A Sower Went Out

Exiit seminator seminare, non de loco ad locum transmutans, sed voluntate. Nec enim venit, ubi non erat, nec relinquit, unde egressus est: quia Deus ubique est, praeter ubi esse noluerit. Aut certe ideo exivit, quia ibi est Deus, ubi justitia ejus colitur: ubi autem justitia ejus non est, nec ipse est ibi. Et qui intra justitiam suam sunt, intus sunt, qui autem extra justitiam ejus sunt, foris habentur. Propterea quamdiu fuit in caelius, ubi omnis sunt justi, intus erat: veniens autem in mundum, qui totus extra justitiam erat Dei, foras exivit, ut ipsum faceret intus. Quoniam ergo omnes gentes, Dei justitiam contemnentes, degebant sub potestate diaboli: ideo exivit, ut plantaret justitiam in mundo, ubi non erat prius propter peccata ipsorum. Exiit qui seminat, seminare. Non sufficit ei dicere, Seminare exivit: sed addidit, Exiit qui seminat, seminare: ut ostenderet, quia non erat novus seminator, nec modo ad hoc opus primum accesserat: sed hoc semper habuit in natura, ut semper seminaret. Opus Imperfectum in Matthaeum, Homilia XXXI Source: Migne PG 56.792

A sower went out to sow, 1 not moving from place to place, but by the will. For He does not come where He was not, nor does He leave that place from which He has gone, because God is everywhere, apart from where He does not wish to be. Or certainly, then, He went out, because God is there where His righteousness is cultivated, and where His righteousness is not, He is not there. And they who are amid His righteousness, they are inside, and they who are not amid His righteousness, there are outside. Besides while He was in heaven, where all are righteous, He was inside, and coming to the world, which was wholly outside the righteousness of God, He went out, that He make what is inside. Because all the peoples scorned the righteousness of God, they were living under the power of the devil, therefore He went out, that He might plant righteousness in the world, where it was not because of their sin. 'He who sows went out to sow.' It is not enough to say of Him, 'He went out to sow,' but He adds, 'He who sows went out to sow,' that He might show that He was not a new sower, nor did he come to this work as a novelty, but He has this in His own nature, for He is always sowing. Opus Imperfectum on Matthew, from Homily 31 1 Mt 13.3