To the words: “A sower went out to sow” (Luke 8:5)

The virgin soil, churned with the help of oxen and the plows of experienced farmers, receives seeds; Having covered them with her clods, she first grows grass, then lengthens the ear, then fills the ear with grain. Then the farmers, seeing the brilliant, eared crops, praise the hopes of their labors, and hasten to sincerely appease God so that He may preserve intact the fruits of the revealed blessings. Often, when the middle of summer approaches, hope is almost achievable and the farmer rejoices, then either a hot wind dries up the ear, or rust rots, or hail destroys, and premature hope disappears; the farmer, oppressed by strong despondency, putting aside his sickle, laments the sadness of the premature end of summer. But when the goodness of the air makes the ear shiny and ripe, and the whitening crop bends like the elders, awaiting the summer harvest, then the villagers, with sharp sickles in their wide hands, add to their labors, satisfy their desires, are satisfied with the fulfillment of their hopes. Then the ox with a cheerful step, with a stern look, goes to the threshing floor, when the rest of the animals are resting at home. The remaining animals, goats, pigs and sheep, who have not subjected their necks to the yoke of the plow, embarrassed by their conscience, slavishly approach the threshing floor (and) steal bundles of ears of grain; only the ox, stretching out his wide tongue, boldly takes the fruits of his labors. You see the reapers there, you see the fruitful arable land there, the threshing floor, the ox; go from here to church landscaping, and you will see the mysterious church cultivation of the land. “The sower went out to sow” (“I went out to sow”). We just heard about this from the Gospel. "Went out". Who? Christ who came from heaven into the world. “The sower” is Christ, the seed is the word of God, the arable land is humanity, the oxen are the apostles, the plow is the cross, the yoke is unanimity; the jugular collar is sweet love connecting the apostolic necks. “The sower went out to sow.” Christ came out not to reap, but to sow; The seeds of resurrection had not yet been sown in the hearts of people. “The sower went out to sow,” not rye, not barley, not millet, nor anything else earthly, but faith in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the hope of the resurrection, love for God and people, unfeigned and not indifferent. The sowing Christ came out from the bosom of his father, existing in the bosom of the Father, and came to us, as he himself directly says: “I came from the Father and come” (John 8:42, 16:28). But he came from the Father, by no means being separated from Him, but remaining with us. This sower went out to uproot the tares that the devil had maliciously sown in the souls of people. “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted” (“Every garden,” it is said, “that my heavenly Father has not planted, will be uprooted”) (Matthew 15:13). The sun of truth came out to illuminate the darkened hearts of people with the bright rays of His deity. The shepherd of the sheep went out to sow the salt of piety and deliver to the sheep the healthy food of the written law. A sower went out with ten teams of oxen to make one meager vessel and, having sowed six measures, make three measures. Now speak, Isaiah, don’t be silent! “Where ten yoke of oxen plow, there he will give one cup” 1 (Is. 5:10). Ten teams of oxen are twenty oxen; ten reasonable teams of oxen are the twelve apostles of Christ and the seven whom the apostles chose. Who exactly? Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmen and Nicholas, a stranger from Antioch; and (also) the apostle, who cultivated the land from Jerusalem to Illyricum. These ten teams of oxen made a confession on the arable land of mankind about Christ, clothed in our meager vessel of the body. What the divine word calls the carnal coming of Christ a meager vessel, listen. When He had to go away to suffer, His disciples said to Him: “Where do you tell us to prepare the Passover for You?” (“Where do you want us to prepare... Easter?”) And he told them: “Go to the city; and you will meet a man carrying a jug of water... and... say to the owner of that house: Our Teacher... said: Where is the room in which I can eat the Passover with My disciples? And he will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready: there prepare for us” (Matthew 26:17; Mark 14:13–15). Who is the person who carries the scoop of water, or what kind of city is He sending them to, or what is the furnished upper room? (this) you need to know, after research. The man wearing the bottle of water is John, the Forerunner of Christ, who announced about Christ that He had put on our body of water (and) had with Him the water of baptism. The furnished upper room refers to the future resting place of the saints in heaven after the resurrection. “He goes to this city,” - not to the old synagogue of the Jews, where the old law has gone sour in old wineskins, - having mixed vinegar with gall, they offered to the Lord, - but go to a new city, to a new Jerusalem, where the new word is, where the new grace of the Spirit in new wineskins exudes the new wine of faith; where there is not the old Easter, but a new resurrection; where it is not the lamb that is slain as a sacrifice, but Christ that liberates; where there is no old leaven, but heavenly bread is prepared on the cross.” “Where ten pairs of oxen plow, they will give one mug.” Where ten teams of oxen work, (i.e.) the apostles (the apostles were likened to oxen, as Paul testifies with the words: “It is written in... the law: You shall not muzzle an ox while it is threshing. Does God care about oxen? (1 Cor. 9:9), but he speaks about us), - there they make a confession of Jesus, who has clothed himself with the skin of our body. And the sower of six measures (artabs) will make only three measures. Do farmers ever have such a bad harvest that they can sow six artabs (and) make only three measures? But let us examine the meaning of Scripture, beloved, let us enter the inner veil of the letter, and we will encounter the divine understanding of the Spirit. The sower of six artabs will make three measures. Six artabs - New Testament, that is, four evangelists, Acts and apostles. He who sows these six artabs in any one soul makes three measures - confession of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. “The sower went out to sow,” not grain for making bread, but life-giving faith; not barley for the food of the foolish, but food for the breath of men; not millet that feeds the birds, but the divine word, fiery, like a mustard seed, strongly warming our souls for piety and wisdom. “A sower went out to sow... and... some fell along the road and was trampled, and the birds of the air came and pecked them; and others fell... into the thorns and, and... the thorns choked the sprout. And some fell on the rock 2, and since it had no root, it vegetated and immediately withered" (Luke 8:5-7). Those along the way are Arians; the thorns are Eunomians; those on the stone are Marathonians. And you note exactly, beloved! “A sower went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside.” He didn’t say “on the way,” but “on the road.” What is the way other than Christ, who says: “I am the way and the truth” (John 14:6)? That which is along the way is the Arians. They are not on the path, not Orthodox, and again not far from the path, like the Greeks or Jews, but along the path, that is, next to Christ, next to the right faith. Their confession of Christ means that they are near the way; their lack of recognition of Christ as the Son of God prevents them from being on the path. Therefore, the birds of heaven that have flown in, that is, the spirits of wickedness, take away the divine word from their hearts and completely deprive them of the right faith. Thorn - Eunomians; they themselves have thorns of slander; they grow the grass of faith, but do not end with the ear of confession. Their confession of Christ causes them to grow the herb of faith; but again their teaching about creation and creation makes their ear of faith dry up immature. By defeating and drowning the word of truth with Hellenic teachings about the veneration of creation instead of God, they make this word, in relation to the right faith, completely sterile and unproductive. Those on rocky ground are marathon runners. The Scripture did not say: “that which fell on a stone,” because “the stone... was Christ” (1 Cor. 10:4), but: “on a rocky bone.” They are neither good earth, nor Orthodox, nor stone, so that, being hewn out of stone by teachers, they could create the church of God - but what? They are a stalactite. There is a certain type of stone, called stalactite; it is neither earth nor hard stone; soft against stone, but hard against the earth. Their confession of the Son of God as similar in essence to the Father makes them softer; their denial of the Holy Spirit makes their hearts hard. So, they are neither good earth, so as to produce a good plant and dress it up in the beauty of faith, nor a solid stone, so as to unshakably and unperturbedly observe the confession of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. They accept this word and grow it, but immediately it is dried and cooled; As a result, their thoughts are not rooted in the depths of their spirit. And although they confess that Christ is the Son of God, but, denying the Holy Spirit, they do not have the Son, according to the testimony and word of the apostle: “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His” (“if ... whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his”) (Rom. 8:9). “And some fell on the good ground and gave fruit, ... and ... some made thirty, others sixty, others hundred" (Mark 4:8). The good earth is the heart of the Orthodox; it exists outside of heretical thorns, cultivated by perfect teachers, and, as it were, churned up, receives the gospel words, becoming seeds for the soul. Such a heart first of all grows the grass of faith, then lengthens the ear of hope, then shows the ripe fruit of perfect love. Blessed Paul also recalls these three fruits of the soul with the words: “faith, hope, love” (1 Cor. 13:13). The believer makes thirty, the one who hopes sixty, the one perfected in love makes a hundred; he who is anointed makes thirty, he who goes down into the water makes sixty, he who is perfected in the sacrament makes a hundred. So from one seed he bears threefold fruit: he glorifies God, elevates the church, and saves himself. Such a one receives his reward from the Holy Trinity: he understands in spirit, he foresees in soul, he endures in body. He is blessed three times: he is glorified on earth, he rises from the dead, and he rests in heaven. Such a one is honored with three high degrees: thirty, when in heaven; the sixties, when between the angels; a hundred when with God. Such a meek, quiet, humble, wise, merciful, compassionate, righteous, a wanderer of the world, alien to life, appears only in appearance on earth, but abides in heaven in heart and deeds. Some of the heretics, in their unreasonable judgment, invent a ladder in blasphemous words. What are they saying? Faith in the Spirit makes thirty, in the Son makes sixty, in the Father makes one hundred. They do not know that when they belittle the Holy Spirit, (in fact) they exalt Him. They place the Spirit before the Father and the Son; They say: he who believes in the Spirit makes thirty; and before the Father they place the Spirit first, then the Son, then the Father. We think the opposite, we say the opposite. The believer believes first of all not in the Spirit, but in the Father; he who believes in the Father makes thirty; he who adds faith in the Son doubles the number and makes it sixty; having clothed himself with the Holy Spirit, he became a hundred, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. In the synodal translation: “Ten plots in a vineyard will give one baht.” The preacher explains the Gospel επί τα πετρώδ, not as something stone, but as a cross between stone and earth. This will be seen later. Creations attributed to St. John Chrysostom and in the Patrology of Min, classified as Spuria. The paragraphs in the text were arranged by us. – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith”