0.2 Preface

PREFACE THE Parables convey the teaching of Jesus in an intuitive and practical form. They contain nothing that is merely theoretical or speculative, no subtle disquisitions on matters that have no bearing on life or conduct. In them the essential unchanging duties of man are so presented as to be within the comprehension of the simple and unlearned. They were originally spoken, not written; and they were addressed to people for the most part rough and uneducated. Jesus spoke not only to His contemporaries, but for all time, and so we may believe that He looked out beyond those who gathered about Him on the hillside, or who listened expectantly to Him on the shores of the Lake of Gennesaret, or who formed a narrower circle of hearers like those who sat at table with Him in the house of Simon the Pharisee, to others dis- vi PREFACE tant in time and place whom He also wished His words to reach. Still, it is most natural to believe that the needs and capacity of His immediate hearers decided for Him at once the form and the matter of the Parables.

It is well to be clear on this point, because on it depends to a large extent the question of their interpretation. When a teacher makes choice of the spoken word as his channel of instruction without any prospect of its being soon reduced to writing, and when in addition he uses a figurative narrative for the purpose of conveying a single lesson to an audience whose minds have not been trained if, in deed, any training could achieve such an object to penetrate what is figurative and perceive beneath it, not only in the gross, but also in particulars, the lesson which it is in tended to convey such a speaker must be more or less of an impressionist whose chief aim it is to produce an effect as a whole; while for his purpose details have no signi ficance except in as far as they can contribute to this end, and so receive no such prominence

PREFACE vii as would enable them to attract to themselves overmuch attention, to the prejudice of the general effect which he has in view. The teaching of the Parables embraces the whole duty of man. The value of the indi vidual human soul in itself, and its relations towards its Creator, are taught; but the great fact that man is a social being is equally emphasized. The neighbour is nowhere repre sented as an evil, even if a necessary evil, against whom the Christian who would be perfect must be on his guard, and with whom the less he has to do, the better. It is no wonder that love of the neighbour should occupy that important place in the Parables which we see it hold elsewhere in the teaching of Jesus. In Him as man the love of God for man received its supreme expression; and we may say with all reverence that this expression was conditioned by and dependent on the estimate which He had formed of man, an estimate equally removed from the exaggerations of those who on the one hand would deify human nature, and of those who viii PREFACE on the other would regard it as wholly depraved, or, if they did not choose to go so far, had formed so unfavourable an opinion of it as would make them cease to feel, if they were only consistent, any affection for it or any interest in its welfare. While His ideal of the ethical and spiritual heights to which man could attain was of the loftiest, His recognition of the weakness of human nature led Him to make allowance for the frailties of sinners who came across His path; and His severest denunciations were reserved for those who, deceived by a false belief in their own moral and religious superiority, instead of sympathy, felt only contempt for their erring fellow-men. Nor was His charity confined to relieving the spiritual needs of those who appealed to Him.

Whatever might be the cause that evoked it, “ the still, sad music of humanity “ sounded evermore in His ears and met with a warm and effective response. In this little work I have endeavoured in simple language to bring home to the reader the lessons which the Parables teach, lessons

PREFACE ix as necessary to-day as they were nearly 1900 years ago, while attempting, within of course obvious limits, to treat the subject scientifically. I am convinced that works of the kind should appeal equally to the intelligence and to what, for want of a better name, I may term the devotional faculty within us. It would be an evil day when the terms “ in tellectual “ and “ spiritual “ were regarded as in a certain sense opposed. And yet there seems to exist in some quarters a tacit acceptance of the principle that a religious writer whose chief aim it is to influence in a practical manner the life and conduct of his readers should address himself less to their intelli gence than to their feelings. Surely this principle receives no support from Scripture or the Fathers or the great Scholastics. The writings of St. Paul exhibit in a certain degree the characteristics of all these; and yet, while heart speaks to heart in almost every line, the appeal to the intelligence is equally forcible.

I regret that I have not been able to treat the important problem of the transmission

PREFACE of the Parables. I could not have done so without touching on the Synoptic question, and I have not had time to revise my studies on this subject in the light which recent decisions of the Biblical Commission have thrown upon it.

Many of the Parables have for their theme the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven; others have a relation to it more or less direct. Accordingly, no treatment of the Parables would be complete in which this important subject was passed over.

Besides, it is essentially connected with the larger eschatological problem which has assumed so great a place in recent Protestant theological thought. Referring to the diffi culty created by certain sayings of Our Lord which would seem to indicate that Heregarded His Return as imminent, an Anglican of the younger school not long ago wrote, “ It is here, surely, that the storm-centre of theological speculation resides at the present moment,” adding that “ it is probable enough

PREFACE that this, and not the controversy about miracle, will be for the next generation the great intellectual difficulty of the Christian religion.” Whether this forecast is correct time alone will tell. It would seem, however, that Catholic writers have hardly given the subject the attention which it deserves. The fact that here they feel no difficulty them selves ought not to make them deaf to the call of others who in their perplexity search eagerly for a solution of those difficulties which disquiet them, and to whom help from any quarter would be welcome. In the In troduction I have endeavoured to meet the more usual objections: how imperfectly and inadequately I have done so, I am only too conscious. The reader of this book will not find the Parables arranged in a logical order. I have first given those Parables which are repro duced by all three Synoptic Evangelists, then those which appear both in St. Matthew and St. Luke, and finally those which are found in one Gospel only. These last I have given in xii PREFACE the order in which they occur in the Gospels.

I might have taken, as many writers have done, a much larger number of parables, but I have not thought it necessary to do so.

Those which I have omitted are for the most part in the nature of similitudes or compari sons. It is rather strange that, as far as I know and I have endeavoured to verify the statement by consulting the apparently full bibliographies in foreign works no English Catholic writer has attempted a systematic presentation of the Parables. In English, Trench’s book is the classical work on the subject. In some respects it is undeniably a fine work; and yet I have been able to derive singularly little help from it. Before reading hilicher’s remark that it does not betray the faintest trace of a critical spirit, I had already felt the same conclusion forced upon myself.

I would strongly recommend all who make use of this work to read for themselves in the New Testament the particular parable which they may wish to study, and, when it is recorded by more than one Evangelist, to

PREFACE xiii compare carefully the different versions. The references from one passage to another in our ordinary Catholic Bibles, though regret tably meagre, will, if diligently used, be a great help towards finding out the genuine sense of Scripture. It is a pity that many who have a deep personal devotion towards Our Lord should habitually prefer to listen to Him, not as directly addressing them, but through some medium, just as if one should prefer the portrait to the living person him self. They cannot excuse themselves on the ground that the knowledge which He imparts is too high for them, and that they are not able to attain unto it: 1 we have already seen to what a humble class of hearers He usually spoke. More than ever at the present day we should draw directly from their source that light and strength and comfort of which we all experience so much need.

PHILIP COGHLAN, C.P ST. JOSEPH’S RETREAT, HIGHQATE HILL, N.

1 Psalms 139:6.