On the Gospel
An excerpt from the work of St. John Chrysostom, Bishop and Doctor

The Sower went out to sow his seed. What is the meaning of this parable? He went out to sow His seed. From where did He go out, Who is present everywhere, and fills all places? He went out, not into a place, but into a life and into a dispensation of things wherein He saved us, being brought close to us, by reason of becoming clothed in our flesh. Since we could not enter in, for our sins had shut the door to us, He came out to us. And why did He come out? Was it to destroy the earth that brought forth thorns? To punish the husbandman? No. He came to till and to take care of the earth: to sow the word of compassion. For here He calls His teaching seed; the souls of men a ploughed field; and Himself the Sower.

What happened to this seed?  Three amounts of it were lost and one saved.  And as He sowed, some fell by the way side, and was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. He does not say that He threw it, but that it fell.  And other some fell upon a rock: and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it had no moisture.  And other some fell among thorns, and the thorns growing up with it, choked it.  And other some fell upon good ground; and being sprung up, yielded fruit a hundredfold, and some sixty, and some thirty.  He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

A fourth portion is saved: and this again not in equal measure, for here there is a greater variation.  He speaks in this manner to show that He is teaching all men alike, without any distinction.  For as the sower makes no distinction  in his field, but scatters his seed broadcast, so neither does He distinguish between rich and poor, between wise and unwise, the slothful or the diligent, the courageous or the timid, but addresses His words to all; fulfilling what was His to do, though He foreknew that which was to come to pass: that He might be able to say:  What is there that I ought to do more to my vineyard that I have not done to it? (Is. v.4). For the prophets spoke of their people as a vineyard. For Isaias says: My beloved had a vineyard in a fruitful place; and says the psalmist: Thou hast brought a vineyard out of Egypt. (Ps.Ixxix. 9).