Sowing in Tears and Reaping in Joy

Toward the living being, after which the manifestation immediately occurs. Just as 'it is not known' those 'in the womb of the pregnant woman,' unless by chance a revelation from God happens to occur, so the soul, which has attached itself to the seeds and the wombs of the 'bridegroom' of the Savior—about whom it is said, 'he who has the bride is the bridegroom' (Matt 9:15)—has hidden the wombs. But then they become manifest, when the wombs, which God sowed, change into thought and works. It is not therefore necessary to always have them 'in the womb.' And one has them 'in the womb' and 'bears them' who does not change the words and the thoughts of the works into works and dogmatic contemplations. Just as there 'you do not know' those things, unless they change into good works and pious contemplations, so also one 'will know the works of God' no other way than if they change into works according to energetic operation.

In order that you might receive the strong dogmas as the 'bone of the pregnant woman' by an upward leading; for the 'bones' are the sustaining things of the body. In the same way, without the dogmas of piety, the passions and the duties are not correctly placed. For this reason, it is said concerning these 'bones' that they also have 'knowledge of God' and know that no one is 'like Him.' He did not say absolutely, but rather 'in the womb of the pregnant woman'; just as if I say that when it is night nothing of the visible is seen, I am not saying that nothing is seen, but rather when it is night; for it is not the same to say 'nothing is seen' and 'at night nothing is seen.' 'In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening let not your hand withhold, for you do not know which this or that will succeed' (Eccl 11:6).

Since we are very much turning toward the literal, and this is to be taken toward history. Often the name of 'day' does not signify only the illuminated air when the sun was above the earth, but also the whole life of man, as if the hymnographer says, 'and I waited for you all the day.' And often 'day' and a 'season' beginning and receiving are called the same. He says therefore that at the beginning of the 'season'—so that you might take the 'day' as one 'season' of 'sowing' and 'reaping'—he says at the beginning of that 'season,' by which there is 'sowing,' do not be slow, 'sow your seed.' For so in the 'evening' not...

Your hand finds what it will reap; when the time is fulfilled, the harvest will stand. And these things are spoken in a literal sense. But in an allegorical sense, those 'sowing in tears'—those 'sowing into the Spirit, so that they may reap eternal life'—sow in the beginning of the 'day'; and it is that 'day' which Abraham received with love and longing, so that he might 'see' and be shown by the Savior. And that 'day' is the one of which the choir of the saints says: 'This is the day which the Lord has made'. The apostle also signifies this same thing to the Romans, writing: 'the night is gone, and the day is near, as if we walk decently in the day' (Romans 13:12). Thus he says: the time of 'ignorance' is called 'night'; after this has 'passed', the 'day' succeeds it.

The beginning of the 'day' is 'morning', in which all the saints hasten. One of them says: 'I will stand before you in the morning and watch' (Psalm 118:18), and 'my God, my God, toward you I rise at dawn' (Psalm 43:3). Another says: 'out of the night my spirit rises toward you, O God' (Psalm 57:8). In this morning, 'sowing in tears', sowing the seeds of virtue with pains, sowing into the Spirit with sweat, so that you may 'reap eternal life', and having 'sown in tears you may reap in joy' (Psalm 126:5) and come 'rejoicing', bringing the sheaves of the seed. Therefore, let not 'your hand' let go of the beginning of the sowing. The word 'sow' applies to both senses.

It can also be understood thus: since, as 'walking decently in the day', they are both 'children of light' and 'children of the day', these have the 'present age' as the 'morning' of virtue, in which they owe to 'sow', so that in the 'evening' they may 'reap'. Yet that 'evening' is not theirs, but of others; for to them there will be eternal light, the 'sun of righteousness' (Malachi 4:2) always touching them. You have something similar in a psalm: 'weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning' (Psalm 30:5). The sun 'rises and sets' at once, but not for the same people; to those to whom it 'rises', they 'rejoice'; to those to whom it 'sets', they 'weep'. Something similar is brought in Jeremiah: 'late her voice cried out' (Jeremiah 4:19), when her 'sun' was 'setting'. And it is said in the manner of a threat: 'and the sun shall set upon the prophets'—and 'prophets' here he means...