Homily by the Venerable Bede, Priest
11th for Lent, Tom. vii
The same thing which the Lord showed in a figure by cursing the barren fig-tree, He afterwards more plainly put before us by casting the desecrators out of the temple. The tree herself had not sinned by bearing no fruit when the Lord was hungry, for the time of figs was not yet come, but those Priests had sinned who were carrying on worldly business in the Lord's house, and who neglected to bring forth that fruit of godliness which they owed, and which the Lord was hungry to find in them. The Lord made the fig-tree to wither away under His curse, that all men who saw it, and all men who hear of it, might know that they will be condemned by the judgment of God, if they content themselves with the talk of godliness, without the solid fruit of good works, even as that barren figtree was clothed only with a rustling garb of green leaves.
| Gospel | |
| Sequentia sancti Evangelii secundum Matthæum. | Sequel of the Holy Gospel according to Matthew. |
| Cap. xxi. | Ch. xxi. |
| In illo tempore: Cum intrasset Jesus Jerosolymam, commota est universa civitas, dicens: Quis est hic? Populi autem dicebant: Hic est Jesus Propheta a Nazareth Gelilææ. Et intravit Jesus in templum Dei, et ejiciebat omnes vendentes et ementes in templo, et mensas nummulariorum, et cathedras vendentium columbas evertit: et dicit eis: Scriptum est: Domus mea, domus orationis vocabitur: vos autem fecistis illam speluncam latronum. Et accesserunt ad cum cæci et claudi in templo: et sanavit eos. Videntes autem principes sacerdotum et scribæ mirabilia quæ fecit, et pueros clamantes in templo et dicentes: Hosanna filio David; indignati sunt et dixerunt ei: Audis quid isti dicunt? Jesus autem dixit eis: Utique. Nunquam legistis: Quia ex ore infantium et lactentium perfecisti laudem? Et relictis illis, abiit foras extra civitatem in Bethaniam, ibique mansit. | At that time: When he was come into Jerusalem, the whole city was moved, saying: Who is this? And the people said: This is Jesus the prophet, from Nazareth of Galilee. And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and the chairs of them that sold doves. And he saith to them: It is written, “My house shall be called the house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves.” And there came to him the blind and the lame in the temple: and he healed them. And the chief priests and scribes seeing the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying: “Hosanna to the son of David,” were moved with indignation, and said to him: Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus said to them: Yea, have you never read, “Out of the mouths of infants and of sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” And leaving them, he went out of the city into Bethania, and remained there. |
