HOMILY XLVII.

JOHN X. 14-21.

I am the good Shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine. As the Father knoweth Me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down My life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which 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. Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of My Father. There was a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings. And many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him? Others said, These are not the words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?

1. YE who hear the word of our God not only willingly but diligently, are doubtless mindful of our promise. For the same Gospel Lesson has been read to-day, which was read on the last Lord's day: because, having had our time taken up with certain necessary matters, we were not able to discuss all that is due to your understandings. Therefore, what has been already said and handled, we do not to-day bring in question; lest, by still repeating the same things we be not permitted to come to that which has not been said. Ye now know in the name of the Lord, Who is the Good Shepherd,

How Christ the Good Shepherd enters through Christ the Door: 623

X. 14.

and how good shepherds are members of Him, and so the JOHN Shepherd is One: ye know who is the hireling that we must bear; who the wolf, and thieves, and robbers of whom we must beware; what the sheep, what the Door by which both sheep and Shepherd enter in; how the Porter is to be understood: ye know too, that whoso entereth not in by the Door, is a thief and a robber, and cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. All these sayings have, I suppose, been sufficiently handled. To-day we owe it you to say, as the Lord aideth,-since Jesus Christ Himself our Saviour hath said that He is both Shepherd and Door, and hath said that the Good Shepherd entereth in by the Door,-how He entereth in through Himself. For if none is a good shepherd but he who enters in by the Door, and He is preeminently the Good Shepherd, and Himself the Door, I cannot understand otherwise than that He doth through Himself enter in unto His sheep, and giveth them His voice that they may follow Him, and they entering in and going out find pasture, which is everlasting life.

2. Quickly then I say it. I, seeking to enter in unto you, that is unto your heart, preach Christ: if I preach other than that, I shall be striving to climb in at some other side. Christ then is my door unto you: through Christ I enter in, not to your chambers, but to your hearts. Through Christ I enter, Christ in me ye have willingly heard. Why have ye willingly heard Christ in me? Because ye are Christ's sheep, have been purchased with Christ's blood. Ye know the price paid for you: which not by me is given but through me is preached. He bought you, Who shed precious blood: precious is the blood of Him Who is without sin. Yet hath He made the blood of His own for whom He gave the price of His blood, to be also precious: for did He not make the blood of His own to be precious, it would not be said, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. Ps. 116, Accordingly in this also that He saith, The Good Shepherd layeth down His life for the sheep, it is not He alone that hath done thus: and yet if they who are His members have done this, it is He alone that hath done it. For He had power to do it without them: but how should they have power to do it without Him, seeing Himself hath said,

15.

XLVII.

John 15,

3, 16.

23, 1.2.

624

i. e. in the person of His true pastors:

HOMIL. Without Me ye can do nothing? Now we shew that others have done it, by this, namely, that the same Evangelist John, 5. who preached this Gospel which ye have heard, hath said in 1 John his Epistle, Like as Christ laid down His life for us, so ought we to lay down our lives for the brethren. We ought, he saith; He Who did it first, hath made us debtors thereto. Prov. Accordingly in a certain place it is written: If thou sit to LXX. sup at the table of the mighty, wisely understand what is set before thee: and put forth thine hand, knowing that it behoveth thee to prepare the like. What is the table of the Mighty, ye know: on it is the body and blood of Christ: whoso cometh to such a table, let him prepare the like. And how "prepare the like?" As He laid down His life for us, so we ought—for edifying of the people, and assertion of the faith-to lay down our lives for the brethren. Accordingly, speaking to Peter, when it was His will to make him a good shepherd, not in Peter himself, but in His body, He said, John 21, Peter, lovest thou Me? Feed My sheep. This once, this twice, this a third time, even to Peter's grief. And when He had questioned Peter as much as He judged him meet to be questioned, that he might thrice confess, who had thrice. denied, and when He had a third time given him charge to feed His sheep, He said to him, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. And the Evangelist hath expounded what the Lord meant, saying: This spake He, signifying by what death he should glorify God. That charge, then, Feed My sheep, comes to this-that thou lay down thy life for My sheep.

15-19.

v. 15.

3. This now that He saith, As the Father knoweth Me, even so know I the Father, who but knows it? He, namely, knoweth the Father by Himself, we by Him. That He bath this knowledge by Himself, we know: that we have it by Him, this also we know: because in fact we have the knowledge of this very thing by Him. For Himself John 1, hath said: No man hath seen God at any time, but the Only-Begotten Son, Who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. Therefore we know the Father by Him, being they to whom He hath declared Him.

18.

and Christ the Word enters in by the Word. 625

X. 15.

Again, elsewhere He saith, None knoweth the Son, save the JOHN Father; neither knoweth any the Father, save the Son, Mat.11, and he to whom the Son shall be pleased to reveal Him. As 27. then He by Himself knoweth the Father, but we by Him know the Father; so He entereth in to the sheepfold through Himself, and we through Him. We said that we have a door through Christ unto you; why? because we preach Christ. We preach Christ, and therefore enter in by the Door. But Christ preacheth Christ, in that He preacheth Himself; and therefore the Shepherd entereth in through Himself. Light, while it sheweth other things which are seen in light-hath it need of somewhat beside itself that it may be shewn? Light, then, shews other things, and itself. Whatever we understand, it is by our understanding that we understand; and our understanding itself, by what but by the understanding itself, do we understand it? Dost thou thus with the eye of flesh perceive other things and the eye itself? Nay, for though men see by their eyes, yet they do not see their own eyes. The eye of flesh sees other things, itself it cannot see: but the understanding understands both other things, and itself. Like as the understanding sees itself, so Christ preacheth Himself. If He preacheth Himself, and by preaching entereth in to thee, by Himself entereth He in to thee. Also to the Father He is the Door, because there is no way of coming to the Father, but through Him. For there is One God, and One Mediator between 1 Tim. God and man, the Man Christ Jesus. By a word many things are said: the very things I have been saying, why, it was by word I said them. If I would needs speak of the word itself, wherewith should I speak of it but by a word? And consequently by the word there are other things said, which are not what the word is, and the word itself cannot be spoken but by the word. By the Lord's assistance, we have abounded in examples. Hold ye then, how the Lord Jesus Christ is both Door and Shepherd: Door, by opening Himself: Shepherd, by entering in through Himself. And indeed, my brethren, that He is Shepherd, He hath given to His members also: thus Peter too is shepherd, and Paul shepherd, and the other Apostles shepherds, and good bishops shepherds. But Door, none of us calleth himself:

2, 5.

626

To Israel, Christ sent and came;

HOMIL. this He hath kept proper to Himself, that the sheep may XLVII. enter in. In fine, Paul the Apostle was fulfilling the office

12. 13.

of a good shepherd, when he preached Christ, because he entered in by the door. But when undisciplined sheep began to make schisms, and to set themselves other doors, not that they might enter in to be gathered together, but 1 Cor. 1, that they might go astray to be divided, saying, some, I am of Paul; others, I am of Cephas; others, I of Apollos; others, I of Christ; taking fright at them who said, I am of Paul, as if he were crying out to the sheep, Unhappy creatures, where are ye going? I am not the Door! he saith; Was Paul crucified for you? either were ye baptized in the name of Paul? But those who said, I am of Christ, had found the Door.

24.

4. But concerning the one fold and one Shepherd, ye are wont to hear full oft: for we have much and earnestly spoken to you of the one fold, preaching unity, that through Christ all the sheep might enter in, and none should follow Donatus. Of what, however, the Lord said this in the proper sense, is sufficiently apparent. He was speaking, namely, among the Jews, not with a view to certain who pertinaciously held to their fell hatred and persevered in darkness, but with a view to some in that same nation whom He calls His sheep: of Mat.15, whom He saith, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He knew them also in the crowd of them that raged against Him, and foresaw them in the unity of them that should believe on Him. What meaneth then, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but this, that His bodily presence He exhibited not but unto the people Israel? To the Gentiles He went not in His own Person, but sent: to the people Israel He both sent and came in His own Person; that they which despised, might receive greater judgment, because His very Presence was exhibited to them. The Lord Himself was there, there chose He a mother; there He willed to be conceived, there to be born, there to shed His blood; there are the prints of His footsteps, they are even now adored, where He last stood, whence He ascended into heaven: but to the Gentiles He sent.

Of the foot-prints shewn on the Mount of Olives, as Christ's, there is mention in Lib. de locis Hebraicis ap.

Hieronym., Beda de nom. loc. in Act. Apost., Sulpicius Severus Hist. Sacr, ii. BEN.