There are four "senses" of Scripture: The literal, and the three spiritual senses.
The literal or historical sense does not intend a fundamentalist or literalistic reading - but rather is "literal" in the sense of "literary" and "historical" in the sense of "historical context in which the event occurred or in which the human author wrote". The literal sense is the historical context of the event, and the original intention of the human author in writing.
The first spiritual sense is the allegorical sense: How an event/person/thing points to another or a future event/person/thing.
The second spiritual sense is the tropological or moral sense: What this passage tells us about the human soul, or about the virtues/vices.
The third spiritual sense is the anagogical sense: How an event/person/thing foreshadows the end of time.
We interpret today's parable according to these four senses.
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