Chapter I
Homily on the Parable of the Cockle
You see, my brethren, in the Gospel of to-day, that the master of the field having sown his seed on good soil, the enemy came while he was asleep, and sowed cockle among it. This means that God created man good and perfect, but that the enemy came and sowed sin. … There is the fall of Adam; a terrible fall, which gave sin the entrance into the heart of man. … There is the mixture of the good and the wicked: we see sin in the midst of virtues. …
The cockle must be pulled up, do you say? No, answers the Lord, for fear that in pulling up the cockle you should root up the good corn. Wait till the harvest. … The heart of man must thus remain till the end a mixture of good and evil, of vice and virtue, of light and darkness, of good corn and cockle. … The good God has not willed to destroy this mixture, and to make for us a new nature, in which there should be nothing but good corn. He wills that we should fight, that we should labour, to prevent the cockle from overpowering every thing.
The devil is very anxious to sow temptations under our feet; but with grace we can defeat him, we can choke the cockle. … The cockle consists chiefly in impurity and pride. Without impurity and pride, says St. Augustine, there would not be much merit in resisting temptation.
Three things are absolutely necessary against temptation: prayer to enlighten us, the Sacraments to fortify us, and vigilance to preserve us. Happy are the souls that are tempted! When the devil foresees that a soul is tending towards union with God, his rage is redoubled. … Oh, happy union! …
[The rest of the homily was lost in cries of admiration of the sweetness of the interior life, and of union with God.]
