In illud Exiit qui seminat

On the phrase, "The sower went out to sow his seed." The virgin soil, furrowed by skilled farmers with the cooperation of oxen and plows, receives the seeds, and enfolding them in clods, first sprouts the grass, then lengthens the ear, then puts forth the full grain in the ear. Then the farmers, seeing the bright crop of ears, exalt the hopes of their own labors, and hasten to entreat God sincerely that he preserve the fruits of the visible goods unharmed. For often, when the height of harvest approaches, and the hope is readily grasped, and the farmer is overjoyed, either a hot wind blowing has winnowed the ear, or rust has rotted it, or a locust has devoured it, or hail has shattered it, and has withered the untimely end of hope; so that the farmer, seized by great despondency, putting the sickle to rest in his hut, withers himself with grief at the untimely end of the harvest.

When the favorable temperature of the air produces a bright and ripe ear of grain, and the field, like an image of old age, is bent over, whitening, awaiting the harvest cut, then the farmers, and hands with sharp sickles spread out, bring labors upon labors, and lull their desire to rest, satisfying their hopes with the very end. Then, while the other animals rest at home, the ox alone goes to the threshing floor with a cheerful step and a fierce look. And the other animals—goats, pigs, and sheep, all those that did not submit their own neck to the yoke of the plow—oppressed by their own conscience, approaching the threshing floor with slavish gains, plunder the sheaf of the ears of grain. But the ox alone, stretching out its tongue freely, confidently draws the fruits of its own labors. You saw there the reapers, you saw there the grain-bearing field, the threshing floor, the ox. Transfer from there with my word to the ecclesiastical order, and you will see the agriculture of the aforementioned things in the mystery of the Church. "The sower went out to sow," it says. For we have just heard this in the Gospel. He went out. Who? Christ, having come from heaven into the world. For the sower is Christ, the seed is the divine word, the field is humanity, the oxen are the apostles, the plow is the cross, the yoke is harmony, the collar is the sweet love that binds the necks of the apostles. The sower went out to sow. Christ went out, not to reap, but to sow; for the seeds of the resurrection were not yet sown in the hearts of men.

The sower went out to sow, not wheat, not barley, not millet, nor any other earthly thing, but faith in Father and Son and Holy Spirit, hope of resurrection, love for God and for men unfeigned and undiscriminating. Christ went out sowing from the Father’s loins, he who is in the bosom of the Father, and came to us, as he himself declares, saying: I came out from the Father and I am come. But he came out from his Father not being separated from him, while being with us. The sower went out to root out the tares which the devil had wickedly sown in the souls of men. For every plant, he says, which my heavenly Father did not plant, shall be rooted out. The sun of righteousness went out to sprinkle his radiant beams of divinity in the hearts of darkened men. The shepherd of the sheep went out to sow the salt of piety, seasoning the grass of the legal letter for the sheep to make it savory. The sower went out, having the ten yoke of oxen, to make the one jar, and having sown six artabas, to make three measures. Speak now, Isaiah, do not be silent. For where ten yoke of oxen labor, they will make one jar. Ten yoke of oxen are twenty oxen. Ten yoke of oxen are the rational oxen of Christ, the apostles, who are the twelve, and the seven whom the apostles chose. Who are these? Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch, and the apostle who labored from Jerusalem as far as Illyricum.

These ten yoke of oxen made into the field of humanity the confession of faith in Jesus, who put on our earthenware vessel of the body. That the divine word calls the incarnate sojourn of Christ a jar, listen. When he was about to go to his passion, his disciples said to him, "Where do you want us to keep the Passover?" He said to them, "Go to such and such a city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you, and say to him, 'Our Teacher said, "I keep the Passover with you."' And he will show you an upper room furnished, and there prepare the Passover for us." Who is the man carrying the jar of water, or what is the city to which he sends them, or what is the furnished upper room, it is necessary for you to seek and understand. The man carrying the jar of water is John the forerunner of Christ, proclaiming Jesus, who put on our earthenware jar of the body, having within himself the water of baptism. The furnished upper room means the rest that will be for the saints in heaven after the resurrection. "Go to such and such a city": not to the old synagogue of the Jews, where the old law in the old wineskins turned sour; for they mixed vinegar with gall and offered it to the Lord. But go to the new city, to the new Jerusalem, where the new word is, where the new grace of the Spirit in the new wineskins wells up the new wine of faith; not where the old Passover is, but where the new resurrection is; not where the lamb is sacrificed, but where Christ is delivered.

not where the old leaven is, but where the heavenly bread is perfected on the cross. For where ten yoke of oxen labor, they will make one jar. Where ten yoke of oxen labor—the apostles (for the apostles were likened to oxen, as Paul testifies to me, saying: It is written in the law, You shall not muzzle an ox threshing. For does God, he says, care about oxen? But he speaks for our sake)—where then these ten yoke of oxen labor, they make the confession into Jesus, who put on the jar of our body. And the sower of six artabae will make only three measures. Has there ever been such a dearth of farmers that six artabae sown produce only three measures? But let us seek the meaning of the Scripture, beloved; let us enter into the inner veil of the letter, and the divine knowledge of the Spirit will meet us. The sower of six artabae will make three measures. The six artabae are the New Testament: that is, the four evangelists, and Acts, and the Apostles.

These six artabas the sower sows in some soul, producing the three measures: the confession into Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The sower went out to sow, not grain for making bread, but faith that gives life; not barley for the food of beasts, but food for the breath of men; not millet that feeds birds, but divine word, fiery, likened to a mustard seed, vehemently heating our souls toward piety and prudence. The sower went out to sow. And some fell by the road, and were trampled, and the birds of the sky came and ate them; others fell on thorns, and the thorns choked the sprout; others fell on rocky ground, and because it had no root, having sprung up it immediately withered. Those by the road are the Arians, the thorny ones are the Eunomians, those on the rocky ground are the Marathinians. And learn precisely, beloved. The sower went out to sow. And some fell by the road. He did not say, On the road, but, By the road. Who is the road, if not certainly Christ who says, I am the road and the truth? So those by the road are the Arians. They are not on the road, for they are not orthodox; nor again are they far from the road, as Greeks or Jews, but by the road; that is, beside Christ, beside the right faith. That they confess Christ, this is what makes them be near the road; that they deny Christ to be Son of God, this is what prevents them from being on the road.

For this reason the birds of the sky, that is, the spiritual forces of wickedness, gather the divine word from their hearts and render them completely empty of right faith. The thorny ones are the Eunomians; for they have within themselves the thorns of blasphemy; and they sprout the blade of faith, but they do not bring to completion the ear of confession. That they confess Christ causes them to sprout the blade of faith; but that they again call him a creature and a product causes the ear of their faith to wither prematurely. For by pricking and stifling the word of truth with the Hellenic doctrines of creature-worship, they render it completely fruitless and barren of right faith. Those upon the rocky places are the Marathonians. Scripture did not say, "Some fell upon the rock"; for the rock was Christ; but "Upon the rocky places." They are neither good earth, for they are not orthodox; nor are they rock, so that they might be hewn by teachers to build the temple of God; but what? They are pumice. There is a certain nature of stone, called pumice; it is neither earth nor solid stone; soft compared to stone, but hard compared to earth. That they confess the Son of God to be of like essence with the Father causes them to be softer; that they deny the Holy Spirit causes their hearts to be hardened. Therefore they are neither good earth, so that they might sprout luxuriantly and be adorned with the ornament of faith.

nor a solid rock, so that they might keep the confession in the Father and Son and Holy Spirit unshaken and unmoved. And they receive this word, and it sprouts; but immediately they dry it up and wither it, because they do not have the roots of their thoughts in the depth of the spirit. Even if they confess Christ to be the Son of God, by denying the Holy Spirit they do not have the Son either, as the apostle bears witness and says: If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, that one is not his. The others, it says, fell upon good earth, and gave fruit, and some produced thirty, some sixty, some a hundred. This is the good earth: the heart of the orthodox, which is free from the thorns of the heretics, which has been worked by perfect teachers and, as it were, furrowed, and receives the words of the Gospel as seeds of the soul. Such a heart first sprouts the grass of faith, then lengthens the ear of hope, then displays the ripe fruit of perfect love. The blessed Paul also mentions these three fruits of the soul, saying: Faith, hope, love. The one who believes produces thirty, the one who hopes produces sixty, the one perfected in love produces a hundred; the one anointed produces thirty, the one who goes down into the water produces sixty, the one perfected in the mystery produces a hundred. Thus from one seed it bears fruit in three ways: it glorifies God, it elevates the Church, it preserves itself. This one will receive the rewards of the good Trinity, uniting with the spirit, foreseeing with the soul, enduring with the body.

This one is blessed threefold: he is glorified on earth, rises from the dead, and rests in the heavens. Such a one is honored in three superior orders: thirty, as in the heavens; sixty, as among angels; one hundred, as with God. Such a one is meek, tranquil, humble-minded, merciful, compassionate, just, a stranger to the world, alien to life, appearing on earth only in image, but dwelling in heart and deeds in the heavens. But some others among the heretics, according to their own thankless opinion, craft a ladder of blasphemy with their words. What do they say? Faith in the Spirit produces the thirty; faith in the Son produces the sixty; faith in the Father produces the one hundred. They are ignorant that, as they wish to diminish, they magnify the Holy Spirit. For they place the Spirit before the Father and the Son, saying: He who believes in the Spirit produces the thirty; and they first set the Spirit before the Father, then the Son, then the Father. But we, thinking the opposite to them, say the opposite. For he who believes does not first believe in the Spirit, but in the Father; he who believes in the Father produces the thirty; he who adds belief in the Son doubles the number and produces the sixty; and he who also puts on the Holy Spirit has completed the hundred, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom are the glory and the power unto the ages of ages. Amen.