Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

O God of hosts, convert us now;
Look down from heaven and behold,
And visit this vineyard
Which Your right hand planted, and perfect it.
And visit the son of man, whom You strengthened for Yourself.
It was set on fire and uprooted,
But they shall perish at the rebuke of Your face.
Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand,
And upon the son of man, whom You strengthened for Yourself;
Then we will not turn away from You;
You will give us life, and we will call upon Your name.
O Lord God of hosts, convert us,
and reveal Your face, and we shall be saved. (Ps 80:14–19)

In this psalm, among other things, is written, “look down from heaven and see; visit this vineyard and perfect what your right hand has planted and on the son of man whom you have confirmed for yourself.” This is the vineyard of which it is said, “You have brought a vineyard out of Egypt.” Christ did not plant another: by His coming, He changed that one into a better vineyard. Accordingly, we find in the Gospel: “He will utterly destroy those evil men, and will let out the vineyard to other vinedressers.” The Gospel does not say, “He will uproot and will plant another,” but “this same vineyard he will let out to other vinedressers.” The city of God and the congregation of the children of promise must be filled with the same community of saints by the death and succession of mortal beings and at the end of the world will receive its due immortality in all people. This same thought is expressed differently by means of the fruitful olive tree in another psalm, which says, “But I, as a fruitful olive tree in the house of God, have hoped in the mercy of God forever, yea, forever and ever.” It was not because the unbelievers and the proud had been broken away and the branches were on that account unfruitful and the wild olive of the Gentiles was ingrafted that the root of the patriarchs and prophets died. Isaiah says, “For if Your people, O Israel, shall be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of them shall be saved,” but through Him about whom the psalm says, “and on the son of man whom you have confirmed for yourself,” and about whom is reiterated, “Let your hand be on the man of your right hand: and on the son of man whom You have confirmed for Yourself. And we depart not from You.” Through this Son of man, Christ Jesus, and from His remnant, that is, the apostles and the many others from among the Israelites who have believed in Christ as God, and with the increasing number of Gentiles, the holy vineyard is being completed.

Augustine, In Answer to the Jews 6.7