Our Holy Father Ambrose, Bishop of Milan (397).
Nativity Fast.
Titus 1:5-2:1; Luke 20:9-18.
Read Luke 20:9-18
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Today’s Gospel is the parable of the tenants in the vineyard. It is also the feast day of St. Ambrose of Milan, the 4th-century bishop and spiritual father of St. Augustine of Hippo.
St. Ambrose comments on today’s Gospel explaining that the vineyard in the parable prefigures the people of God, the Church: “The vineyard prefigures us, because the people of God, founded on the root of the eternal Vine, appear above the earth, bordering the lowly ground. (Ambrose of Milan, Exposition of the Gospel of Luke 9.30).
This vineyard (the Church) is the locus of the unity of all men in Christ, who as St. Cyril of Alexandria tells us, is the rejected stone that has become the cornerstone (Luke 20:17): “The Savior has built the two people into one new person by making peace and reconciling the two in one body to the Father. This resembles a corner, which unites two walls and binds them together. Blessed David wondered at this corner or gathering together of the two people into one. He said, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner. This [the corner] has been done by the Lord, and is marvelous in our eyes.” Christ has bound together the two people in the bonds of love and in the same sentiment and faith.” (St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke 134)
Because of this fundamental unity in Christ, a single great saint, like St. Ambrose, but also those saints who are known to God alone, can have a profound effect on the whole Church and all mankind. This is why we constantly say in our prayers : through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ Our God, have mercy on us!
A single saint, as St. Sopohrony of Essex, reminds us is an extraordinarily precious phenomenon for all mankind. “By the mere fact of their existence – unknown, maybe, to the world but known to God – the saints draw down on the world, on all humanity, a great benediction from God…The saints live by the love of Christ. This love is Divine strength, which created, and now upholds, the world, and this is why their prayer is so pregnant with meaning. St. Barsanuphius, for instance, records that in his time the prayers of three men preserved mankind from catastrophe. Thanks to these saints – whom the world does not know of – the course of historical, even of cosmic events, is changed. So then, every saint is a phenomenon of cosmic character, whose significance passes beyond the bounds of earthly history into the sphere of eternity. The saints are the salt of the earth, its raison d’etre. They are the fruit that preserve the earth.”
O Lord, through the prayers of our Father among the Saints, Ambrose of Milan, and through the prayers of all your saints, have mercy on us and save us!
Bible References