Letter 21. To Damasus

In this letter Jerome, at the request of Damasus, gives a minutely detailed explanation of the parable of the prodigal son. The below translation made by ChatGPT 3.5 from this Latin text.

1. The questioning of your blessedness was a debate: and by asking questions, seeking the way was to give to the questions asked. Indeed, to the one who questions wisely, wisdom will be thought. You ask, "Who is this father in the Gospel who divides substance between two sons (Luke 15)? Who are the two sons? Who is older? Who is younger? How does the younger son waste the substance received with harlots? When he was hungry, he is appointed to the pigs and eats carob pods; he returns to his father: he receives a ring and a robe; and a fatted calf is sacrificed to him? Who the elder brother is, and how he envies his brother's acceptance? and other things which are more fully explained in the Gospel. You add moreover: I know that many have said different things on this reading: and have believed that the elder brother was a Jew and the younger brother a Gentile. But I ask, how can it be applied to the Jewish people: Behold, I have served you for so many years, and have never transgressed your commandment, and you have never given me a kid, that I might feast with my friends. And that: Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But, as you say, if we wish to make a parable about the just and the sinner, the just one cannot agree, that he would be saddened by the salvation of another, and especially of a brother. For if by the envy of the devil, death entered into the world; and those who are on his side imitate him, will the person of the just one be able to be adapted by such an enormous envy, that he stood outside, and obstinately resisted to the most merciful Father; and he alone, tormented by bitterness, did not want to participate in the joy of the house?

2. Therefore, just as in other parables which are not explained by the Savior, for what reason they were said, we are accustomed to inquire, so we must do in this one, why the Lord broke forth into words of this kind, and for what reason the likeness of an answer was offered. The scribes and the Pharisees murmured, saying, "Why does he receive sinners and eat with them?" (Luke 15:2) For the previous discourse had said, "Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus." Thus from this comes all their envy because the Lord did not avoid the company and banquet of those whom the precepts of the Law would condemn. And this is what Luke writes. Moreover, Matthew speaks thus: "While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples." (Matthew 9:10) When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." Mark also agrees in the same words. Therefore, as we said, every question arose from the Law. For the Law, in fact, was tenacious of justice, but had no mercy: But whoever was an adulterer, a murderer, a fraudster, and, to briefly say, was held by a mortal crime, was not released from the crime, he was ordered to pay an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life (Exod. 21). Therefore, all had turned away, at the same time they became useless: there was no one who did good, there was not even one (Psal. 13). "Where sin abounded, grace abounded even more." (Rom. 3:20). And, "God sent his son made of a woman" (Gal. 4.4), who, destroying the middle wall, made both one (Ephes. 2:2), and the severity of the Law was tempered by the grace of the Gospel. Hence Paul, writing to the Churches: "Grace to you," he said, "and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 1): grace which was not recompensed according to merit, but granted by the giver. But peace, by which we are reconciled to God, having the propitiator, our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave us our debts; and he erased the handwriting of death, which was against us, affixing it to the cross; and made a show of the principalities and powers, triumphing over them on the wood. But what greater mercy can there be, than for the Son of God, the Son of Man to be born? that He should endure the annoyances of ten months, (that) He should expect His birth, be wrapped in swaddling-clothes, be subject to (His) parents, pass through all ages, (and) after reproaches of words and blows and lashes, should also be made a curse for us upon the cross, so that He might absolve us from the curse of the law; (that) having become obedient to the Father even to death, He might accomplish in His works, what He had before besought as mediator, saying: “Father, I will that where I am, they also whom Thou hast given Me may be with Me; that they may see My glory which Thou hast given Me, because Thou hast loved Me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24). Therefore, because He had come to accomplish what was impossible to the Law, since no one was justified by it, (oh) unpseakable mercy!, He called publicans and sinners to repentance, even seeking their company, so that they would be taught in their company; as anyone can understand who reads the Gospels with a careful mind, how His food and drink, His walking and His actions in His body brought about the salvation of mankind. Seeing this, the Scribes and Pharisees accused Him of breaking the Law: “Behold, a gluttonous man and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners” (Matthew 11:19). For before this, they reprimanded Him as to why He cared about (the healing) on the Sabbath. Therefore, the Lord, in order to overcome their accusation with a merciful argument, proposed three parables, one of which, there were ninety-nine sheep that were left in the mountains, and one that was lost, was carried back on the shoulders of the shepherd; another, of a drachma, which a woman searched for with a lighted lamp, and having found it, she invited her neighbors to rejoice, saying: “Rejoice with me, for I have found the drachma which I had lost” (Luke 15:9). And the third, of the two sons, about which you ordered me to say a few words.

3. And indeed, concerning the sheep and the drachma, although they may be understood as referring to one thing, there is not a debate about this of the time; it suffices to say only this, that these parables were proposed because, just as the joy of the angels is in the recovery of the sheep and the drachma and those who live nearby, so in the repentance of the tax collectors and sinners, there ought to be joy for all those for whom repentance is not necessary. Hence, I greatly wonder about Tertullian in that book that he wrote against repentance titled "On Purity," and he dissolves an old opinion with a novel perspective, as if he wanted to mean that the tax collectors and sinners who dined with the Lord were gentiles, the Scripture stating, "There shall be no tribute taken from Israelites" (Deut. 23:18, according to the LXX). [He acts] as if Matthew was not himself a Jewish tax collector, and that the one who, while praying with the Pharisee in the temple, dared not raise his eyes to heaven, was not a Jewish tax collector. [He acts] as if Luke did not state, "And all the people hearing, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John" (Luke 7:29), or as if it could not be believed that he entered a gentile temple or had a banquet with gentiles, especially since that would have appeared to violate the law. Indeed, he first went to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and he also answered a Canaanite woman praying for her daughter's health: "It is not fair to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." And elsewhere, he commanded his disciples not to enter into the way of the gentiles or into the cities of the Samaritans (Matthew 10:5). We are taught from all these that in publicans, not only of the Gentiles, but generally of all sins, that is, those who were both from the Gentiles and from the Jews, persons can be accepted. However, he who defended the insanity and blasphemy of his women, with that doctrine by which he would not receive repentant Christians, argued in vain that the publicans were not Jews, so that only the Gentile people could be understood in their person. Therefore, lest I make it long, I will present the words of the Gospel itself; and in the manner of a commentary, I will append to each individual thing what seems to me.

4. A certain man had two sons (Luke 15:11). That God is called man is approved by many testimonies, such as: "The testimony of two men is true. I testify about myself, and the Father who sent me testifies about me" (John 10:17-18). In one parable, he is called a shepherd, in another a head of a household; in another he leases a vineyard; in another he invites to a wedding feast, and by different similitudes, he signifies the same thing, to reprove the pride of the Jews and to approve the penance of all sinners, whether Gentiles or Israelites in common. The fact that he says, "two sons," nearly all the Scriptures are full of the sacraments of the calling of two peoples.

5. "And the younger of them said to his father: Father, give me the portion of substance that falleth to me. " The substance of God is everything that we live, understand, think, and speak. God has equally given all of these things to all and in general, the Evangelist says: "There was a true light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world" (John 1:9). This is the right eye, which must be observed against scandals: this is the lamp of the body: this is the talent that is not to be collected in a shroud, that is, handled delicately and idly; nor buried in the earth, that is, obscured by earthly thoughts.

6. He who divided their substance. In Greek it is read more significantly as 'divided life among them', that is, he gave them free will, gave them the freedom of their own minds, and so that each one might live not by the command of God but by his own obedience, that is, not by necessity, but by choice, that virtue might have a place, that we might differ from the other animals, and, as an example to us from God, we are permitted to do what we wish. Thus fair judgement is rendered on sinners, and just reward on the holy and just.

7. How are we with God, or depart from Him. - And not many days after, having gathered all things together, the younger son went abroad into a far country. If God holds the heavens in the palm, and the earth in a fist; and Jeremiah says, God is coming close: and not a God from afar (Jerem. 23): also through David, because no place exists without him, is proclaimed; how does a son go abroad and depart from his father? Therefore it must be understood, not by distance of places, but by affection, whether we are with God, or depart from Him. For even as He speaks to His disciples: Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world (Matth. 28.20): so He says to those who prefer their own boasting and do not merit being with the Lord. Depart from me, I never knew you, who operate iniquity (Ibid. 7. 23).

8. Therefore, the younger son departed with all his substance from his father, and went abroad. And Cain, departing from the face of the Lord, dwelt in the land of Nod, which is interpreted as shaking. Whoever departs from God is immediately shaken by the waves of the world, and his feet are moved. For after men from the east were moved and departed from the true light, then they, against God, built the tower of impiety; then they fabricated the arrogance of dogmas, desiring to penetrate the heights of heaven without lawful curiosity. And that place was called Babel, meaning confusion.

9. And there he squandered his wealth, living in luxury. Lust is hostile to God, hostile to virtues, it destroys all the substance of the father; and now gratifying the senses, it does not allow him to consider future poverty.

10. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country. He had received the faculties from his father that he might apprehend by the visible things the invisible things of God, and consequently apprehend the Creator by the beauty of creatures; but he who holds the truth captive in injustice and worships idols in place of the Creator consumed all those goods of nature: And when he had consumed all these things, he began to lack virtues, having abandoned the fountain of virtues. A severe famine arose in that region. Every place that we inhabit without our Father is a place of hunger, scarcity, and want. But this region in particular is characterized by extreme famine, of which the Prophet says: "You who dwell in the region of the shadow of death, a light shall shine upon you" (Isaiah 9:2). But there is another region, which we will possess if we live with a pure heart in the world, which Saint David desires, saying: "I believe I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living" (Psalm 26:13).

11. And he began to lack [necessities], and went away, and joined himself to one of the rulers of that region. Deserting the nurse, who at the first call had lavished all good things upon him, he joined the ruler of this world, that is, the Devil, the master of darkness. Whom Scripture now terms an enemy of men, now a judge of iniquity, now a dragon, now Satan, now a hammer, now a partridge, now Belial, now a roaring lion, now Leviathan, now Thannin, now Behemoth, and by many other names. But when it is said he joined himself to one of the rulers, it is to be understood that there are many, who fly through the air by his agency and bring human beings under their dominion through the vice he inspires in them.

12. Who sent him into his field to feed swine. The pigs are unclean animals, which delight in filth and dirt. Such is the multitude of demons, which is nourished through idols made by the blood of the cattle and victims; and at last, being fattened by some sort of offering, it is satiated by the death of a man himself. He sent him therefore into his possession, that is, he made him his servant, to feed swine, sacrificing his own soul to him.

13. And he desired to fill his stomach with the husks that the swine did eat; and no man gave unto him. In this, we see fulfilled what is said with reproach to Jerusalem in Ezekiel: And it is come to pass in thee, beyond the sins of thy youth, and beyond thy fornications which thou hast committed with the Egyptians, thou hast prostituted thyself to another, and wast not satisfied with this. In the parable of the prodigal son, he lost his substance in a far country and, after squandering his possessions, was sent to feed swine and fell into destitution. The food of demons is drunkenness, lust, fornication, and all vices. These are pleasing and sensual, and soothe the senses with pleasure; and as soon as they appear, they provoke the desire for them. Therefore, the lustful youth could not be satisfied, because pleasure always has hunger; and once it is fulfilled, it does not satisfy. And when Satan deceives someone by his cunning and imposes his own yoke upon him, he does not seek to increase the abundance of his vices, knowing that he is already dead, just as we see many idolaters who are exhausted by misery and destitution. Here is where the prophetic saying is fulfilled: “All prostitutes receive payment, but you have given your gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from everywhere for your sexual favors. So in your prostitution, you are the opposite of others; no one runs after you for your favors. You are the very opposite, for you give payment and none is given to you.” (Ezekiel 16:33) But we can also interpret these things in another way. The food of demons is the poems of the poets, secular wisdom, the showy speech of rhetoricians. All these things delight with their own charm, and while the ears are captivated by versified sweetness, they also penetrate the soul and subdue the innermost heart. However, once they have been read with the utmost zeal and labor, they give their readers nothing other than empty sound and the noise of words. No satiety of truth is found there, no refreshment of righteousness. Those who study them persist in a hunger for truth and a dearth of virtues. This wisdom is portrayed in Deuteronomy under the image of a captive woman, who, if she is to become the wife of an Israelite, must have her hair shaved, her nails pared, and her clothes exchanged, and must mourn for her parents for a month, after which she belongs to the captor. If we understand these things according to the letter, are they not ridiculous? And so we also do, when we read the philosophers, when books of secular wisdom come into our hands, if we find anything useful in them, we convert it to our dogma: but if anything is superfluous, about idols, about love, about the care of secular things, we weed them out, we induce baldness from them, we treat them like we would our fingernails with a sharp iron. Whence also the Apostle prohibits that someone should recline at the table with idols, saying: "But take heed lest perhaps this your liberty become a stumbling block to the weak. For if a man see him that hath knowledge sit at meat in the idol's temple, shall not his conscience, being weak, be emboldened to eat those things which are sacrificed to idols? And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ hath died." (1 Cor. 8: 9) Does it not seem to you to say in other words, do not read the philosophers, orators, poets; nor do we delight when we read what is written, if we do not believe it, since it wounds the conscience of others, and we are thought to approve of what we do not reject as we read it? Otherwise what will it be, that we may think that his Apostle, who ate in the idol's temple, approved his conscience, and called perfect the one who knew to eat of things immolated to idols? It is unlikely that a Christian mouth will utter, "Almighty Jupiter; and me, Hercules, and me, Castor," or any more monstrous thing than deity. But now we already see the priests of God, ignoring the Gospels and the Prophets, read comedies, sing the words of amorous Bucolics, embrace Virgil. And that which is a necessity in children, let it not become a source of pleasure and a sin in ourselves. Therefore, we must beware that, if we want to have a captive wife, we do not recline in the idol's temple; or if we are surely deceived by her love, we purify her and cleanse her of every error of filth, so that a brother for whom Christ died does not suffer scandal when he hears hymns composed in praise of idols being sung by a Christian mouth.

14. The hired workers - 'And he said, I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee; I am not worthy to be called thy son; make me as one of thy hired servants.' We understand the hired workers, according to another interpretation, to be the Jews who keep the precepts of the Law for only the sake of present blessings. These are just and merciful not because of justice itself or the very goodness of mercy, but to obtain from God earthly happiness and a long life. Whoever desires these things is deservedly compelled to obey precepts, lest by disregarding what is commanded, he be deprived of what he desires. Moreover, where there is fear, there is no love. Perfect love, indeed, casts out fear. For he who loves obeys not because he is compelled by fear of punishment or by the desire for reward, but because what is commanded by God is itself the best. Therefore, the meaning is this: 'How many of the Jews do not depart from the service of God for only present blessings, and I am worn out by poverty.'

15. "Rising, I will go to my father." He said beautifully, rising: indeed, he had not remained with his father absent. To lie down is for sinners, to stand is for the righteous. It is said to Moses, "But you stand here with me" (Deut. 5:31). And in the hundred and thirty-third Psalm: "Behold, now bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who stand in the house of the Lord," the Prophet exhorts those standing for the blessing of the Lord in the house of the Lord.

16. "And I will say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, I am not worthy to be called thy son." He had sinned against heaven who had abandoned his heavenly mother Jerusalem. He had sinned before the Father who, in the desert where the Creator had been worshiped with wood, had shown reverence. He was not worthy to be called the Son of God who had preferred to be a servant of idols. "For every one that doth evil, hateth the light, and cometh not to the light, that his works may not be reproved." (1 John 3:20)

17. Make me as one of your hired servants," he said. "Make me," he continued, "as one of the Jews, who revere you only for the sake of present things promised to them. Receive the repentant son, whom you have often spared, though he has sinned like your other hired servants.

18. "And he came to his own father." We come to the father, when we depart from the feeding of swine, according to: "As soon as you turn back and lament, you will be saved." (Ezekiel 18).

19. And when he was still far away, his father saw him and was moved with compassion. Before he returned to his old father with worthy deeds and true repentance, God, with whom all things are already done in the future, and who knows all future things, anticipates his coming with his Word, who took on flesh from the Virgin, and anticipates the return of his younger son.

20. "And he ran before and laid himself upon his neck." He came to the ground before he entered the house of confession. He laid himself upon his neck, that is, took on a human body. And just as John was reclining on the chest of Jesus (John 13), who was a partaker of his secrets, so he placed his light yoke, that is, his easy precepts of commandments, more by grace than by merit, upon the younger son.

21. "And he kissed him;" according to that which the Church prays for in the advent of the bridegroom in the Song of Songs: "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth" (Song 1:1). I do not want, he says, that through Moses, I do not want him to speak through the prophets: let him take my body, let him kiss me in the flesh: so that we may also adhere to this idea which is written in Isaiah: "If you seek, seek: and come and dwell with me in the grove" (Isaiah 21:12, according to LXX). And there, indeed, the Church is commanded to cry out, weeping from Seir; for Seir is interpreted as shaggy and hairy: to represent the ancient horror of the Gentiles, with a like similitude answering: "I am black, but comely, ye daughters of Jerusalem" (Song 1:4).

22. "But the son said to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, I am not worthy to be called thy son." He says he is not worthy to be called a son, and yet from the voice of nature, from that substance which the father had once bestowed upon him, he bursts forth trembling with the truth, saying, "Father, I have sinned against heaven." Therefore, some argue in vain that the name "Father" only applies to saints; for here he even calls God Father, who confesses himself unworthy of the name of son, unless, perchance, he dares to call him father because he is turned around in his mind.

23. But the father said to his servants: Bring forth quickly the first robe, and put it on him; the robe, which Adam lost by sinning, the robe which in another parable is called the wedding garment (Matthew 22), that is, the clothing of the Holy Spirit, which he who does not have, cannot attend the banquet of the king.

24. "And give the ring in his hand; the signet-ring of the likeness of Christ, according to that: In whom believing, you were signed with the Holy Spirit of promise. (Ephes. 1: 13). And to the prince of Tyre, who had lost the likeness of the Creator, it is said: You are the signet-ring of likeness, and the crown of beauty, born in the delights of the paradise of God. (Ezech. 28. 12-13) . Isaiah also speaks of this signet-ring: Then they shall manifest who are signed. This signet-ring is given in hand when the Scripture signifies the works of justice. For there: The word of the Lord was made into the hand of the prophet Haggai, saying to Jerusalem: I adorned you, says he, with ornaments, and I put bracelets around your hands. (Ezech. 16. 11). Again, to him who is clothed in a field, another place of the signet-ring is shown: Walk through the midst of Jerusalem, and give the signet-ring on the foreheads of the men who groan and mourn over all the iniquities that are committed in the midst of them. (Ibid. 9. 4) . Why? So that they may then say: The light of thy face, Lord, is signed upon us." (Psal. 4. 7).

25. "And his footwear on his feet. For the bridegroom had lost his dignity, and he could not celebrate Easter without shoes on his bare feet. These are the shoes that the Lord speaks of: 'And I clothed you with embroidered work, and shod you with seal skin, ... and shod your feet with shoes of badgers' skin' (Ezek. 16:10). .... so that He could be prepared for the Gospel of peace, no longer walking according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. And the prophetic word would come true about him: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those announcing good news, of those announcing peace.’" (Isaiah 52:7)

26. And bring a fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and make merry: Because this my son was dead, and is come to life again: was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. The fatted calf which is sacrificed for the penitent's health is the very Savior Himself, whose flesh we feed on daily, and whose blood we drink. You will understand, O faithful reader, how in our very fullness we burst forth in praise, saying: 'My heart hath uttered a good word, I speak my works to the King' (Ps. xliv. 1); although some, with more superstition than truth, apply these words to the Father's person. Now when it is said, 'Let us eat and make merry, because this my son was dead,' etc., this is connected with the meaning of the above parable, where it is said: 'I say to you, there shall be joy before the angels of God upon one sinner doing penance.'

27. "And they began to feast." This banquet is celebrated daily, and every day the father receives his son; Christ is always offered to believers.

28. Moreover, the elder son was in the field. » Up to now, the debate has been concerning the younger son, whom, in accordance with the present parable, we should take to represent publicans and sinners who were called to repentance by the Lord; but, according to the mystical meaning, the parable also prophesies of the calling of the Gentiles in the future. Now we pass to the elder son, whom many interpret simply as representing all the saints and others more specifically as referring to the Jews. The interpretation is not difficult regarding the saints in the statement, "Never have I disobeyed your command," although this seems to conflict with his unwillingness to welcome back his brother. However, in relation to the Jews, his envy over his brother's salvation conflicts with the statement, "I have never disobeyed your command." We shall try to explain what we think concerning the Jews in its proper place. "Moreover, the elder son was in the field," toiling in earthly works, far from the grace of the Holy Spirit, and banished from his father's counsel. This is the one who says, "I have purchased a field, and must needs go out and see it: I pray thee, have me excused" (Luke 14:18). This is the one who buys five yoke of oxen and, weighed down by the burden of the Law, is enjoying the pleasures of earthly desires. This is the one who, though married, cannot go to the wedding feast, and whose fleshly state cannot be one with the Spirit. In his person, the laborers in that parable also fit, wherein the ones who were called at the first, third, sixth, and ninth hours, that is, through various callings, are sent to the vineyard, and the ones called at the eleventh hour are indignant at being made equal to them.

29. "And when he came near to the house, he heard music and singing." This phrase which is written as the heading of one of the Psalms (Psalm 46), fits this meaning. For Meleth is said to mean chorus singing together. But some Latins mistakenly believe that symphony is a type of instrument, when in fact it signifies a harmonious agreement in the praises of God, expressed in the Latin word, "consonance".

30. "And he called one of the boys and asked what these things were." And now Israel asks why God rejoices in the assumption of the Gentiles, and in envy he cannot know the will of the Father.

31. And he said to him: 'Because thy brother is come, and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe.' The cause of joy, that is sung in the praises of God throughout the whole world, is the salvation of the Gentiles, the salvation of sinners: the angels rejoice: every creature agrees in joy; and of Israel alone it is said:

32. However, he did not want to enter, being angry. He is angry that his brother was received in his absence, he is angry that the one whom he thought was dead is alive. And now Israel stands outside, and now while the disciples listen to the Gospel in the church, his mother and brothers stand outside seeking him (Matthew 12).

33. "But the father of him, having gone out, began to beg him." How kind and gentle the father is; he begs his son to become a partaker of the joy of the house: moreover, the father begs through the Apostles, he begs through the preachers of the Gospel. Among whom Paul says, "For Christ, we urge you to be reconciled to God" (2 Cor. 5:20). And elsewhere, "But because you have rejected it, and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles" (Acts 13:46).

34. But he answering, said to his father: Behold, for many years do I serve thee, and I have never transgressed thy commandment, and yet thou hast never given me a kid to make merry with my friends. The suppliant father entreats for concord, but he who follows the justice which is in the law, is not subject to the justice of God, which is greater than to forgive the penitent, and to receive the returning son. "Behold, for many years do I serve thee, and I have never transgressed thy commandment," as if it were not a transgression of the commandment to envy the salvation of another, to boast of justice before God, when no one is clean before Him. For who will rejoice in having a pure heart even if it is for only one day? David confesses: "Behold I was conceived in iniquities; and in sins did my mother conceive me" (Ps. 50.7). And elsewhere: "If thou, O Lord, wilt mark iniquities, Lord, who shall stand it?" (Ps. 129.3). And here he says that he has never transgressed the commandment, even though he had been delivered to captivity many times for idolatry. "Behold, for many years do I serve thee, and I have never transgressed thy commandment." This is what the Apostle Paul speaks of: "What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who followed not after justice, have attained to justice, even the justice that is of faith." But Israel, by pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works of the law. It can therefore be said of someone who, according to the same Apostle, has lived without censure in the righteousness that comes from the law; although it seems to me that the Jew boasts more than speaks the truth, following the example of the Pharisee who said, 'I thank thee that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector' (Luke 18.11). Do you not think that what he said of the publican, this one says of his brother? This is the one who eats up all his living with prostitutes. But what he says, 'I have never disobeyed your commandment,' does not agree with what the father said. For he did not confirm as true what the son had said, but restrained him as a person who was angry in another way by saying, 'Son, you are always with me.' 'You are indeed with me,' he said, 'but have you really said all that is good and done all that I have ordered?' But you are with me always. You are with me in the law that you are bound by: you are with me, while you are taught to me both in captivity: you are with me not because you have fulfilled my precepts, but because I have not allowed you to go away into distant lands: you are with me until the very end, according to that which I spoke to David: "If his sons forsake My law, and they do not walk in my judgments; if they profane my justifications and do not keep my commandments, I will visit their iniquities with a rod, and their unjust deeds with stripes. But my mercy will not take away from them" (Ps. 88:31 et seq.). By this testimony, and that in which the elder son boasts, is proven false, when he does not walk in the judgments of God and does not keep His commandments. And how can he not keep them, since he is always said to have been with the Father? While sinning, he is corrected with a rod, and mercy is not denied when he is corrected. Nor is it surprising that he dared to lie to his father, who could envy his brother, especially since on the day of judgment some will lie more shamelessly, saying: "Have we not eaten and drunk in your name, and done many wonderful works, and driven out demons?" (Matt. 7:22) What is proper and relevant to its place will be explained.

35. "And you never gave me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends." "So great," he says, "has been the shedding of Israel's blood, so many thousands of men have been slain, and not one of them has arisen to redeem us. Even Josiah, who pleased you--(2 Kings 22)--and, more recently, the Maccabees, who fought for your inheritance, were slain by the swords of our enemies, and no man's blood restores our freedom to us. Behold we are still subject to the Roman power: not Prophet, nor Priest, nor righteous man has been sacrificed for us. And for the prodigal son, that is, for the Gentiles, for sinners, the glorious blood of the whole creation has been shed. And when you have not given smaller blessings to those who have deserved them, You have bestowed greater ones undeservedly. 'And you never gave me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends.' Israel, you err; say rather, that I might make merry with thee. Or can you have any enjoyment, unless your father celebrate the feast with you? At least learn from his present example. Upon receiving his younger son, both father and son are happy. "Let us eat and feast," he says, "Do not eat and feast." But with the same mind in which you envy your brother, in which you turn away from your father's sight, and are always in the field, even now you want to enter a banquet in his absence. "You never gave me a goat." His father never gives worse gifts: you have a fattened calf: come in, eat with your brother. Why do you seek a goat for which a lamb has been sent? And don't pretend not to know what has been sent, John showed you in the desert: "Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world" (John 1:29). And the father, as if merciful and giving penance, urges you to the calf, not sacrificing the goat that he knows to be standing to the left. But you in the end of the world, Antichrist himself will immolate you, and with your friends, unclean spirits, you will feast on his flesh, the prophecy fulfilled: "You have broken the head of the great dragon: you have given him food for the people of Ethiopia” (Psalm 73:14).

36. But when your son, who has devoured his substance with harlots, came, you killed the fatted calf for him." Now also Israel confesses that the calf that was slaughtered was fat; they understand that Christ has come, but they are tormented by envy and do not want to be saved after his death.

37. But he said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.' The son was angry, though not wishing to go in. But how are all things of God the Jews'? Are the angels, thrones, dominations, and other powers? Therefore let us understand all of God's law, prophets, and divine words. These were given to them so that they would meditate on his law day and night, according to that canon which we have often expounded the Scriptures, that all things are not to be referred to the whole, but to the greatest part, as it is said: 'All have turned aside; together they have become worthless' (Ps.13). And elsewhere: 'All who came before me are thieves and robbers' (John 10:8). And Paul to the Corinthians says: 'I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some' (1 Cor. 9:22). And to the Philippians: 'For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ' (Philippians 2:21). Although we must believe that he never denied anything, who urges the eating of the calf.

38. We should feast and be glad, for this brother of yours was dead, and has come back to life. He was lost, and has been found.’ So we too should confidently expect to live by repenting from our dead works, as it were, in the Parable of the Son himself, as well as in the earlier Parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin, all of which end with illustrations of the same kind. ‘For this your brother,’ it says, ‘was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ We are to understand that under different figures, but with the same meaning, is marked the reception of sinners, whether considered as heathen or as Jews.

39. Let us see, however, how this parable can be understood in general about the super saint and the sinner. And it is not disputed that it pertains not only to the just, but also to the non-just. This is what worries the reader who is disturbed, why the just should envy the salvation of the sinner: and to the extent that he is filled with anger, he is not overcome by his brother's mercy, his father's prayers, or the joy of his whole house. To which we will answer briefly: all the justice of this world is not justice compared to God. For just as from the sins of Jerusalem, Sodom is justified, not because it is just, but because greater delinquencies become smaller delinquencies: so also the universal justice of all people is not justice compared to God. Finally, Paul who said, "Therefore, as many as are perfect, let us think this" (Philippians 3:15), confesses and cries out elsewhere: "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are His judgments, and how unsearchable His ways!" (Romans 11:33)? And elsewhere, "We know in part, and we prophesy in part"; and, "Now we see through a glass, in an obscure manner" (1 Corinthians 13:9 and 12). And to the Romans, "Miserable man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Romans 7:24) From all of which we are taught that only God is perfect in justice, who causes His sun to rise on the just and the unjust: He gives rain equally to the deserving and the undeserving; who invites to the wedding guests from the byways, lanes, and plazas, and from them expels some who were seemingly safe; and seeks, finds, and brings back on His shoulders the sheep that could not or would not return itself after the example of the penitent son (Luke 15) for it had greatly erred.

40. But that we may be taught that envy may also fall upon the Saints and that pure godliness alone is left to God, let us consider the example of the sons of Zebedee: for when their mother moved by a feeling of piety, had made too lofty a request, the other ten disciples were indignant. And Jesus calling them, said: "You know that the princes of the Gentiles lord it over them; and they that are the greater, exercise power upon them. It shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be the greater among you, let him be your minister: and he that will be first among you, shall be your servant. Even as the Son of man is not come to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life for the redemption of many." (Matthew 20:25 and following). Let nothing be dangerous, let nothing seem blasphemous, what we said could have crept to the evil in the widow, even about the angels we think this is said. "For even the stars are not pure in his sight, and how much less man, who is but a maggot— a son of man, who is only a worm!” (Job 15:15, 25. 6) And in the Psalms it is said: "No living person will be justified in your presence." It does not say, "no person", but "living person", that is, not Evangelist, not Apostle, not a Prophet. As I ascend to greater things, not angels, thrones, dominions, powers and other virtues. Only God is, in whom sin does not fall: since they are of free will, according to which man is made in the image and likeness of God, they can turn their will in either direction. If you are not led by this sentence, at least be moved by its authority in the parable in which workers are sent to the vineyard throughout the day (Matthew 20); and in the first hour Adam, Abel, Seth are called upon; in the third, Noah; in the sixth, Abraham; in the ninth, Moses; and in the eleventh, the Gentile people to whom it is said: "Why do you stand here all day idle?" And they answered, "Because no one has hired us." But John the Apostle bears witness that the last hour of our Savior's coming is at hand, saying, 'Brethren, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that Antichrist cometh, even now there are become many Antichrists: whereby we know that it is the last hour' (1 John 2:18). If this interpretation is displeasing to you, I will follow wherever you lead, provided only that you acknowledge those who were called first to be just. And when I have obtained that point, I will bring forward what the just themselves have murmured against the householder, saying, 'These last have worked but one hour, and thou hast made them equal to us, who have borne the burden of the day and the heat.' They are, indeed, just in saying that they ought to receive equal wages with him who has labored from the first hour even to the end; and should also receive the same pay as he who has been engaged in toil for one hour only. But this very justice is engendered by envy, which repines at another's happiness. And the Lord rebukes the eye of envy, saying, 'Friend, is your eye evil because mine is good?' Hence, too, while all the angels are said to be just, and all are immortal and free from sin, yet the apostle speaks of One only as being Just and Immortal—not because the angels are unjust or mortal, but because He alone is immortal and just, to whom, when we compare all justice, we find that iniquity itself is injustice.

41. But in this same parable that we have just presented, for you to understand the injustice of the hirelings, pay attention for a moment. He who was hired in the first hour deserves more from him who was sent to the vineyard in the third hour; again, the worker of the third hour precedes the worker of the sixth hour, and the worker of the sixth hour outdoes the worker of the ninth hour. How, then, do they all envy the last one and do not seek the same justice among themselves? You, who were hired in the ninth hour, why do you envy him who was sent into the vineyard in the eleventh hour? Whatever you answer, even if you assert that the work was different so that you may deserve a greater reward for a different work, you will still be subject to the same judgment as the one who worked the sixth hour. And you who were hired at the sixth hour, why do you envy the last? Why does he receive a denarius, that is, an equal salvation with you, even though the glory of salvation may differ for different labor? The same thing can be said of you by the third worker, and of the third by the first. But because of the unequal labor and different periods of calling, they willingly accept the same reward among themselves. Only in the case of the last worker, that is, in the salvation of the Gentiles, do they differ and show disrespect to the Lord, and they are convicted of envy in all the parables.

42. I do not doubt that my speech seems unpolished to you, due to the smallness of my abilities; but I have often given the excuse that words cannot be refined unless one's own hand has polished them. Therefore, forgive my pained eyes, that is, forgive the one dictating, especially since, in matters of the church, meaning is sought, not words; that is, life is to be sustained by bread, not by beanpods.