as he gradually perfected the conduct of his people, he has laboured in his vineyard. Yet anyone who lives in good faith and with a right intention can be considered, to a greater or lesser degree, as a labourer in this vineyard. The worker of the first hour, of the third, the sixth and the ninth, represents the ancient Hebrew people who, while they honoured and revered their God with purity of heart, persevered in the cultivation of the vineyard from the beginning of the world. At the eleventh hour the gentiles have been called with these words: “Why stand you here all the day idle?” For these, so long after the creation of the world, still did not work for their living and were, so to speak, standing all the day idle. Meditate well, brethren, on their reply to this question: “They say to him: Because no man hath hired us.” No patriarch had come to them, nor any prophet. And what do these words mean: No man hath hired us, but no one has preached the paths of life to us? What shall we say in our own excuse, if we do not work, we who received our faith simultaneously with our birth, who have heard the words of life from our cradle, who drank the milk of heavenly teaching from the breasts of our holy church before our mothers had weaned us?

We may also apply these diverse hours to the different ages or stages in the life of every man. The morning of our intelligence is childhood. The third hour can be understood to mean adolescence, because when the sun climbs high in the heavens the heat of age increases. The sixth hour is youth because, like the sun which seems to have reached its zenith, in human life vigour is then in its plenitude. The ninth hour represents old age when, like the sinking sun, the fire of youth declines. The eleventh hour is what is called senility. As some are drawn to a good life in childhood, others in adolescence, others in youth, others in old age and some in decrepitude, it is as if the labourers were summoned at differing hours to the vineyard. Examine your behaviour then, brethren, and see whether you are yet God’s labourers. Let each one think over his conduct and see whether he is working in the vineyard of the Lord. He who in this life still searches for what is his own, has not yet entered God’s vineyard. For only those are true workers of his, who consider his gain and not their own, who serve him with the zeal of charity and the desire to progress in virtue, watchful to gain souls for God and try to take others with them towards eternal life. But he who lives for himself, who feeds upon the luxuries of the flesh, is rightly reproached with his idleness since he does not tend the fruit of God’s service.

He who neglects to live for God until he is nearing the end of his days stands idle, so to speak, until the eleventh hour. So that with good reason one may say to those who have been lazy all their lives: “Why stand you here all the day idle?” As if to say: “If you refused to live for God in childhood and in youth, at least repent in your last days before it is too late, and return to the path of Life when there is little time for labour left you.” These the householder calls also, and in general rewards them before the others, because they leave this life to enter the kingdom sooner than those who appeared to be called from childhood. Was not the conversion of the good thief an eleventh-hour return, not on account of his age but by the proximity of his death, when he professed belief in God upon the cross and breathed his last the next moment? The householder distributed the pennies beginning with the last worker who had entered the vineyard; for he brought the good thief, before Peter, to the repose of paradise. How many patriarchs there were before the announcement of the old law, how many afterwards, and nevertheless, those called to the kingdom of heaven at the coming of our Lord, arrived there without delay. Those who went to work at the eleventh hour received the same penny as those who worked from morning, because those who turn to God at the end of the world will receive the same reward of everlasting life as those who were called at the beginning. Hence the first who went to work said complaining: “These last have worked but one hour; and thou hast made them equal to us that have borne the burden of the day and the heats.” The burden of the day and the heats has been borne by all those who, at the beginning of the world when men lived longer, had to endure more prolonged temptations of the flesh. To suffer the burden of the day and the heats is the same as to tire oneself through a whole lifetime, in the heat of one’s flesh.

But we may ask: how is it said that they grumbled who themselves, although later, were called to the kingdom? No one who complains can enter the kingdom of heaven; no one who enters it can complain.

But as the fathers of old, who lived before the coming of Christ, were not brought to the kingdom by their holy lives alone, but by the death of him who opened the gates of paradise: their complaint would be that they lived a sanctity which merited heaven and nevertheless time passed without their entering it. Those who, after leading holy lives, went to the limbo of the just, can thus be said to have laboured in the vineyard and complained; and one may say that those receive the same payment after their complaint who attain heaven having passed a long time in limbo. We who come to labour at the eleventh hour do not complain when we have worked, and we receive the penny; because we who are born into the world since the coming of our Mediator are brought to the kingdom as soon as we are freed from our body, and we receive that without delay which the fathers merited to enjoy only after a long time had passed. So the householder says: “I will also give to this last even as to thee.” As the sharing of his kingdom is the fruit of the goodness of his will, he rightly adds: “Is it not lawful for me to do what I will?” It is foolish for man to complain of the benevolence of God. We cannot grumble if he does not give what he does not owe, but only if he fails to pay what is owing. So that Christ continues with striking aptitude: “Is thy eye evil because I am good?” Let no one be elated by his good works, nor by the length of time during which he has practised them, when he hears the Truth pronounce this phrase: “So shall the last be first and the first last.” See then that, although we know the number of our good works, we do not know how scrupulously the just judge will examine them. In any case we should rejoice exceedingly to be even the last in the kingdom of heaven.

And now what follows must inspire dread: “Many are called but few chosen”, because many indeed are called to the faith but few reach the heavenly kingdom. See how many of us have gathered in this church to celebrate to-day’s feast, we fill it to the doors; but who knows how few may be those who are counted among God’s elect? We all acknowledge Jesus Christ in word, but the lives of us all do not acknowledge him. The greater part follow God with their speech, but flee him with their conduct. This is what Paul means when he says: “They profess that they know God; but in their works they deny him.”¹ And James says: “Faith without works is dead.”² And the psalmist tells us: “I have declared, and I have spoken: they are multiplied above number.”³ The faithful multiply above number at the call of our Lord, because sometimes they also receive the faith who are never counted in the number of the elect. Here they are mingled with the faithful by means of their confession, but because of their perverse life they do not merit to be counted in their number hereafter. This sheepfold which is our holy church intermingles sheep with goats; but, as the Gospel tells us, when the just judge comes, he will separate the good from the wicked, just as the shepherd divides the sheep from the goats.⁴ For those who follow the pleasures of this world cannot be numbered in the kingdom among the sheep. There the just judge will separate the humble from those who are puffed up now with pride. They cannot receive the kingdom of heaven who, having received the gift of faith, labour assiduously in quest of the things of earth.

You see many of these in the church, of whom you must not despair although neither do you imitate their lives. We see what they are today, but we do not know what each one may be tomorrow. Sometimes he, whom we see follow us at a distance, will outstrip us in good works by industry and speed; and tomorrow we can hardly keep pace with him whom we seemed to excel but yesterday. When Stephen died for the faith, Saul kept the garments of those who stoned him; that is to say, Saul stoned him by the hands of all, because he enabled the others to throw the stones; and nonetheless in labouring for the church, he preceded even Stephen whom he had martyred. We should meditate, therefore, on two things above all others. The first is that, since many are called but few chosen, no one should feel sure of himself for, although he has been called to the faith, he does not know whether he is worthy of eternal life. The second is that no one should despair of his neighbour whom he sees, perhaps, plunged in vice, because no one can measure the depths of God’s mercy.

I am going to speak to you, brethren, of an incident which occurred a short time ago, so that if you see yourselves in your hearts as sinners, you may have greater love for the mercy of almighty God. This very year a man came to my monastery, seeking admission: this monastery you know is situated near the church of the blessed martyrs John and Paul. He was respectfully received, and lived in an edifying manner.⁵ A brother of his followed him to the monastery, but only corporally and not spiritually for, abhorring the life and the monastic habit, he lived in the monastery as a guest and refused to share the life of the other monks. He could not leave the monastery because, through lack of employment, he had not the means to live. His malice was burdensome to everyone, but all bore with him for the sake of his brother. He was proud and dissolute in his habits; he had no knowledge of an after-life, and mocked at those who tried to preach of it to him. He lived in the monastery in secular garb, was frivolous in his speech, restless, conceited, attentive to dress and dissipated in action. Last July he was stricken by the plague which you remember, and lay at death’s door. He was at his last gasp, and life could be felt only in his breast and tongue. All the monks were present, praying God to grant him a happy death. But he, suddenly seeing a dragon coming to devour him, began to cry out in a loud voice, saying: “See how I am given over to be swallowed by a dragon, which cannot devour me because you are present. What are you waiting for? Go, so that I may be eaten up.” When the monks advised him to make the sign of the cross, he answered as best he could: “I want to bless myself but I cannot, because the dragon is weighing me down. My face is covered with foam from his mouth, and his lips are suffocating me. See how he confines my arms; already my head is between his jaws.” As he spoke thus, pale, trembling and almost dead, all the monks began to pray with greater fervour, seeking to assist the dying man by their supplications. Suddenly, freed from the oppression of the dragon, he cried: “Thanks be to God. The dragon which held me prisoner has disappeared, is gone, fleeing from your prayers.” Then he made a vow to serve God and to become a monk. From that time onwards he endures fever and continual pains, for he was snatched from death, but not completely restored to life. As he was stained with serious and habitual guilt, he now suffers a continual infirmity; the life-giving fire of purification cleanses the hardness of his heart, for it is God’s will that great malice should be purged by great affliction. Who would have believed that he was to be preserved and converted? Who can justly weigh the infinite mercy of God? At the hour of his death this wicked youth saw the dragon whom he had served all his life. The vision did not herald his death but was meant to show him whom he had served; that knowing he might resist, and resisting he might overcome. He saw him who had enslaved him while invisible to him, that seeing him he might win freedom thereafter. What tongue can extol sufficiently the wonders of God’s mercy? What soul is not astonished on contemplating such great pity? Well had the psalmist considered the riches of God’s clemency when he said: “Unto thee, O my helper, will I sing, for thou art God, my defence, my God, my mercy.”⁶ So he who considered well the trials proper to this life calls God his helper, and since he receives us into eternal rest after we have passed through earthly afflictions, he also calls him his defence. But, remembering that God sees our wickedness, bears with our faults and nevertheless reserves rewards for us through penance, it was not enough for him to say that God is merciful, but he calls him mercy itself, saying: “My God, my mercy.” Let us try, then, to remember all the evil we have done and the benevolence of God; let us consider the depths of his mercy, since not only does he pardon our faults, but promises the heavenly kingdom to those who repent of them. Then let each and all of us say, with all the ardour of our souls: My God, my mercy, who liveth and reigneth, threefold in unity and one in trinity, for ever and ever. Amen.

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