Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who has ears to hear, let him hear.
Read Chapter 13
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
Cont. Faust., xviii, 7: The tares the Lord expounds to mean, not as Manichaeusinterprets, certain spurious parts inserted among the true Scriptures, but allthe children of the Evil one, that is, the imitators of the fraud of the Devil. As it follows, “The tares are the children of the evil one,” by whom He would have us understand all the wicked and impious.
Quaest. Ev., i, 10: For all weeds among corn are called tares.
It follows, “The enemy who sowed this is the Devil. ”The harvest is the end of the world. "In another place He says, speaking of the Samaritans, “Lift up your eyes, and consider the fields that they are already white for the harvest;” in which words He speaks of the harvest as being already present. How then does He here speak of it as something yet to come? Because He has used the figure of the harvest in two significations;, as He says there that it is one that soweth, and another that reapeth; but hereit is the same who both sows and reaps; indeed there He brings for...
Non occ.: “The offences”, and, “them that do iniquity,” are to be distinguished as heretics and schismatics; the “offences” referring to heretics; while by "them that do iniquity” are to be understood schismatics.Otherwise; By “offences” may be understood those that give their neighbour an occasion of falling, by “those that do iniquity” all other sinners.
The Lord sends away the multitude, and enters the house that His disciples might come to Him and ask Him privately of those things which the people neither deserved to hear, nor were able.
The offences are to be referred to the tares.
Not because it will be just so much only, but because this star is surpassed in brightness by none that we know. He uses the comparisons that are known to us.
And yet surely elsewhere He says, the harvest is already come; as when He says of the Samaritans, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. John 4:35 And again, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. How then says He there, that the harvest is already come, while here He said, it is yet to be? According to another signification.
And how having elsewhere said, One sows, and another reaps, John 4:37 does He here say, it is Himself that sows? Because there again, He was speaking, to distinguish the apostles, not from Himself, but from the prophets, and that in the case of the Jews and Samaritans. Since certainly it was He who sowed through the prophets also.
And at times He calls this self-same thing both harvest and sowing, naming it with relation, now to one thing...
Before, though desirous to learn, they had feared to ask; but now they ask freely and confidently because they had heard, “To you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of heaven;” and therefore they ask when alone, not envying the multitude to whom it was not so given. They pass over the parables of the leaven and the mustard-seed as plain; and ask concerning the parable of the tares, which has some agreement with the foregoing parable concerning the seed, and shows somewhat more than that. And accordingly the Lord expounds it to the m, as it follows, “He answered and said unto them, He that sows the good seed is the Son of man.”.
“The field is the world.” Seeing it is He that sows His own field, it is plain that this present world is His. It follows, “The good seed are the children of the kingdom.”.
Behold the unspeakable love of God towards men! He is ready to show mercy, slow to punish; when He sows, He sows Himself; when He punishes, He punishes byothers, sending His Angel...
Figuratively; Having sent away the multitude of unquiet Jews, He enters the Church of the Gentiles, and there expounds to believers heavenly sacraments, whence it follows, “And his disciples came to him, saying, Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.”.
Observe, He says, “Those that do iniquity,” not, those who have done; because not they who have turned to penitence, but they only that abide in their sins are to be delivered to eternal torments.
That is, Let him understand who has understanding, because all these things are to be understood mystically, and not literally.
The Lord styles Himself the Son of Man, that in that title He might set an example of humility; or perhaps because it was to come to pass that certain heretics would deny Him to be really man; or that through belief in His Humanity we might ascend to knowledge of His Divinity.
That is, the saints, and elect men, who are counted as sons.
By the harvest is denoted the day of judgment, in which the good are to be separated from the evil; which will be done by the ministry of Angels, as it is said below, that the Son of Man shall come to judgment with His Angels. "As then the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his Angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all offences, andthem which do iniquity.”.
In these words is shown the reality of the resurrection of the body; and further, the twofold pains of hell, extreme heat, and extreme cold. And as the offences are referred to the tares, so the righteous are ...
Since the sun appears brighter to us than all the stars, He compares the radiance of the righteous to the sun. For they will shine more resplendently than the sun. Since, perhaps, Christ is the Sun of Righteousness, so the righteous will shine as Christ Himself, for they, too, will be gods.
