field is your soul, which is capable of receiving either good or bad seed. The seed which God sows in it consists of grace, holy inspirations, and pious affections, arising from the perusal of good books, from attention to sermons and to the advice of spiritual directors. The most precious seed, however, is His own body and blood in the sacrament; for " this is the corn of the chosen ones." (Zach. ix. 17.)
II. The soil of your soul is in itself fruitless and barren, and produces nothing but the weeds of vice and passion. Sometimes, like the field in the Gospel, it is covered with cockle, that is, with vices bearing the resemblance of virtue; and these fill the mind with vain hopes of future fruit: but when the harvest-time arrives, that is, at the last judgment, they will be cast into the fire. Purify your soul by mortification from these weeds of vice; separate the cockle from the good grain; distinguish real virtue from its resemblances, that the seed of the heavenly sower may not be choked in your soul.
III. How anxiously you ought to labor in the affairs of salvation, in order that you may yield fruit proportionate to the divine seed which God sows in your soul when you approach the holy sacraments! Beware lest you provoke this heavenly husbandman to indignation, and force Him to condemn you to the fire. " For the earth, which drinketh in the rain which cometh upon it, and bringeth forth herbs and meat for those by whom it is tilled, receiveth blessing from God. But that which bringeth forth thorns and briers is rejected and very near to a curse, whose end is to be burnt." (Heb. vi. 7.)
