They are fellow-workers[1] with God in the field of the world and in the vineyard of the Church. They are ploughers,[2] and sowers,[3] and reapers.[4] The priesthood has the office of breaking up the fallow ground of the nations, and of destroying the roots of unbelief[5] that hinder the plough. "I have made thee as a new thrashing wain, with teeth like a saw: thou shalt thrash the mountains and break them in pieces, and shalt make the hills as chaff. Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away."[6] They are sowers who cast the seed of the Word upon all lands and beside all waters.[7] They are reapers who go weeping in the midst of a barren and dying world, who shall one day come with joy, bringing their sheaves with them.[8] But these titles, though expressive, are ideal and pictorial. There are others more homely and lying closer to our life and needs.
Priests are also fellow-builders with God in edifying the Church, and rearing the temple of the Holy Ghost upon the one only foundation which Christ, the Master-builder, has laid. They are fathers of all who are born again by water and the Holy Ghost:
