Homily for the Thirteenth Sunday of Matthew (St. Cleopa of Sihastria)

Homily for the Thirteenth Sunday of Matthew, 
or Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost

On the Priesthood and Pastoral Ministry

By St. Cleopa of Sihastria

“There was a certain man, a master of his house, who planted a vineyard. He surrounded it with a fence, dug a winepress in it, built a tower, and gave it to the vinedressers…” (Matthew 21:33).

Beloved faithful,

In several places in Holy Scripture, the world created by God is compared to a vineyard. The Gospel reading today states this most clearly: “There was a certain man, a master of his house, who planted a vineyard.” This is God Himself, the Master of heaven and earth, who created all things visible and invisible and made the world as a vineyard of His house! Elsewhere the Savior says: “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser… I am the vine, you are the branches” (John 15:1–5). The Prophet David likewise compares the world to a vineyard and prays for its perfection, saying: “Lord, Lord, look down from heaven and see, and visit this vineyard which Your right hand has planted, and perfect it” (Psalm 79:15–16).

Why does God compare the world to a vineyard or to wheat ready for harvest, and not to something else? Because both the vine and the grain are the two foremost fruits of the earth that sustain people's bodily life. Then, because bread and wine, through the Divine Liturgy, are changed into the Body and Blood of Christ, which sustain the spiritual life of our souls. For just as bread and wine “strengthen man's heart,” so Holy Communion strengthens faith, forgives sins, and saves the soul of the faithful person. Bread and wine, along with the oil that is also often mentioned, are basic foods of humanity that possess a twofold sacred character, for they nourish both body and soul through the liturgical sacrifice.

But the vineyard, that is, the world planted by God, was not left to chance; it was not abandoned by Him. On the contrary, from the beginning the world has been held under divine providence; for after God planted it, “He surrounded it with a fence, dug a winepress in it, built a watchtower, and gave it to the vinedressers, and He went away” (Matthew 21:33). See the care of God for the world! He planted it with His own hands, making man according to His image and likeness; He fenced it in against thieves, that is, He enclosed the world with the commandments and teachings of the two Laws, of the Old and New Testaments, and with the canons and Ecumenical Synods that safeguard the unity and truth of the Orthodox faith. Then, in the midst of the vineyard, the Lord “dug a winepress,” that is, He established the sacrificial altar upon which, through Christ, the liturgical sacrifice is offered for the salvation of the whole world. Moreover, God “built a watchtower and gave the vineyard to the vinedressers, and He went away.” The watchtower is the Church founded by Jesus Christ as a tower of vigilance and defense against the demons, the sects, and all the temptations and sins that kill our souls.

Therefore, when all these things had been accomplished, that is, when the world had been redeemed and the Church established, our Lord Jesus Christ entrusted His vineyard, that is, the world, to the Church, and the gospel to the “vinedressers,” that is, to the Apostles, bishops, and priests. They are the workers in Christ's vineyard. To them was entrusted the entire work of preaching the gospel, serving the Church, celebrating the Divine Liturgy, teaching and defending the Orthodox faith, sanctifying people through the grace of the Holy Spirit, poured out through the ministry of the seven Holy Mysteries, guarding the vineyard through fulfillment of the evangelical commandments, and bringing forth its fruits in due season. And the fruits of the vineyard are souls saved through the working of good deeds. The ministers of the Church are workers of the gospel, that is, fellow workers with Christ, with the angels, with the Apostles, and with all the saints in the salvation and renewal of the world.

See how great the apostolic mission and the grace of the priesthood are! The ministers of the Church cooperate with God Himself, with the three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity, and with all the heavenly powers. Through the liturgical sacrifice they unite heaven with earth; they bring Christ down upon the holy altars and into the hearts of people. Through their words they bind and loose the sins of the world, bring souls out of hell, and drive demons out of people. Through the divine grace which they have received from Christ, they impart the Holy Spirit to the faithful through the seven Holy Mysteries; they sanctify, absolve, bless, guide people along the path of salvation, teach, and comfort souls that love God. What greater honor could we seek? Or what grace given to human beings is greater than that of the priesthood? The bishops and priests are the direct successors of the Holy Apostles. They are obliged to work, “in season and out of season,” in the vineyard of the Christian world and to gather as many fruits as possibl, that is, good works and pure souls worthy of the Kingdom of God.

Beloved faithful,

The first duty of a priest in his parish is to celebrate the holy services with complete reverence, beginning with the Divine Liturgy. The altar of the church in every village is symbolized by the “winepress” that God dug in His vineyard, as today’s Holy Gospel tells us. For just as grapes are transformed into wine in the winepress, so upon the Holy Table in the altar the bread and wine are transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ during the Divine Liturgy. The more reverently and worthily he serves, the greater the grace he will receive from God; he will fill the church with faithful people and bring more souls onto the path of salvation.

The second duty of the priest is to teach the faithful the true faith, that is, to catechize them “in season and out of season,” through good and practical sermons that spring from the heart; through explaining Holy Scripture in the Orthodox spirit; through reading in church and at home patristic texts, books of spiritual guidance, and moral teachings necessary for everyone, especially children and young people. These teachings form the “fence” of the Church with which God enclosed His vineyard. Just as every vineyard without a fence is plundered and ruined by strangers, by the wild boar, that is, by the devil, as the Psalmist says, so the faithful of a parish, if they are not religiously instructed and accustomed to forgiveness, prayer, fasting, and the reading of holy books, grow cold in the faith, become indifferent toward the Church, become doubtful, unbelieving, drunkards, immoral, and some are deceived and drawn into sects.

The third great responsibility of the priest in the parish is to guard Christ’s vineyard. The watchtower built by God “in His vineyard” symbolizes the Church, this ship of salvation for the world, which carries us toward eternal things, delivers us from the evil spirits against whom we struggle until death, saves us from drowning in the sea of life, and sanctifies us through the seven Holy Mysteries, especially Baptism, Chrismation, Confession, and Holy Communion. Through her priests, the Church defends the true faith and helps raise souls from hell and those who have fallen into bondage to the passions and sins, lifting them toward Christ and the Kingdom of Heaven.

This, in brief, is the great evangelical duty of the priests and shepherds (bishops) of Christ’s Church. They are the gardeners of Christians. Upon the manner in which they fulfill their mission depends the bringing forth of the fruits that are required, that is, their own salvation and the salvation of the souls entrusted to them by Christ the Savior. For this reason, however, priests and shepherds must be called and chosen by Christ from their youth for the ministry of His gospel. Those who are not called and not sanctified through ordination, that is, through the laying on of the hands of bishops, have no place in the clergy, for the priesthood is a ministry and a grace, not an office pursued for the sake of “filthy gain” and pride. Furthermore, ministers should come from sound, Orthodox families devoted to the Church. At seminaries, it is good to choose young men from exemplary families in every respect, with written testimony from their respective spiritual fathers. During their studies, future candidates for the priesthood should love above all else prayer, the church, the divine services, study, moral life, liturgical practice, frequent confession every two or three weeks, and spiritual practice during their vacations at monasteries. For marriage, they should seek good, devout, and merciful wives, women who will be exemplary mothers in every respect. The priest’s family should be a living example to the parishioners: a household with many children, modest, blessed, and permanently bound to Christ, to the parishioners, and to the church.

Reverence, morality, prayer, theological education, regular attendance at the divine services in church, almsgiving, and zeal for Christ are the fundamental virtues of priests, without which neither ministers nor the faithful can be saved. “The priest,” says Saint John Chrysostom, “must sacrifice himself, not merely offer sacrifice”; that is, he must labor to hear the confessions of all his parishioners regularly during the four holy fasts; sacrifice himself day and night to maintain the divine services according to the proper order; visit everyone in their homes; reconcile all who are at odds with one another; comfort those who are sorrowful; help the poor and the sick; and nourish all his spiritual children with good sermons, filled with fatherly warmth, and with holy books of prayer and instruction.

Our Savior Jesus Christ says in the Holy Gospel: “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who remains in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit, for without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Christ is the vine, the “trunk of the vineyard,” while the branches that grow from the trunk are the Apostles, bishops, and priests. Those so-called shepherds of souls who have severed their connection with the Church of Christ no longer possess the grace of salvation, for they have separated themselves from the body of the Church like branches from the vine, and they wither unto their eternal condemnation, because they no longer have communion with Christ, with the grace of the Holy Spirit, with the Mysteries of the Church, with the Divine Liturgy, with the Cross, with the saints in heaven, or with all the righteous. The true shepherds, however, are the priests who sanctify their ministry in the holy churches, who care for the flock entrusted to them by Christ, who pray with faith and live in the joy of the Holy Spirit, and who struggle for the gospel, for the faith, and for the salvation of their faithful. Blessed are the ministers whom Christ will find doing this, and woe to those whom He finds sleeping or growing idle!

But what are the fruits that Christ asks from the ministers of the Church? Just as the fruit of the branches of the vine is the grape, so the fruits of Christ’s branches—that is, of the shepherds—are souls saved. These are the Christians whom priests win through repentance and bring to Christ from taverns, from the courts, from fornication, from sects, from bondage to sins and death. Christians who obey their shepherds obey Christ, for the Lord says: “He who listens to you listens to Me; and he who rejects you rejects Me” (Luke 10:16). If the priest serves with reverence, teaches everyone, prays, and does everything he can, but the faithful do not follow him, he will receive the reward of the faithful worker, while they, the disobedient, will receive condemnation. They are like a barren vineyard, like the leaves of a vine struck by frost, which fall and are thrown into the fire.

Woe to the faithful who do not go to church through laziness or unbelief! Woe to those who sever themselves from the body of Christ’s Church and fall into sects, for sects do not lead to salvation, having been severed from the vine of life, which is Christ! Woe also to the shepherds who do not labor to bring forth fruits in due season from the vineyard entrusted to them! That is, they cause scandal among the flock, lose souls, and allow wolves in sheep’s clothing to enter their parishes, that is, sectarians. For Christ, the master of the vineyard, will come, and “He will put those wicked men to a miserable death, and He will lease the vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to Him the fruits in their seasons” (Matthew 21:40–41).

Beloved faithful,

Do you see how great the responsibility of priests is for your souls? Do you see how much they must sacrifice themselves for the salvation of the faithful? Yet many judge and condemn them, forgetting that they too are human beings, that they have families, and that they must care both for the parishioners and the house of God, as well as for their own households. You should know that priests could be much more devoted and much better if all the faithful of our villages and cities stood beside them. For when priests see the churches filled with faithful people, especially on feast days, their faith increases, grace works more powerfully through them, their sermons become more alive, and they penetrate more deeply into the heart of each person.

But when priests see more villagers in taverns, at fairs, and in the courts than in church during the Divine Liturgy on Sundays and feast days, they become saddened and grow weaker spiritually. We believe that good priests are also the result of good faithful people, zealous for Christ; while priests who are less good are also the result of parishioners who are weak in faith and indifferent to their salvation. But each person will be judged by God, the Knower of our hearts, according to his own deeds.

Therefore, my brethren, I urge you to love God and His Church. Love the shepherds of the Church, obey them, and pray for them as spiritual children, “for they watch over your souls, as those who must give an account” (Hebrews 13:17). I also urge you not to absent yourselves from church on feast days, but to listen with reverence to the holy services, especially the Divine Liturgy. Christ is present in the Holy Altar, and we should be absent? The Mother of God, together with all the angels and saints, are in the church and glorify God together with the priest, and we go instead to pleasures and drunkenness? Do not forget to remember the priests in your prayers, out of love and out of duty, for they are sanctified by Christ and bear within themselves the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Let us pray to the great High Priest Jesus Christ, the Shepherd and Savior of our souls, that He may appoint the best possible shepherds and priests for His Church, and that He may grant us greater faith and good works for the attainment of the blessings of heaven. Amen.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.