The Seed Beside The Way

Ecce exiit qui seminat, seminare: et dum seminat, quaedam ceciderunt secus viam, et venerunt volucres et comederunt ea... Quae est via? Mundus iste, per quem omnes transeunt qui nascuntur: via enim et peregrinatio, et transitus est omnibus, qui et a Deo exierunt, et ad Deum festinant. Unde et propheta dicebat: Quoniam incola sum apud te in terra, et peregrinus, sicut patres mei. Sicut ergo viator in via nihil sollicitus est, nisi quod necessarium habet ad usum: ita et homo in hoc transitu mundi nihil debet esse sollicitus, nisi quod opus habet ad usum. Qui autem suam spem ponit in mundo, et delectatur in eo, est similis homini desperato, qui non habet neque patriam, neque domum, neque familiam, ad quam festinet: sed in quocumque loco inventus fuerit, ipse locus domus ejus est. Quae est ergo terra secus viam? Homo secundum istum mundum vivens, qui omnia ea sapit quae mundi sunt, et nihil quod Dei est: sed hoc solum diebus ac noctitbus cogitat, hoc concupiscit, quod perinent ad bene manducandum et bibendum, et spurcitam corporis exercendam. Ex his enim omnia mala nascuntur. Propter cibum enim et potum avaritiae fiunt, furta, violentiae, perjuria, ex avaritia autem invidiae et contentiones, ex invidia autem maliloquia et detractiones, inimicitiae et imposturae: ex inimicitiis manifesta ira, rixae, caedes, homicidia, judicia: ex libidine autem fornicationes, adulteria, masculorum concubitus, feminarum invasiones, Talibus si loqui volueris de spiritualibus rebus, non intelligunt verbum, non sentiunt verbi dulcedinem. Nec enim est possibile, ut inter tantas amaritudines vitiorum sentiatur dulcedo sermonum. Sicut qui in magno vase aceti modicam guttam mellis immisceat, etiam mel perdit, et acerbitas aceti non mutatur: sic homini in hac malorum multitudine constituo si colloquutus fueris justitiae verbum, et verbum perdis, et ille non temperatur in concupiscentia mundialium rerum. Nec enim habet bonum in se. Nam homo illud concupiscit, quod jam habet exceptum in se, et scit esse bonum. Ecce si ostendis leoni viridem herbam, aut campum bene florentem, non excitat eum in concupiscentia, quia non habet hoc in natura, ut herbas manducet: et e contra si ostendas bovi carnes, non concupiscit, quia non est bovis natura, ut manducet carnem: sic et homini mundiali, si de bono caelesti loquaris, non excitatur in concupiscentia boni. Sed quemadmodum si pluiva super lapidem cadat, desuper quidem sudat, ab intus autem siccus est, quia non descendit humor in eum: sic et tali homini quando loqueris verbum Dei, tantummodo sonus verbi desuper percutit aures ejus carnales, in cor autem nihil descendit. Et merito: jacentia super lapidem semina verbi rapiunt volatiles daemones. Dic mihi, cujus cupla est, rapientium daemonum semina, aut hominum durorum non abscondentium ea in sulcis pectoris sui? Puto non esse culpam rapientium deamonum. Ille enim latro, qui parietem perforat, in secreta domus parte ingreditur: qui autem invenit foris impositum et projectum, quomodo quasi latro culpetur? Sic et diabolus, si poterat introire in secreta pectoris tui, ut a te nolente raperet verbum, bene culparetur: nunc autem quod a te neglectum est, et contemptum, hoc ille diripit. Denique sciens propheta homimum abscondentium esse culpam, dicebat: In corde meo abscondi eloquia tua ut non peccem tibi. Opus Imperfectum in Matthaeum, Homilia XXXI Source: Migne PG 56.792-793

Behold, a sower went out to sow, and while he sowed, some seeds fell beside the way, and the birds came and ate them... 1 What is the way? It is the world, through which all pass who are born. The way is a journey and a passing through for all who have gone out from God and hurry to Him. Whence the Prophet says: 'Because to you I am a sojourner on the earth, and a stranger like my fathers.' 2 As then a traveller on the way is anxious for nothing but that he has what is necessary for it, so a man in this passing through the world has nothing that should concern him but that he has what he needs for it. But he who puts his hope in the world, and delights in it, is similar to a despairing man, who has neither homeland, nor house, nor family, to whom he hurries, but in whatever place he finds himself that place is his home. Then what is the earth beside the way? It is a man who lives according to this world, whose knowledge is all from the world, and has nothing of God. Day and night he thinks of this alone, this he desires, eating and drinking well, and being rid of bodily filth. From these things all evils are born. On account of food and drink comes avarice, theft, violence, lies. From avarice envy and arguments, from envy wicked speech and detraction, hostility and deception, from hostility comes forth anger, fights, slaughters, murders, condemnations. From lust fornication, adultery, homosexuality, perversion of women. If you wish to speak of spiritual things to such folk, they do not understand a word, nor do they grasp the beauty of the speech. For it is not possible that among such bitterness of vices the sweetness of such words be grasped. If someone mixed a small drop of honey into a large vase of vinegar the honey would be destroyed and the bitterness of the vinegar would be unchanged, and so a man established in such a multitude of evils, if you speak of righteousness to him, such speech is destroyed, and he is not tempered in his desire for worldly things. He has no good in him. For a man desires what he already has received into himself and he knows to be good. Behold, if you show a lion a green plant, or a field bedecked with flowers, it does not arouse desire in him, because he does not have it in his nature that he should eat plants, and contrariwise if you show meat to a bull, he does not desire it, because it is not in the nature of a bull to eat meat. So if you speak of heavenly goods to a worldly man, it does not arouse in him desire for good. But as rain falling on a stone moistens what is outside, but what is within remains dry because the moisture does not go down into it, so even such a man when you speak the word of God to him, only the sound of the word from above strikes his carnal ears and nothing falls into his heart. And rightly, then, the seed which is cast upon the stone is seized by flying demons. Tell me, whose fault is this, the demons who seize the seed, or the hard man who does not take them into the chamber of his heart? I do not think it is the fault of the demons who seize. A thief is someone who breaks through a wall and enters into a secret part of the house; he who finds something set down outside, even thrown down, how is he to be blamed as a thief? So even the devil, if he were able to enter in the secret places of your heart, to seize on the word with you unwilling, he indeed would be blameworthy, but now what has been neglected by you, even scorned, that is what he seizes on. Finally the Prophet, knowing the fault to be found in men regarding the taking in of things, says, 'In my heart I placed your word, that I might not sin against you.' 3 Opus Imperfectum on Matthew, from Homily 31 1 Mt 13.3-4 2 Ps 38.13 3 Ps 118.11