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Homilies on the Gospels

St Gregory the Dialogist, tr. Burke, 1960; selections

12. The Good Shepherd

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep. But the hireling, and he that is not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming and leaveth the sheep and flieth; and the wolf catcheth and scattereth the sheep. And the hireling fleeth, because he is a hireling; and he hath no care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and I know mine, and mine know me. As the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for my sheep. And other sheep I have that are not of this fold; them also I must bring. And they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.
Jn. x, 11-16.

Homilia XIV in Evangelia.

In today’s Gospel, dearly beloved brethren, you have heard something which adds greatly to your instruction, and to my peril. For you see that he who is good in essence, and not by any mere accident, says: “I am the good shepherd.” And he adds the quality of his goodness which we should imitate. “The good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep.” The Lord followed his own counsel and fulfilled his own command. As a good shepherd he gave his life for his sheep, to the point of giving, in the sacrament of the altar, his body and blood to be the food of those he had redeemed. We are shown the path we must pursue, without fear of death: we see the model we must imitate. Firstly, we must use all our exterior assets in the service of those sheep, and then, if necessary, we must give our lives for them. Through the former requirement, which is the lesser, we reach the latter, which is the greater. As life itself is dearer to us than all external possessions, how will he give his life for his sheep, who will not give them lesser things? There are some who love wealth more than their sheep, who have no right to be called pastors. Of these our Lord says: “The hireling, and he that is not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming and leaveth the sheep and flieth; and the wolf catcheth and scattereth the sheep.”

He is called a hireling, and not a pastor, who gives grazing to God’s sheep for love of gain and not for any love of them. He is a hireling who occupies the place of a pastor, but does not seek the betterment of those who are his subjects. He desires worldly comforts, taking pleasure in the pride of his position: he pastures the sheep solely for the sake of temporal reward, and is gratified by the esteem of men. For these are the rewards of the hirelings. Here they find what they seek in payment for their labours, but hereafter they are excluded from the inheritance enjoyed by the flock. Except in very exceptional cases we cannot know the true pastor from the hireling; for in time of peace and tranquility the sheep are guarded by the hireling with the same fidelity, it seems, as the shepherd. However, the approach of the wolf is sufficient to indicate the motives of each. The wolf descends upon the sheep when any unjust or predatory person oppresses the faithful and persecutes the humble. But that man who seemed to be a shepherd, but is a hireling, abandons the sheep and flees; because when he sees danger to himself, he will not oppose injustice. He flees, not physically, but by refusing to give consolation. He flees when he sees injustice and is silent; he flees when he hides behind his silence. Of all such people, God has said through the prophet Ezechiel: “You have not gone up to face the enemy, nor have you set up a wall for the house of Israel, to stand in battle in the day of the Lord.”¹ To go up to face the enemy means to uphold rightful liberty in the face of any powers which oppress. We stand firm in battle for the house of Israel, raising a wall around it in the Lord’s day, if with all the strength of justice we defend the innocent faithful against the injustice of the wicked. Since the hireling does none of this when he sees the wolf, we can say that he flees.

There is another kind of wolf, the type which ravages the mind, rather than the body. These are the evil spirits, which continually surround the sheepfold of the faithful, seeking the death of their souls. Of this wolf, Christ says: “And the wolf catcheth and scattereth the sheep.” The wolf comes, and the hireling flees, when the evil spirit tortures the mind of the faithful with temptation, and he who holds the place of pastor has no true concern for them. Souls perish, while he dallies with worldly consolations. The wolf catches and scatters the sheep, when he entices one to lust, another to avarice, inflates one with pride and sears another with anger, rouses this man to envy, traps that into falsehood. As the wolf scatters and kills the flock, so the devil overruns the faithful by temptation. But the hireling is not inflamed with zeal, burns with no fire of love: as he seeks only external comforts, he remains indifferent to the spiritual loss of his flock. So Christ continues: “The hireling flieth, because he is a hireling; and he hath no care for the sheep”. The only reason why the hireling runs away is that he is a hireling. As if to say clearly: He cannot stand firm when peril threatens the sheep because, in caring for them, he seeks only temporal profit and has no love for them. Esteeming honour, rejoicing in temporal goods, he is afraid to face danger, lest he lose those comforts which he loves. As our Redeemer notes the weakness of the false shepherd, again he shows us the model we must imitate: “I am the good shepherd.” And he adds: “and I know mine”, that is to say, I love them, “and mine know me”, as if he meant: They follow those who love them. For he who does not love the truth does not yet know it.

Now, brethren, that you have considered the peril in which I stand, ask yourselves what danger to you is implied in the words of our Lord. Are you truly his sheep? Do you know him, realising that he is the true light? Do you know him, not by faith alone, but by love: not by your assent only, but in your action? John the Evangelist gives testimony of this when he says: “He who saith that he knoweth him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar; and the truth is not in him”.² So that in the Gospel, our Lord continues: “As the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for my sheep.” As if he said: “I know the Father and am known by him from the very fact of my laying down my life for my sheep; that is, it is by the charity with which I die for my sheep, that I show how much I love my Father.” So that we might see that he came to redeem not only the Jews, but the Gentiles also, he adds: “And other sheep I have that are not of this fold; them also I must bring. And they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.” Our Lord had already provided for the redemption of us who come from Gentile stock, when he said that he brings other sheep. You see this, brethren, happen daily; you see the reconciliation of the Gentiles an accomplished fact today. Of two flocks he has made one, uniting the Jewish and Gentile peoples in belief in him. St. Paul bears witness of this when he says: “He is our peace, who hath made both one”.³ Choosing the simple of heart from both peoples, he brought all sheep to the one fold.

Of these sheep, he says again: “My sheep hear my voice; and I know them; and they follow me. And I give them life everlasting.”⁴ And earlier he says: “By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved; and he shall go in and go out, and shall find pastures.”⁵ He shall go in to faith, and shall go out from faith to vision, and find pasture in the eternal banquet. Therefore, his sheep find pasture: for all who are simple in heart follow him, and are nourished by the pasturage which is eternally green. What is the food of these sheep, if not the intimate joys of paradise? Their food is the countenance of God present before them, which, seen without any barriers, bestows lasting nourishment on the soul. They rejoice in the happiness of those eternal meadows, because they evaded the snares of carnal pleasure upon earth. There they hear the choirs of angels sing hymns, and enjoy the company of all the heavenly citizens. There is never-ending celebration for the glorious return of those who come from their dreary labour on earth. The ranks of the prophets exult; the apostles and the victorious army of martyrs rejoice, and their joy increases in accordance with the severity of their sufferings on earth. There, the constancy of the confessors is rewarded; the faithful whom the allurements of vice could not seduce; the holy women who overcame the world and the weakness of their sex; children, whose saintliness outpaced their years; old men weakened by age, who yet conserved their spiritual strength.

Let us then, brethren, seek those pastures where we shall rejoice amid so many companions. Let that joy itself serve as a stimulus to our efforts. Certainly, if any town were celebrating some feast, or the dedication of a church, we should all make haste to meet together and attend. Each would try his best to do so, thinking himself unlucky if he could not be there. See what jubilation is manifest in heaven’s streets, each rejoicing in the presence of the others; and yet we remain cold to the love of things which last, unkindled by desire, indifferent as to whether we attend. We deprive ourselves of happiness and still we are satisfied. Let us inflame our hearts, our faith in what we believe, our yearnings for the things of eternity. If we love thus, we shall go there. No adversity can deprive us of our interior bliss, because if anyone is truly determined to reach the eternal resting-place, no roughness in his path can alter that determination. No flattering prosperity must deceive us: that traveller is very foolish who, looking at the pleasant scenery around him, forgets to advance towards his journey’s end. Therefore, let us long with all our heart to reach our enduring home. Let nothing of this world hold us back, since we know that very soon we must leave it all. Thus, if we are true sheep of the divine Shepherd, not dallying to feed on the pleasures of the way, we shall find a lasting food in unfading pastures.

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