Caesarius of Arles, on Judg 6:11

“And an angel of the Lord came, and sat under an oak, that was in Ephra, and belonged to Joas the father of the family of Ezri. And when Gedeon his son was threshing and cleansing wheat by the winepress, to flee from Madian,”

“When Gideon, the son of Joash, was beating the grain of wheat with a rod under an oak tree, he merited to hear an angel promise that he would deliver God's people from the power of their enemies. It is no wonder that he was chosen for a special grace, when by the predestined mystery of the future incarnation he was even then seated under the shade of the cross of holy and venerable wisdom. He was bringing the tangible grains of a fruitful field out of their concealment, separating choice holy men from the rubbish of useless chaff. Putting aside the superfluities of the old man and his actions by treating them with the rod of experienced truth, they are assembled in the church as in a winepress. The church is the winepress of the eternal fountain in which abounds the fruit of the heavenly vine.”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.