Loading…
VRSZ
This sets the art on your cards and whose commentary you read on each verse. You can change it later in settings.
Translation
Loading…
What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
John Chrysostom
"Another parable put He forth unto them, saying, The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed." That is, since He had said, that of the crop three parts are lost, and but one saved, and in the very part again which is saved so great damage ensues; lest they should say, "And who, and how many will be the faithful?" this fear again He removes, by the parable of the mustard seed leading them on to belief, and signifying that in any case the gospel shall be spread abroad. …
Theophylact of Ohrid
The grain of mustard seed is both the preaching and the apostles. For though they appeared to be few, they encompassed the whole earth, with the result that the birds of the air, that is, those with frivolous and feathery knowledge of the things above, could find rest in them. You, too, O reader, must be as a grain of mustard seed, small in appearance (for it is not right to make a show of virtue) but hot, zealous, pungent, and reproving. …
Clement of Alexandria
The word which proclaims the kingdom of heaven is sharp and pungent as mustard, and represses bile, that is, anger, and checks inflammation, that is, pride; and from this word the soul's true health and eternal soundness flow. To such increased size did the growth of the word come, that the tree which sprang from it (that is the Church of Christ established over the whole earth) filled the world, so that the fowls of the air — that is, divine angels and lofty souls— dwelt in its branches.
Western Saints
Augustine of Hippo
A grain of mustard seed may allude to the warmth of faith, or to its property as antidote to poison. It follows; Which a man took and sowed in his field. (ubi sup.) Dogmas are the decisions of sects, the points, that is, that they have determined.
Jerome
He proposed another parable to them, saying: The Lord was sitting in a boat, and the crowd stood on the shore: those far away, the disciples closer, could hear. He presents them with another parable, about a rich head of the household who invited guests and provided them with various foods according to the nature of their appetite. Therefore, in the previous parable, He did not say 'another' but 'another one'. …
Gregory the Dialogist
Christ Himself is the grain of mustard seed, who, planted in the garden of the sepulchre, grew up a great tree; He was a grain of seed when He died, and a tree when He rose again; a grain of seed in the humiliation of the flesh, a tree in the power of His majesty. (ubi sup.) The birds lodge in its branches, when holy souls that raise themselves aloft from thoughts of earth on the wings of the virtues, breathe again from the troubles of this life in their words and comfortings.
Translation