Tuesday, April 25 : Saint Augustine

Christ, filled with enthusiasm for his work, prepared to send out laborers… And so he has sent out reapers. “For here the saying is verified that ‘One sows and another reaps’. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; others have done the work and you are sharing the fruits of their work” (Jn 4,37-38). Now what is this? Has he sent reapers without sending sowers? Where has he sent the reapers? Where others had already labored… Where the prophets had already preached since they themselves were the sowers… Who were the ones who thus labored? Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Read the account of their labors: in all their works a prophecy of Christ is to be found; in this sense, then, they were sowers. As for Moses, the other patriarchs and all the prophets, how much they had to put up with in the cold while they were sowing! It follows that the harvest was already ready in Judah. And we understand that the harvest was ripe at the moment when so many thousands of people brought along the value of their possessions, placed it at the feet of the apostles and, setting down the burdens of this world, began to follow Christ the Lord (Acts 4,35; Ps 82[81],7). The harvest had indeed come to maturity. What was the outcome? Out of this harvest a few seeds were set aside; these sowed the whole world and now see how another harvest rises up that is to be harvested at the end of the ages… It will not be the apostles but the angels who will be sent to gather this harvest.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team