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Stuart Kelly wrote:

Hi, guys —

From the Psalms:

"Even though they go forth weeping, carrying the seed to be sown, yet shall they come back rejoicing, carrying their sheaves." (Psalm 126:6)
  • Who are "they", and why are they weeping to be sowing seed?
Stuart
  { From the passage in Psalm 126:6: Who are "they" and why are they weeping to be sowing seed? }

Eric replied:

Stuart,                                                                                                              

It refers to the good works we sow in our life and carries with us to our death and the joy we will receive as a result of them in the life to come.

"For Christians, the way of penitence is the way to joy (Luke 6:21); the bearing of the cross is the way to live (Matthew 16:24-25); the seed must die to yield a rich harvest (John 12:24–25)."

(Praying the Psalms in Christ, by Laurence Kriegshauser edited by Gary A. Anderson, Matthew Levering, and Robert Louis Wilken, Reading the Scriptures (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2009), p. 273).

It may be rooted in the idea that wheat was sown in the winter, where it is cold and dark and dead, and requires toil and sweat and involves trust and uncertainty (hence the "weeping"), ending in the joy when the wheat is harvested in the spring

Some thoughts from the early Church Fathers:

Augustine: This psalm [126], being sung to the Lord, seems to fit the holy martyrs; but if we are members of Christ, as we ought to be, we can take these words as referring to all of us:

"Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. Going, they shall go and weep, casting their seed. But coming they shall come with merrymaking, carrying their sheaves."

  • Where are they going, and where are they coming from?
  • What are they sowing in tears?
  • What is the seed, and what are the sheaves?

Going into death, coming from death; going by being born, coming by rising again. Sowing is whatever good we have done; our sheaves, what we shall receive at the end.

  • So, if the seed is good, the works are good, why "in tears," seeing that God loves a cheerful giver?

The first thing to notice, dearly beloved, is how these words above all suit the blessed martyrs. Nobody, after all, has spent as much as those who have spent their very selves, as the apostle Paul says:

"And I myself will be spent for your souls." (2 Corinthians 12:15)

They spent themselves by confessing Christ and by carrying out with his help the saying:

"You have sat at a great table; know that you must prepare similar things yourself."

What is the meaning of "know that you must prepare similar things yourself," if not what the blessed John explains:

"Just as Christ laid down his life for us, so we too ought to lay down our lives for the brethren"? There you are, that is how much they spent.

Sermon 31.1–2.

Augustine: The Harvest of our labors in Heaven.

I say this so that we should not nurse hopes of receiving the fruits of our sowing during this time in which we have done the sowing. Here we sow with toil a harvest of good works, but it is in the time to come that we shall garner its fruits with joy, according to what is written:

"Going they sent and wept, scattering their seed; but coming they will come with rejoicing, carrying their sheaves."

Sermon 11.3.

Caesarius of Arles: I beseech you with fatherly solicitude, equally admonishing and exhorting you, as was already said, to endeavor continually to read the sacred lessons yourselves or willingly to listen to others read them. By thus always thinking over in the treasury of your heart what is just and holy, you may prepare for your souls an eternal spiritual food that will bring you endless bliss. Christ does not lie when he says in the person of his apostle,

"What a person sows, that he will also reap."

With God's help let us endeavor to continually plant in the field of our heart by reading, praying, and performing good works those deeds whereof we may reap a harvest of justice and mercy on the future day of retribution. Then will be fulfilled in us what is written:

"Going, they went and wept, casting their seeds. But coming, they shall come with joyfulness, carrying their sheaves."

To this happiness may the good Lord lead you, who, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns world without end.

Sermon 8.5.

Psalms 51–150, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture Old Testament, Book 8, Quentin F. Wesselschmidt edited. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2007), pp. 354–55.

Augustine: This Psalm, this song of steps, suits perfectly our solemnity; for of these martyrs it was elsewhere said:

"They walk and weep in sowing their seeds" (Psalm 126:6).

This is surely a valley of tears where one sows while weeping.

  • What are these seeds?

The good works one does amidst the tribulations of this life. Whoever works well in the valley of tears is like a man who sows seed during the winter.

  • Does the cold prevent him from working?

Thus the tribulations of the world ought not to turn us from good works. See indeed what follows: "They walk while weeping," said the Psalmist, and "they scatter their seeds." Miserable if they weep always; miserable if no one wipes away their tears. But we next read:

"When they will come, on the contrary, they will come in joy carrying their sheaves" (Psalm 126:6)

Augustine of Hippo, Augustine of Hippo: Selected Writings, edited by John Farina, translated by Mary T. Clark, The Classics of Western Spirituality (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1984), pp. 213–14

St. Bernard of Clairvaux: You, therefore, have sown righteousness for yourself if, by means of true self-knowledge, you have learned to fear God, to humble yourself, to shed tears, to distribute alms and participate in other works of charity; if you have disciplined your body with fastings and prayers, if you have wearied your heart with acts of penance and Heaven with your petitions. This is what it means to sow righteousness. The seeds are our good works, our good desires, our tears, for the Psalmist says:

"They wept as they went forth, sowing their seeds."

  • But why?
  • Shall they always weep?

God forbid!

"They shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves."

And so rightly do they shout for joy, since they bring back sheaves of glory. But you say:

"That is for the resurrection on the last day; a long time to wait!"

St. Bernard of Clairvaux, On the Song of Songs, translated by Kilian Walsh, Cistercian Fathers Series (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications Inc., 1976), II, 182

St. Thomas Aquinas: Yet joy will follow this sadness, because your sorrow, which you will experience over my passion, will be turned into joy, at my resurrection: the disciples, therefore, were glad when they saw the Lord (John 20:20). And in general, the sorrow of all the saints will be turned into the joy of the future life: blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted (Matthew 5:4); he that goes forth weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, will come home with shouts of joy (Psalm 126:6). For the saints weep as they sow during this time of merit, but they will rejoice at the reaping, during the time of reward.

St. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Gospel of John Chapters 1–21, translated by Fabian R. Larcher, Latin/English Edition of the Works of St. Thomas Aquinas (Steubenville, OH; Green Bay, WI: Emmaus Academic; Aquinas Institute, 2018), II, 335

 

Eric

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