Lesson at Matins – Isaias v. 1‒7
I will sing to my beloved the canticle of my cousin concerning his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a hill, in a fruitful place. And he fenced it in, and picked the stones out of it, and planted it with the choicest wines, and built a tower in the midst thereof, and set up a wine press therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. And now, O ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and ye men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What is there that I ought to do more to my vineyard, that I have not done to it? Was it that I looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it has brought forth wild grapes? And now I will show you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it will be wasted; I will break down the wall thereof, and it will be trodden down. And I will make it desolate: it will not be pruned, and it will not be dug, but briars and thorns will come up, and I will command the clouds to rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the man of Judah his pleasant plant: and I looked that he should do judgement, and behold iniquity; and do justice, and behold a cry.Thanks be to God.
Dom Prosper Guéranger:
We are awaiting the birth of a child who is to appear seven hundred years after the time of Isaias, and this child will be the world’s Saviour. Men will persecute Him, load Him with calumnies and injuries, and, but a few hours before they crucify Him they will hear this parable from His lips: “There was a man, a householder, who planted a vineyard and made a hedge round about it, and dug in it a press, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen: and went into a strange country. And when the time of the fruits drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits thereof And the husbandmen laying hands on his servants, beat one, and killed another and stoned another. Again he sent other servants more than the former, and they did to them in like manner. And last of all, he sent to them his son, saying: They will reverence my son” (Matthew xx. 33‒37). See, Christians, this Son is coming to you. Will you reverence Him? Will you treat him as the Son of God, with that honour and love which are due to Him? Take notice of the wickedness of men. It has a progress in malice. In the days of Isaias the Jews despised the Prophets, but the Prophets, though sent by God, were only men. The Son of God came and they would not acknowledge Him: a far greater crime, assuredly, than to stone the Prophets. What, then, would be the crime of Christians who not only acknowledge Him who is now coming to them, but are His members by Baptism, if they will not open their hearts to this Messiah whom the Father is sending into the vineyard? What punishment would not the ungrateful vine deserve, planted, as it has been, with so much love, should it persist in yielding nothing but bitter fruit? Ah, dear Jesus! let not this be: make us generous: make us produce abundant flower and fruit for the day of your Coming which is so near at hand.
