Friday of the 5th Sunday of Pascha

Our Lord's discourse to the Jews began in connection with the man who was born blind and was restored to sight. Your Charity therefore ought to know and be advised that today's lesson is interwoven with that one. For when the Lord had said, "For judgment I am come into this world; that they who see not might see, and they who see might be made blind,"-which, on the occasion of its reading, we expounded according to our ability,-some of the Pharisees said, "Are we blind also?" To whom He replied. "If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; [therefore] your sin remaineth." To these words He added what we have been hearing today when the lesson was read.

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber." For they declared that they were not blind; yet could they see only by being the sheep of Christ. Whence claimed they possession of the light, who were acting as thieves against the day? Because, then, of their vain and proud and incurable arrogance, did the Lord Jesus subjoin these words, wherein He has given us also salutary lessons, if we lay them to heart. For there are many who, according to a custom of this life, are called good people,-good men, good women, innocent, and observers as it were of what is commanded in the law; paying respect to their parents, abstaining from adultery, doing no murder, committing no theft, giving no false witness against any one, and observing all else that the law requires-yet are not Christians; and for the most part ask boastfully, like these men. "Are we blind also?" But just because all these things that they do, and know not to what end they should have reference, they do to no purpose.

Such, accordingly, for the most part seek to persuade men to live well, and yet not to be Christians. By another way they wish to climb up, to steal and to kill, not as the shepherd, to preserve and to save. And thus there have been certain philosophers, holding many subtle discussions about the virtues and the vices, dividing, defining, drawing out to their close the most acute processes of reasoning, filling books, brandishing their wisdom with rattling jaws; who would even dare to say to people, Follow us, keep to our sect, if you would live happily. But they had not entered by the door: they wished to destroy, to slay, and to murder.

For there are countless numbers who not only boast that they see, but would have it appear that they are enlightened by Christ; yet are they heretics. Have even they somehow entered by the gate? Surely not. Sabellius says, He who is the Son is Himself the Father; but if the Son, then is there no Father. He enters not by the door, who asserts that the Son is the Father. Arius says, The Father is one thing, the Son is another thing. He would say rightly if he said, Another person; but not another thing. For when he says, Another thing, he contradicts Him who says in his hearing, "I and my Father are One." Neither does he therefore enter by the door; for he preaches a Christ such as he fabricates for himself, not such as the truth declares Him.

Keep hold of this, that Christ's sheepfold is the Catholic Church. Whoever would enter the sheepfold, let him enter by the door, let him preach the true Christ. Not only let him preach the true Christ, but seek Christ's glory, not his own; for many, by seeking their own glory, have scattered Christ's sheep, instead of gathering them. For Christ the Lord is a low gateway: he who enters by this gateway must humble himself, that he may be able to enter with head unharmed. But he that humbleth not, but exalteth himself, wishes to climb over the wall; and he that climbeth over the wall, is exalted only to fall.

(Tr. xlv. 2. et sq.) Or thus: Many go under the name of good men according to the standard of the world, and observe in some sort the commandments of the Law, who yet are not Christians. And these generally boast of themselves, as the Pharisees did; Are we blind also? But inasmuch as all that they do they do foolishly, without knowing to what end it tends, our Lord saith of them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, hut climbeth up some other way, the name is a thief and a robber. Let the Pagans then, the Jews, the Heretics, say, "We lead a good life;" if they enter not by the door, what availeth it? A good life only profiteth, as leading to life eternal. Indeed those cannot be said to lead a good life, who are either blindly ignorant of, or wilfully despise, the end of good living. No one can hope for eternal life, who knows not Christ, who is the life, and by that door enters into the fold. Whoso wisheth to enter into the sheepfold, let him enter by the door; let him preach Christ; let him seek Christ's glory, not his own. Christ is a lowly door, and he who enters by this door must be lowly, if he would enter with his head whole. He that doth not humble, but exalt himself, who wishes to climb up over the wall, is exalted that he may fall. Such men generally try to persuade others that they may live well, and not be Christians. Thus they climb up by some other way, that they may rob and kill. They are thieves, because they call that their own, which is not; robbers, because that which they have stolen, they kill.

(de Verb. Dom. Serm. xlix) He enters by the door, who enters by Christ, who imitates the suffering of Christ, who is acquainted with the humility of Christ, so as to feel and know, that if God became man for us, man should not think himself God, but man. He who being man wishes to appear God, does not imitate Him, who being God, became man. Thou art bid to think less of thyself than thou art, but to know what thou art.

The Son of God shows himself as light and guide by the example of a good life. The Lord manifested above that he is a guide by the word of wisdom and by the miracle of power; here he manifests it by the example of a good life. For by the first two modes he directed as a teacher, but here in the third he directs as a pastor. In this chapter, therefore, the Lord intends to show himself as the true and good shepherd: and it is divided into two parts: because first the Lord demonstrates the good shepherd in a proverb and parable; second, he expounds the proverb and applies it to himself, so that through this he may show himself the true shepherd, at the passage: "Jesus therefore said to them again."

The first part demonstrates the good shepherd in a parable. He therefore describes the good shepherd in the proverb in this order: for first he determines the entrance of the good and true shepherd; second, the sign; third, the office of the good shepherd; fourth, he says that this proverb was hidden from the Jews.

He determines the entrance of the good and true shepherd by comparison with its opposite, because "opposites placed next to each other shine forth more clearly"; and the entrance of the shepherd is through the door, but that of the thief through another place. Therefore he says: "Amen, amen, I say to you" — the Lord continues his discourse, speaking to the Pharisees — "He who does not enter through the door into the sheepfold," that is, into the Church of God, in which the Lord's flock is contained, "but climbs up from elsewhere," as one proud and ambitious; "he is a thief and a robber: a thief," because he claims what belongs to another as his own; "a robber," because he destroys and kills the goods of another. Concerning this ascent of the bad shepherd, Jerome says: "We rejoice at the ascent; let us fear the descent: the joy of having held the heights is not so great as the sorrow of having fallen from the heights." Thus ascended that prince of robbers and the ambitious, of whom it is said in Isaiah fourteen: "I will ascend into heaven; I will exalt my throne above the stars of heaven." He who thus enters in a disordered manner is a thief and not a shepherd.

The figure of the six seraphic wings intimates six stairlike illuminations, which begin from creatures and lead all the way to God, to whom no one rightly enters except through the Crucified. For he who does not enter through the door but climbs up another way, that one is a thief and a robber. If anyone indeed through this door enters, he shall go in and go out and shall find pasture.

I cannot help admiring in every particular that divine utterance: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not in by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth." Then the Lord says in explanation, "I am the door of the sheep." Men must then be saved by learning the truth through Christ, even if they attain philosophy.

Those, then, who follow impious words and dictate them to others, inasmuch as they pervert the divine words instead of using them rightly, neither enter into the kingdom of heaven themselves, nor do they permit those whom they have deluded to attain the truth. They do not have the key for the entrance but a false key. Using this counterfeit key, they do not enter in as we enter in, that is, through the tradition of the Lord by drawing aside the curtain. Instead they burst through the side door and dig clandestinely through the wall of the church. They step over the truth and constitute themselves the Mystagogues of the soul of the impious.

Very probably it may seem to those who listen carelessly that the language of the parable before us is not introduced very appositely: because after a discussion on blindness and recovery of sight, we straightway come upon statements about sheep, and a fold, and a door. But he in whom dwells a wise mind, which hastens more diligently to compare the ideas, will perceive here also that the argument proceeds so to speak straight forward, and swerves not at all from what is right and fitting. And here I will once more repeat what I have said many times before. It was the custom of the Saviour Christ, when any came unto Him, to reply not merely to the words which they expressed through their voice, but to speak with reference to their inward thoughts also, since He sees both heart and reins; for to Him all things are naked and laid open, and there is no creature that is not manifest in His sight. Wherefore also He saith to one of the saints: Who is this that hideth counsel from Me, and hath words in his heart, and thinketh to conceal them from Me? When therefore the unholy company of Pharisees craftily asked, as we said just now, if they were blind also, in order that if he said truly what they were, namely blind, he might again be accused as one who reviled the magistrates and spoke evil of those whose lot it was to rule the people, (for they prided themselves inordinately upon this); Our Lord Jesus Christ, fighting in this case again with their inward thought, necessarily and profitably introduces the parable, implying (somewhat obscurely and as it were in riddles) that on account of their arrogant selfishness they would not be firmly maintained in the leadership, and that the dignity would not be confirmed to such as insulted in their pride God the Giver of it; and teaching that this dignity would only belong to those who should be called by Him to the leadership of the people. Therefore He says that Himself is the Door introducing of His own will to the leadership of His rational flocks the man who is prudent and God-loving. But him who thinks himself able to take by violence and tyranny the honour that is not given to him, He calls a thief and a robber, climbing up some other way. Such were some concerning whom He speaks perhaps by one of the Prophets; They reigned as kings, and not by Me; they ruled, and not by My Spirit. And He intimates by the words before us, that if they would take pleasure in being rulers of the people they must believe and must receive through Him the Divine call to undertake this dignity, in order that they might have their rule unshaken and well established; which of course was the case with the holy Apostles, and with the Teachers of the holy Churches after them; to whom also the porter openeth. That is, either the Angel who is appointed to preside over the churches and to assist those whose lot is to minister in holy things for the good of the people, or else the Saviour Himself, Who is at the same time both the Door and the Lord of the Door. At all events, He very well asserts that the flock of sheep rightly obey and yield to the voice of the shepherd, but very quickly turn away from the voice of strangers; so that thou mayest understand a true matter by extending the application of the argument to something more general. For in the churches we teach by bringing forward our doctrines from the inspired Scripture, and setting forth the Evangelic and Apostolic Word as a sort of spiritual nourishment. And they who believe in Christ and are conspicuous for unperverted faith, are obedient listeners to such teaching; but they turn away from the voices of falsifiers, and avoid them as a deadly evil. But then, some one will say, what is herein intimated to the Pharisees? Gathering it up into a short and summary explanation I will tell thee this again. He shows Himself therefore as Lord of the fold, and Door and Porter, that they may accurately learn that they will not have their position of leadership confirmed to them, unless they come to it through Him and thus possess the God-given honour. And by adding that the sheep obey their own shepherds, but run away from strangers, He again skilfully hints that the Pharisees would never be leaders of those that should become believers in Him, but that His sheep would refuse their instruction and attach themselves to the shepherds appointed by Him.

And not without a cause hath the Evangelist mentioned, that they of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things, and said, "Are we blind also?" but to remind thee that these were the men who first withdrew from and then stoned Him, for they were persons who followed Him superficially, and who easily changed to the contrary opinion. How then doth He prove that He is not a deceiver, but a Shepherd? By laying down the distinguishing marks both of the shepherd, and of him who is a deceiver and a spoiler, and from these affording them opportunity of searching into the truth of the matter. And first He showeth who is a deceiver and a spoiler, calling him so from the Scriptures, and saying,

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber."

Observe the marks of a robber; first, that he doth not enter openly; secondly, not according to the Scriptures, for this is the, "not by the door." Here also He referreth to those who had been before, and to those who should be after Him, Antichrist and the false Christs, Judas and Theudas, and whatever others there have been of the same kind. And with good cause He calleth the Scriptures "a door," for they bring us to God, and open to us the knowledge of God, they make the sheep, they guard them, and suffer not the wolves to come in after them. For Scripture, like some sure door, barreth the passage against the heretics, placing us in a state of safety as to all that we desire, and not allowing us to wander; and if we undo it not, we shall not easily be conquered by our foes. By it we can know all, both those who are, and those who are not, shepherds. But what is "into the fold"? It refers to the sheep, and the care of them. For he that useth not the Scriptures, but "climbeth up some other way," that is, who cutteth out for himself another and an unusual way, "the same is a thief." Seest thou from this too that Christ agreeth with the Father, in that He bringeth forward the Scriptures? On which account also He said to the Jews, "Search the Scriptures" (c. v. 39); and brought forward Moses, and called him and all the Prophets witnesses, for "all," saith He, "who hear the Prophets shall come to Me"; and, "Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me." But here He hath put the same thing metaphorically. And by saying, "climbeth up some other way," He alluded to the Scribes, because they taught for commandments the doctrines of men, and transgressed the Law (Matt. xv. 9); with which He reproached them, and said, "None of you doeth the Law." (c. vii. 19.) Well did He say, "climbeth up," not "entereth in," since to climb is the act of a thief intending to overleap a wall, and who doeth all with danger. Hast thou seen how He hath sketched the robber? now observe the character of the shepherd. What then is it?

"He that entereth in by the door, the same is the shepherd of the sheep; to him the doorkeeper openeth, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own by name. And when he hath brought them out, he goeth before them."

He hath set down the marks of the shepherd, and of the evil doer; let us now see how He hath fitted to them what followeth. "To him," He saith, "the doorkeeper openeth"; He continueth in the metaphor to make the discourse more emphatic. But if thou shouldest be minded to examine the parable word by word, there is nothing to hinder thee from supposing Moses to be the doorkeeper, for to him were entrusted the oracles of God. "Whose voice the sheep hear, and he calleth his own by name." Because they everywhere said that He was a deceiver, and confirmed this by their own unbelief, saying, "Which of the rulers hath believed on him?" (c. vii. 48.) He showeth that they ought not on account of the unbelief of those persons to call Him a spoiler and deceiver, but that they, because they gave no heed to Him were consequently even excluded from the rank of sheep. For if a shepherd's part is to enter through the usual door, and if He entered through this, all they who followed Him might be sheep, but they who rent themselves away, hurt not the reputation of the Shepherd, but cast themselves out from the kindred of the sheep. And if farther on He saith that He is "the door," we must not again be disturbed, for He also calleth Himself "Shepherd," and "Sheep," and in different ways proclaimeth His dispensations. Thus, when He bringeth us to the Father, He calleth Himself "a Door," when He taketh care of us, "a Shepherd"; and it is that thou mayest not suppose, that to bring us to the Father is His only office, that He calleth Himself a Shepherd. "And the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own sheep, and leadeth them out, and goeth before them." Shepherds indeed do the contrary, for they follow after them; but He to show that He will lead all men to the truth, doeth differently; as also when He sent the sheep, He sent them, not out of the way of wolves, but "in the midst of wolves." (Matt. x. 16.) For far more wonderful is this manner of keeping sheep than ours. He seemeth to me also to allude to the blind man, for him too, having "called," He "led out" from the midst of the Jews, and the man heard "His voice," and "knew" it.

"And a stranger will they not follow, for they know not the voice of strangers."

Certainly here He speaketh of Theudas and Judas, (for "all, as many as believed on them, were scattered" [Acts v. 36], It saith,) or of the false Christs who after that time should deceive. For lest any should say that He was one of these, He in many ways separateth Himself from them. And the first difference He setteth down is His teaching from the Scriptures; for He by means of these led men to Him, but the others did not from these draw men after them. The second is, the obedience of the sheep; for on Him they all believed, not only while He lived, but when He had died; the others they straightway left. With these we may mention a third difference, no trifling one. They did all as rebels, and to cause revolts, but He placed Himself so far from such suspicion, that when they would have made Him a king, He fled; and when they asked, "Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar?" He bade them pay it, and Himself gave the two drachm piece. (Matt. xvii. 27.) Besides this, He indeed came for the saving of the sheep, "That they might have life, and that they might have more abundantly" (ver. 10), but the others deprived them even of this present life. They betrayed those who were entrusted to them and fled, but He withstood so nobly as even to give up His life. They unwillingly, and by compulsion, and desiring to escape, suffered what they suffered, but He willingly and by choice endured all.

(Hom. lix. 2) Our Lord having reproached the Jews with blindness, they might have said, We are not blind, but we avoid Thee as a deceiver. Our Lord therefore gives the marks which distinguish a robber and deceiver from a true shepherd. First come those of the deceiver and robber: Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. There is an allusion here to Antichrist, and to certain false Christs who had been, and were to be. The Scriptures He calls the door. They admit us to the knowledge of God, they protect the sheep, they shut out the wolves, they bar the entrance to heretics. He that useth not the Scriptures, but climbeth up some other way, i. e. some self-chosen1, some unlawful way, is a thief. Climbeth up, He says, not, enters, as if it were a thief getting over a wall, and running all risks. Some other way, may refer too to the commandments and traditions of men which the Scribes taught, to the neglect of the Law. When our Lord further on calls Himself the Door, we need not be surprised. According to the office which He bears, He is in one place the Shepherd, in another the Sheep. In that He introduces us to the Father, He is the Door; in that He takes care of us, He is the Shepherd.

Each year, when spring with its breezes begins to usher in the birth of so many sheep and to deposit the numerous young of the fruitful flock about the fields, the meadows and the paths, a good shepherd puts aside his songs and leisure. He anxiously searches for the tender little sheep, picks them up and gathers them together. Happy to carry them, he places them about his neck, on his shoulders and in his arms. He wants them to be safe as he carries or leads them to the protecting sheepfolds.That is the case with ourselves, too. When we see our ecclesiastical flock gaining rich increase under the favoring smile of the spring of Lent, we put aside the resonant tones of our treatise and the customary fare of our discourse. Concerned about our very heavy labor, we give all our concern to gathering and carrying in the heavenly [lambs].

Our current circumstance is a lot like the sheepfold: the thief comes from wherever it is possible for him to hide. His desire is to steal. But the shepherd who has authority to use the entrance leads the sheep out to pasture, and they follow him, knowing their own shepherd, while they avoid the others whose voice they do not know.

The Lord, with the words that you are truly blind in soul through the ailment of unbelief, rebuked the Pharisees for their unbelief. So that they could not say, "We turn away from You not out of our blindness, but to avoid deception," He delivers a lengthy discourse on this matter. What kind exactly? He sets forth the marks of both the true shepherd and the wolf—the destroyer—and thus shows concerning Himself that He is good, appealing to His works as testimony. First He sets forth the distinctive characteristics of the destroyer. "He," He says, "does not enter by the door, that is, by the Scriptures, for he is not witnessed to by either the Scriptures or the prophets." The Scriptures are truly the door, for through them we draw near to God. They do not allow wolves to enter, for they cut off heretics, placing us in safety and imparting to us knowledge about everything we might wish to know. So then, a thief is one who does not enter through the Scriptures "into the sheepfold" to care for the sheep, but climbs up "some other way," that is, carves out for himself another and unusual path, such as Theudas and Judas. They, before the coming of Christ, deceived the people, destroyed them, and perished themselves (Acts 5:36–37). Such also will be the abominable antichrist. For their testimony is not from the Scriptures. He also hints at the scribes, who did not fulfill a single word of the commandments of the law, yet taught the commandments and traditions of men. He fittingly said "climbs up." This refers to the thief, who jumps over the fence and does everything at great risk. These are the signs of a robber.

After our Lord showed that his teaching had power to enlighten, he here shows that he has power to give life. First, he shows this by word; secondly, by a miracle (chap 11). Concerning the first he does three things. First, he shows that he has life-giving power; secondly, his manner of giving life (v 11); thirdly, he explains his power to give life (v 19). The first part is divided into three parts. First, our Lord relates a parable; secondly, the Evangelist mentions the necessity for explaining it (v 6); thirdly, our Lord explains the parable (v 7).

He relates the parable to them, saying, Truly, truly, I say to you. It concerns two things, a thief and the shepherd of the sheep. Thus he does three things. First, he mentions the mark of a thief and robber; secondly, a characteristic of the shepherd (v 2); thirdly, the effect each of these has (v 4).

To understand this parable we must consider who the sheep are, namely, that they are the faithful of Christ and those in the grace of God: "We are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand" (Ps 95:7); "You, the people, are the sheep of my pasture" (Ez 34:31). And so the sheepfold is the multitude of the faithful: "I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob, I will gather the remnant of Israel; I will set them together like sheep in a fold" (Mic 2:12). The door of the sheepfold is explained in different ways by Chrysostom and by Augustine.

According to Chrysostom, Christ calls Sacred Scripture the door, according to "Pray for us also that God may open to us a door for the word" (Col 4:3). Sacred Scripture is called a door, as Chrysostom says, first of all, because through it we have access to the knowledge of God: "which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures" (Rom 1:2). Secondly, for just as the door guards the sheep, so Sacred Scripture preserves the life of the faithful: "You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life" (5:39). Thirdly, because the door keeps the wolf from entering; so Sacred Scripture keeps heretics from harming the faithful: "Every scripture inspired by God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction" (2 Tim 3:16). So, the one who does not enter by the door is the one who does not enter by Sacred Scripture to teach the people. Our Lord says of such: "In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men" (Matt 15:9); "You have made void the word of God" (Matt 15:6). This, then, is the mark of the thief: he does not enter by the door, but in some other way.

He adds that the thief climbs, and this is appropriate to this parable because thieves climb the walls, instead of entering by the door, and drop into the sheepfold. It also corresponds to the truth, because the reason why some teach what conflicts with Sacred Scripture is due to pride: "If any one teaches otherwise and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching which accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit, he knows nothing" (1 Tim 6:3). Referring to this he says that such a person climbs, that is, through pride. The one who climbs in by another way, that man is a thief, because he snatches what is not his, and a robber, because he kills what he snatches: "If thieves came to you, if plunderers by night - how you have been destroyed" (Obad v 5).

According to this explanation, the relation with what preceded is made in this way: Since our Lord had said, "If you were blind, you would have no guilt," the Jews might have answered: "We do not believe you, but this is not due to our blindness. It is because of your own error that we have turned away from you." And so our Lord rejects this, and wishes to show that he is not in error because he enters by the door, by Sacred Scripture, that is, he teaches what is contained in Sacred Scripture.

Against this interpretation is the fact that when our Lord explains this further on, he says, I am the door. So it seems that we should understand the door to be Christ. In answer to this, Chrysostom says that in this parable our Lord refers to himself both as the door and the shepherd; but this is from different points of view, because a door and a shepherd are different. Now aside from Christ nothing is more fittingly called a door than Sacred Scripture, for the reasons given above. Therefore, Sacred Scripture is fittingly called a door.

According to Augustine, the door is Christ, because one enters through him: "After this I looked, and lo, in heaven an open door!" (Rev 4:1). Therefore, any one who enters the sheepfold should enter by the door, that is, by Christ, and not by another way.

Note that both the sheep and their shepherd enter into the sheepfold: the sheep in order to be secure there, and the shepherd in order to guard the sheep. And so, if you wish to enter as a sheep to be kept safe there, or as a shepherd to keep the people safe, you must enter the sheepfold through Christ. You must not enter by any other way, as did the philosophers who treated the principle virtues, and the Pharisees who established the ceremonial traditions. These are neither sheep nor shepherds because, as our Lord says, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, i.e., does not enter by Christ, but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber, because he destroys both himself and others. For Christ and no one else is the door into the sheepfold, that is, the multitude of the faithful: "We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom 5:1); "there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).

According to this exposition, the connection with what went before is made in this way: Because they said that they could see without Christ - "now that you say, 'We see'" - our Lord shows that this is not true, because they do not enter by the door. Thus he says, Truly, truly, I say to you.

It should be noted that just as one who does not enter by the door as a sheep cannot be kept safe, so one who enters as a shepherd cannot guard the sheep unless he enters by the door, namely, by Christ. This is the door through which the true shepherds have entered: "And one does not take the honor upon himself, but he is called by God, just as Aaron was" (Heb 5:4). Evil shepherds do not enter by the door, but by ambition and secular power and simony; and these are thieves and robbers: "They set up princes, but without my knowledge," that is, without my approval (Hos 8:5). Further, he says such a person climbs in by another way, because the door, namely, Christ, since it is small through humility - "Learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart" (Matt 11:29) - can be entered only by those who imitate the humility of Christ. Therefore, those who do not enter by the door but climb in by another way are the proud. They do not imitate him who, although he was God, became man; and they do not recognize his lowering of himself.

Who is he who enters by the door? It is he who enters in by Christ. Who is he? He is the one who imitates the suffering of Christ, who is acquainted with the humility of Christ, so as to feel and know that if God became man for us, [a] man should not think himself God but man [humankind]. He who being man wishes to appear God does not imitate him who, being God, became man. You are not asked to think less of yourself than you are but to know what you are.

"But he who enters through the door is the shepherd of the sheep:" he enters through the door who enters through truth. Concerning this entrance, First Thessalonians two: "You yourselves know, brethren, our entrance to you"; and it is added there: "For neither at any time were we found using words of flattery, as you know, nor seeking an occasion of avarice, nor seeking glory from men."

(Hom. lix. 2) You have seen His description of a robber, now see that of the Shepherd: But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

The shepherd of the sheep is the one who is worthily endowed with the gift of teaching. He is the one who uses the lawful entrance, that is, who lives with all his heart according to the doctrine of the law and so enters into the sheepfold, as is only right. Then he leads all the others, like sheep, to the pastures of doctrine by showing them the food of the Word with which they must nourish themselves first and continually afterwards. He also leads them by showing them the power of the Word, how Scripture must be understood and from which doctrine they must abstain—doctrine that others may deceitfully propose to them for the slaughter of the sheep.… The thief and bandit is the exact opposite. He neither uses the lawful entrance, nor does he show respect for the precepts of the law. This is how he teaches the people given to him. In vain he tries to take hold of the entrance and of the dignity of the teacher, even though he does nothing that is required for such an honor. He is inconsiderate and does everything without regard to how it may harm the sheep. Indeed how can he be useful to others when he does not exercise himself in the precepts of the law? Take a look if you want, our Lord says, and discern between me and you as to who uses the lawful entrance. See who diligently follows the precepts of the law. See to whom Moses, the gatekeeper of the sheepfold, opens the gate and whom he praises for finishing his work. See whose works themselves testify to his worthiness to be called the Shepherd.

Here are the signs of the Shepherd. The Shepherd enters through the Scriptures. The Pharisees often called the Lord a deceiver and proved this by their own unbelief, saying, "Have any of the rulers believed in Him?" (John 7:48). Therefore the Lord shows that it is not He who should be considered a destroyer because they do not believe, but rather they should be excluded from the number of the sheep. "I," He says, "enter by the door." Clearly, I am truly the Shepherd. You did not follow Me and thereby showed about yourselves that you are not sheep.

Now he considers the shepherd. First, he mentions the mark of the shepherd; secondly, he shows through signs that he is the shepherd (v 3).

The mark of the true shepherd is to enter by the door, that is, by the testimony of Sacred Scripture. Thus Christ said: "Everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled" (Lk 24:44). He is called a shepherd: "I am not troubled when I follow you as my shepherd" (Jer 17:16); "He rebukes and trains and teaches them, and turns them back, as a shepherd his flock" (Sir 18:13).

But if the door is Christ, as Augustine explains it, then in entering by the door, he enters by himself. And this is special to Christ: for no one can enter the door, i.e., to beatitude, except by the truth, because beatitude is nothing else than joy in the truth. But Christ, as God, is the truth; therefore, as man, he enters by himself, that is, by the truth, which he is as God. We, however, are not the truth, but children of the light, by participating in the true and uncreated light. Consequently, we have to enter by the truth which is Christ: "Sanctify them in the truth" (17:17); "If any one enters by me, he will be saved" (10:9). If one wishes to enter even as a shepherd, he must enter by the door, that is, Christ, according to his truth, will and consent. Thus we read in Ezekiel (24:23): "And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them." This is like saying: They must be given by me, and not by others or themselves.

To Him the porter openeth.

(Tr. xlvi. 2) Or, the porter is our Lord Himself; for there is much less difference between a door and a porter, than between a door and a shepherd. And He has called Himself both the door and the shepherd. Why then not the door and the porter? He opens Himself, i. e. reveals Himself. If thou seek another person for porter, take the Holy Spirit, of whom our Lord below saith, He will guide you into all truth. (c. 16:13) The door is Christ, the Truth; who openeth the door, but He that will guide you into all Truth? Whomsoever thou understand here, beware that thou esteem not the porter greater than the door; for in our houses the porter ranks above the door, not the door above the porter.

(Tr. xlv. 12) He knew the names of the predestinated; as He saith to His disciples, Rejoice that your names are written in heaven. (Luke 19:14) And leadeth them out.

(Tr. xlv. 14) And who is He who leads them out, but the Same who loosens the chain of their sins, that they may follow Him with free unfettered step?

(Tr. xlv. c. 14) And who is this that goeth before the sheep, but He who being raised from the dead, dieth no more; (Rom. 6:9) and who said, Father, I will also that they, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am? (Infra 17:24)

"To him the doorkeeper opens." Here the sign of the true pastor is touched upon, in this, that he is recognized by the doorkeeper and the flock. Therefore he says: "To him the doorkeeper opens," knowing him to be the pastor. This doorkeeper is Christ, who holds the key: whence Isaiah twenty-two: "I will place the key of the house of David upon his shoulder: and he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open." "And the sheep hear his voice," because they willingly obey the good pastor; Hebrews, last chapter: "Obey your leaders and submit to them: for they watch over you, as those who must render an account for your souls."

"And he calls his own sheep by name." Here the good pastor's office is touched upon, which is threefold: to call, to lead out, and to direct: he calls by name through knowing; he leads out to pastures through instructing; but he goes before them through providing good example. This belongs to Christ the pastor through excellence, to others through imitation. Whence first he says: "And he calls his own sheep by name," namely Christ; Second Timothy two: "The Lord knows those who are his," and concerning imitation of him: Proverbs twelve: "The just man knows the souls of his beasts." "And he leads them out," to pastures, namely Christ: Ezekiel thirty-four: "I will lead them out from the peoples and gather them from the lands and bring them into their own land," which was flowing with milk. So also the imitator of Christ, as Moses and Aaron; the Psalm: "You led your people like sheep by the hand of Moses and Aaron."

The gatekeeper is either the angel who is appointed to preside over the churches and to assist those whose lot is to minister in holy things for the good of the people, or else [the gatekeeper is] the Savior himself, who is at the same time both the Door and the Lord of the door.

These I call by name … and they follow me, for I herd them up beside the waters of rest. They follow every shepherd whose voice they love to hear.… But they will not follow a stranger. Instead, they will flee from him because they have a habit of distinguishing the voice of their own from that of strangers.

(Hom. xlix. 2) The porter perhaps is Moses; for to him the oracles of God were committed.

(Hom. lix. 3. c. 7, 48.) As they had called Him a deceiver, and appealed to their own unbelief as the proof of it; (Which of the rulers believeth on Him?) He shows here that it was because they refused to hear Him, that they were put out of His flock. The sheep hear His voice. The Shepherd enters by the lawful door; and they who follow Him are His sheep; they who do not, voluntarily put themselves out of His flock. And He calleth His own sheep by name.

(Hom. lix. 2) He led out the sheep, when He sent them not out of the reach of, but into the midst of, the wolves. There seems to be a secret allusion to the blind man. He called him out of the midst of the Jews; and he heard His voice.

My child, diligently apply yourself to the reading of the sacred Scriptures. Apply yourself, I say. For we who read the things of God need to do so often, otherwise we might say or think something too rashly about them. And applying yourself in this way to the study of the things of God, with faithful preconceptions that are well pleasing to God, knock at its locked door, and it will be opened to you by the gatekeeper, of whom Jesus says, "To him the gatekeeper opens." And applying yourself in this way to the divine study, seek the meaning of the holy Scriptures that so many have missed, but do so in the right way and with unwavering trust in God. Do not be satisfied with knocking and seeking; for prayer is, of all things, indispensable to the knowledge of the things of God. This is what the Savior encourages us to do, saying not only, "Knock, and it shall be opened to you; and seek, and you shall find," but also, "Ask, and it shall be given to you."

Wherefore He, being the true Prophet, said, 'I am the gate of life; he who entereth through me entereth into life,' there being no other teaching able to save. Wherefore also He cried, and said, 'Come unto me, all who labour,' that is, who are seeking the truth, and not finding it; and again, 'My sheep hear my voice;' and elsewhere, 'Seek and find,' since the truth does not lie on the surface.

"The doorkeeper opens to Him." By the doorkeeper, understand perhaps Moses as well, for to him were entrusted the words of God. Moses opened the door to the Lord, without doubt, by speaking about Him. The Lord Himself said: "If you believed Moses, you would believe Me also" (John 5:46). Or the doorkeeper is the Holy Spirit. Since the Scriptures, understood through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, point us to Christ, it is rightly said that the Holy Spirit is the doorkeeper. By Him, as the Spirit of wisdom and knowledge, the Scriptures are opened, through which the Lord enters into His care for us and through which He is shown to be the Shepherd. And the sheep listen to the voice of the Shepherd.

Or, the Holy Spirit is the porter, by whom the Scriptures are unlocked, and reveal the truth to us.

Now he mentions the signs of a good shepherd; and there are three. The first relates to the gatekeeper, and is that the good shepherd is let in by him. As to this he says, to him the gatekeeper opens. This gatekeeper, according to Chrysostom, is the one who opens the way to a knowledge of Sacred Scripture. The first one to do this was Moses, who first received and established Sacred Scripture. And Moses opened to Christ, because as was said above: "If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me" (5:46).

Or, according to Augustine, the gatekeeper is Christ himself, because he brings us himself. He says, "He opens himself who reveals himself, and we enter only by his grace." "For by grace you have been saved" (Eph 2:8). It does not matter if Christ, who is the door, is also the gatekeeper; for certain things are compatible in spiritual matters that cannot occur in physical reality. Now there seems to be a greater difference between a shepherd and a door than between a door and a gatekeeper. Therefore, since Christ can be called both a shepherd and a door, as was said, much more so can he be called a door and a gatekeeper. But if you prefer that someone other than Moses or Christ be the gatekeeper, then consider the Holy Spirit the gatekeeper, as Augustine says. For it is the office of a gatekeeper to open the door, and it says below of the Holy Spirit that "He will guide you into all the truth" (16:13). And Christ is the door insofar as he is the Truth.

The second sign relates to the sheep, and it is that they obey the shepherd. This is what he says, the sheep hear his voice. This is reasonable if the resemblance to a natural shepherd is considered: because just as sheep recognize the voice of their shepherd due to familiar experience, so righteous believers hear the voice of Christ: "O that today you would harken to his voice" (Ps 95:7).

But what of the fact that many who are Christ's sheep did not hear his voice, as Paul; or that some who were not his sheep did hear it, as Judas? One might reply that Judas was Christ's sheep for that time as to his present righteousness. And Paul, when he did not hear the voice of Christ, was not a sheep but a wolf; but when the voice of Christ came it changed the wolf into a sheep. This reply could be accepted if it were not contrary to a statement in Ezekiel (34:4): "The crippled you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back." It seems from this that even when they were crippled and strayed they were sheep. Therefore, one must say that here our Lord is speaking of his sheep not only according to their present righteousness but even according to their eternal predestination. For there is a certain voice of Christ that only the predestined can hear, i.e., "He who endures to the end" (Matt 10:22).

Again, he says, the sheep hear his voice, because they might offer as an excuse for their unbelief the fact that not only they, but none of the leaders believed in him. So he says in answer to this, the sheep hear his voice, as if saying: They do not believe because they are not my sheep.

The third sign is taken from the actions of the shepherd. Here he mentions four actions of a good shepherd: the first being that he knows his sheep. He says, he calls his own sheep by name, which shows his knowledge of and familiarity with his sheep, for we call by name those whom we know familiarly: "I know you by name" (Ex 33:17). This is part of the office of a shepherd according to: "Be diligent to know the countenance of your flock" (Prv 27:23). This applies to Christ according to his present knowledge, but even more so considering eternal predestination, by which he knew them by name from eternity: "He determined the number of the stars, he gives to all of them their names" (Ps 147:4); "The Lord knows those who are his" (2 Tim 2:19).

The second action of a good shepherd is that he leads them out, i.e., he separates them from the society of those who are evil: "He brought them out of darkness and gloom" (Ps 107:14).

And the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him; for they know not the voice of strangers.

(Tr. xlv. 10. ct seq.) But here is a difficulty. Sometimes they who are not sheep hear Christ's voice; for Judas heard, who was a wolf. And sometimes the sheep hear Him not; for they who crucified Christ heard not; yet some of them were His sheep. You will say, While they did not hear, they were not sheep; the voice, when they heard it, changed them from wolves to sheep. Still I am disturbed by the Lord's rebuke to the shepherds in Ezekiel, Neither have ye brought again that which strayed. (Ezek. 34:4) He calls it a stray sheep, but yet a sheep all the while; though, if it strayed, it could not have heard the voice of the Shepherd, but the voice of a stranger. What I say then is this; The Lord knoweth them that are His. (2 Tim. 2:19) He knoweth the foreknown, he knoweth the predestinated. They are the sheep: for a time they know not themselves, but the Shepherd knows them; for many sheep are without the fold, many wolves within. He speaks then of the predestinated. And now the difficulty is solved. The sheep do hear the Shepherd's voice, and they only. When is that? It is when that voice saith, He that endureth to the end shall be saved. (Mat. 10:32) This speech His own hear, the alien hear not.

"And when he has sent forth his own sheep, he goes before them," he leads the way by showing good example, as Christ; Micah two: "He ascends, opening the way before them." Whence he said below in the thirteenth chapter: "I have given you an example, that just as I have done to you, so you also should do." So also the imitator of Christ: whence First Corinthians eleven: "Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ." But few are such: whence Isaiah twenty-four: "As the people, so shall be the priest." This threefold office of the good pastor has a great effect upon the sheep, which is the direction of the sheep through imitation: on account of which he says: "The sheep follow him," namely the true pastor. The sheep are simple and humble, of whom Hugh says: "The humility of a sheep is that you do not desire to be in charge and that you love to be subject. Many, fleeing labor, wish to be in charge and disdain to be subject: these are not sheep, because they do not follow." Therefore the sheep follow, because "they know his voice," namely that it is a voice of consolation, according to that passage of Matthew eleven: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you." The good pastor calls to refreshment.

And when He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them, He leadeth them out from the darkness of ignorance into light, while He goeth before in the pillar of cloud, and fire.

(Hom. lix. 2) Shepherds always go behind their sheep; but He, on the contrary, goes before, to show that He would lead all to the truth.

From where then does He lead out His own sheep? From the midst of the unbelievers, just as, for example, He led the blind man out from the midst of the Jews, who both heard Him and recognized Him. And He goes before the sheep, although with bodily shepherds it is the opposite, for they walk behind the sheep. By this He shows that He will lead all to the truth. And He sends the disciples "as sheep into the midst of wolves" (Matt. 10:16). Thus, truly, the pastoral ministry of Christ is extraordinary.

The third action of a good shepherd is that having separated them from evil and having brought them into the sheepfold, he has brought out all his own, from the sheepfold. He does this, first, for the salvation of others: "I will send survivors to the nations" (Is 66:19); "Behold, I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves" (Matt 10:16), so that they can make sheep out of the wolves. Secondly, they are to show the direction and way to eternal life: "To guide our feet into the way of peace" (Lk 1:79).

Fourthly, the good shepherd goes before his sheep by the example of a good life; so he says, he goes before them, although this is not what the literal shepherd does, for he follows, as in "I took him from following the ewes" (Ps 78:70). But the good shepherd goes before them by example, "not as domineering over those in your charge but being examples to the flock" (1 Pet 5:3). And Christ does go before them: for he was the first to die for the teaching of the truth - "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Matt 16:24); and he went before all into everlasting life - "He who opens the breach will go up before them" (Mic 2:13).

Now he considers the effect that both the thief and the shepherd have upon the sheep. First, he mentions the effect of the good shepherd; secondly, the effect of the wolf and the thief (v 5).

He says, first, that the sheep follow him who goes before them. This is easy to see, because subjects follow in the steps of their leaders, as is stated: "Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps" (1 Pet 2:21); "My foot has held fast to his steps" (Job 23:11). The sheep follow for they know his voice, i.e., they know it and take delight in it: "Let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet" (Song 2:14).

"But they do not follow a stranger, but flee from him," that is, an evil shepherd or a wolf, because they do not know the voice of strangers, that is, they do not approve of it. These strangers are false christs and false prophets and false apostles, of whom it is said in Second Corinthians eleven, that "they are deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ." These they do not follow: for they have been warned by their own shepherd; Matthew seven: "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves."

(Hom. xlix. 3) The strangers are Theudas, and Judas, and the false apostles who came after Christ. That He might not appear one of this number, He gives many marks of difference between Him and them. First, Christ brought men to Him by teaching them out of the Scriptures; they drew men from the Scriptures. Secondly, the obedience of the sheep; for men believed on Him, not only during His life, but after death: their followers ceased, as soon as they were gone.

"A stranger they will not follow," because they do not know the voice of a stranger. And here, without a doubt, He hints at Theudas and Judas, whom the sheep did not follow, for few were deceived, and even those, after their death, fell away. But Christ, both during His life, and especially after His death, "the whole world went after Him" (John 12:19). He also hints at the antichrist, for he too will deceive only a few, and after his destruction will have no followers. The words "they do not go" show that after the death of the deceivers, no one will heed or follow them. So then, the Scriptures are the door. Through this door the Lord leads the sheep out to pasture. And what is the pasture? The future enjoyment and repose into which the Lord leads us. If in other places He also calls Himself the door, one should not marvel at this. For when He wishes to depict His care for us, He calls Himself the shepherd, and when He wishes to show that He leads us to the Father, then He calls Himself the door, just as He Himself in different senses is both Sheep and Shepherd. Furthermore, by the door are understood the words of the divine Scriptures; and the Lord Himself is and is called the Word; consequently, He may also be called the Door.

He alludes to Antichrist, who shall deceive for a time, but lose all his followers when he dies.

The effect that the thief has is that the sheep do not follow him for very long, but only for a time; so he says, a stranger they will not follow, i.e., they do not follow a false and heretical teacher: "The children who are strangers have lied to me" (Ps 17:46). Thus Paul did not follow false teachers for long. But they will flee from him, because "Bad company ruins good morals" (1 Cor 15:33). They flee for they do not know, that is, do not approve of, the voice of strangers, meaning their teaching, which spreads stealthily like a cancer.

Return then with me to what I was saying, in case it is so to be understood that we may both escape from the question. For I see how I, according to the catholic faith, may escape without tripping or stumbling; whilst thou, on the other hand, shut in on every side, art seeking a way of escape. See by what way thou hast entered. Perhaps thou hast not understood this that I said, See by what way thou hast entered: hear Himself saying, "I am the door." Not without cause, then, art thou seeking how thou mayest get out; and this only thou findest, that thou hast not entered by the door, but fell in over the wall. Therefore raise thyself up from thy fall how thou canst, and enter by the door, that thou mayest go in without stumbling, and go out without straying. Come by Christ, not bringing forward of thy own heart what thou mayest say; but what He shows, that speak.

(ut sup.) Our Lord feedeth by plain words, exerciseth by obscure. For when two persons, one godly, the other ungodly, hear the words of the Gospel, and they happen to be such that neither can understand them; one says, What He saith is true and good, but we do not understand it: the other says, It is not worth attending to. The former, in faith, knocks, yea, and, if he continue to knock, it shall be opened unto him. The latter shall hear the words in Isaiah, If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established. (Isa. 7:9)

(Tr. xlv. 8) Lo, the very door which He had shut up, He openeth; He is the Door: let us enter, and let us enter with joy.

The second part expounds the parable and applies it to Christ.

"Jesus therefore said to them again." This is the second part of the chapter, in which the Lord explains the proverb set forth by applying it to himself, showing himself to be the true shepherd with respect to those three things which were stated above in the proverb: first, with respect to the true shepherd's entrance; second, with respect to the true shepherd's affection, at the passage: "I am the good shepherd"; third, with respect to the shepherd's sign, at the passage: "The feast of the Dedication took place."

First, therefore, he shows himself to be the true shepherd with respect to his entrance, in this order: first, that no one enters rightly except through him; second, that whoever enters through him enters rightly; third, that he himself is not only the way of entering, but also enters rightly himself.

He shows, therefore, first that no one enters rightly into the sheepfold except through him; on account of which he says: "Amen, amen I say to you: I am the door of the sheep; I" distinctively, and no other, because there is no entrance except through me.

It is asked here concerning this, that the Lord compares himself here to a door, because above he compared himself to a doorkeeper: how is the same one the door and the doorkeeper and the shepherd?

It must be said that, as is said below in the fourteenth chapter, Christ is the way, the truth, and the life: because he is the way to the Father, therefore the door; because he is truly the truth, which teaches the way, therefore the doorkeeper; because he is the life, therefore the shepherd, who feeds and preserves life.

He most thoroughly knew, being by nature God, and beholding that which lies in the depth, that the Pharisees understood none of His sayings, although accustomed to pride themselves greatly on their learning in the Law, and excessively supercilious in thinking themselves wise. Therefore He gives them a very clear explanation, and winding up as it were the long thread of the argument, He tells them in few words the main scope of the parable. For being naturally good, He leads on towards a clear comprehension those even who do not deserve it, that perhaps by some method the light may reach them. And He distinctly says that Himself is the Door of the sheep, teaching something which is generally acknowledged; for only through faith in Him are we admitted into relationship with God, and He Himself is a witness to this, saying: No one cometh unto the Father, but by Me. Either therefore He wishes to signify something of this sort, or, as is more suitable to the questions we are considering He once more makes it clear that we come to the rule and leadership of rational flocks through Him, according to what is said by Paul: For no man taketh the honour unto himself, but he that is called of God. For instance, no one of the holy Prophets consecrated himself; no, nor even will the great and shining company of the Apostles be found to have been self-called to this office. For they were consecrated through the will of Christ, Who called them to the apostleship by name, and individually, as He says in the parable before us. For we know how in the Gospel according to Matthew the names of the Apostles are set down in order, and immediately following is the manner of their public proclamation: for. These twelve, he says, the Saviour consecrated; whom also He named Apostles. Seeing therefore that the foolish Pharisees wished to be rulers, and were immoderately boastful of the name and character of leadership, He profitably teaches that Himself is the bestower of leadership upon men and mighty to conduct them to it without difficulty. For being the Door of the sacred and Divine fold, He both will admit him who is fit, and also will block the entrance against him who is not.

Jesus sees that the foolish Pharisees wanted to be rulers and that they were unwisely boastful of the name and character of leadership. And so it is good that he teaches them that he himself is the one who confers leadership in the church. And he bestows this authority without difficulty. For since Jesus is "the door" of the sacred and divine fold, he will both admit the one who is fit for leadership but also will block the entrance to the one who is unfit to lead the flock.

No one, then, he says, can be saved or return (into heaven) without the Son, and the Son is the Serpent. For as he brought down from above the paternal marks, so again he carries up from thence those marks roused from a dormant condition and rendered paternal characteristics, substantial ones from the unsubstantial Being, transferring them hither from thence. This, he says, is what is spoken: "I am the door." And he transfers (those marks), he says, to those who close the eyelid, as the naphtha drawing the fire in every direction towards itself; nay rather, as the magnet (attracting) the iron and not anything else, or just as the backbone of the sea falcon, the gold and nothing else, or as the chaff is led by the amber. In this manner, he says, is the portrayed, perfect, and con-substantial genus drawn again from the world by the Serpent; nor does he (attract) anything else, as it has been sent down by him. For a proof of this, they adduce the anatomy of the brain, assimilating, from the fact of its immobility, the brain itself to the Father, and the cerebellum to the Son, because of its being moved and being of the form of (the head of) a serpent. And they allege that this (cerebellum), by an ineffable and inscrutable process, attracts through the pineal gland the spiritual and life-giving substance emanating from the vaulted chamber (in which the brain is embedded). And on receiving this, the cerebellum in an ineffable manner imparts the ideas, just as the Son does, to matter; or, in other words, the seeds and the genera of the things produced according to the flesh flow along into the spinal marrow. Employing this exemplar, (the heretics) seem to adroitly introduce their secret mysteries, which are delivered in silence. Now it would be impious for us to declare these; yet it is easy to form an idea of them, by reason of the many statements that have been made.

(Hom. lix. 3) Our Lord, to waken the attention of the Jews, unfolds the meaning of what He has said; Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.

He says that he is the door of the sheep because he is the principal access to truth for everyone. His doctrine that he has uniquely established calls everyone that is summoned by it. He established laws, as was his prerogative, so that we might live through them according to his will. And he was the Word through which all might know the Father. Therefore let us abandon the works of the law and apply ourselves to obey the precepts of Christ. Let us devote our entire being to the principles of the gospel and employ all diligence in fulfilling his laws. Thus, he very appropriately called himself the door of the sheep, since there is no other way to seek out the truth except by believing first of all in our Lord, and by drawing near to the entrance of truth through his commandments, finding pleasure in the good things we possess because of our nearness to God the Father.

Jesus told them in these words a parable, or comparison, and used obscure speech in order to make them more attentive. When He has achieved this, He resolves the obscurity and says: "I am the Door."

Now our Lord explains the similitude. If the above similitude is examined correctly, it contains two principal clauses, followed by others. The first is: "He who does not enter the sheepfold by the door…is a thief and a robber." The second is: "He who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep." Accordingly, this section is divided into two parts. First, he explains the first clause; then the second clause (v 11). Concerning the first he does two things: first, he explains the first clause; secondly, he proves it (v 7). The first clause mentions a door, a thief and a robber; so first he explains the door, then the thief and then the robber (v 8).

Concerning the first he says, So Jesus again said to them, to gain their attention and have them understand the similitude: "The man of understanding may acquire skill to understand a proverb and a figure" (Prv 1:6). Jesus said, Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door. Now the purpose of a door is to conduct one into the inner rooms of a house; and this is fitting to Christ, for one must enter into the secrets of God through him: "This is the gate of the Lord," that is, Christ, "the righteous shall enter through it" (Ps 118:20). He says, I am the door of the sheep, because through Christ not only the shepherds are brought into the present Church or enter into everlasting happiness, but the sheep also. Thus he says below: "My sheep hear my voice…and they follow me; and I give them eternal life" (10:27).

"All that ever came are thieves and robbers." What is this, Lord, "All that ever came"? How so hast Thou not come? But understand; I said, "All that ever came," meaning, of course, exclusive of myself. Let us recollect then. Before His coming came the prophets: were they thieves and robbers? God forbid. They did not come apart from Him, for they came with Him. When about to come, He sent heralds, but retained possession of the hearts of His messengers. Do you wish to know that they came with Him, who is Himself ever existent? Certainly He assumed human flesh at the time appointed. But what means that "ever"? "In the beginning was the Word." With Him, therefore, came those who came with the word of God. "I am," said He, "the way, and the truth, and the life." If He is the truth, with Him came those who were truthful. As many, therefore, as were apart from Him, were "thieves and robbers," that is, had come to steal and to destroy.

(Tr. xlv. 8) All that ever came before Me are thieves and robbers. Understand, All that ever came at variance with Me. The Prophets were not at variance with Him. They came with Him, who came with the Word of God, who spake the truth. He, the Word, the Truth, sent heralds before Him, but the hearts of those whom He sent were His own. They came with Him, inasmuch as He is always, though He assumed the flesh in time: In the beginning was the Word. His humble advent in the flesh was preceded by just men, who believed on Him as about to come, as we believe on Him come. The times are different, the faith is the same. Our faith knitteth together both those who believed that He was about to come, and those who believe that He has come. All that ever came at variance with Him were thieves and robbers; i. e. they came to steal and to kill; but the sheep did not hear them. They had not Christ's voice; but were wanderers, dreamers, deceivers. Why He is the Door, He next explains, I am the Door; by Me if any man enter in he shall be saved.

"All, as many as came, are thieves and robbers," because, namely, they had not entered through me; and the sign of this he adds: "But the sheep did not hear them." This door was closed for a long time, but in the Passion it was opened, so that "the fullness of the Gentiles might enter." Concerning this door, Revelation 4: "After this I looked; and behold, a door opened in heaven"; truly opened, because, as is said above in chapter 6, "him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."

It is asked concerning what he says: "All who came are thieves."

Against this: The Prophets and Patriarchs and John the Baptist came; therefore according to this all were evil, as the heretics say.

It is answered to this that the emphasis should be placed on what is said, "came," namely by their own authority, not by divine authority, as the false prophets, of whom Jeremiah twenty-three says: "I did not send them, and they ran"; but the good ones did not come, but were sent. Whence Augustine says: "They did not come apart from him, but they came with him." For he himself is the truth; and therefore all who preached the truth came with him.

The devil is called "thief and robber;" having mixed false prophets with the prophets, as tares with the wheat. "All, then, that came before the Lord, were thieves and robbers;" not absolutely all men, but all the false prophets, and all who were not properly sent by Him. For the false prophets possessed the prophetic name dishonestly, being prophets, but prophets of the liar. For the Lord says, "Ye are of your father the devil; and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar, and the father of it."

Practising all kinds of enchantment upon the obstinate mind of the Pharisees, and trying to turn them to sound reason, He attempts to show them that it is a bootless and perilous thing to dare to act as leaders, without the election from above or the Divine counsel, but thinking that rule may be obtained by human folly, although the Bestower of it may be unwilling. Wherefore, having plainly said that Himself is the Door, which signifies the only means of admitting such as are fit to the leadership, He straightway brings forward the attempts of those who lived in earlier times, so that, beholding delineated as in a picture the result to which such action leads, they might then clearly understand that the ability to govern and lead flocks of people comes only through grace given from above, and not from ambitious endeavours. Therefore here also his speech is profitable, bringing to mind the history of those who lived in earlier times: All that came are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. For certain men came forward publicly, pretending to have the office of good shepherds; but since there was none who committed the leadership unto them, and who |68 could persuade those whom they ought to have ruled to obey them, the multitude of the sheep ran away from them.

But by no means must we suspect, because He said: All, that the apostleship of the holy Prophets is set at naught by Our Saviour Christ; for the saying is not against them, but against others. For since His object was to speak about false shepherds and such as climbed up some other way into the fold of the sheep, of necessity the language was used with respect to those who had been clearly signified beforehand: He says: All, but we will in no wise think that the persons of the holy Prophets are hereby renounced; for how could they be renounced by Him Who established the truth of their plain declarations regarding His own coming; "Who saith: I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes by the ministry of the prophets; Who consecrated Moses, and said unto Jeremiah: Say not, I am too young: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak; and to the blessed Ezekiel: Son of man, I will send thee to the house of Israel, who are provoking Me bitterly? The scope of the language therefore is not directed against the company of the holy Prophets, but looks rather to such as at any time pretended to prophesy in Judaea, stating falsely that they came from God, and persuading the people not to obey those who were in truth God's prophets, but to join in undertakings and opinions devised by themselves; concerning whom the Lord God, the Sovereign of all, Himself somewhere says again: I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. And unto the blessed Jeremiah: The prophets prophesy lies in My name: I sent them not, neither did I speak unto them, neither did I command them: for they prophesy unto you visions and divinations and prophecies out of their own hearts. If they be prophets, and if the word of the Lord be with them, let them come before Me. What hath the chaff to do with the wheat? For the word that truly is from God has the power of nourishing greatly, and strengthens man's heart, as it is written, but that of the unholy false prophets and false teachers, being thoroughly clean-threshed and chaff-like, conveys no profit to the hearers. When therefore He names those who preceded His coming thieves and robbers, He signifies either the lying and deceiving multitude of whom we have just spoken, or thou mayest apply the force of the words to those also who are mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. For the rulers of the Jews having on one occasion gathered the holy Apostles together, and brought them into their own most lawless council-chamber, were taking counsel to banish them from Jerusalem, and to force them to be continually facing extreme dangers; but Gamaliel reminded them of certain false teachers in the following words:----Ye men of Israel, take heed to yourselves as touching these men, what ye are about to do. For before these days rose up Theudas, giving himself out to be some great one; to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves: who was slain; and all, as many as obeyed him, were dispersed, and came to naught. After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the enrolment, and drew away some of the people after him: he also perished; and all who obeyed him were scattered abroad. From these considerations then thou seest clearly and indisputably that Christ's words do not refer to the holy Prophets, but to those of the opposite description, in order that even against their will He might persuade the Pharisees not to seek in their own foolish notions a pretext for rashly making themselves guides, when God was not willing for them to be at the head of the people, but in all things to subject their authority to the Divine approbation; and to hasten to enter by the real Door rather than to endeavour to climb up by some other way into the sheepfold after the manner of plunderers.

All the prophets, therefore, and the law spoke by means of the Demiurge,-a silly god, he says, (and themselves) fools, who knew nothing. On account of this, he says, the Saviour observes: "All that came before me are thieves and robbers." And the apostle (uses these words) "The mystery which was not made known to former generations." For none of the prophets, he says, said anything concerning the things of which we speak; for (a prophet) could not but be ignorant of all (these) things, inasmuch as they certainly had been uttered by the Demiurge only. When, therefore, the creation received completion, and when after (this) there ought to have been the revelation of the sons of God-that is, of the Demiurge, which up to this had been concealed, and in which obscurity the natural man was hid, and had a veil upon the heart;-when (it was time), then, that the veil should be taken away, and that these mysteries should be seen, Jesus was born of Mary the virgin, according to the declaration (in Scripture), "The Holy Ghost will come upon thee"-Sophia is the Spirit-" and the power of the Highest will overshadow thee"-the Highest is the Demiurge,-"wherefore that which shall be born of thee shall be called holy." For he has been generated not from the highest alone, as those created in (the likeness of) Adam have been created from the highest alone-that is, (from) Sophia and the Demiurge. Jesus, however, the new man, (has been generated) from the Holy Spirit-that is, Sophia and the Demiurge-in order that the Demiurge may complete the conformation and constitution of his body, and that the Holy Spirit may supply his essence, and that a celestial Logos may proceed from the Ogdoad being born of Mary.

(Hom. lix. 3) He saith not this of the Prophets, as the heretics think, but of Theudas, and Judas, and other agitators. So he adds in praise of the sheep, The sheep heard them not; but he no where praises those who disobeyed the prophets, but condemns them severely.

Those who teach with a dishonest and defiled soul steal. Of them it might be said, "All who came before me are thieves and robbers." Such people use the gospel without being affected by it in faith or in living. Instead, they use the good news of the word in a way in which it was not intended. Such a person is a thief, and it will be said of him, "you who preach not to steal—you still steal."

"All that ever came before Me." He said this not about the prophets, as the Manichaeans madly claim. They use this saying to prove that the Old Testament is not from God and that the prophets were not sent by God. "Behold," they say, "the Lord said that all who ever came are thieves and robbers." But He said this not about the prophets, but about Theudas and Judas and the other seditious men. And that He spoke about them is evident from what He added: "the sheep did not listen to them." For the sheep did not listen to these seditious men, but they did listen to the prophets, and as many as believed in Christ all believed through them. And in another sense: "the sheep did not listen to them." He said this as a commendation. But nowhere is it seen that He commended those who did not listen to the prophets; on the contrary, He strongly condemns and reproaches them. Then, pay attention to the precision of the expression "as many as came," and He does not say "as many as were sent." For the prophets came because they were sent, but the false prophets, like the aforementioned rebels, set about corrupting those they deceived when no one had sent them. Thus God also says: "I did not send them, yet they ran" (Jer. 23:21).

Then when he says, All who came before me are thieves and robbers, he explains what he had said about thieves and robbers. First, he shows who the thieves and robbers are; secondly, their sign.

In regard to the first, we should avoid the error of the Manicheans, who rejected the Old Testament on the ground that it says here that all who came before me are thieves. They maintained that the fathers of the Old Testament, who came before Christ, were evil and have been damned.

The falsity of this view is clear from three things. First, from what this parable says. For the statement, all who came before me, is intended as a description of the previous statement, which mentioned those who do not enter by the door. Therefore, all who came before me, but not through me, that is, not entering by the door, are thieves and robbers. It is clear that all the patriarchs and prophets, whom the Christ-to-come had sent forerunners, entered by the door, i.e., Christ. For although he took flesh and became man in time, he was the Word of God from all eternity: "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever" (Heb 13:8). Indeed, the prophets were sent by the Word and Wisdom of God: "In every generation she," the Wisdom of God, "passes into holy souls and makes them friends of God, and prophets" (Wis 7:27). Accordingly, we expressly read in the prophets that the word of God came to this or that prophet, who prophesied by participating in the Word of God.

Secondly, the falsity of the teaching of the Manicheans is seen when our Lord says, all who came before me, implying that they were thrusting themselves forward on their own authority and were not sent by God: "I did not send the prophets, yet they ran" (Jer 23:21). Indeed, such prophets have not come from the Word of God: "Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing" (Ez 13:3). But the fathers of the Old Testament were not of this type, as has been said.

Thirdly, this falsity is seen from the fact that he shows what effect their words had, for we read, but the sheep did not heed them. Therefore, those whom the sheep did heed were not thieves and robbers. Now the people of Israel did listen to the prophets, and those who did not heed them were rebuked in Sacred Scripture: "Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute?" (Acts 7:52); "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you!" (Matt 23:37).

Having excluded this error, it must be said that all who came before me, that is, independently of me, without divine inspiration and authority, and not with the intention of seeking the glory of God but acquiring their own, are thieves, insofar as they take for themselves what is not theirs, that is, the authority to teach - "Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves" (Is 1:23) - and robbers, because they kill with their corrupt doctrine - "You make it a den of robbers" (Matt 21:13); "As robbers lie in wait for a man…they murder on the way" (Hos 6:9). But the sheep, that is, the predestined, did not heed them, the thieves and robbers, otherwise they would not have been Christ's sheep, because, as was said before, "A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him." Furthermore, this is commanded in Deuteronomy: "You shall not listen to the words of that prophet or to that dreamer of dreams" (13:3).

As if to say, The sheep hear not them, but Me they hear; for I am the Door, and whoever entereth by Me not falsely but in sincerity, shall by perseverance be saved.

For if you believe that father Bacchus can give a good vintage, but cannot give relief from sickness; if you believe that Ceres can give good crops, Aesculapius health, Neptune one thing, Juno another, that Fortune, Mercury, Vulcan, are each the giver of a fixed and particular thing,-this, too, you must needs receive from us, that souls can receive from no one life and salvation, except from Him to whom the Supreme Ruler gave this charge and duty. The Almighty Master of the world has determined that this should be the way of salvation,-this the door, so to say, of life; by Him alone is there access to the light: nor may men either creep in or enter elsewhere, all other ways being shut up and secured by an impenetrable barrier.

By this, then, which the Lord hath explained, that He Himself is the door, let us find entrance to what He has set forth, but not explained. And indeed who it is that is the Shepherd, although He hath not told us in the lesson we have read to-day, yet in that which follows He very plainly tells us: "I am the good Shepherd." And although He had not said so, whom else but Himself ought we to have understood in those words where He saith, "He that entereth in by the door is the Shepherd of the sheep. To Him the porter openeth: and the sheep hear His voice: and He calleth His own sheep by name, and leadeth them out."

But what is this, "He shall go in and out, and find pasture"? To enter indeed into the Church by Christ the door, is eminently good; but to go out of the Church, is certainly otherwise than good. Such a going out could not then be commended by the good Shepherd, when He said, "And he shall go in and out, and find pasture." There is therefore not only some sort of entrance, but some outgoing also that is good, by the good door, which is Christ. But I am better pleased that the Truth Himself, like a good Shepherd, and therefore a good Teacher, hath in a certain measure reminded us how we ought to understand His words, "He shall go in and out, and find pasture," when He added in the sequel, "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." For He seems to me to have meant, That they may have life in coming in, and have it more abundantly at their departure. For no one can pass out by the door-that is, by Christ-to that eternal life which shall be open to the sight, unless by the same door-that is, by the same Christ-he has entered His church, which is His fold, to the temporal life, which is lived in faith.

(Tr. xlv. c. 15) What is this, shall go in and out? To enter into the Church by Christ the Door, is a very good thing, but to go out of the Church is not. Going in must refer to inward cogitation; going out to outward action; as in the Psalm, Man goeth forth to his work. (Ps. 103:23)

"I am the door." Here it is noted that whoever enters through him enters unto salvation. Therefore he says: "I am the door," through which, namely, one enters unto salvation; and the reason is added: "If any man enter in by me, he shall be saved"; concerning which entrance, Matthew 7: "Enter ye in at the strait gate. How strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life!" because Christ was poor and lowly. Through this small door the rich, full of riches, do not enter; on account of which it is said in Matthew 19: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven." This entrance is through faith and the Sacrament of Baptism; since the former is the gate of the virtues, and the latter of the Sacraments. He who enters in this way shall be saved; Mark, last chapter: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." "And he shall go in and go out and find pasture; he shall go in" through contemplation, which calls back to interior things; "and he shall go out" through action; Numbers 27: "Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, provide a man who may go in and go out before them." Or, as Augustine explains, "he shall go in" to the contemplation of the Divinity, "he shall go out" to the sight of the humanity, "and shall find pasture," because he is nourished in all things: the intellect in the contemplation of the Divinity, and the senses in the contemplation of the humanity; concerning which pastures, Ezekiel 34: "I will feed them upon the mountains of Israel; in the most fertile pastures I will feed them."

It is asked concerning what he says, that "he will go out and will find pasture."

Against this: "No one putting his hand to the plow should look back"; therefore no one who enters will go out.

It must be said that there is a twofold going out: one contrary to entering, and this is a going out from the Church through unbelief; and concerning this the objection is raised, and concerning this Augustine says: "To enter the Church is good, but to go out is the worst"; and concerning this, First John two says: "They went out from us, but they were not of us." The other is from contemplation to action; and this is not of regression, but of exercise. Concerning this the Psalm says: "Man goes forth to his work and to his labor until the evening."

Therefore, however much one may be illuminated by the light of nature and acquired knowledge, one cannot enter into oneself so as within oneself to delight in the Lord, except through the mediation of Christ, who says: I am the door. If anyone enters through me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and go out, and shall find pastures. But to this door we do not draw near unless we believe in him, hope in him, and love him. It is necessary, therefore, if we wish to re-enter into the enjoyment of Truth as into paradise, that we enter through faith, hope, and charity in the mediator of God and men, Jesus Christ, who is as the tree of life in the midst of paradise.

The figure of the six seraphic wings intimates six stairlike illuminations, which begin from creatures and lead all the way to God, to whom no one rightly enters except through the Crucified. For he who does not enter through the door but climbs up another way, that one is a thief and a robber. If anyone indeed through this door enters, he shall go in and go out and shall find pasture.

These six considerations having therefore been traversed, as if they were the six steps of the throne of the true Solomon, by which one arrives at peace, where the true peaceful one rests in a peaceful mind as in an interior Jerusalem; and as if also the six wings of the Cherub, by which the mind of the true contemplative, filled with the illumination of supernal wisdom, may be borne upward; and as if also the first six days, in which the mind must be exercised, so that it may at last arrive at the sabbath of rest; after our mind has contemplated God outside itself through vestiges and in the vestiges, within itself through the image and in the image, above itself through the similitude of the divine light shining upon us and in that light itself, insofar as is possible according to the state of wayfaring and the exercise of our mind; when at last in the sixth step it has arrived at this point, that it contemplates in the first and highest principle and the mediator of God and men, Jesus Christ, those things whose likenesses can in no way be found in creatures, and which exceed all keenness of the human intellect: it remains that, in contemplating these things, it should transcend and pass beyond not only this sensible world, but also itself; in which passing over, Christ is the way and the door, Christ is the ladder and the vehicle, as it were the mercy seat placed upon the ark of God and the mystery hidden from the ages.

That it is impossible to attain to God the Father, except by His Son Jesus Christ. In the Gospel: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh to the Father but by me." Also in the same place: "I am the door: by me if any man shall enter in, he shall be saved." Also in the same place: "Many prophets and righteous men have desired to see the things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them." Also in the same place: "He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life: he that is not obedient in word to the Son hath not life; but the wrath of God shall abide upon him." Also Paul to the Ephesians: "And when He had come, He preached peace to you, to those which are afar off, and peace to those which are near, because through Him we both have access in one Spirit unto the Father." Also to the Romans: "For all have sinned, and fail of the glory of God; but they are justified by His gift and grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus." Also in the Epistle of Peter the apostle: "Christ hath died once for our sins, the just for the unjust, that He might present us to God." Also in the same place: "For in this also was it preached to them that are dead, that they might be raised again." Also in the Epistle of John: "Whosoever denieth the Son, the same also hath not the Father. He that confesseth the Son, hath both the Son and the Father."

That it is impossible to attain to the Father but by His Son Jesus Christ. In the Gospel according to John: "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." Also in the same place: "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved."

After His usual manner, He moulds the form of His speech to a spiritual application as though it arose naturally from the course of His story, and seems to treat things which are simple to look at and contain nothing difficult of comprehension, as images of things more obscure. For the thieves, He saith, and robbers, violently breaking into the enclosures of the sheep, do not enter by the door, but leap in by some other way, and by getting over the wall of the fold put themselves in danger. For perhaps, or rather very probably, one who is robbing in this way and rashly practising villainy may be detected and caught; but they who enter by the door itself, effect an entrance without risk, being manifestly not mean in conduct, nor yet unknown to the lord of the sheep. For he who standeth at the doors openeth to them and they run in: moreover, saith He, such as these shall be together with the sheep in great security, having effected an entrance very lawfully as it were and without guile, and without incurring any suspicion of being robbers. This therefore is the part of the story which is typical; and passing over to what is thereby intimated for our spiritual profit, we say this, that they who without the Divine sanction and will proceed to take the leadership of the people, as though altogether refusing the entrance by the Door, will perhaps also perish, doing violence to the Divine decree, at least by the motive of their endeavours. But they who are allotted a God-given leadership, and come to it by Christ, with great security and grace they will govern the most sacred fold, escaping so entirely from the anger which falls on the others that they even receive honour for their work: they will obtain crowns from above such as they do not yet dare to hope for; because their aim is not at all in any way to grieve their flocks, but rather to benefit them: they will do things well-pleasing to the Lord of the flock, and love by all means to keep safe those who belong to Him. By these words also the Lord greatly troubles the obstinate Pharisees, saying that they will certainly not be kept safe, but will utterly fall from the leadership in which they now are; and very justly, since they suppose they will possess it firmly, not by God's approval, but by their own folly. Bat herein I cannot help admiring the incomparable love for men shown by the Saviour. For the Lord is really compassionate and merciful, offering to all a way of salvation, and in divers manners inviting to it even the very obstinate and hardened. And I will take the proof of my assertion once more from the thing itself. For when He fails, either by marvellous deeds or by the longing which yearns and hopes for the glory which shall be hereafter, to persuade the Pharisees to receive His teaching; He sternly proceeds to that, by which it was likely they would be especially troubled, so that henceforth they might look upon obedience as an inevitable necessity. For knowing them to be attached to the glory of being leaders, and to eagerly reckon upon no ordinary gain from thence, He says they will be deprived of it, and will be utterly despoiled of that which was so highly valued, and which was then in their possession; unless they will yield themselves to willingly listen to Him, and seek pardon at His hands.

We are Christians and Catholics not because we worship a key, but because we have passed a door; and felt the wind that is the trumpet of liberty blow over the land of the living.

He is the Way, because he leads us through himself. He is the Door who lets us in, the Shepherd who makes us dwell in green pastures, bringing us up by waters of rest and leading us there. He protects us from wild beasts, converts the erring, brings back what was lost and binds up what was broken. He guards the strong and brings them together into the fold beyond with words of pastoral knowledge.

Where do you pasture your sheep, O good Shepherd who carries all your flock on your shoulders? For the one lamb that you took up is the entire human race, which you raised on your shoulders. Show me then the place of pasture, make known to me the waters of rest, lead me out to the good grass, call me by name that I, your sheep, may listen to your voice and may your call be the gift of eternal life.… "Show me, then," she says, "where you feed," so that I may find the pasture of salvation and be filled with the food of heaven which all people must eat if they would enter into life.

"If anyone enters through me, he will be saved, and will go in and go out, and will find pastures." For he will go in to faith, but will go out from faith to sight, from belief to contemplation, and will find pastures in eternal refreshment. His sheep therefore find pastures, because whoever follows him with a simple heart is nourished by the food of eternal greenness. But what are the pastures of these sheep, if not the inner joys of ever-verdant paradise? For the pastures of the elect are the present countenance of God, which when it is beheld without failing, the mind is satisfied without end by the food of life. In these pastures those have rejoiced in the fullness of eternity who have already escaped the snares of pleasurable temporality. There are the hymn-singing choirs of angels, there is the fellowship of the heavenly citizens. There is the sweet solemnity of those returning from the sad labor of this pilgrimage. There are the foreseeing choirs of prophets, there is the judging number of apostles, there is the victorious army of innumerable martyrs, the more joyful there as they were more harshly afflicted here; there is the constancy of confessors, consoled by the reception of their reward; there are faithful men whom the pleasure of the world could not soften from the strength of their manliness; there are holy women who conquered both the world and their sex; there are children who here transcended their years by their conduct; there are the elderly whom age rendered weak here, yet the power of good works did not abandon.

(super Ezek. Hom. xiii.) Shall go in, i. e. to faith: shall go out, i. e. to sight: and find pasture, i. e. in eternal fulness.

And by war he means the war that is in the body, because its frame has been made out of hostile elements; as it has been written, he says, "Remember the conflict that exists in the body." Jacob, he says, saw this entrance and this gate in his journey into Mesopotamia, that is, when from a child he was now becoming a youth and a man; that is, (the entrance and gate) were made known unto him as he journeyed into Mesopotamia. But Mesopotamia, he says, is the current of the great ocean flowing from the midst of the Perfect Man; and he was astonished at the celestial gate, exclaiming, "How terrible is this place! it is nought else than the house of God, and this (is) the gate of heaven." On account of this, he says, Jesus uses the words, "I am the true gate." Now he who makes these statements is, he says, the Perfect Man that is imaged from the unportrayable one from above. The Perfect Man therefore cannot, he says, be saved, unless, entering in through this gate, he be born again. But this very one the Phrygians, he says, call also Papa, because he tranquillized all things which, prior to his manifestation, were confusedly and dissonantly moved. For the name, he says, of Papa belongs simultaneously to all creatures -celestial, and terrestrial, and infernal-who exclaim, Cause to cease, cause to cease the discord of the world, and make "peace for those that are afar off," that is, for material and earthly beings; and "peace for those that are near," that is, for perfect men that are spiritual and endued with reason. But the Phrygians denominate this same also "corpse"-buried in the body, as it were, in a mausoleum and tomb. This, he says, is what has been declared, "Ye are whited sepulchres, full," he says, "of dead men's bones within," because there is not in you the living man. And again he exclaims, "The dead shall start forth from the graves," that is, from the earthly bodies, being born again spiritual, not carnal. For this, he says, is the Resurrection that takes place through the gate of heaven, through which, he says, all those that do not enter remain dead. These same Phrygians, however, he says, affirm again that this very (man), as a consequence of the change, (becomes) a god. For, he says, he becomes a god when, having risen from the dead, he will enter into heaven through a gate of this kind. Paul the apostle, he says, knew of this gate, partially opening it in a mystery, and stating "that he was caught up by an angel, and ascended as far as the second and third heaven into paradise itself; and that he beheld sights and heard unspeakable words which it would not be possible for man to declare."

The priests indeed are good, but the High Priest is better; to whom the holy of holies has been committed, and who alone has been trusted with the secrets of God. He is the door of the Father, by which enter in Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the prophets, and the apostles, and the Church. All these have for their object the attaining to the unity of God. But the Gospel possesses something transcendent [above the former dispensation], viz., the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ, His passion and resurrection. For the beloved prophets announced Him, but the Gospel is the perfection of immortality. All these things are good together, if ye believe in love.

(Hom. lix. 3) Or, He refers to the Apostles who went in and out boldly; for they became the masters of the world, none could turn them out of their kingdom, and they found pasture.

Wherefore He, being the true Prophet, said, 'I am the gate of life; he who entereth through me entereth into life,' there being no other teaching able to save. Wherefore also He cried, and said, 'Come unto me, all who labour,' that is, who are seeking the truth, and not finding it; and again, 'My sheep hear my voice;' and elsewhere, 'Seek and find,' since the truth does not lie on the surface.

Whoever enters through Me, the door, and is brought to the Father, and becomes His sheep, that one will be saved, and not only will be saved, but will also receive great fearlessness, like both Lord and Master. For this is what is meant by the words "and will go in and go out." So too the apostles boldly went in and came out before rulers, and came out joyful and unconquerable (Acts 5:41). "And shall find pasture," that is, abundant food. And in another way: since our man is twofold, according to the expression of the Apostle Paul, "the inner and the outer" (Rom. 7:22; 2 Cor. 4:16), it can be said that he enters who cares for the inner man, and he again goes out who "puts to death the members which are on the earth" and "the deeds of the flesh" in Christ (Rom. 8:13). Such a one shall find pasture both in the age to come, according to what is said: "The Lord shepherds me, and I shall not want" (Ps. 22:1).

The door admits the sheep into the pasture; And shall go in and out, and find pasture. What is this pasture, but the happiness to come, the rest to which our Lord brings us?

Or, to go in is to watch over the inner man; to go out, (Colos. 3) to mortify the outward man, i. e. our members which are upon the earth. He that doth this shall find pasture in the life to come.

I am the door. Here he clarifies his explanation: first, of the door; secondly, of the thief (v 10). Concerning the first, he does two things: first, he repeats what he intends to explain; and secondly, he gives the explanation (v 9).

He repeats what he had already said, namely, I am the door: "If she is a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar" (Song 8:9), that is, let us grant her an incorruptible power.

He explains this when he says, if any one enters by me, he will be saved. First, he shows that the purpose of a door, which is to keep the sheep safe, applies to himself; secondly, he mentions the manner in which they are kept safe (v 9b).

The door safeguards the sheep by keeping those within from going out, and by protecting them from strangers who want to come in. And this applies to Christ, for he is our safeguard and protection. And this is what he says: if any one, not with insincerity, enters, into the fellowship of the Church and of the faithful, by me, the door, he will be saved, i.e., if he perseveres: "For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12); "We shall be saved by his life" (Rom 5:10).

The way the sheep are safeguarded is set forth when he says that he will go in and out and find pasture. This statement can be explained in four ways. First of all, according to Chrysostom, it simply affirms the security and freedom of those who cling to Christ. For one who enters some other way than by the door does not have free entry and exit; but one who does enter by the door has free exit, because he can leave freely. Therefore, when he says, he will go in and out, the meaning is that the Apostles adhering to Christ enter with security by living with the faithful, who are within the Church, and with unbelievers who are outside, when they became masters of the whole world and no one wished to cast them out: "Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh appoint a man over the congregation, who shall go out before them and come in before them…that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep which have no shepherd" (Num 27:16). And find pasture, find delight in converting others, and find joy even when persecuted by unbelievers for the name of Christ: "Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name," as we read in Acts (5:41).

Secondly, this can be explained as Augustine does in his Commentary on John. Two things are incumbent upon anyone who acts well, namely to be well-ordered to the things that are within him, and to those that are without. Within a person is the spirit, and without is the body: "Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day" (2 Cor 4:16). Therefore, a person who clings to Christ will go in through contemplation, to protect his conscience - "When I enter my house," i.e., my conscience, "I shall find rest with her," i.e., with wisdom (Wis 8:16) - and out, namely, by good actions, to tame the body - "Man goes forth to his work and to his labor until the evening" (Ps 104:23) - and find pasture, in a clean and sincere conscience - "I will appear before your sight: I will be satisfied when your glory appears" (Ps 16:15). Again, by his actions he will find pasture, i.e., fruit - "He shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him" (Ps 126:6).

The third explanation is also Augustine's as well as that given by Gregory in his Commentary on Ezekiel. The meaning, then, is this. Such a one will go in, i.e., into the Church, by believing - "I shall go over into the place of the wonderful tabernacle" (Ps 41:5), and this is to enter the Church Militant; and out, from the Church Militant into the Church Triumphant - "Go forth, O daughters of Zion, and behold King Solomon, with the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of the wedding" (Song 3:11); and find pasture, that is, the pastures of doctrine and grace in the Church Militant - "He makes me lie down in green pastures"; and the pastures of glory in the Church Triumphant: "I will feed them with good pasture" (Ez 34:14).

Fourthly, there is an explanation found in the work, On the Spirit and the Soul, which has been incorrectly attributed to Augustine. Here it is said that such a one will go in, that is, the saints will go in to contemplate the divinity of Christ, and out, to consider his humanity; and they will find pasture in both, because in both they will taste the joys of contemplation: "Your eyes shall see the king in his beauty" (Is 33:17).

Hear also what follows. "Therefore doth my Father love me," He saith, "because I lay down my life. that I might take it again." What is this that He says? "Therefore doth my Father love me": because I die, that I may rise again. For the "I" is uttered with special emphasis: "Because I lay down," He saith, "I lay down my life," "I lay down." What is that "I lay down"? I Lay it down. Let the Jews no longer boast: they might rage, but they could have no power: let them rage as they can; if I were unwilling to lay down my life, what would all their raging effect? By one answer of His they were prostrated in the dust: when they were asked, "Whom seek ye?" they said, "Jesus;" and on His saying to them, "I am He, they went backward, and fell to the ground." Those who thus fell to the ground at one word of Christ when about to die, what will they do at the sound of His voice when coming to judgment?

"This commandment," He says, "have I received of my Father." The Word received not the commandment in word, but in the only-begotten Word of the Father every commandment resides. But when the Son is said to receive of the Father what He possesses essentially in Himself, as it is said, "As the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself," while the Son is Himself the life, there is no lessening of His authority, but the setting forth of His generation. For the Father added not after-gifts as to a son whose state was imperfect at birth, but on Him whom He begat in absolute perfection He bestowed all gifts in begetting. In this manner He gave Him equality with Himself, and yet begat Him not in a state of inequality.

"Therefore the Father loves me." Here Christ's munificence toward the sheep is noted, in this, that he himself, since he was not a debtor to death, not compelled by necessity, but by sheer liberality laid down his life for the sheep; and this at the Father's command, by reason of which he merited the Father's love. Therefore he says: "Therefore the Father loves me, because I lay down my life," namely in death and passion: "that I may take it again," that is, in the resurrection, and thus from power, because it is mine to lay down and mine to take up again.

It is asked about what he says: "Therefore the Father loves me, because I lay down my life."

Therefore it seems that Christ merited the divine love through his passion.

Against this: From the instant of his conception he was worthy to be loved above all.

It must be said that he speaks according to the human nature, and "therefore" he states there the meritorious cause, just as in that text: "For which cause God also exalted him." And merit is understood not as making what is unowed into something owed, nor as making what is owed into something more owed; but because what is owed in one way and by one mode, namely by the best interior will, becomes owed in another way, namely by exterior work.

He replies oftentimes not only to the words uttered at the time with the tongue, but to the reasonings in the depth [of the heart]; for being Very God, He has a clear knowledge of all things. Accordingly, when the unholy Jews mocked at His words, especially because He promised that He would struggle on behalf of His own sheep to such a degree and so very earnestly that He was actually ready even to die for them, thinking that He now talked foolishly and deeming Him mad; forcibly now at length He shows those who were mockers, because of the ignorance and at the same time the unbounded impiety that was in them, that they are guilty both in words and in deeds of dishonouring that which God the Father recognises as worthy of great honour. For the Father loveth Me, He says, for this very thing that you through your great lack of understanding so utterly despise. Are ye not therefore arrogant and chargeable with gross impiety, when ye say that is a fit object for mockery which to God is most acceptable and well-pleasing? And somehow also He gives them to understand from these words, that they were greatly hated by God. For if God loves the One Who lays down His life for the sheep of the fold entrusted to His care, it is of course necessary to suppose that He holds in detestation the one who beholdeth the wolf coming and leaveth the herd [a prey] to the prowling and ravenous beast, and turneth to flight; just what Christ had convicted those, whose lot it was then to rule the people or flock of the Jews, of doing. At the same time therefore He reproves them both as hated by God and as being ungodly, because they did not shrink from laughing at what God honoured most highly. Moreover, Christ declares that He was loved by God the Father, not merely because He lays down His life, but because He lays it down that He may also take it again: for of course it is in this point especially that the greatness of the benefits He wrought for us appears conspicuous. For if He had only died, and had not risen again, what would have been the advantage? And how would He appear to have benefitted our nature, if He had remained amongst us, dead, under the bonds of death, and subjected to consequent corruption in the same way as others? But since He laid it down that He might also take it again, He in this way saved our nature perfectly, bringing to naught the power of death; and He will display us as a new creation.

Accordingly, the Son is beloved by God the Father; not as though He would have remained without that love, had not His work for us been done; for He was always and at all times beloved. And we will proceed towards the comprehension of what is here said. The qualities which naturally are inherent in any thing, or which happen to be possessed by it, are most strikingly manifested at any particular time when they are exhibited with special intensity. For example, fire naturally has in itself its own heat, but when it displays it upon pieces of wood, then especially we recognise what force and what power there is in it. Similarly, the man who has acquired a knowledge perhaps of grammar or of some other such science, would not be admired for it, I suppose, if he remained silent, but rather when he has exhibited to the appreciation of others the excellence of the knowledge he possesses. In like manner therefore the Divine and ineffable Nature, when it strongly exhibits any of Its own inherent qualities, or any of the attributes naturally belonging to It; at such a time It also is by Itself most strikingly manifested, and so is seen by us. For instance, Wisdom saith in the Book of Proverbs: I it was in Whom He rejoiced, and daily I was delighted, [being] always in His presence; when He was delighted at having finished the world, and was taking delight in the sons of men: although joy always belongs to God, and His gladness is without end. Surely nothing whatever grieves Him Who possesses authority over all; yet He rejoices in His own Wisdom at having finished the world. For when He beholds the energy of His own Wisdom exhibited in His work, then most especially He thought that He must more abundantly rejoice. In this way therefore we will understand what is said in this place. For God the Father being love, according to the language of John, and not simply good but rather goodness itself, when He saw His own Son laying down His life for us through His love towards us, and His surpassing goodness keeping unaltered the exact characteristics of His own Nature, reasonably loved Him; not bestowing His love upon Him as a sort of reward for the things that had been done for us, but, as we have said, beholding in His Son that which was true to His own Essence, and being drawn to love Him as if by certain necessary and irresistible impulses of nature. Therefore, just as even among ourselves, if any one beholds perchance in his own child the image of his own form exactly represented, he is drawn to an intensity of love whensoever he looks at him: after this manner I think God the Father is said to love His own Son, Who for us lays down His own life, and takes it again. For it is a work of love to have chosen even to suffer, and to suffer ignominiously, for the salvation of some; and not to die only, but also to take again the life that was laid down, in order to destroy death and to take away sorrow from [the thought of] corruption. Therefore, being always beloved by reason of His Nature, He will be understood to have been beloved also on account of His love towards us, causing thereby gladness of heart to His Father: since He in that very thing was enabled to see the Image of His own Nature shining forth quite unclouded and unadulterated.

If we see ourselves in our own child, we are drawn to an intensity of love whenever we see that child. In the same way, I think God the Father is said to love his own Son, who lays down his own life for us and takes it again. For it is a work of love to have chosen to suffer—and to suffer shamefully—for the salvation of some. It is a work of love not only to die but also to take again the life that was laid down in order to destroy death and to take away sorrow from corruption. Although the Son is always beloved by reason of his nature, it is evident that Christ is also beloved by God the Father because of his love toward us. Naturally, this gladdens the heart of God the Father since he can see the image of his own nature clearly and perfectly shining forth through Christ's love for us.

Callistus corroborated the heresy of these Noetians, but we have already carefully explained the details of his life. And Callistus himself produced likewise a heresy, and derived its starting-points from these Noetians,-namely, so far as he acknowledges that there is one Father and God, viz., the Creator of the universe, and that this (God) is spoken of, and called by the name of Son, yet that in substance He is one Spirit. For Spirit, as the Deity, is, he says, not any being different from the Logos, or the Logos from the Deity; therefore this one person, (according to Callistus,) is divided nominally, but substantially not so. He supposes this one Logos to be God, and affirms that there was in the case of the Word an incarnation. And he is disposed (to maintain), that He who was seen in the flesh and was crucified is Son, but that the Father it is who dwells in Him. Callistus thus at one time branches off into the opinion of Noetus, but at another into that of Theodotus, and holds no sure doctrine. These, then, are the opinions of Callistus.

"Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it again." What could be more full of humanity than this saying, if so be that on our account our Lord shall be beloved, because He dieth for us? What then? tell me, was He not beloved during the time before this; did the Father now begin to love Him, and were we the causes of His love? Seest thou how He used condescension? But what doth He here desire to prove? Because they said that He was alien from the Father, and a deceiver, and had come to ruin and destroy He telleth them, "This if nothing else would persuade Me to love you, namely, your being so beloved by the Father, that I also am beloved by Him, because I die for you." Besides this He desireth also to prove that other point, that He came not to the action unwillingly, (for it unwillingly, how could what was done cause love?) and that this was especially known to the Father. And if He speaketh as a man, marvel not, for we have often mentioned the cause of this, and to say again the same things is superfluous and unpleasant.

Since He was called alien to the Father, a deceiver and a destroyer, and not a Savior of souls, with these present words He declares: "I am not your destroyer, but am ready to endure everything for you, if for no other reason, then because God has loved you so much that He loves Me too for the fact that I am dying for you. How then would I deceive you, when I know that God loves you? On the contrary, would it not be better for Me to resolve to die for you, if for no other reason, then so that My Father would love Me even more for this?" He says this so humbly out of condescension, because the listeners did not accept it when He spoke of Himself in lofty terms. To assign another meaning to this saying would be absurd. For surely the Father did not fail to love Him before and only began to love Him now, with the cause of this being His death for us? No; rather, as I have already said, He expressed Himself in this manner out of condescension. Another may say the following as well. The love of God the Father toward us was known. And God the Father saw that His Son also showed the same goodness toward us, for He willed even to die for us and preserves exactly the qualities of the Father's goodness. Therefore the Father justly loved the Son — He loved Him not as a gift to the Son or as a kind of reward for His death for us, but because He saw in the Son a kinship of Essence with Himself, and so was moved to love the Son as if by an irresistible law of nature. For did not the Son show a deed of great love toward us when He accepted a shameful death for us, and not only death, but also received life again, so as to put death to death and through His Resurrection make us immortal? So when He says that the Father loves Me because I die for you, He expresses by this that the Father, as it were, delights and rejoices that the Son is like Him and has toward mankind the same love as He does.

The Father does not bestow His love on the Son as a reward for the death He suffered in our behalf; but He loves Him, as beholding in the Begotten His own essence, whence proceeded such love for mankind.

Now our Lord explains his proof: first, he amplifies on the reason for the sign of his death for his sheep; secondly, he explains the sign, or the effect (v 18); thirdly, he shows that the reason is appropriate (v 18b).

Our Lord says that the reason for his death is the knowledge he has of the Father, saying, "as the Father knows me and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep." In explaining this he says, for this reason the Father loves me. From this it is clear that the Father knows him with a knowledge joined with approval, for this reason, I say, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again.

But is it true that his death is the cause of the Father's love? It seems not, because something temporal is not the cause of something eternal. But Christ's death is in the temporal order, while the love of God for Christ is eternal. I answer that Christ is speaking here of the Father's love for him as having a human nature. Accordingly, this passage can be understood in three ways. In one way, so that because indicates a cause, while in the other way it indicates the term or sign of love.

If it is taken causally, then the meaning is: because I lay down my life, i.e., endure death, for this reason the Father loves me, that is, he grants me the effect of his love, which is the glory and exaltation of my body: "He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him a name which is above every name" (Phil 2:8).

But one might object to this that good works cannot merit the divine love. For since our works are meritorious to the extent that they are given life by charity - "If I give away all I have…but have not love, I gain nothing" (1 Cor 13:3) - and since God is the first to love - "In this is love, not that we love God but that he first loved us" (1 Jn 4:10) - it is clear that his love precedes all our merit. This can be answered by saying that no one can merit God's love; nevertheless, we can merit by our good works the effect of God's love, that is, an increase of grace and the reception of the good of glory, both of which God bestows on us because of his love. Thus we can say that for this reason God loves this or that person, that is, bestows on him the effect of his love, because he obeys his commandments. And so we can say about Christ as man, that for this reason the Father loves him, that is, has exalted him and given him the brightness of glory, because he laid down his life in death.

But if because indicates a sign of love, then the meaning is this: for this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, as if to say: This is a sign that the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again, that is, I fulfill his commands and will and endure death. For an obvious sign of love is that a person, out of charity, fulfills the commands of God.

For the Word doth not receive a command by word, but containeth in Himself all the Father's commandments. When the Son is said to receive what He possesseth of Himself, His power is not lessened, but only His generation declared. The Father gave the Son every thing in begetting Him. He begat Him perfect.

To be troubled was proper to the flesh, and to have power to lay down his life and take it again when he wanted was no property of people but of the Word's power. For human beings die not by their own power but by necessity of nature and against their will. But the Lord, being himself immortal but having mortal flesh, had power as God to become separate from the body and to take it again when he wanted to. Concerning this David speaks in the psalm: "You shall not leave my soul in hades, neither shall you suffer your holy One to see corruption." For it was appropriate to the flesh, corruptible as it was, that it should no longer after its own nature remain mortal, but because of the Word who had put it on, it should remain incorruptible. For since he was conformed to our condition, having come in our body, so we when we receive him partake of the immortality that is from him.

Here he shows that his natural death was not the consequence of sin in him but of his own simple will, which was the why, the when and the how [of his death]. For because the Word of God is so commingled [with the flesh] as to be one with it, he says, "I have power to lay it down."

So take a look at Christ: "I have authority to lay down my life, and I have authority to take it up again; nobody takes it away from me." "I myself went to sleep"; that, you see, is what he says in the psalm: "I myself went to sleep." As though to say, "Why are they so excited, why so exultant? Why are the Jews waving their arms with joy, as though they themselves had done anything?" "I myself went to sleep. I," he says, "who have authority to lay down my life, by laying it down 'I myself went to sleep, and took my rest.' " And since he had the authority to take it up again, he added, "I rose again," but to give the glory to the Father, "since the Lord took me up." Do not let these words, where he says, "Since the Lord took me up …" strike your minds as meaning that Christ himself did not raise up his own body. The Father raised him up, and he also raised himself up. How shall we prove to you that he raised himself up? Call to mind what he said to the Jews: "Pull down this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."

(Tr. xlvii. 7) i. e. Because I die, to rise again. There is great force in, I lay down. Let not the Jews, He says, boast; rage they may, but if I should not choose to lay down My life, what will they do by raging?

(iv. de Trin. c. xiii.) Wherein He showed that His natural death was not the consequence of sin in Him, but of His own simple will, which was the why, the when, and the how: I have power to lay it down.

(Tr. xlvii) How doth our Lord lay down His own life? Christ is the Word, and man, i. e. in soul and body. Doth the Word lay down His life, and take it again; or doth the human soul, or doth the flesh? If it was the Word of God that laid down His soul and took it again, that soul was at one time separated from the Word. But, though death separated the soul and body, death could not separate the Word and the soul. It is still more absurd to say that the soul laid down itself; if it could not be separated from the Word, how could it be from itself? The flesh therefore layeth down its life and taketh it again, not by its own power, but by the power of the Word which dwelleth in it. This refutes the Apollinarians, who say that Christ had not a human, rational soul.

"No man takes it from me: but I lay it down of myself," and thus I lay it down freely; whence he says: "And I have power to lay it down," that is, to set it aside, "and I have power to take it again"; whence Isaiah chapter fifty-three: "He was offered because he himself willed it." And why? He gives the reason: because "this commandment I have received from my Father": whence Philippians chapter two: "He became obedient" to the Father "unto death," etc.; whence below in chapter eighteen he said to Peter: "The chalice which the Father has given me, will you not have me drink it?" As if to say: I will to obey.

It is asked concerning what he says: "I lay down my life of myself"; because thus everyone seems to do; whence Augustine: "Anyone who dies lays down his life." If you say that he does so by necessity: an objection is raised concerning the Martyr, who dies voluntarily.

It must be said that every person lays down his life in one way, the Martyr in another way, and Christ in yet another way: every person by necessity, the Martyr by will, but Christ by will together with power. For the will of the Martyr, even if it is free from dying at that time, is nevertheless not free from dying absolutely: but Christ was entirely free.

Likewise there is a question about what he says: "I have power to lay down my life and to take it up again."

Either he says this according to the divine nature, or according to the body, which lays down the soul. If according to the divine: then the Divinity dismissed the soul, which is impious to say, and whoever says this is anathema.

Or he says it according to the body, and that does not have the power to take it up again.

Likewise it is objected: if the body laid down the soul, and as Damascene says, the soul was the medium of uniting the divine nature to the body, then the divine nature laid down the body, which is impious.

It must be said that "soul" here means "life": whence the sense is: I have power to lay down my soul, that is, my life, namely to lay it down through death, and I have power to take it up again through resurrection.

But if "soul" is taken properly: then Christ is said to lay down his soul, that is, to put it away from the flesh, not because the body does this, but the Son of God himself, who has power over both, namely the soul and the body.

As for what is objected concerning the medium, it must be said that there is a medium of distance, of binding, and of fittingness. The soul is not a medium of distance in that union, because the Divinity is immediately united to the body; nor of binding, because it does not bind one with the other; but of fittingness, because the body, by the fact that it is capable of being animated, is able to be united to the Divinity fittingly; and therefore it does not follow that it must be dissolved.

That they would do this He Himself also had foretold; and the testimony of all the prophets had in like manner preceded Him, that it behoved Him to suffer, not that He might feel death, but that He might conquer death, and that, when He should have suffered, He should return again into heaven, to show the power of the divine majesty. Therefore the course of events fulfilled the promise. For when crucified, the office of the executioner being forestalled, He Himself of His own will yielded up His spirit, and on the third day freely rose again from the dead. He appeared to His disciples like as He had been. He gave Himself to the recognition of those that saw Him, associated together with Him; and being evident by the substance of His bodily existence, He delayed for forty days, that they might be instructed by Him in the precepts of life, and might learn what they were to teach. Then in a cloud spread around Him He was lifted up into heaven, that as a conqueror He might bring to the Father, Man whom He loved, whom He put on, whom He shielded from death; soon to come from heaven for the punishment of the devil and to the judgment of the human race, with the force of an avenger and with the power of a judge; whilst the disciples, scattered over the world, at the bidding of their Master and God gave forth His precepts for salvation, guided men from their wandering in darkness to the way of light, and gave eyes to the blind and ignorant for the acknowledgment of the truth.

That He was not to be overcome of death, nor should remain in Hades. In the twenty-ninth Psalm: "O Lord, Thou hast brought back my soul from hell." Also in the fifteenth Psalm: "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption." Also in the third Psalm: "I laid me down and slept, and rose up again, because the Lord helped me." Also according to John: "No man taketh away my life from me; but I lay it down of myself. I have the power of laying it down, and I have the power of taking it again. For this commandment I have received from my Father."

This commandment received I from My Father.

For lest any one should say that against the will of the Son the Father is not able to take away His life, and hence introduce discord and variance into the One Godhead of the Father and the Son; by these words which He says: I received commandment, He shows that the Father also agrees and consents to this, and professes that They come forward to it as with one accord, although He is the Will of the Father. And this will be found consistent also with His Incarnation. By saying that He received in the way of a commandment that which seemed right in the eyes of His Father, He being by Nature God does not make Himself inferior to the Father, but observes what befits His participation of man's nature. Again, He puts us in mind that He is Himself the Prophet concerning Whom the Father said: He shall speak according as I shall command Him; speaking of the common Will of both Father and Son as received like a commandment. This He spake to the Jews lest they should think that He said things contrary to the ordinances of the Father. And if the Father named His own Consubstantial Son a Prophet, be not troubled; for when He became Man, then also the name of Prophet was suitable to Him, then also we may say that commandments were given to Him by the Father agreeably to His human nature. But one who receives commandments is not for that reason inferior or unlike in essence or nature to one who gives commandments, inasmuch as men give commandments to men, and angels to angels, and we do not for that reason say that those who are commanded are of different nature or inferior. Therefore the Son is not inferior to the Father, although He became Man, in order that He might become a Pattern of all virtue for us. By this means He also teaches us that we ought to obey our parents in all things, although we are equal to them as regards our nature. And in some places when it is said by the Father: "I will command," the meaning is: "I will deal fitly with," as when He said: And I will command the whole world for their evil deeds, and the ungodly for their sins. Moreover there are times when the Son speaks with helpful condescension, so that we may as far as is possible get an understanding of the ineffable oracles: yet His having said: I received a commandment, does not make One Who is in His Nature God cease to be God. Either therefore say He is God and ascribe to Him all that properly befits the Godhead, or say plainly He is a creature. For the fact of having received a commandment does not strip any one of the qualities which naturally belong to him. But since the Son speaks whatever the Father commands Him, and He says: I and the Father are One, thou art obliged to say, either that the Father commanded the Son to tell the truth, or to tell a lie. For what the Son hath received commandment to speak, He speaketh; for He saith: The Father which sent Me, He hath given Me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And although He also said: My Father is greater than I, that is nothing to the contrary. For in so far as He is in His Nature God, He is equal to the Father; but in so far as He became Man and humbled Himself, He in accordance with this speaks words which befit His Humanity. Nevertheless, as the name of commandment is something external to the essence of a person, it could not be made an objection to His Essence. For it is not in the Father's giving Him commandment that the Son has His Being, nor could this ever be made the limit of His Essence. The Son, therefore, as being the Counsel and Wisdom of the Father, knows what is fittingly determined by Him; and if He receives it as a commandment, do not marvel. For by human modes of expression He signifies things beyond expression, and things unspeakable by our voices are brought down to the mode of expression usual amongst us, so that we may be enabled to understand them. Accordingly let us blame, not the inconsistency of the matter, but the weakness of the words, which cannot reach to the full expression and accurate interpretation of the matters, as they ought.

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.

In this place He teaches that He is not only a Good Shepherd enduring peril for the sake of His flock, but also in His Nature God. Therefore He would not have suffered death, had He not been willing, through His possessing the very God-befitting power of undertaking this work, so very advantageous to us. And the structure of the discourse taught the Jews this also, that they were never going to prevail against Him unless He was willing. And not only as regards laying down life did He say: I have power; but this expression: I have power, He used with regard to both His Death and His Resurrection, in order that the action of might and energy might not appear to be that of another, as though it were a concession granted to Him as to a minister and servant in office; but in order that He might display as a fruit of His own Nature the power to exercise authority over the very bonds of death, and easily to modify the natures of things in whatever way He wished, which is really a characteristic of Him Who is by Nature God. This then He wishes to show by saying: I have power to lay down My life, and I have power to take it again: because, neither commanded as a servant or a minister, nor even as it were from necessity, nor being violently compelled by any, but willingly, He came to do this.

And accordingly, as by the intensity of the supplication and the severe agony, so also by the dense and excessive sweat, he made the facts patent, that the Saviour was man by nature and in reality, and not in mere semblance and appearance, and that He was subject to all the innocent sensibilities natural to men. Nevertheless the words, "I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again," show that His passion was a voluntary thing; and besides that, they indicate that the life which is laid down and taken again is one thing, and the divinity which lays that down and takes it again is another.

He says, "one thing and another," not as making a partition into two persons, but as showing the distinction between the two natures.

And as, by voluntarily enduring the death in the flesh, He implanted incorruptibility in it; so also, by taking to Himself of His own free-will the passion of our servitude, He set in it the seeds of constancy and courage, whereby He has nerved those who believe on Him for the mighty conflicts belonging to their witness-bearing.

He foretells that at the time of his passion he would voluntarily detach his soul from his body, saying, "No one takes my soul from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again." … For his Godhead, alike before taking flesh and in the flesh and after his passion, is immutably the same, being at all times what it was by nature and so continuing forever. But in the suffering of his human nature the Godhead fulfilled the dispensation for our benefit by severing the soul for a season from the body, yet without being itself separated from either of those elements to which it was once for all united. And it did so by joining again the elements that had been parted in this way so as to give to all human nature a beginning and an example that it should follow of the resurrection from the dead, that is, that all the corruptible may put on incorruption and all the mortal may put on immortality, our firstfruits having been transformed to the divine nature by its union with God.

Thus then, too, though demonstrated as God, He does not refuse the conditions proper to Him as man, since He hungers and toils and thirsts in weariness, and flees in fear, and prays in trouble. And He who as God has a sleepless nature, slumbers on a pillow. And He who for this end came into the world, begs off from the cup of suffering. And in an agony He sweats blood, and is strengthened by an angel, who Himself strengthens those who believe on Him, and taught men to despise death by His work. And He who knew what manner of man Judas was, is betrayed by Judas. And He, who formerly was honoured by him as God, is contemned by Caiaphas. And He is set at nought by Herod, who is Himself to judge the whole earth. And He is scourged by Pilate, who took upon Himself our infirmities. And by the soldiers He is mocked, at whose behest stand thousands of thousands and myriads of myriads of angels and archangels. And He who fixed the heavens like a vault is fastened to the cross by the Jews. And He who is inseparable from the Father cries to the Father, and commends to Him His spirit; and bowing His head, He gives up the ghost, who said, "I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again; " and because He was not overmastered by death, as being Himself Life, He said this: "I lay it down of myself." And He who gives life bountifully to all, has His side pierced with a spear. And He who raises the dead is wrapped in linen and laid in a sepulchre, and on the third day He is raised again by the Father, though Himself the Resurrection and the Life. For all these things has He finished for us, who for our sakes was made as we are. For "Himself hath borne our infirmities, and carried our diseases; and for our sakes He was afflicted," as Isaiah the prophet has said. This is He who was hymned by the angels, and seen by the shepherds, and waited for by Simeon, and witnessed to by Anna. This is He who was inquired after by the wise men, and indicated by the star; He who was engaged in His Father's house, and pointed to by John, and witnessed to by the Father from above in the voice, "This is my beloved Son; hear ye Him." He is crowned victor against the devil. This is Jesus of Nazareth, who was invited to the marriage-feast in Cana, and turned the water into wine, and rebuked the sea when agitated by the violence of the winds, and walked on the deep as on dry land, and caused the blind man from birth to see, and raised Lazarus to life after he had been dead four days, and did many mighty works, and forgave sins, and conferred power on the disciples, and had blood and water flowing from His sacred side when pierced with the spear. For His sake the sun is darkened, the day has no light, the rocks are shattered, the veil is rent, the foundations of the earth are shaken, the graves are opened, and the dead are raised, and the rulers are ashamed when they see the Director of the universe upon the cross closing His eye and giving up the ghost. Creation saw, and was troubled; and, unable to bear the sight of His exceeding glory, shrouded itself in darkness. This (is He who) breathes upon the disciples, and gives them the Spirit, and comes in among them when the doors are shut, and is taken up by a cloud into the heavens while the disciples gaze at Him, and is set down on the right hand of the Father, and comes again as the Judge of the living and the dead. This is the God who for our sakes became man, to whom also the Father hath put all things in subjection. To Him be the glory and the power, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, in the holy Church both now and ever, and even for evermore. Amen.

"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." Because they often took counsel to kill Him, He telleth them, "Except I will, your labor is unavailing." And by the first He proveth the second, by the Death, the Resurrection. For this is the strange and wonderful thing. Since both took place in a new way, and beyond ordinary custom. But let us give heed exactly to what He saith, "I have power to lay down My life." And who hath not "power to lay down his life"? Since it is in the power of any that will, to kill himself. But He saith it not so, but how? "I have in such a way the power to lay it down, that no one can effect this against My will." And this is a power not belonging to men; for we have no power to lay it down in any other way than by killing ourselves. And if we fall into the hands of men who plot against us, and have the power to kill us, we no longer are free to lay it down or not, but even against our will they take it from us. Now this was not the case with Christ, but even when others plotted against Him, He had power not to lay it down.

Having therefore said that, "No man taketh it from Me," He addeth, "I have power to lay down My life," that is, "I alone can decide as to laying it down," a thing which doth not rest with us, for many others also are able to take it from us. Now this He said not at first, (since the assertion would not have seemed credible,) but when He had received the testimony of facts, and when, having often plotted against Him, they had been unable to lay hold on Him, (for He escaped from their hands ten thousand times,) He then saith, "No man taketh it from me." But if this be true, that other point follows, that He came to death voluntarily. And if this be true, the next point is also certain, that He can "take it again" when He will. For if the dying was a greater thing than man could do, doubt no more about the other. Since the fact that He alone was able to let go His life, showeth that He was able by the same power to take it again. Seest thou how from the first He proved the second, and from His death showed that His Resurrection was indisputable?

"This commandment have I received of My Father." What commandment was this? To die for the world. Did He then wait first to hear, and then choose, and had He need of learning it? Who that had sense would assert this? But before when He said, "Therefore doth My Father love Me," He showed that the first motion was voluntary, and removed all suspicion of opposition to the Father; so here when He saith that He received a commandment from the Father, He declared nothing save that, "this which I do seemeth good to Him," in order that when they should slay Him, they might not think that they had slain Him as one deserted and given up by the Father, nor reproach Him with such reproaches as they did, "He saved others, himself he cannot save"; and, "If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross"; yet the very reason of His not coming down was, that He was the Son of God.

Then lest on hearing that, "I have received a command from the Father," thou shouldest deem that the achievement doth not belong to Him, He hath said preventing thee, "The good Shepherd layeth down His life for the sheep"; showing by this that the sheep were His, and that all which took place was His achievement, and that He needed no command. For had He needed a commandment, how could He have said, "I lay it down of Myself"? for He that layeth it down of Himself needeth no commandment. He also assigneth the cause for which He doeth this. And what is that? That He is the Shepherd, and the good Shepherd. Now the good Shepherd needeth no one to arouse him to his duty; and if this be the case with man, much more is it so with God. Wherefore Paul said, that "He emptied Himself." So the "commandment" put here means nothing else, but to show His unanimity with the Father; and if He speaketh in so humble and human a way, the cause is the infirmity of His hearers.

"And Jesus, when He had cried with a loud voice, yielded up the Ghost." This is what He said, "I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again," and, "I lay it down of myself." So for this cause He cried with the voice, that it might be shown that the act is done by power. Mark at any rate saith, that "Pilate marvelled if He were already dead:" and that the centurion for this cause above all believed, because He died with power.

To say that the body of the divine Logos also had a soul does not suggest the divinity of the soul.… In this context, when something like this is stated, we understand the statement to refer to the flesh, which had a soul and was united with the divine Logos.… After all, even when Peter says, "Now I will lay down my soul for you," just like the Lord did, there is no difference. You see, just as Peter, who was a man, composed of body and soul, said this, so too Christ, being one and not two, composed of divinity and humanity, says that he lays down his soul, which belongs to him and is part of him (although he was God in nature, assuming flesh—which had soul—and uniting it to himself).

"No one takes My life from Me." He says this for those who intended to kill Him. "You," He says, "thirst for My blood; but know firmly that without My will no one can shed it." Lest anyone think that He dies as a slave and servant, by the command of another and due to subjection to him, He says: "I Myself have authority over My death, as the Master of death. I have power to lay down My life." Although each of you has the power to lay down your life, for anyone who wishes can put himself to death, the Lord is not speaking of this manner of death, but rather that without His will no one could have done this. With people it is not so. For even without our will others can put us to death. But Christ without His own will would never have suffered. Therefore, submitting to death only by His own free choice, He has the even greater right — "to take it up again." "This commandment 'to die for the world' I received from the Father." "I," He says, "am not an adversary of God, and moreover to such a degree that this very death was commanded Me by the Father." Earlier He said something lofty about Himself: "I have power to take up My life," which shows Him to be the Master of death and the Author of life. Now He adds something humble: "This commandment I received from My Father." So wonderfully does He unite both, so that He would not be considered less than the Father and His slave, and so that He would be considered not an adversary of God, but equal to Him in power and one with Him in will.

After declaring Himself the Master of His own life and death, which was a lofty assumption, He makes a more humble confession; thus wonderfully uniting both characters; showing that He was neither inferior to or a slave of the Father on the one hand, nor an antagonist on the other; but of the same power and will.

Now he explains the effect of the sign. And since the sign was "I lay down my life for the sheep," he explains how he lays it down. First, he excludes violence; secondly, he speaks of his power.

The violence he excludes is that which could be employed in taking a life: such violence was not accomplished in Christ. Concerning this he says, no one takes it from me, that is, my life, by violence, but I lay it down, by my own power, that is, of my own accord: "Can the prey be taken from the mighty?" (Is 49:24).

But did not the Jews use violence against Christ? They did insofar as it was in them; but this violence was not in Christ because he laid down his life voluntarily, when he willed. Thus we read above (7:30) that the Jews wanted to arrest him but were unable "because his hour had not yet come." It was voluntary "not as though he was forced to die, but he condescended to be killed," as Augustine says.

He adds something about his power when he says, I have power to lay it down. Apropos of this it should be noted that since the union of the soul and body is natural, their separation is natural. And although the cause of this separation and death can be voluntary, yet among human beings death is always natural. Now nature is not subject to the will of any mere human, since nature, as well as the will, are from God. Therefore, the death of any mere human person must be natural. But in Christ, his own nature and every other nature are subject to his will, just like artifacts are subject to the will of the artisan. Thus, according to the pleasure of his will, he could lay down his life when he willed, and he could take it up again; no mere human being can do this, although he could voluntarily use some instrument to kill himself. This explains why the centurion, seeing that Christ did not die by a natural necessity, but by his own will - since "Jesus cried again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit" (Matt 27:50) - recognized a divine power in him, and said: "Truly, this was the Son of God" (Matt 27:54). Again, the Apostle says in 1 Corinthians (1:18): "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God," that is, his great power was revealed in the very death of Christ.

Here he shows that the above-mentioned reason is appropriate, for to fulfill a command shows love for the one commanding. Thus he says, this charge I have received from my Father, that is, to lay down my life and take it up again: "If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him" (14:23).

And thus they intended to give Him into the hands of the Proconsul for punishment, as an usurper against the emperor. Our Lord so managed His reply as to stop the mouths of His calumniators, open those of the believers; and to those who enquired of Him as a man, reveal the mysteries of His divinity: Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not; the works that I do in My Father's name, they bear witness of Me.

"Jesus answered them, I tell you, and ye believe not: the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me: but ye believe not; because ye are not of my sheep." Ye have already learned above who the sheep are: be ye sheep. They are sheep through believing, sheep in following the Shepherd, sheep in not despising their Redeemer, sheep in entering by the door, sheep in going out and finding pasture, sheep in the enjoyment of eternal life. What did He mean, then, in saying to them, "Ye are not of my sheep"? That He saw them predestined to everlasting destruction, not won to eternal life by the price of His own blood.

"Jesus answered them." After the inquiry has been set forth, here is set forth the presentation of a certain sign, and this indeed in the following manner. First, therefore, in the Lord's response is set forth the reproof of the Jews; second, the expression of a certain sign; third, the reason for that sign.

The reproof of the unbelief of the Jews is set forth, on account of which he says: "I speak to you, and you do not believe," and therefore you seek foolishly and maliciously; and I speak openly, because not only by word, but by deed: "The works that I do in the name of my Father, they bear witness of me"; above in chapter seven: "When Christ comes, will he do more signs," which you ought to believe?

Even Christ therefore considered it superfluous to say the same things over again to those who had often heard them and had not been persuaded by them. For every one's nature ought to be estimated from the quality of his works, and we ought by no means to look [solely] at his words. And He says of Himself that He accomplishes His works in His Father's Name, not enjoying the use of power from above in the manner of an ordinary saint, nor accusing Himself of want of power, being God of God, Consubstantial with the Father, the Power of the Father; but as ascribing to the Divine Glory the Power of His performances, He says that He does His works in His Father's Name. Yet He also gives the honour to the Father, lest He might give the Jews a pretext for attacking Him. Moreover He also thought it fitting not to overpass the limit of the form of a servant, although He was God and Lord. And by saying that in His Father's Name He did His works, He teaches that the Jews blasphemed when they said that He cast out devils by Beelzebub. And since the Father does the marvellous deeds, not because He is a Father, but because He is in His Nature God; so the Son also, not because He is a Son, but as God of God, is able Himself to do the works of the Father: wherefore suitably to His Nature He said He did His works in His Father's Name.

"I told you often," He saith, "and ye believe not: the works that I do in My Father's Name, they are they that bear witness of Me."

A remark which the more tolerable among them continually made to one another; "A man that is a sinner cannot do such miracles." And again, "A devil cannot open the eyes of the blind": and, "No man can do such miracles except God be with him." (c. iii. 2.) And beholding the miracles that He did, they said, "Is not this the Christ?" Others said, "When Christ cometh, will He do greater miracles than those which this Man hath done?" (c. vii. 31.) And these very persons as many as then desired to believe on Him, saying, "What sign showest thou us, that we may see, and believe thee?" (c. vi. 30.) When then they who had not been persuaded by such great works, pretended that they should be persuaded by a bare word, He rebuketh their wickedness, saying, "If ye believe not My works, how will ye believe My words? so that your questioning is superfluous."

"But," He saith, "I told you, and ye believe not, because ye are not of My sheep."

"For I on My part have fulfilled all that it behooved a Shepherd to do, and if ye follow Me not, it is not because I am not a Shepherd, but because ye are not My sheep."

But I shall not linger long over this point for Christ's own definition comes to our aid at once.

Therefore, exposing them for asking with evil intent, the Lord answers them: "I have told you many times, and you do not believe." And in another sense: "Why do you pretend that you would obey a simple word? You do not accept the works which I do not as an opponent of God, but in the name of My Father. How then will you believe a simple word?" For it is undeniable that works are far more convincing than words. Even the most moderate among them expressed this: "A sinful man cannot do such miracles" (John 9:16).

Now we have the answer of Christ, where he shows their unbelief, proving they were deceitful in saying they wished to know the truth when they said, "How long will you keep us in suspense?" He shows this in two ways. First, because they did not believe his words; and about this he says, I told you, and you do not believe. As if to say: You say to me, "If you are the Christ," the king, "tell us." But I told you, that is, I told you the truth, and you do not believe. "If I tell you, you will not believe" (Lk 22:67).

He shows this in a second way because they do not believe his works. And about this he says: the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness to me. He first shows their unbelief in his works; secondly, the reason for their unbelief (v 26).

As to the first he says, the works that I do. This was like saying: You cannot be persuaded and satisfied by my words, nor even by those great works which I do in my Father's name, i.e., for his glory. They bear witness to me, because they can be performed by God alone. Thus they clearly show that I have come from God: "The tree is known by its fruit" (Matt 12:33); "These very works which I am doing, bear witness" (5:36). But you do not believe: "Though he had done so many signs before them, yet they did not believe in him" (12:37). For this reason they are inexcusable: "If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father" (15:24).

(Tract. xlviii. c. 4) He saw that they were persons predestinated to eternal death, and not those for whom He had bought eternal life, at the price of His blood. The sheep believe, and follow the Shepherd.

"But you do not believe, because you are not of my sheep"; whence if they were sheep, they would have the sign of their shepherd in word and in deed. Augustine: "He says they are not of his sheep, because he saw them ordained to everlasting destruction, not to be purchased for eternal life by the price of his blood."

"You," He says, "do not believe in Me because you are not of My sheep." I, as the good shepherd, for My part have fulfilled everything that I was supposed to do; but if you do not follow Me, it is not I who am unworthy of the title of shepherd, but you who are unworthy of the title of sheep.

After He had said, Ye are not of My sheep, He exhorts them to become such: My sheep hear My voice.

The reason for their unbelief is that they are separated from Christ's sheep. So he says, but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. He does three things concerning this. First, he says that they are excluded from membership in the sheep of Christ; secondly, he shows the dignity of his sheep (v 27); thirdly, he proves that no one will snatch his sheep out of his hands (v 29).

He mentions that they are not among his sheep when he says, you do not belong to my sheep, i.e., you are not predestined to believe, but foreknown to eternal destruction. For the very fact that we believe is due to God: "For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake" (Phil 1:29); "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God" (Eph 2:8). And this is given only to those for whom it was prepared from eternity; thus, only those believe in him who have been ordained to this by God through an eternal predestination: "As many as were ordained to eternal life believed" (Acts 13:48); "We believe that we shall be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus" (Acts 15:11).

But should anyone be told that he is not predestined? It seems that he should not be told: for since no one can be saved unless he is predestined, if one is told that he is not predestined, he would be driven to despair. And so our Lord was driving the Jews to despair when he said to them, you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My answer to this is that in this group there was something common to all, that is, they were not preordained by God to believe at that time; and there was also something special, that is, some of them were preordained to believe later. Thus, some of them did believe later, for we read in Acts (c 2) that three thousand of them believed in one day. But some were not preordained to do this. Therefore, it did not militate against hope to say to a group, some of whom were preordained to believe later, that they did not belong to his sheep, because no one of them could apply this definitely to himself. But it would militate against hope if Christ had said this to some definite person.

i. e. Obey My precepts from the heart. And I know them, and they follow Me, here by walking in gentleness and innocence, hereafter by entering the joys of eternal life: And I give unto them eternal life.

What is the voice of the shepherd? "And that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name throughout all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem." There is the voice of the shepherd. Recognize it and follow if you are a sheep.

"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life." This is the pasture. "I will give," He says, "unto them," unto my sheep, "eternal life." Ye are on the search for calumnies, just because your only thoughts are of the life that is present.

(Tract. xlviii. 5, 6) This is the pasture of which He spoke before: And shall find pasture. Eternal life is called a goodly pasture: the grass thereof withereth not, all is spread with verdure. But these cavillers thought only of this present life. And they shall not perish eternally; as if to say, Ye shall perish eternally, because ye are not of My sheep.

"My sheep hear my voice." Here the presentation of a certain sign is noted, which indeed consists in this: that he is heard by the sheep, and the sheep follow him, and he himself preserves them; this is certainly the mark of a shepherd. Therefore he says: "My sheep hear my voice," namely by believing, because "faith comes from hearing," Romans chapter ten. "And I know them," by discerning them from the wicked, not by face, but by heart: Hebrews chapter four: "He is the discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart, and no creature is invisible in his sight; but all things are naked and open to his eyes"; Matthew chapter twenty-five: "I know you not," is said of the wicked; on the contrary, of the good, Second Timothy chapter two: "The Lord knows those who are his." "And they follow me," through imitation: Matthew chapter sixteen: "Whoever wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."

"And other sheep there are also," saith the Lord, "which are not of this fold" - deemed worthy of another fold and mansion, in proportion to their faith. "But My sheep hear My voice," understanding gnostically the commandments. And this is to be taken in a magnanimous and worthy acceptation, along with also the recompense and accompaniment of works. So that when we hear, "Thy faith hath saved thee," we do not understand Him to say absolutely that those who have believed in any way whatever shall be saved, unless also works follow.

The mark of Christ's sheep is their willingness to hear and obey, just as disobedience is the mark of those who are not his. We take the word hear to imply obedience to what has been said. People who hear God are known by him. No one is entirely unknown by God, but to be known in this way is to become part of his family. Therefore, when Christ says, "I know mine," he means I will receive them and give them a permanent mystical relationship with myself.It might be said that inasmuch as he has become man, he has made all human beings his relatives, since all are members of the same race. We are all united to Christ in a mystical relationship because of his incarnation. Yet those who do not preserve the likeness of his holiness are alienated from him.… "My sheep follow me," says Christ. By a certain God-given grace, believers follow in the footsteps of Christ. No longer subject to the shadows of the law, they obey the commands of Christ and guided by his words rise through grace to his own dignity, for they are called "children of God." When Christ ascends into heaven, they also follow him.

A willing readiness to obey characterises the sheep of Christ, as disobedience marks those that are not His. For thus we understand the word "hear," as equivalent to "obey," namely, the words that are spoken: and they who thus hear God are known by Him, and "known" signifies "brought into friendly relationship:" for no one is altogether unknown by God. When therefore He saith: I know Mine, He saith this: "I will receive them and bring them into friendly relationship both mystically and firmly. And any one might say that, inasmuch as He has become Man, He brought all men into friendly relationship by being of the same race; so that we are all united to Christ in a mystical relationship, inasmuch as He has become Man: but they are alienated from Him, who do not preserve the correspondent image of His holiness. For in this way also the Jews, who are united in a family relationship with Abraham the faithful, because they were unbelieving, were deprived of that kinship with him on account of the dissimilarity of character. And He saith: And My sheep follow Me; for they who are obedient and follow, by a certain God-given grace, in the footsteps of Christ, no longer serving the shadows of the Law, but the commandments of Christ, and giving heed to His words, through grace shall rise to His honourable Name, and be called sons of God. For when Christ ascends into the heavens, they also shall follow Him. And He says that He gives to those that follow Him as a recompense and reward, eternal life and exemption from death, or corruption, and from the torments that will be brought upon the transgressors by the Judge. And by the fact of His giving life, He shows that He is in His Nature Life, and that He furnishes this from Himself and not as receiving it from another. And we understand by eternal life, not [only] the length of days which all, both good and bad, are going to enjoy after the resurrection, but also the spending it in bliss.

It is possible also to understand by "life" the mystical blessing by which Christ implants in us His own life through the participation of His own Flesh by the faithful, according to that which is written: He that eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood hath eternal life.

Of which sheep indeed he says again: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give them eternal life." Of which he also says a little earlier: "If anyone enters through me, he will be saved, and will go in and go out, and will find pastures." For he will go in to faith, but will go out from faith to sight, from belief to contemplation, and will find pastures in eternal refreshment. His sheep therefore find pastures, because whoever follows him with a simple heart is nourished by the food of eternal greenness. But what are the pastures of these sheep, if not the inner joys of ever-verdant paradise? For the pastures of the elect are the present countenance of God, which when it is beheld without failing, the mind is satisfied without end by the food of life. In these pastures those have rejoiced in the fullness of eternity who have already escaped the snares of pleasurable temporality. There are the hymn-singing choirs of angels, there is the fellowship of the heavenly citizens. There is the sweet solemnity of those returning from the sad labor of this pilgrimage. There are the foreseeing choirs of prophets, there is the judging number of apostles, there is the victorious army of innumerable martyrs, the more joyful there as they were more harshly afflicted here; there is the constancy of confessors, consoled by the reception of their reward; there are faithful men whom the pleasure of the world could not soften from the strength of their manliness; there are holy women who conquered both the world and their sex; there are children who here transcended their years by their conduct; there are the elderly whom age rendered weak here, yet the power of good works did not abandon.

Observe how in renouncing He exciteth them to follow Him. "Ye hear Me not," He saith, "for neither are ye sheep, but they who follow, these are of the flock." This He said, that they might strive to become sheep. Then by mentioning what they should obtain, He maketh these men jealous, so as to rouse them, and cause them to desire such things.

The custom of faith which is mingled with simplicity is that it receiveth not doctrine by much persuasion, but as the sound and healthy eye receiveth not the ray which is sent therein by contrivances and cunning inventions—but immediately that it is opened it looketh with strength upon the light, because its natural sight is sound—so also the eye of faith, which is set in the pupil of simplicity, immediately it heareth the voice of God recogniseth it, and there riseth in it the light of His Word. And joyfully it draweth towards Him and receiveth Him, even as our Lord said in His Gospel, "My sheep hear My voice and come after Me." Wherever natural faith is preserved in its original state, that man, with whom this faith is preserved, is a sheep of the Shepherd.

Having told them that they are not of His sheep, He now inclines them to become His sheep. For this reason He also adds: "My sheep hear My voice, and they follow Me."

Now he reveals the dignity of his sheep when he says, my sheep hear my voice. He here mentions four things: two of them are what we do in reference to Christ; the other two, which correspond to the first two are what Christ does in us.

The first thing we do is to obey Christ. Concerning this he says, my sheep, through predestination, hear my voice, by believing and obeying my precepts: "O that today you would harken to his voice! Harden not your hearts" (Ps 95:7).

The second thing, corresponding to this, is what Christ does, which is to give his love and approval. Concerning this he says, and I know them, that is, I love and approve of them: "The Lord knows those who are his" (2 Tim 2:19). This is like saying: The very fact that they hear me is due to the fact that I know them by an eternal election.

But if a person cannot believe unless God gives this to him, it seems that unbelief should not be imputed to anyone. I answer that it is imputed to them because they are the cause why it is not given to them. Thus, I cannot see the light unless I am enlightened by the sun. Yet if I were to close my eyes, I would not see the light; but this is not due to the sun but to me, because by closing my eyes I am the cause of my not being enlightened. Now sin, for example, original sin, and in some persons actual sin, is the cause why we are not enlightened by God through faith. This cause is in everyone. Thus, all who are left by God are left by reason of the just judgment of God, and those who are chosen are lifted up by God's mercy.

The third thing, which is what we do, concerns our imitation of Christ. So he says, and they follow me: "My foot has held fast his steps" (Job 23:11); "Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps" (1 Pet 2:21).

"And they shall never perish." Hear the undertone, as if He had said to them, Ye shall perish for ever, because ye are not of my sheep. "No one shall pluck them out of my hand." Give still greater heed to this.

(Tract. xlviii. 6) And He adds why they do not perish: Neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. (2 Tim. 2:19) Of those sheep of which it is said, The Lord knoweth then that are His, the wolf robbeth none, the thief taketh none, the robber killeth none. Christ is confident of their safety; and He knows what He gave up for them.

"And I give them eternal life," as a good shepherd, by rewarding; above in chapter six: "That everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life"; Ecclesiasticus chapter four: "Wisdom breathed life into her children." "And they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them from my hand," on account of my power. This shepherd was rightly signified by David, who is interpreted as "strong of hand," who snatched the prey from the mouth of the lion and the bear, as is said in First Kings chapter seventeen.

It is asked here concerning what he says: "No one shall snatch them from my hand."

Are not those who have present justice in the hand of the Son? Yet they are scattered, according to what was said above: "The wolf comes and scatters the sheep."

The response to this is that they are snatched away not from the weakness of the guardian, but from the infirmity of the one guarded.

Or according to Augustine, "sheep" are here understood according to eternal election, who cannot be snatched away finally. Whence Augustine: "Neither does the wolf snatch, nor does the thief steal, nor does the robber kill: he who has numbered them is secure concerning their number."

Christ promises his followers eternal life as a compensation and reward. They receive exemption from death and corruption and from the torments the judge inflicts upon transgressors. By giving life, Christ shows that by nature he is life. He does not receive it from another but supplies it from his own resources. And by eternal life we understand not only length of days which all, both good and bad, shall possess after the resurrection but also the passing of those days in bliss.It is also possible to understand by "life" a reference to the mystical blessing [of the Eucharist] by which Christ implants in us his own life through the participation of his own flesh by the faithful, according to the text, "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life."

The faithful also have the help of Christ, and the devil is not able to snatch them. Those who have an endless enjoyment of good things remain in Christ's hand, no one thereafter snatching them away from the bliss that is given to them. [No one can throw them] into punishment or torments. For it is not possible that those who are in Christ's hand should be snatched away to be punished because of the great might Christ has. For "the hand" in the divine Scripture signifies "the power." It cannot be doubted therefore that the hand of Christ is unconquerable and mighty to all things.

[Daniel 5:19] "'He slew whomever he would and smote to death whomever he wished to; those whom he wished he set on high, and brought low whomever he would.'" Thus he sets forth the example of the king's great-grandfather, in order to teach him the justice of God and make it clear that his great-grandson too was to suffer similar treatment because of his pride. Now if Nebuchadnezzar slew whomever he would and smote to death whomever he wished to; if he set on high those whom he would and brought low whomever he wished to, there is certainly no Divine providence or Scriptural injunction behind these honors and slayings, these acts of promotion and humiliation. But rather, such things ensue from the will of the men themselves who do the slaying and promoting to honor, and all the rest. If this be the case, the question arises as to how we are to understand the Scripture: "The heart of a king reposes in the hand of God; He will incline it in whatever direction He wishes" (Proverbs 21:1). Perhaps we might say that every saint is a king, for sin does not reign in his mortal body, and his heart therefore is kept safe, for he is in God's hand (Romans 6:1-23). And whatever has once come into the hand of God the Father, according to the Gospel, no man is able to take it away (John 10:28). And whoever is taken away, it is understood that he never was in God's hand at all.

"What then? Is it through the power of the Father that no man plucketh them away, and hast thou no strength, but art too weak to guard them?" By no means. And in order that thou mayest learn that the expression, "The Father which gave them to Me," is used on their account, that they might not again call Him an enemy of God, therefore, after asserting that, "No man plucketh them out of My hand," He proceedeth to show, that His hand and the Father's is One. Since had not this been so, it would have been natural for Him to say, "The Father which gave them to Me is greater than all, and no man can pluck them out of My hand." But He said not so, but, "out of My Father's hand." Then that thou mayest not suppose that He indeed is weak, but that the sheep are in safety through the power of the Father, He addeth, "I and the Father are One." As though He had said "I did not assert that on account of the Father no man plucketh them away, as though I were too weak to keep the sheep. For I and the Father are One." Speaking here with reference to Power, for concerning this was all His discourse; and if the power be the same, it is clear that the Essence is also. And when the Jews used ten thousand means, plotting and casting men out of their synagogues, He telleth them that all their contrivances are useless and vain; "For the sheep are in My Father's hand"; as the Prophet saith, "Upon My hand I have pictured thy walls." (Isa. xlix. 16.) Then to show that the hand is One, He sometimes saith that it is His own, sometimes the Father's. But when thou hearest the word "hand," do not understand anything material, but the power, the authority. Again, if it was on this account that no one could pluck away the sheep, because the Father gave Him power, it would have been superfluous to say what follows, "I and the Father are One." Since were He inferior to Him, this would have been a very daring saying, for it declares nothing else than an equality of power; of which the Jews were conscious, and took up stones to cast at Him. Yet not even so did He remove this opinion and suspicion; though if their suspicion were erroneous, He ought to have set them right, and to have said, "Wherefore do ye these things? I spake not thus to testify that my power and the Father's are equal"; but now He doth quite the contrary, and confirmeth their suspicion, and clencheth it, and that too when they were exasperated. For He maketh no excuse for what had been said, as though it had been said ill, but rebuketh them for not entertaining a right opinion concerning Him.

For "no one snatches us away from his hands," according to what was said in the Gospel according to John. Yet it is not written that just as no one snatches us away, no one also falls from his hands. For one who is self-determined is free. And, I say, no one will snatch us away from the hand of God, no one can take us. But we are able to fall from his hands if we are negligent.

Even though there are many deceivers, [Jesus says], "No one will snatch them out of my hand." It is impossible—even in the face of ten thousand enemies—that someone stronger than me may snatch them from my hands. And this is the difference between you and my [followers]: you do not believe after you heard my words and saw my miracles, while they, even though they may suffer ten thousand afflictions, will never recede from my presence. For this reason they will receive the reward due to their good will, namely, eternal life, because, he said, "No one will snatch them out of my hand," that is, they cannot separate them from me.

Then, urging them on, He also tells what those who follow Him will receive. "I," He says, "give them eternal life, and they shall never perish" and so forth. Of course, with such words He rouses them and instills in them zeal and desire to follow Him, since He bestows such gifts. How then does He say "My sheep will follow Me, and they will not perish"? Yet we see that Judas perished. But he perished because he did not follow Jesus and did not remain a sheep to the end. The Lord speaks of His true followers and sheep, that they will not perish. But if anyone strays from the flock of sheep and ceases to follow the Shepherd, that one will soon perish. What happened with Judas can also be used against the Manichaeans. Judas was holy and a sheep of God, but fell away: he fell away precisely by his own choice and free will. Therefore, evil or good exists not by nature, but appears and ceases by free volition.

But how then did Judas perish? Because he did not continue to the end. Christ speaks of them who persevere. If any sheep is separated from the flock, and wanders from the Shepherd, it incurs danger immediately.

The corresponding fourth part, which is what Christ does, is the bestowing of a reward. Concerning this he says, and I give them eternal life. This is like saying: They follow me by walking the path of gentleness and innocence in this life, and I will see that afterwards they will follow me by entering into the joys of eternal life.

Our Lord shows in three ways that this reward will never end. Something can end in three ways. First of all, by its very nature, for example, if it is corruptible. But this reward is incorruptible of its very nature. Thus He says, I give them eternal life, which is incorruptible and ever-living enjoyment of God: "This is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent" (17:3). As Augustine says, this is the pasture which he spoke before (v 9). Indeed, eternal life is called a good pasture because it is entirely verdant and nothing withers away. Secondly, a thing can end because the one receiving it ends, or does not guard it well. But this will not happen to that reward; so he says, and they shall never perish, that is, the sheep will never perish. This conflicts with Origen, for he said that the saints in glory are able to sin. Yet our Lord says, they shall never perish, because they will be preserved forever: "He who conquers I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God; never shall he go out of it" (Rev 3:12). Thirdly, a thing can end by being snatched by force: for perhaps Adam would not have been cast out if the Deceiver had not been there. But this will not happen in eternal life, and so he says, and no one shall snatch them, that is, the sheep, out of my hand, that is, from my protection and loyalty: "The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God" (Wis 3:1). As Augustine says: "There the wolf does not snatch, nor the thief steal, nor the robber kill."

(non occ.) And therefore let none shut up his faith within the measure of the Law, but have recourse to the Church in which the grace of the sevenfold Spirit shines forth.

(ubi sup.) Not he that suffers persecution is trodden under foot of men, but he who through fear of persecution falls away. For we can tread only on what is below us; but he is no way below us, who however much he may suffer in the body, yet has his heart fixed in heaven.

(ubi sup.) By the world here we must not understand heaven and earth, but the men who are in the world; or those who love the world for whose enlightenment the Apostles were sent.

(ubi sup.) Or, the mountain is the great righteousness, which is signified by the mountain from which the Lord is now teaching.

(ubi sup.) With what meaning do we suppose the words, to put it under a corn-measure, were said? To express concealment simply, or that the corn-measure has a special signification? The putting the lamp under the corn-measure means the preferring bodily ease and enjoyment to the duty of preaching the Gospel, and hiding the light of good teaching under temporal gratification. The corn-measure aptly denotes the things of the body, whether because our reward shall be measured out to us, as each one shall receive the things done in the body; (2 Cor. 5:10.) or because worldly goods which pertain to the body come and go within a certain measure of time, which is signified by the corn-measure, whereas things eternal and spiritual are contained within no such limit. He places his lamp upon a stand, who subdues his body to the ministry of the word, setting the preaching of the truth highest, and subjecting the body beneath it. For the body itself serves to make doctrine shine more clear, while the voice and other motions of the body in good works serve to recommend it to them that learn.

For it is not absurd if any one will understand the house to be the Church. Or, the house may be the world itself, according to what He said above, Ye are the light of the world.

(Serm. in Mont. i. 7.) Had He only said, That they may see your good works, He would have seemed to have set up as an end to be sought the praises of men, which the hypocrites desire; but by adding, and glorify your Father, he teaches that we should not seek as an end to please men with our good works, but referring all to the glory of God, therefore seek to please men, that in that God may be glorified.

(in loc. quoad sens.) Or, Christ Himself has lighted this lamp, when He filled the earthen vessel of human nature with the fire of His Divinity, which He would not either hide from them that believe, nor put under a bushel that is shut up under the measure of the Law, or confine within the limits of any one oration. The lampstand is the Church, on which He set the lamp, when He affixed to our foreheads the faith of His incarnation.

The Lord has already called his disciples the "salt of the earth" because they seasoned with divine wisdom the hearts of the human race which had been made tasteless by the devil. Now he also calls them the "light of the world." For, illumined by his very own self who is the true and eternal light, they too become light within the darkness. For since he himself is the sun of righteousness, he rightly also calls his disciples "light of the world." Through them, as if through shining rays, he poured the light of his knowledge on the entire world. For by showing the light of truth, the Lord's disciples made the darkness of error flee from people's hearts.

As the doctors by their good conversation are the salt with which the people is salted; so by their word of doctrine they are the light by which the ignorant are enlightened.

He calls the flesh he has assumed a city. For as a city consists in a variety and multitude of inhabitants, so by virtue of his assumed body he contains in himself a certain union of the entire human race. Thus he becomes a city by our union in him, and we through union with his flesh are the community of the city. Therefore he cannot be hidden. Situated on God's lofty height, he is held up to all in admiration of his good works as deserving of contemplation and understanding.But a lamp is not to be lit and hidden under a bushel. For what benefit is derived from keeping light enclosed? Thus the lamp of Christ must not be hidden under a bushel.… Hung on the wood of the cross, it sheds everlasting light on all those who dwell in the church.

It is the nature of a light to emit its rays whithersoever it is carried about, and when brought into a house to dispel the darkness of that house. Thus the world, placed beyond the pale of the knowledge of God, was held in the darkness of ignorance, till the light of knowledge was brought to it by the Apostles, and thenceforward the knowledge of God shone bright, and from their small bodies, whithersoever they went about, light is ministered to the darkness.

Or, the city signifies the flesh which He had taken on Him; because that in Him by this assumption of human nature, there was as it were a collection of the human race, and we by partaking in His flesh become inhabitants of that city. He cannot therefore be hid, because being set in the height of God's power, He is offered to be contemplated of all men in admiration of his works.

Or, the Lord likened the Synagogue to a corn-measure, which only receiving within itself such fruit as was raised, contained a certain measure of limited obedience.

Or, the lamp, i. e. Christ Himself, is set on its stand when He was suspended on the Cross in His passion, to give light for ever to those that dwell in the Church; to give light, He says, to all that are in the house.

He instructs the Apostles to shine with such a light, that in the admiration of their work God may be praised, Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works.

He means not that we should seek glory of men, but that though we conceal it, our work may shine forth in honour of God to those among whom we live.

(Verset 14 et suiv.) You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. It teaches the confidence in preaching, so that the apostles are not hidden out of fear, and are not like a lamp under a basket, but rather they freely reveal themselves, so that what they have heard in the inner rooms, they may proclaim on the housetops (Matthew 10:27).

He instructs them what should be the boldness of their preaching, that as Apostles they should not be hidden through fear, like lamps under a corn-measure, but should stand forth with all confidence, and what they have heard in the secret chambers, that declare upon the house tops.

After this He leads on to another, a higher image. Ye are the light of the world. Of the world again; not of one nation, nor of twenty states, but of the whole inhabited earth. And a light to the mind, far better than this sunbeam: like as they were also a spiritual salt. And before they are salt, and now light: to teach thee how great is the gain of these strict precepts, and the profit of that grave discipline: how it binds, and permits not to become dissolute; and causes clear sight, leading men on to virtue.

A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid, neither do men light a candle, and put it under the bushel. Again, by these words He trains them to strictness of life, teaching them to be earnest in their endeavors, as set before the eyes of all men, and contending in the midst of the amphitheatre of the world. For, look not to this, He saith, that we are now sitting here, that we are in a small portion of one corner. For ye shall be as conspicuous to all as a city set on the ridge of a hill, as a candle in a house on the candlestick, giving light.

Where now are they who persevere in disbelieving the power of Christ? Let them hear these things, and let them adore His might, amazed at the power of the prophecy. For consider how great things he promised to them, who were not known even in their own country: that earth and sea should know them, and that they should by their fame reach to the limits of the inhabited world; or rather, not by their fame, but by the working of the good they wrought. For it was not fame that bearing them everywhere made them conspicuous, but also the actual demonstration by their works. Since, as though they had wings, more vehemently than the sunbeam did they overrun the whole earth, sowing the light of godliness.

But here He seems to me to be also training them to boldness of speech. For to say, A city set on a hill cannot be hid, is to speak as declaring His own powers. For as that city can by no means be hidden, so it was impossible that what they preached should sink into silence and obscurity. Thus, since He had spoken of persecutions and calumnies, of plots and wars, for fear they might think that these would have power to stop their mouths; to encourage them, He saith, that so far from being hid, it should over-shine the whole world; and that on this very account they should be illustrious and renowned.

By this then He declares His own power. In what follows, He requires that boldness of speech which was due on their part; thus saying, Neither do men light a candle and put it under the bushel, but on the candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

But to live well must go before to teach well; hence after He had called the Apostles the salt, He goes on to call them the light of the world. Or, for that salt preserves a thing in its present state that it should not change for the worse, but that light brings it into a better state by enlightening it; therefore the Apostles were first called salt with respect to the Jews and that Christian body which had the knowledge of God, and which they keep in that knowledge; and now light with respect to the Gentiles whom they bring to the light of that knowledge.

This city is the Church of which it is said, Glorious things are spoken of thee, thou city of God. (Ps. 87:3.) Its citizens are all the faithful, of whom the Apostle speaks, Ye are fellow-citizens of the saints. (Eph. 2:19.) It is built upon Christ the hill, of whom Daniel thus, A stone hewed without hands (Dan. 2:34.) became a great mountain.

A city set on a hill cannot be hidden though it would; the mountain which bears makes it to be seen of all men; so the Apostles and Priests who are founded on Christ cannot be hidden even though they would, because Christ makes them manifest.

How Christ manifests His saints, suffering them not to be hid, He shows by another comparison, adding, Neither do men light a lamp to put it under a corn-measure, but on a stand.

The lamp is the Divine word, of which it is said, Thy word is a lamp unto my feet. (Ps. 119:105.) They who light this lamp are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Or, men of the world may be figured in the corn-measure as these are empty above, but full beneath, so worldly men are foolish in spiritual things, but wise in earthly things, and therefore like a corn-measure they keep the word of God hid, whenever for any worldly cause he had not dared to proclaim the word openly, and the truth of the faith. The stand for the lamp is the Church which bears the word of life, and all ecclesiastical persons. (vid. Phil. 2:15.)

That is, teaching with so pure a light, that men may not only hear your words, but see your works, that those whom as lamps ye have enlightened by the word, as salt ye may season by your example. For by those teachers who do as well as teach, God is magnified; for the discipline of the master is seen in the behaviour of the family. And therefore it follows, and they shall glorify your Father which is in heaven.

For as the sun sends forth his beams, so the Lord, the Sun of righteousness, sent forth his Apostles to dispel the night of the human race.

You are a light of the world, and a tree ever green.

For what purpose, except that malice may have no access at all to you, or that you may be an example and testimony to the evil? Else, what is (that): "Let your works shine? " Why, moreover, does the Lord call us the light of the world; why has He compared us to a city built upon a mountain; if we do not shine in (the midst of) darkness, and stand eminent amid them who are sunk down? If you hide your lamp beneath a bushel, you must necessarily be left quite in darkness, and be run against by many.

Ye are the light of the world. First He calls them salt and then light. He who reproves what is done in secret is light, "for whatsoever doth make manifest is light" (Eph. 5:13). The apostles did not enlighten one nation only, but the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. He teaches them to struggle and to be strict in living a virtuous life, for they will be in view of all. Do not imagine, He says, that you will be hidden away in some corner, for you will be most visible. See to it, then, that you live blamelessly, lest you become a stumbling block for others.

Neither do men light a candle and put it under the bushel, but on the candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven.

For I, saith He, it is true, have kindled the light, but its continuing to burn, let that come of your diligence: not for your own sakes alone, but also for their sake, who are to profit by these rays, and to be guided unto the truth. Since the calumnies surely shall not be able to obscure your brightness, if you be still living a strict life, and as becomes those who are to convert the whole world. Show forth therefore a life worthy of His grace; that even as it is everywhere preached, so this light may everywhere accompany the same.

Next He sets before them another sort of gain, besides the salvation of mankind, enough to make them strive earnestly, and to lead them unto all diligence. As thus, Ye shall not only, saith He, amend the world, if ye live aright, but ye will also give occasion that God shall be glorified; even as if ye do the contrary, ye will both destroy men, and make God's name to be blasphemed.

And how, it may be asked, shall God be glorified through us, if at least men are to speak evil of us? Nay, not all men, and even they themselves who in envy do this, will in their conscience admire and approve you; even as the outward flatterers of such as live in wickedness do in mind accuse them.

What then? Dost thou command us to live for display and vain glory? Far from it; I say not this; for I did not say, Give ye diligence to bring forward your own good deeds, neither did I say, Show them; but Let your light shine. That is, Let your virtue be great, and the fire abundant, and the light unspeakable. For when virtue is so great, it cannot lie hid, though its pursuer shade it over ten thousand fold. Present unto them an irreprehensible life, and let them have no true occasion of evil speaking; and then, though there be thousands of evil-speakers, no man shall be able to cast any shade upon you. And well did He say, your light, for nothing makes a man so illustrious, how manifold soever his will to be concealed, as the manifestation of virtue. For as if he were clad with the very sunbeam, so he shines, yet brighter than it; not spending his rays on earth, but surmounting also Heaven itself.

Hence also He comforts them more abundantly. For, What though the slander pain you, saith He; yet shall ye have many to honor God on your account. And in both ways your recompence is gathering, as well because God is glorified through you, as because ye are defamed for God's sake. Thus, lest we should on purpose seek to be reproached, on hearing that there is a reward for it: first, He hath not expressed that sentiment simply, but with two limitations, namely, when what is said is false, and when it is for God's sake: and next He signifies how not that only, but also good report, hath its great profit, the glory of it passing on to God. And He holds out to them those gracious hopes. For, saith He, the calumny of the wicked avails not so much as to put all others in the dark, in respect of seeing your light. For then only when you have lost your savor shall they tread you under foot; but not when you are falsely accused, doing right. Yea, rather then shall there be many admiring, not you only, but for your sake your Father also. And He said not God, but your Father; already sowing beforehand the seeds of that noble birth, which was about to be bestowed upon them.

And Himself too, when He was making laws for His own disciples, what said He? "Do miracles, that men may see you"? By no means. But what? "Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven."

He used Himself to tell them that a candle was not usually "pushed away under a bushel, but placed on a candlestick," in order to "give light to all who are in the house." These things the apostles either neglected, or failed to understand, if they fulfilled them not, by concealing any portion of the light, that is, of the word of God and the mystery of Christ.

For what purpose, except that malice may have no access at all to you, or that you may be an example and testimony to the evil? Else, what is (that): "Let your works shine? " Why, moreover, does the Lord call us the light of the world; why has He compared us to a city built upon a mountain; if we do not shine in (the midst of) darkness, and stand eminent amid them who are sunk down? If you hide your lamp beneath a bushel, you must necessarily be left quite in darkness, and be run against by many.

So, what does the Savior mean by the "bucket" under which some people put the lamp? Here by "bucket" he means vice, and by "lamp," virtue. People who intend to perform some illicit act walk in darkness, avoiding, if possible, the light.

Neither do men light a lamp, and put it under a bushel, but on a lamp stand; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Christ says, "It is I Who have kindled the light in you, but it is for you to labor zealously so that you do not extinguish that grace; in this way, the brightness of your life will shine upon others." He says, therefore:

That person places the lamp under a bushel who obscures and conceals the light of good teaching with earthbound interests. Rather, one should place the truth up high "on the lampstand." That indicates the light that shines as a result of bodily service, so that it is presented to believers through their embodied ministry. In this way our voices and tongues and other operations of the body are conveyed into good works by those who are learning.

Of course, the very words of the gospel are self-explanatory. While they feed the hearts of those who knock, they do not hinder the shouts of those who hunger. One must look deeply into the human heart to see in what direction it is turned and on what point its gaze is fixed. Suppose someone desires that his good work be seen by others. Suppose he regards his glory and profit according to the estimation of others and seeks to be elevated in the sight of others. By doing so he fulfills neither of the commands that the Lord has given in this text. For he has sought to practice his justice before the eyes of others, in order to be seen by them. Therefore his light has not caused others to give glory to the Father who is in heaven. He did not wish to have glory rendered to God but to himself. He did not love the will of God but sought advantage for himself. Of such the apostle says, "For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ." The saying "Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works" is incomplete. He immediately adds the reason why this should be done: "that they may give glory to your Father who is in heaven." This means that even though one is seen by others in doing good works, in one's conscience one ought to have the simple intention of glorifying God. It is only for the sake of God's glory that we should allow our good works to become known.

Yet we all want to be tinkering. Even I would gladly see "Let your light so shine before men" removed from the offertory. It sounds, in that context, so like an exhortation to do our alms that they may be seen by men.

Hyperichius said, 'He who teaches others by his life and not his speech is truly wise.'

He means not that we should seek glory of men, but that though we conceal it, our work may shine forth in honour of God to those among whom we live.

But "let your works shine," saith He; but now all our shops and gates shine! You will now-a-days find more doors of heathens without lamps and laurel-wreaths than of Christians.

For what purpose, except that malice may have no access at all to you, or that you may be an example and testimony to the evil? Else, what is (that): "Let your works shine? " Why, moreover, does the Lord call us the light of the world; why has He compared us to a city built upon a mountain; if we do not shine in (the midst of) darkness, and stand eminent amid them who are sunk down? If you hide your lamp beneath a bushel, you must necessarily be left quite in darkness, and be run against by many.

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father Who is in heaven. He did not say, "You must display your virtue," for that is not good; but rather He said only, "Let it shine," so that even your enemies will marvel and glorify not you, but your Father. If we practice virtue, we must practice it for the glory of God, and not for our own glory.

And therefore, after He has exhorted His hearers that they should prepare themselves to bear all things for truth and righteousness, and that they should not hide the good which they were about to receive, but should learn with such benevolence as to teach others, aiming in their good works not at their own praise, but at the glory of God, He begins now to inform and to teach them what they are to teach; as if they were asking Him, saying: Lo, we are willing both to bear all things for Your name, and not to hide Your doctrine; but what precisely is this which Thou forbiddest us to hide, and for which You command us to bear all things? Are You about to mention other things contrary to those which are written in the law? No, says He; for think not that I have come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

(Serm. in Mont. i. 8.) In this last sentence again there is a double sense; to fulfil the Law, either by adding something which it had not, or by doing what it commands.

(cont. Faust. xix. 7. et seq.) And lastly, because even for them who were under grace, it was hard in this mortal life to fulfil that of the Law, Thou shalt not lust, He being made a Priest by the sacrifice of His flesh, obtained for us this indulgence, even in this fulfilling the Law, that where through our infirmity we could not, we should be strengthened through His perfection, of whom as our head we all are members. For so I think must be taken these words, to fulfil the Law, by adding to it, that is, such things as either contribute to the explanation of the old glosses, or to enable to keep them. For the Lord has showed us that even a wicked motion of the thoughts to the wrong of a brother is to be accounted a kind of murder. The Lord also teaches us, that it is better to keep near to the truth without swearing, than with a true oath to come near to blasphemy.

But how, ye Manichæans, do you not receive the Law and the Prophets, seeing Christ here says, that He is come not to subvert but to fulfil them? To this the heretic Faustusa replies, Whose testimony is there that Christ spoke this? That of Matthew. How was it then that John does not give this saying, who was with Him in the mount, but only Matthew, who did not follow Jesus till after He had come down from the mount? To this Augustine replies, If none can speak truth concerning Christ, but who saw and heard Him, there is no one at this day who speaks truth concerning Him. Why then could not Matthew hear from John's mouth the truth as Christ had spoken, as well as we who are born so long after can speak the truth out of John's book? In the same manner also it is, that not Matthew's Gospel, but also these of Luke and Mark are received by us, and on no inferior authority. Add, that the Lord Himself might have told Matthew the things He had done before He called him. But speak out and say that you do not believe the Gospel, for they who believe nothing in the Gospel but what they wish to believe, believe themselves rather than the Gospel. To this Faustus rejoins, We will prove that this was not written by Matthew, but by some other hand, unknown, in his name. For below he says, Jesus saw a man sitting at the toll-office, Matthew by name. (Mat. 9:9.) Who writing of himself says, 'saw a man,' and not rather 'saw me?' Augustine; Matthew does no more than John does, when he says, Peter turning round saw that other disciple whom Jesus loved; and it is well known that this is the common manner of Scripture writers, when writing their own actions. Faustus again, But what say you to this, that the very assurance that He was not come to destroy the Law and the Prophets, was the direct way to rouse their suspicions that He was? For He had yet done nothing that could lead the Jews to think that this was His object. Augustine; This is a very weak objection, for we do not deny that to the Jews who had no understanding, Christ might have appeared as threatening the destruction of the Law and the Prophets. Faustus; But what if the Law and the Prophets do not accept this fulfilment, according to that in Deuteronomy, These commandments that I give unto thee, thou shalt keep, thou shalt not add any thing to them, nor take away. Augustine; Here Faustus does not understand what it is to fulfil the Law, when he supposes that it must be taken of adding words to it. The fulfilment of the Law is love, which the Lord hath given in sending His Holy Spirit. The Law is fulfilled either when the things there commanded are done, or when the things there prophesied come to pass. Faustus; But in that we confess that Jesus was author of a New Testament, what else is it than to confess that He has done away with the Old? Augustine; In the Old Testament were figures of things to come, which, when the things themselves were brought in by Christ, ought to have been taken away, that in that very taking away the Law and the Prophets might be fulfilled wherein it was written that God gave a New Testament. Faustus; Therefore if Christ did say this thing, He either said it with some other meaning, or He spoke falsely, (which God forbid,) or we must take the other alternative, He did not speak it at all. But that Jesus spoke falsely none will aver, therefore He either spoke it with another meaning, or He spake it not at all. For myself I am rescued from the necessity of this alternative by the Manichæan belief, which from the first taught me not to believe all those things which are read in Jesus' name as having been spoken by Him; for that there be many tares which to corrupt the good seed some nightly sower has scattered up and down through nearly the whole of Scripture. Augustine; Manichæus taught an impious error, that you should receive only so much of the Gospel as does not conflict with your heresy, and not receive whatever does conflict with it. We have learned of the Apostle that religious caution, Whoever preaches unto you another Gospel than that we have preached, let him be accursed. (Gal. 1:8.) The Lord also has explained what the tares signify, not things false mixed with the true Scriptures, as you interpret, but men who are children of the wicked one. Faustus; Should a Jew then enquire of you why you do not keep the precepts of the Law and the Prophets which Christ here declares He came not to destroy but to fulfil, you will be driven either to accept an empty superstition, or to repudiate this chapter as false, or to deny that you are Christ's disciple. Augustine; The Catholics are not in any difficulty on account of this chapter as though they did not observe the Law and the Prophets; for they do cherish love to God and their neighbour, on which hang all the Law and the Prophets. And whatever in the Law and the Prophets was foreshown, whether in things done, in the celebration of sacramental rites, or in forms of speech, all these they know to be fulfilled in Christ and the Church. Wherefore we neither submit to a false superstition, nor reject the chapter, nor deny ourselves to be Christ's disciples. He then who says, that unless Christ had destroyed the Law and the Prophets, the Mosaic rites would have continued along with the Christian ordinances, may further affirm, that unless Christ had destroyed the Law and the Prophets, He would yet be only promised as to be born, to suffer, to rise again. But inasmuch as He did not destroy, but rather fulfil them, His birth, passion, and resurrection, are now no more promised as things future, which were signified by the Sacraments of the Law; but He is preached as already born, crucified, and risen, which are signified by the Sacraments now celebrated by Christians. It is clear then how great is the error of those who suppose, that when the signs or sacraments are changed, the things themselves are different, whereas the same things which the Prophetic ordinance had held forth as promises, the Evangelic ordinance points to as completed. Faustus; Supposing these to be Christ's genuine words, we should enquire what was His motive for speaking thus, whether to soften the blind hostility of the Jews, who when they saw their holy things trodden under foot by Him, would not have so much as given Him a hearing; or whether He really said them to instruct us, who of the Gentiles should believe, to submit to the yoke of the Law. If this last were not His design, then the first must have been; nor was there any deceit or fraud in such purpose. For of laws there be three sorts. The first that of the Hebrews, called the law of sin and death, (Rom. 8:2.) by Paul; the second that of the Gentiles, which he calls the law of nature, saying, By nature the Gentiles do the deeds of the law; (Rom. 2:14.) the third, the law of truth, which he names, The law of the Spirit of life. Also there are Prophets some of the Jews, such as are well known; others of the Gentiles as Paul speaks, A prophet of their own hath said; (Tit. 1:12.) and others of the truth, of whom Jesus speaks, I send unto you wise men and prophets. (Mat. 23:34.) Now had Jesus in the following part of this Sermon brought forward any of the Hebrew observances to show how he had fulfilled them, no one would have doubted that it was of the Jewish Law and Prophets that He was now speaking; but when He brings forward in this way only those more ancient precepts, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not commit adultery, which were promulged of old to Enoch, Seth, and the other righteous men, who does not see that He is here speaking of the Law and Prophets of truth? Wherever He has occasion to speak of any thing merely Jewish, He plucks it up by the very roots, giving precepts directly the contrary; for example, in the case of that precept, An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Augustine; Which was the Law and which the Prophets, that Christ came not to subvert but to fulfil, is manifest, to wit, the Law given by Moses. And the distinction which Faustus draws between the precepts of the righteous men before Moses, and the Mosaic Law, affirming that Christ fulfilled the one but annulled the other, is not so. We affirm that the Law of Moses was both well suited to its temporary purpose, and was now not subverted, but fulfilled by Christ, as will be seen in each particular. This was not understood by those who continued in such obstinate error, that they compelled the Gentiles to Judaize—those heretics, I mean, who were called Nazarenes.

Through these three, God the Trinity is pious, true, and holy, offering a pious law of nature, a true law of Scripture, and a holy law of grace. And through these three, He governs the world, and according to these three, He imprints laws in the rational mind. For all moral law is dependent upon these three. But in the law of nature, they are less distinct and explicit, in the law of Scripture, they are more explicit but less perfect, while in the law of grace they are more explicit and perfect. Hence, the Lord says: I have not come to destroy but to fulfill the law.

I can't say for certain which bits came into Christianity from earlier religions. An enormous amount did. I should find it hard to believe Christianity if that were not so. I couldn't believe that nine hundred and ninety-nine religions were completely false and the remaining one true. In reality, Christianity is primarily the fulfillment of the Jewish religion, but also the fulfillment of what was vaguely hinted in all the religions at their best. What was vaguely seen in them all comes into focus in Christianity—just as God Himself comes into focus by becoming a man.

While it is sinful to abolish the least of the commandments, all the more so the great and most important ones. Hence the Holy Spirit affirms through Solomon: "Whoever despises the little things shall gradually die."Consequently nothing in the divine commandments must be abolished, nothing altered. Everything must be preserved and taught faithfully and devotedly that the glory of the heavenly kingdom may not be lost. Indeed, those things considered least important and small by the unfaithful or by worldly people are not small before God but necessary. For the Lord taught the commandments and did them. Even small things point to the great future of the kingdom of heaven. For this reason, not only words but also deeds are important; and you should not only teach, but what you teach, you should do.

The Son of God, who is the author of the law and the prophets, did not come to abolish the law or the prophets. He gave the people the law that was to be handed down through Moses, and he imbued the prophets with the Holy Spirit for the preaching of the things to come. Therefore he said, "I have come not to abolish the law and the prophets but to fulfill them." He fulfilled the law and the prophets in this way: He brought to pass those things that had been written about him in the law and the prophets. Hence, when he drank the vinegar offered him on the cross, he said, "It is finished," evidently to show that everything written about him in the law and the prophets had been completed, even including the drinking of vinegar. He fulfilled the law at any rate when he completed by the sacrament of his passion the once prefigured mystery of the paschal meal. Consequently the apostle says, "For Christ our paschal lamb has been sacrificed." .

(ord.) Having now exhorted His hearers to undergo all things for righteousness' sake, and also not to hide what they should receive, but to learn more for others' sake, that they may teach others, He now goes on to tell them what they should teach, as though He had been asked, 'What is this which you would not have hid, and for which you would have all things endured? Are you about to speak any thing beyond what is written in the Law and the Prophets;' hence it is He says, Think not that I am come to subvert the Law or the Prophets.

(Verse 17.) Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish, but to fulfill. Whether it is that he has fulfilled the prophecies about himself through others, or because by his preaching he has fulfilled those things which before were crude and imperfect on account of the weakness of those who heard them, taking away wrath and excluding retaliation, and suppressing hidden desire in the mind.

Why, who suspected this? or who accused Him, that He should make a defense against this charge? Since surely from what had gone before no such suspicion was generated. For to command men to be meek, and gentle, and merciful, and pure in heart, and to strive for righteousness, indicated no such design, but rather altogether the contrary.

Wherefore then can He have said this? Not at random, nor vainly: but inasmuch as He was proceeding to ordain commandments greater than those of old, saying, "It was said to them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; but I say unto you, Be not even angry;" and to mark out a way for a kind of divine and heavenly conversation; in order that the strangeness thereof might not disturb the souls of the hearers, nor dispose them quite to mutiny against what He said He used this means of setting them right beforehand.

For although they fulfilled not the law, yet nevertheless they were possessed with much conscientious regard to it; and whilst they were annulling it every day by their deeds, the letters thereof they would have remain unmoved, and that no one should add anything more to them. Or rather, they bore with their rulers adding thereto, not however for the better, but for the worse.

Therefore, since Christ in the first place was not of the sacerdotal tribe, and next, the things which He was about to introduce were a sort of addition, not however lessening, but enhancing virtue; He knowing beforehand that both these circumstances would trouble them, before He wrote in their mind those wondrous laws, casts out that which was sure to be harboring there.

Wherefore many things are uttered by Him, far below His proper dignity, and here when He is about to proceed upon His addition to the law, He hath used abundance for correction beforehand. For neither was it once only that He said, "I do not abrogate the law," but He both repeated it again, and added another and a greater thing; in that, to the words, "Think not that I am come to destroy," He subjoined, "I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill."

Now this not only obstructs the obstinacy of the Jews, but stops also the mouths of those heretics, who say that the old covenant is of the devil. For if Christ came to destroy his tyranny, how is this covenant not only not destroyed, but even fulfilled by Him? For He said not only, "I do not destroy it;" though this had been enough; but "I even fulfill it:" which are the words of one so far from opposing himself, as to be even establishing it.

And how, one may ask, did He not destroy it? in what way did He rather fulfill either the law or the prophets? The prophets He fulfilled, inasmuch as He confirmed by His actions all that had been said concerning Him; wherefore also the evangelist used to say in each case, "That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet." Both when He was born, and when the children sung that wondrous hymn to Him, and when He sat on the ass, and in very many more instances He worked this same fulfillment: all which things must have been unfulfilled, if He had not come.

But the law He fulfilled, not in one way only, but in a second and third also. In one way, by transgressing none of the precepts of the law. For that He did fulfill it all, hear what He saith to John, "For thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness." And to the Jews also He said, "Which of you convinceth me of sin." And to His disciples again, "The prince of this world cometh, and findeth nothing in me." And the prophet too from the first had said that "He did no sin."

This then was one sense in which He fulfilled it. Another, that He did the same through us also; for this is the marvel, that He not only Himself fulfilled it, but He granted this to us likewise. Which thing Paul also declaring said, "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." And he said also, that "He judged sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh." And again, "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid! yea, we establish the law." For since the law was laboring at this, to make man righteous, but had not power, He came and brought in the way of righteousness by faith, and so established that which the law desired: and what the law could not by letters, this He accomplished by faith. On this account He saith, "I am not come to destroy the law."

But if any one will inquire accurately, he will find also another, a third sense, in which this hath been done. Of what sort is it then? In the sense of that future code of laws, which He was about to deliver to them. For His sayings were no repeal of the former, but a drawing out, and filling up of them. Thus, "not to kill," is not annulled by the saying, Be not angry, but rather is filled up and put in greater security: and so of all the others.

And that for two reasons. First, that by these words He might admonish His disciples, that as He fulfilled the Law, so they should strive to fulfil it. Secondly, because the Jews would falsely accuse them as subverting the Law, therefore he answers the calumny beforehand, but in such a manner as that He should not be thought to come simply to preach the Law as the Prophets had done.

He here asserts two things; He denies that He was come to subvert the Law, and affirms that He was come to fulfil it.

For the same John is called not merely an "angel" of Christ, but withal a "lamp" shining before Christ: for David predicts, "I have prepared the lamp for my Christ; " and him Christ Himself, coming "to fulfil the prophets," called so to the Jews.

But since both the place and the work of illumination according to the prophecy are compatible with Christ, we begin to discern that He is the subject of the prophecy, which shows that at the very outset of His ministry, He came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but rather to fulfil them; for Marcion has erased the passage as an interpolation.

In whatever way he commanded it, in the same way might he also have first uttered that sentiment: "I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it." What business, therefore, had you to erase out of the Gospel that which was quite consistent in it? For you have confessed that, in his goodness, he did in act what you deny that he did in word.

Thus Christ did not at all rescind the Sabbath: He kept the law thereof, and both in the former case did a work which was beneficial to the life of His disciples, for He indulged them with the relief of food when they were hungry, and in the present instance cured the withered hand; in each case intimating by facts, "I came not to destroy, the law, but to fulfil it," although Marcion has gagged His mouth by this word.

This verity of the gospel then stands unimpaired: "I am not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but rather to fulfil them." He also dissipated other doubts, when He declared that the name of God and of the Good belonged to one and the same being, at whose disposal were also the everlasting life and the treasure in heaven and Himself too-whose commandments He both maintained and augmented with His own supplementary precepts.

If also the gospel of Christ is fulfilled in this same precept, but not the Creator's Christ, what is the use of our contending any longer whether Christ did or did not say, "I am not come to destroy the law, but to fulfil it? " In vain has (our man of) Pontus laboured to deny this statement.

He warned us, to be sure, at that time (for elsewhere our Discipline is called "the Way" ), that when, set in "the way" of prayer, we go not unto "the Father" with anger. After that, the Lord, "amplifying the Law," openly adds the prohibition of anger against a brother to that of murder.

For His own servants, may the Lord by His mercy take care that to them it may be lawful even to presume on His goodness! But why are we a (source of) danger to our neighbour? why do we import concupiscence into our neighbour? which concupiscence, if God, in "amplifying the law," do not dissociate in (the way of) penalty from the actual commission of fornication, I know not whether He allows impunity to him who has been the cause of perdition to some other.

Unity, moreover, is everything which is once for all. But for Christ was reserved, as in all other points so in this also, the "fulfilling of the law." Thence, therefore, among us the prescript is more fully and more carefully laid down, that they who are chosen into the sacerdotal order must be men of one marriage; which rule is so rigidly observed, that I remember some removed from their office for digamy.

And since there are some who sometimes assert that they have nothing to do with the law (which Christ has not dissolved, but fulfilled), sometimes catch at such parts of the law as they choose; plainly do we too assert that the law has deceased in this sense, that its burdens-according to the sentence of the apostles-which not even the fathers were able to sustain, have wholly ceased: such (parts), however.

For even if we are just now beginning with the Law in demonstrating (the nature of) adultery, it is justly with that phase of the law which Christ has "not dissolved, but fulfilled." For it is the "burdens" of the law which were "until John," not the remedial virtues.

Think not that I am come to abolish the law, or the prophets: I am not come to abolish, but to fulfill. He was about to introduce new laws, yet He did not want them to think that He was opposed to God. Therefore He says, anticipating the suspicion that many would have, "I have not come to abolish the law, but rather to fulfill it." How did He fulfill it? First, He did everything which the prophets had foretold concerning Him, which is why the evangelist often says, "So that what was spoken by the prophet might be fulfilled." He also fulfilled every commandment of the law. "For He did no sin, neither was any guile found in His mouth" (1 Peter 2:22). And He fulfilled and completed the law in yet another way: whatever the law had sketched in outline, Christ fully painted in. The law said, "Do not murder"; but Christ said, "Neither be angry without a cause." So too the painter does not destroy the sketch, but rather completes it.

(Serm. in Mont. i. 8.) By the words, one iota or one point shall not pass from the Law, we must understand only a strong metaphor of completeness, drawn from the letters of writing, iota being the least of the letters, made with one stroke of the pen, and a point being a slight dot at the end of the same letter. The words there show that the Law shall be completed to the very least matter.

Nothing in Sacred Scripture is to be despised as useless, nothing rejected as false, nothing repudiated as wicked, because the Holy Spirit, its most perfect author, could say nothing false, nothing superfluous, nothing deficient. And therefore heaven and earth shall pass away, but the words of sacred Scripture shall not pass away, without being fulfilled. Until indeed heaven and earth pass away, not one iota or one tittle shall pass from the Law, until all things be accomplished, as the Savior attests.

He fulfilled the law at the time by completing the sacrifices of the law and all the examples prefigured in himself … by accepting a body. Certainly he fulfilled the law at the time he confirmed with evangelical grace the precepts of the law he had given. He proceeds to demonstrate he had come to fulfill the law: "Until heaven and earth pass away, not one iota, not a dot, shall be lost from the law until all is accomplished." Therefore we know from Christ's teaching how true and divine is the preaching of the law. The Lord reveals that not a single iota or a dot will be lost.

From the expression here used pass, we may suppose that the constituting elements of heaven and earth shall not be annihilated.

We are promised a new heaven and a new earth, which the Lord God will make. If new ones are to be created, the old ones will therefore pass away. As for what follows, "Not one iota, not a dot, shall be lost from the law until all is accomplished," this literally shows that even what is considered least important in the law is full of spiritual sacraments, and it is all summed up in the gospel.

(Verse 18.) Until heaven and earth pass away. The new heavens and the new earth are promised to us, which the Lord God will create. Therefore, if new things are to be created, the old things will necessarily pass away. And what follows is:

One iota, or one iota, will not pass from the Law until all is done. It is shown from the figure of the letter, that even what are thought to be the least in the Law, are full of spiritual sacraments, and all are recapitulated in the Gospel. Whose, then, is the erudition and whose teaching, to demonstrate that even diverse sacrifices and those which appear superstitious are fulfilled in daily victims?

"For verily I say unto you, Till Heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all come to pass."

Now what He saith is like this: it cannot be that it should remain unaccomplished, but the very least thing therein must needs be fulfilled. Which thing He Himself performed, in that He completed it with all exactness.

And here He signifies to us obscurely that the fashion of the whole world is also being changed. Nor did He set it down without purpose, but in order to arouse the hearer, and indicate, that He was with just cause introducing another discipline; if at least the very works of the creation are all to be transformed, and mankind is to be called to another country, and to a higher way of practising how to live.

But the "one dot" is not only the iota of the Greeks but also that which among the Hebrews is called the yod. And the "one iota" or "one dot" can symbolically be said to be Jesus, since the beginning of his name is written not only by Greeks with an iota but also by Hebrews with a yod. So Jesus will be the one dot, the Word of God in the law which does not pass from the law until all is accomplished. But the iota might also be (as he himself says) the Ten Commandments of the law, for everything else passes away, but these do not pass away. But neither does Jesus pass away; if he "falls to the ground" he does so willingly, in order to bear much fruit. Again, the "one iota" or "one dot" has mastery over things both in heaven and on earth.

But since all things which should befal from the very beginning of the world to the end of it, were in type and figure foreshewn in the Law, that God may not be thought to be ignorant of any of those things that take place, He therefore here declares, that heaven and earth should not pass till all things thus foreshewn in the Law should have their actual accomplishment.

He fitly mentions the Greek iota, and not the Hebrew jod, because the iota stands in Greek for the number ten, and so there is an allusion to the Decalogue of which the Gospel is the point and perfection.

Amen is a Hebrew word, and may be rendered in Latin, 'vere,' 'fidenter,' or 'fiat;' that is, 'truly,' 'faithfully,' or 'so be it.' The Lord uses it either because of the hardness of heart of those who were slow to believe, or to attract more particularly the attention of those that did believe.

But shall abide in their essence, but pass through renewal.

For amen, I say unto you. The "amen" is an assurance, meaning, "Yes, truly I say unto you." Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be accomplished. He indicates here that the world passes away and undergoes a change in form. He is saying, therefore, that while the universe subsists, not the least letter of the law will pass away. Some say that the "jot" [i.e. the Greek letter iota] and the "tittle" [i.e. accent mark] signify the ten commandments of the law; others say that they indicate the Cross, for the iota is the upright beam of the Cross, and the accent, the transverse beam. Christ is saying, therefore, that everything that was spoken concerning the Cross will be fulfilled.

(ubi sup.) Or, the precepts of the Law are called 'the least,' as opposed to Christ's precepts which are great. The least commandments are signified by the iota and the point. He, therefore, who breaks them, and teaches men so, that is, to do as he does, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. Hence we may perhaps conclude, that it is not true that there shall none be there except they be great.

(ubi sup.) Otherwise; he who breaks the least of these commandments, that is, of Moses' Law, and teaches men so, shall be called the least; but he who shall do (these least), and so teach, shall not indeed be esteemed great, yet not so little as he who breaks them. That he should be great, he ought to do and to teach the things which Christ now teaches.

Nothing in Sacred Scripture is to be despised as useless, nothing rejected as false, nothing repudiated as wicked, because the Holy Spirit, its most perfect author, could say nothing false, nothing superfluous, nothing deficient. And therefore heaven and earth shall pass away, but the words of sacred Scripture shall not pass away, without being fulfilled. Until indeed heaven and earth pass away, not one iota or one tittle shall pass from the Law, until all things be accomplished, as the Savior attests. Whoever therefore shall break those things which Scripture teaches, and shall teach men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven: but whoever shall do and teach them, shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Whoever sets aside "one of the least of the commandments" of the law is set aside by God as God's enemy and as an inventor of laws opposed to God. And now out of the law of the gospel that one receives the retribution which, under the ancient law, was not defined. For this reason Christ fittingly says, "I am not come to destroy but to fulfill." For that which then was lacking, here is made full. It is said in the law: "Stand in the presence of the elderly" and "If you see the beast of your enemy fallen under its load, go help him lift it up." If anyone transgressed these commandments, there was no retribution specified under the law. So Christ makes up this lack when he says that in the kingdom of heaven such a person will be treated with scorn.

(ord.) By 'break,' is meant, the not doing what one understands rightly, or the not understanding what one has corrupted, or the destroying the perfectness of Christ's additions.

(Hom. in Ev. xii. 1.) Or, by the kingdom of heaven is to be understood the Church, in which that teacher who breaks a commandment is called least, because he whose life is despised, it remains that his preaching be also despised.

From the expression here used, "pass," we may suppose that the constituting elements of heaven and earth shall not be annihilated. Or, He calls the passion, and the cross, the least, which if one shall not confess openly, but be ashamed of them, he shall be least, that is, last, and as it were no man; but to him that confesses it He promises the great glory ofa heavenly calling.

With a beautiful introduction Christ moves beyond the work of the law. He does not intend to abolish it but to enhance it by fulfilling it. He declares that his apostles will not be able to enter heaven unless their righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees. Therefore he bypasses what is laid down in the law, not for the sake of abolishing it, but for the sake of fulfilling it.

(Verse 19 and following) Therefore, whoever shall break one of the least of these commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but he who shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. This chapter, sticking with the previous testimony, in which he said: Not one iota, or one apex, will pass from the Law, until all things are fulfilled. Therefore, he seals the Pharisees, who, despising the commandments of God, establish their own traditions, which do not benefit them in teaching the people if they destroy even a small thing that is commanded in the Law. However, we can also understand that the education of teachers, even if subject to a small sin, leads them down from the highest rank, and it does not benefit them to teach righteousness, which the smallest fault destroys. And let perfect happiness be to fulfill with action what you have taught in words.

This head is closely connected with the preceding. It is directed against the Pharisees, who, despising the commandments of God, set up traditions of their own, and means that their teaching the people would not avail themselves, if they destroyed the very least commandment in the Law. We may take it in another sense. The learning of the master if joined with sin however small, loses him the highest place, nor does it avail any to teach righteousness, if he destroys it in his life. Perfect bliss is for him who fulfils in deed what he teaches in word.

"Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of Heaven."

Thus, having rid Himself of the evil suspicion, and having stopped the mouths of them who would fain gainsay, then at length He proceeds to alarm, and sets down a heavy denunciation in support of the enactments He was entering on.

For as to His having said this in behalf not of the ancient laws, but of those which He was proceeding to enact, listen to what follows, "For I say unto you," saith he, "Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of Heaven."

For if He were threatening with regard to the ancient laws, how said He, "except it shall exceed?" since they who did just the same as those ancients, could not exceed them on the score of righteousness.

But of what kind was the required excess? Not to be angry, not even to look upon a woman unchastely.

For what cause then doth He call these commandments "least," though they were so great and high? Because He Himself was about to introduce the enactment of them; for as He humbled Himself, and speaks of Himself frequently with measure, so likewise of His own enactments, hereby again teaching us to be modest in everything. And besides, since there seemed to be some suspicion of novelty, He ordered His discourse for a while with reserve.

But when thou hearest, "least in the kingdom of Heaven," surmise thou nothing but hell and torments. For He was used to mean by "the kingdom," not merely the enjoyment thereof, but also the time of the resurrection, and that awful coming. And how could it be reasonable, that while he who called his brother fool, and transgressed but one commandment, falls into hell; the breaker of them all, and instigator of others to the same, should be within the kingdom. This therefore is not what He means, but that such a one will be at that time least, that is, cast out, last. And he that is last will surely then fall into hell. For, being God, He foreknew the laxity of the many, He foreknew that some would think these sayings were merely hyperbolical, and would argue about the laws, and say, What, if any one call another a fool, is he punished? If one merely look on a woman, doth he become an adulterer? For this very cause He, destroying such insolence beforehand, hath set down the strongest denunciation against either sort, as well them who transgress, as them who lead on others so to do.

Knowing then His threat as we do, let us neither ourselves transgress, nor discourage such as are disposed to keep these things.

"But whosoever shall do and teach," saith He, "shall be called great."

For not to ourselves alone, should we be profitable, but to others also; since neither is the reward as great for him who guides himself aright, as for one who with himself adds also another. For as teaching without doing condemns the teacher (for "thou which teachest another," it is said, "teachest thou not thyself"?) so doing but not guiding others, lessens our reward. One ought therefore to be chief in either work, and having first set one's self right, thus to proceed also to the care of the rest. For on this account He Himself hath set the doing before the teaching; to intimate that so most of all may one be able to teach, but in no other way. For one will be told, "Physician, heal thyself." Since he who cannot teach himself, yet attempts to set others right, will have many to ridicule him. Or rather such a one will have no power to teach at all, his actions uttering their voice against him. But if he be complete in both respects, "he shall be called great in the kingdom of Heaven."

If even an honourable man blushes to be found in a falsehood, and a wise man lets not fall empty any word he has once spoken, how could it be that the words of heaven should fall to the ground empty? Hence He concludes, Whoso shall break the least of these commandments, &c. And, I suppose, the Lord goes on to reply Himself to the question, Which are the least commandments? Namely, these which I am now about to speak.

Otherwise; the precepts of Moses are easy to obey; Thou shall not kill. Thou shall not commit adultery. The very greatness of the crime is a check upon the desire of committing it; therefore the reward of observance is small, the sin of transgression great. But Christ's precepts, Thou shalt not be angry, Thou shalt not lust, are hard to obey, and therefore in their reward they are great, in their transgression, 'least.' It is thus He speaks of these precepts of Christ, such as Thou shall not be angry, Thou shalt not lust, as 'the least;' and they who commit these lesser sins, are the least in the kingdom of God; that is, he who has been angry and not sinned grievously is secure from the punishment of eternal damnation; yet he does not attain that glory which they attain who fulfil even these least.

Whosoever therefore shall disregard one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. The "least commandments" are those which He Himself is about to give, not those of the law of Moses. He calls them "least" out of humility, to instruct you, O reader, to have moderate thoughts of yourself as you give your teachings. He who "shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven" means he who will be last in the resurrection and who will be cast into gehenna. For such a one shall not enter the kingdom of heaven, far from it! By "kingdom" understand the resurrection. But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. First Christ says, "whosoever shall do," and then, "and shall teach"; for how can I guide another along a road that I have not myself travelled? By the same token, if I practice the commandments, but do not teach them, my reward is not so great. There can even be condemnation, if I do not teach because of spite or sloth.