Notes & Commentary: Under these figurative modes of speech, or
parables, Jesus Christ began to trace out for their reflection a
true portraiture of their ingratitude, and of the divine
vengeance. By this man we are to understand God the Father,
whose vineyard was the house of Israel, which he guarded by
angels; the place dug for the wine-vat is the law; the tower,
the temple; and Moses, the prophets and the priests, whom the
Jews afflicted and persecuted are the husbandmen or servants.
(St. Jerome) --- This same parable was employed by Isaias, (v.
1.) where speaking of Christ, he says: My beloved had a
vineyard, and he fenced it in. (Tirinus) --- He went into a far
country, not by change of place, for he is every where, but by
leaving the workmen the power of free-will, either to work or
not to work; in the same manner as a man in a far country cannot
oversee his husbandmen at home, but leaves them to themselves.
(Ven. Bede) -- This parable is thus morally explained: Jesus
Christ planted a Church with his own