Matthew 20:6 — Community Reflections

MATTHEW 20:6 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle?”

And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them: why do you stand here idle all day? The eleventh hour (about 5 PM) workers are found still unemployed — they have stood in the marketplace all day without being hired. The question why do you stand here idle all day is not a rebuke but an inquiry: they have not been hired despite their availability.

Church Fathers on Matthew 20:6

To establish the truth of this saying, 'There are many first that shall be last, and last first,' the Lord subjoins a similitude.
Remigius · 9th century

The Master of the household is Christ, whose house are the heavens and the earth; and the creatures of the heavens, and the earth, and beneath the earth, His family. His vineyard is righteousness, in which are set divers sorts of righteousness as vines, as meekness, chastity, patience, and the other virtues; all of which are called by one common name righteousness.
Pseudo-Chrysostom · 5th century

Or; The Master of the household, that is, our Maker, has a vineyard, that is, the Church universal, which has borne so many stocks, as many saints as it has put forth from righteous Abel to the very last saint who shall be born in the end of the world. To instruct this His people as for the dressing of a vineyard, the Lord has never ceased to send out His labourers; first by the Patriarchs, next by the teachers of the Law, then by the Prophets, and at the last by the…
Gregory the Great · 6th century · Hom. in Ev., xix, 1

Read all 47 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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