And he dug it, and gathered out its stones, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress in it: and he expected that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.
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Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
He fenced it [the church] in with a rampart, as it were of heavenly precepts and with the angels standing guard, for “the angel of the lord shall encamp round about them that fear him.” He placed in the church a tower, so to speak, of apostles, prophets and teachers, ready to defend the peace of the church. He dug around it, when he had freed it from the burden of earthly anxieties. For nothing burdens the mind more than exaggerated solicitude for the world and desire either for wealth or for power. - "Six Days of Creation 3.12.50"
And in Isaiah it says, “I will sing to my beloved a song of my beloved touching my vineyard. My beloved has a vineyard.” Who is the “Beloved” other than the only-begotten Son? - "Four Discourses Against the Arians 4.24"
So let me warn you, holy seedlings, let me warn you, fresh plants in the field of the Lord, not to have it said of you what was said of the vineyard of the house of Israel: “I expected it to produce grapes, but it produced thorns.” Let the Lord find good bunches of grapes on you, seeing that he was himself a bunch of grapes trodden in the winepress for you. Produce grapes, live good lives. - "Sermon 376a2"
[God] calls us to produce much fruit so that we will not be cast into the fire because we do not. He constantly compares human souls with vines. He says, “My beloved has a vineyard on a hill in a fruitful place.” And, “I planted a vineyard and put a hedge around it.” Obviously he called human souls the vineyard, around which he puts the security of his commandments and his angels as a hedge.… He desires that we also hold fast to our neighbors with love like vines, and to rest on them, with the highest desires, in order that we may reach the greatest heights of lofty teachings, like climbing vines.… Our soul is “dug around” when we lay aside the cares of the world that burden our hearts. Therefore, the one who has laid aside carnal love and the desire of possessions and has deemed desire for small glory of greatest contempt has been dug around and liberated from the vain burden of the spirit of the world. - "Homilies on the Hexaemeron 5.6"
Stones. They burn and starve in different seasons, Colossians xii. 3.
Choicest. Hebrew sorek. (Haydock)
There was a famous valley of this name, Judges xvi. 4. The angels guarded the vineyard, in which Abraham, Moses, were found.
Tower. To keep the wine, Matthew xxi. 33. It denotes the temple, (Calmet) Scriptures (Menochius)
Wild. Sour, Deuteronomy xxxii. 32.
The prophet sings a sorrowful song to the people of Israel, a song that he composed about the one of whom it is written in the Gospel: “When he saw her,” referring beyond doubt to Jerusalem, “he wept over her and said, ‘Would that you knew what will bring you peace, because the days are coming when your enemies will surround you and prevail over you and flatten both you and your children.’ ” And again: “How often have I desired to gather your children like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not? Behold, your deserted house is abandoned,” which is similar to what was said in the current song: “I will abandon the vineyard.” But that Christ is called beloved and most dear, which Aquila understood to mean patradelphon, kindred through a father, the forty-fourth psalm teaches us in its inscription, “A song for the beloved,” as does the voice of God the Father in the Gospel: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am pleased.” We also read in the sixty-seventh psalm: “The L...
