Lecture 4 — The harvest

^4:34^ Jesus said to them: my food is to do the will of him who sent me, so that I may accomplish his work. [n. 639]

^4:35^ Do you not say, there are yet four months and then the harvest comes? Behold, I say to you: lift up your eyes, and see the fields, which are already white for harvest. [n. 645]

^4:36^ And he who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit unto life everlasting: so that both he who sows, and he who reaps, may rejoice together. [n. 651]

^4:37^ For in this the saying is true: that it is one man who sows, and it is another who reaps. [n. 652]

^4:38^ I have sent you to reap that in which you did not labor: others have done the work, and you have entered into their labors. [n. 654]

638. Since the disciples were slow to understand the Lord’s figure of speech, the Lord now explains it.

First, we have its explanation;

second, its application, at do you not say, there are yet four months and then the harvest comes?

639. As to the first, we should note that just as Christ explained to the Samaritan woman what he had told her in figurative language about water, so he explains to his apostles what he told them in figurative language about food. But he does not do so in the same way in both cases. Since the apostles were able to understand these matters more easily, he explains to them at once and in few words; but to the Samaritan woman, since she could not understand as well, our Lord leads her to the truth with a longer explanation.

640. There is a perfectly reasonable cause for Christ to say, my food is to do the will of him who sent me, so that I may accomplish his work. For as bodily food sustains a man and brings him to perfection, the spiritual food of the soul and of the rational creature is that by which he is sustained and perfected; and this consists in being joined to his end and following a higher rule. David, understanding this, said: for me, to adhere to God is good (Ps 72:28). Accordingly, Christ, as man, fittingly says that his food is to do the will of God and to accomplish his work.

641. These two expressions can be understood as meaning the same thing, in the sense that the second is explaining the first. Or, they can be understood in different ways.

If we understand them as meaning the same, the sense is this: my food is, i.e., in this is my strength and nourishment, to do the will of him who sent me; according to, my God, I desired to do your will, and your law is in my heart (Ps 39:9), and, I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me (John 6:38). But because to do the will of another can be understood in two ways—one, by making him will it, and second, by fulfilling what I know he wills—therefore, explaining what it means to do the will of him who sent him, the Lord says, so that I may accomplish his work, that is, that I might complete the work I know he wants: I must do the works of him who sent me while it is day (John 9:4).

If these two expressions are understood as different, then we should point out that Christ did two things in this world. First, he taught the truth, in inviting and calling us to the faith; and by this he fulfilled the will of the Father: this is the will of my Father who sent me: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life (John 6:40). Second, he accomplished the truth by opening in us, by his passion, the gate of life, and by giving us the power to arrive at complete truth: I have finished the work that you gave me to do (John 17:4). Thus he is saying: my food is to do the will of him who sent me, by calling men to the faith, so that I may accomplish his work, by leading them to what is perfect.

642. Another interpretation, given by Origen, is that every man who does good works should direct his intention to two things: the honor of God and the good of his neighbor: for as it is said: the end of the commandment is love (1 Tim 1:5), and this love embraces both God and our neighbor. And so, when we do something for God’s sake, the end of the commandment is God; but when it is for our neighbor’s good, the end of the commandment is our neighbor.

With this in mind, Christ is saying, my food is to do the will of him who sent me, God, i.e., to direct and regulate my intention to those matters that concern the honor of God, so that I may accomplish his work, i.e., to do things for the benefit and perfection of man.

643. On the other hand, since the works of God are perfect, it does not seem proper to speak of accomplishing or completing them.

I answer that among lower creatures, man is the special work of God, who made him to his own image and likeness (Gen 1:26). And in the beginning God made this a perfect work, because as we read: God made man upright (Eccl 7:30). But later, man lost this perfection by sin, and abandoned what was right. And so, this work of the Lord needed to be repaired in order to become right again; and this was accomplished by Christ, for just as by the disobedience of one man, many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one man, many will be made just (Rom 5:19). Thus Christ says, so that I may accomplish his work, i.e., to bring man back to what is perfect.

644. Then when he says, do you not say, these are yet four months, and then the harvest comes? Behold, I say to you: lift up your eyes and see the fields, which are already white for harvest, he makes use of a simile.

Note that when Christ asked the Samaritan woman for a drink, give me a drink (John 4:7), he made use of a simile concerning water. But here, the disciples are urging the Lord to eat, and now he makes use of a simile concerning spiritual food. There are some persons whom God asks for a drink, as this Samaritan woman; and there are some who offer a drink to God. But no one offers food to God unless God first asks him for it: for we offer spiritual food to God when we ask him for our salvation, that is, when we ask, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matt 6:10). We cannot obtain salvation of ourselves, unless we are pre-moved by prevenient grace, according to the statement: make us come back to you, O Lord, and we will come back (Lam 5:21). The Lord himself, therefore, first asks for that which makes us ask through prevenient grace.

In this simile, we have

first, the harvest.

Second, those who reap the harvest, at and he who reaps receives wages.

He does two things concerning the first.

First, he states the simile concerning the natural harvest;

second, concerning the spiritual harvest, at behold, I say to you: lift up your eyes, and see the fields, which are already white for harvest.

645. From what he says, do you not say, there are four months and then the harvest comes? we can see that, as stated, Christ left Judea and traveled through Samaria right after John was arrested, and that all this happened during the winter (Matt 4:12). So, because the harvests ripen there more according to the season, there were four months from that time till the harvest. Thus he says, do you not say, how the natural harvest, there are yet four months and then the harvest comes? i.e., the time for gathering up the harvest. Behold, I say to you, speaking of the spiritual harvest, lift up your eyes, and see the fields, which are already white for harvest.

646. Here we should point out that harvest time is the time when the fruit is gathered; and so whenever fruit is gathered can be regarded as a harvest time. Now fruit is gathered at two times: for both in temporal and in spiritual matters there is nothing to prevent what is fruit in relation to an earlier state from being seed in relation to something later. For example, good works are the fruit of spiritual instruction, as is faith and other such things; but these in turn are seeds of eternal life, because eternal life is acquired through them. So it is said: my blossoms, in relation to the fruit to follow, bear the fruit of honor and riches, in relation to what preceded (Sir 24:23).

With this in mind, there is a certain gathering of a spiritual harvest; and this concerns an eternal fruit, i.e., the gathering of the faithful into eternal life, of which we read: the harvest is the end of the world (Matt 13:39). We are not here concerned with this harvest. Another spiritual harvest is gathered in the present; and this is understood in two ways. In the first, the gathering of the fruit is the converting of the faithful to be assembled in the Church; in the second, the gathering is the very knowing of the truth, by which a person gathers the fruit of truth into his soul. And we are concerned with these two gatherings of the harvest, depending on the different expositions.

647. Augustine and Chrysostom understand the gathering of the harvest in the first way, as follows. You say that it is not yet the time for the natural harvest; but this is not true of the spiritual harvest. Indeed, behold, lift up your eyes, i.e., the eyes of your mind, by thinking, or even your physical eyes, look at the fields, which are already white for the harvest: because the entire countryside was full of Samaritans coming to Christ.

The statement that the fields are already white is metaphorical: for when sown fields are white, it is a sign that they are ready for harvest. And so he only means to say by this that the people were ready for salvation and to hear the word. He says, see the fields, because not only the Jews, but the gentiles as well, were ready for the faith: the harvest is great, but the workers are few (Matt 9:37). And just as harvests are made white by the presence of the burning heat of the summer sun, so by the coming of the Sun of justice, i.e., Christ, and his preaching and power, men are made ready for salvation. It is said: the sun of justice will rise on you who fear my name (Mal 4:2). Thus it is that the time of Christ’s coming is called the time of plenitude or fullness: when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son (Gal 4:4).

648. Origen deals with the second gathering of the harvest, i.e., the gathering of truth in the soul. He says that one gathers as much of the fruit of truth in the harvest as the truths he knows. And he says that everything said here, do you not say, there are yet four months and then the harvest comes? Behold, I say to you: lift up your eyes, and see the fields, which are already white for harvest, this should be understood as being spoken figureatively. And according to these two the Lord does two things. First he poses a false opinion concerning this; second he excludes it at I say to you.

Some thought that man could not acquire any truth about anything. This opinion gave rise to the heresy of the Academicians, who maintained that nothing can be known as certain in this life; about which we read: I tested all things by wisdom. I said: ‘I will acquire wisdom,’ and it became further from me (Eccl 7:24). Our Lord mentions this opinion when he says, do you not say, there are yet four months and then the harvest comes? i.e., this whole present life, in which man serves under the four elements, must end, so that after it truth may be gathered in another life.

Our Lord rejects this opinion when he says: this is not true, behold, I say to you: lift up your eyes. Sacred Scripture usually uses this expression when something subtle and profound is being presented; as, lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things (Isa 40:26). For when our eyes are not lifted away from earthly things or from the desires of the flesh, they are not fit to know spiritual fruit. For when they are lowered to the earth, they are prevented from considering divine things: they have fixed their eyes on the earth (Ps 16:11); sometimes they are blinded by concupiscence: they have averted their eyes so as not to look at heaven or remember the judgments of God (Dan 13:9).

649. So he says, lift up your eyes and see the fields, for they are already white for the harvest, i.e., they are such that the truth can be learned from them: for by the fields we specifically understand all those things from which truth can be acquired, especially the Scriptures: search the Scriptures . . . they give testimony about me (John 5:39).

Indeed, these fields existed in the Old Testament, but they were not white for the harvest because men were not able to pick spiritual fruit from them until Christ came, who made them white by opening their understanding: he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:45). Again, creatures are harvests from which the fruit of truth is gathered: the invisible things of God are clearly known by the things that have been made (Rom 1:20). None the less, the gentiles who pursued a knowledge of these things gathered the fruits of error rather than of truth from them, because as we read, they served the creature rather than the Creator (Rom 1:25). So the harvests were not yet white; but they were made white for the harvest when Christ came.

650. Next, when he says, he who reaps receives wages, he deals with the reapers.

First, he gives their reward.

Second, he mentions a proverb, at for in this the saying is true.

And third, he explains it, i.e., applies it, at I have sent you to reap.

651. Concerning the first, we should note that when the Lord was explaining earlier about spiritual water, he mentioned the way in which spiritual water differs from natural water: a person who drinks natural water will become thirsty again, but one who drinks spiritual water will never be thirsty again. Here, too, in explaining about the harvest, he points out the difference between a natural and a spiritual harvest. Three things are mentioned.

First, the way in which the two harvests are similar: namely, in that the person who reaps either harvest receives a wage. But the one who reaps spiritually is the one who gathers the faithful into the Church, or who gathers the fruit of truth into his soul. Each of these will receive a wage, according to: each one will receive his own wage according to his work (1 Cor 3:8).

The two other points he mentions concern the ways the two harvests are unlike each other. First, the fruit gathered from a natural harvest concerns the life of the body; but the fruit gathered by one who reaps a spiritual harvest concerns eternal life. So he says, he who reaps, i.e., he who reaps spiritually, gathers fruit unto life everlasting, that is, the faithful, who will obtain eternal life: your fruit is sanctification, your end is eternal life (Rom 6:22). Or, this fruit is the very knowing and explaining of the truth by which man acquires eternal life: those who explain me will have eternal life (Sir 24:31).

Second, the two harvests are unlike because in a natural harvest it is considered a misfortune that one should sow and another reap; hence he who sows is saddened when another reaps. But it is not this way when the seed is spiritual, so that both he who sows, and he who reaps, may rejoice together.

According to Chrysostom and Augustine, the ones who sow spiritual seed are the fathers and prophets of the Old Testament, for the seed is the word of God (Luke 8:11), which Moses and the prophets sowed in the land of Judah. But the apostles were the reapers, because the former were not able to accomplish what they wanted to do, i.e., to bring men to Christ; this was done by the apostles. And so both the apostles and the prophets rejoice together, in one mansion of glory, over the conversion of the faithful: joy and gladness will be found there, thanksgiving and the voice of praise (Isa 51:3).

This refutes the heresy of the Manicheans who condemn the fathers of the Old Testament; for as the Lord says here, they will rejoice with the apostles.

According to Origen, however, the sowers in any faculty are those who confer the very first principles of that faculty; but the reapers are those who proceed from these principles to further truths. And this is all the more true of the science of all the sciences. The prophets are sowers, because they handed down many things concerning divine matters; but the apostles are the reapers, because in preaching and teaching they revealed many things which the prophets did not make known: which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles (Eph 3:5).

652. Then when he says, for in this the saying is true: that it is one man who sows, and it is another who reaps. As if to say: for in this, i.e., in this fact, the saying is true, i.e., the proverb in current use among the Jews is fulfilled: One man sows, another reaps. This proverb seems to have grown out of the statement, you will sow your seed in vain for it will be devoured by your enemies (Lev 26:16). As a result, the Jews used this proverb when one person labored on something, but another received the pleasure from it. This then is what our Lord says: the proverb is verified here because it was the prophets who sowed and labored, while you are the ones to reap and rejoice.

Another interpretation would be this. For in this the saying is true, i.e., what I am saying to you, that it is one man who sows, and it is another who reaps, because you will reap the fruits of the labor of the prophets. Now the prophets and the apostles are different, but not in faith, for they both had faith: but now the justice of God has been manifested outside the law; the law and the prophets bore witness to it (Rom 3:21). They are different in their manner of life, for the prophets lived under the ceremonies of the law, from which the apostles and Christians have been freed: when we were children, we were slaves under the elements of this world. But when the fullness of time came, God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we could receive adoption as sons (Gal 4:3).

And although the apostles and prophets labor at different times, nevertheless they will rejoice equally and receive wages unto life everlasting: so that both he who sows, and he who reaps, may rejoice together. This was prefigured in the transfiguration of Christ, where all had their own glory, both the fathers of the Old Testament, that is, Moses and Elijah, and the fathers of the New Testament, that is, Peter, John and James. We see from this that the just of the New and of the Old Testaments will rejoice together in the glory to come.

653. Then, at I have sent you to reap that in which you did not labor, he applies the proverb.

First, he calls the apostles reapers.

Second, he says they are laborers, at others have done the work, and you have entered into their labors.

654. He says concerning the first: I say that it is one who reaps, because you are reapers, and another who sows, for I have sent you to reap that in which you did not labor. He does not say, I will send you, but I have sent you. He says this because he sent them twice. One time was before his passion, when he sent them to the Jews, saying: do not go on the roads of the gentiles . . . but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matt 10:5). In this case, they were sent to reap that on which they did not work, that is, to convert the Jews, among whom the prophets worked.

After the resurrection, Christ sent them to the gentiles, saying: go to the whole world, and preach the good news to every creature (Mark 16:15). This time they were sent to sow for the first time; for as the Apostle says: I have preached the good news, but not where Christ was already known, so as not to build on another’s foundation. But as it is written: they to whom he was not proclaimed will see, and they who have not heard will understand. (Rom 15:20). And so Christ says, I have sent you, referring to the first time they were sent.

This is the way, then, the apostles are reapers, and others, the prophets, are the sowers.

655. Accordingly, he says, others have done the work, by sowing the beginnings of the doctrine of Christ, and you have entered into their labors, to collect the fruit: the fruit of good labors is glorious (Wis 3:15). The prophets labored, I say, to bring men to Christ: if you believed Moses, you would perhaps believe me also, for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? (John 5:46–47). But the prophets did not reap the fruit; so Isaiah said with this in mind: I have labored for nothing and without reason; in vain I have exhausted my strength (Isa 49:4).