And because this plant was figuratively a living creature, having a soul, He speaks to it as though it heard. “Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever.” Therefore is the Jewish synagogue barren, and shall continue so until the end of the world, when the multitude of the Gentiles shall come in; and the fig tree withered while Christ was yet sojourning in this life; and the disciples seeing by their spiritual discernment the mystery of the withered faith, wondered; and having faith, and not doubting, they bare it, and so it withers when their lifegiving virtue passes to the Gentiles; and by each one who is brought to the faith, that mountain Satan is lifted up and cast into the sea, that is, into the abyss.
Reproduced in full. Translation: Oxford 1841 (Newman), public domain (Public domain).