Sermon 138

SERMO 138

OF THE WORDS OF THE GOSPEL OF JOHN (10:11-16):
"I am the good shepherd," etc.
AGAINST THE DONATISTS

The good shepherd, why praised in the singular?

We have heard the Lord Jesus commending to us the duty of the good shepherd. In this commendation, he indeed admonished us, as it is given to understand, to be good shepherds. And yet, so that the multitude of shepherds would not be understood in a perverse way, he said: "I am the good shepherd." And he subsequently showed from where he is the good shepherd: "The good shepherd," he said, "lays down his life for the sheep. But the hireling, and he who is not a shepherd, sees the wolf coming, and flees: because he does not care for the sheep; for he is a hireling." Therefore, the good shepherd is Christ. What about Peter? Was he not a good shepherd? Did he not also lay down his life for the sheep? What about Paul? What about the other Apostles? What about the blessed bishops and martyrs following them? What about this holy Cyprian himself? Were they not all good shepherds; not hirelings, of whom it is said: "Truly I tell you, they have received their reward?" Therefore, all these were good shepherds, not only because they shed their blood, but because they shed it for the sheep. For they did not shed it out of pride, but out of love.

Martyrdom without charity profits nothing.

For even among heretics, who, on account of their iniquities and errors, have suffered some troubles, boast themselves in the name of martyrdom, so that, cloaked in this mantle, they deceive more easily, for they are wolves. But if you want to know in what number they should be counted, listen to the good shepherd, the apostle Paul; for not all who deliver their bodies to suffering, even to fires, are to be considered as having shed their blood for the sheep, but rather against the sheep. If I speak, he says, in the tongues of men and of Angels, but do not have charity, I have become like a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. If I understand all mysteries, and have all prophecy, and all faith, so as to move mountains, but do not have charity, I am nothing. Therefore, great indeed is faith that moves mountains. Those things are indeed great; but if I have them without charity, he says, I am nothing, not those things. But he has not yet touched those who falsely glorify in the name of martyrdom in their sufferings. Listen as he touches them, or rather, pierces them. If I distribute all my goods to the poor, and deliver my body to be burned. Now they are the ones. But see what follows: But do not have charity, it profits me nothing. Behold, it comes to suffering, behold, it comes to the shedding of blood, it comes to the burning of the body; and yet it profits nothing, because charity is lacking. Add charity, and all things profit; take away charity, and the rest profit nothing.

Charity, how great a good.

What a great good is this charity, brothers! What is more precious? What is more luminous? What is firmer? What is more useful? What is more secure? There are many gifts of God, which even the evil possess, who will say: Lord, in your name we prophesied, in your name we cast out demons, in your name we performed many miracles. And he will not respond: You did not do these things. For they will not dare to lie before such a great judge, or boast of what they did not do. But because they did not have charity, he will respond to all of them: I do not know you. How does he have even a little charity, who also, when convicted, does not love unity? Recommending this unity to good shepherds, the Lord did not wish to call many shepherds. For, as I have already said, it is not that Peter, Paul, the other Apostles, and the later holy bishops, and blessed Cyprian were not good shepherds. All these were good shepherds: and yet, to the good shepherds, he did not commend good shepherds, but the good shepherd. I am, he said, the good shepherd.

Peter and others to be good shepherds.

Let us ask the Lord with whatever understanding we have, and with the utmost humility, let us converse with such a master of the house. What do you say, Lord, good shepherd? For you are the good shepherd, who is also the good lamb; the same shepherd and pasture, the same lamb and lion. What do you say? Let us hear, and help us to understand. "I am," he says, "the good shepherd." What about Peter? Either he is not a shepherd, or he is a bad one? Let us see if he is not a shepherd. Do you love me? You said to him, Lord: Do you love me? And he responded: I do. And you said to him: Feed my sheep. You, you, Lord, by your questioning, with the assurance of your word, made the lover a shepherd. Therefore, he is a shepherd, to whom you entrusted the feeding of your sheep. You entrusted it to him, he is a shepherd. Let us now see whether he is not good. We discover this from his very questioning and response. You asked if he loved you: he responded: I do. You saw his heart, for he answered truthfully. Therefore, is he not good, who loves such goodness? Whence came that answer brought forth from his innermost depths? Whence that Peter, bearing your witnesses in his heart, being sorrowful that you asked him not only once, but again and a third time, so that with the threefold confession of love, he might erase the threefold sin of denial; whence therefore, being sorrowful, because he was often questioned by him who knew what he was asking, and had forgiven what he heard; whence being sorrowful, he brought forth such words: Lord, you know everything, you yourself know that I love you? Thus he, confessing such things, nay, proclaiming them, would he lie? Therefore he truthfully responded your love, and brought forth from the innermost heart the voice of one who loves. But you said: A good man from the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things. Therefore, both a shepherd and a good shepherd; indeed nothing compares to the power and goodness of the shepherd of shepherds; but yet he also is a shepherd and a good one; and others like him are good shepherds.

There is however one good shepherd, Christ.

What is it, therefore, that you commend one shepherd to good shepherds, except that you teach unity in one shepherd? And the Lord himself explains more clearly through our ministry, recalling from the Gospel to your Charity and saying: Hear what I have commended: I am the good shepherd, I said, because all the rest, all the good shepherds are my members. One head, one body, one Christ. Therefore, the shepherd of shepherds, and the shepherds of the shepherd, and the sheep with the shepherds under the shepherd. What are these, except that the Apostle says: For as the body is one, and has many members; all the members, though many, are one body; so also is Christ? Therefore, if so also is Christ, rightly Christ having in himself all good shepherds, commends one saying: I am the good shepherd. I am, I am one, with me all in unity are one. Whoever feeds outside me, feeds against me. Whoever does not gather with me, scatters. Therefore, hear the unity itself more vigorously commended: I have, he says, other sheep that are not of this fold. For he was speaking at first of the fold of the flesh of Israel. But there were others of the fold of the faith of Israel itself, and there were still outsiders, among the Gentiles, predestined, not yet gathered. He knew them who had predestined them; he knew them who had come to redeem them by shedding his blood. He saw them, not yet seeing him; he knew them, not yet believing in him. I have, he says, other sheep that are not of this fold; because they are not of the flesh of Israel. But yet they will not be outside this fold, because it is necessary for me to bring them, so that there may be one flock and one shepherd.

The bride's affection for Christ.

Rightly, to this shepherd of shepherds, his beloved, his bride, his beautiful one—but made beautiful by him, earlier made foul by sins, later made beautiful by indulgence and grace—she speaks, loving and burning for him, and says to him: "Where do you graze?" And see how, with what emotion, this spiritual love is stirred. Much better indeed are they delighted by this affection who have tasted something of the sweetness of this love. They hear this well who love Christ. For in them and of them the Church sings in the Song of Songs: those who love Christ, as though foul and yet solely beautiful. For we saw him, it says, and he had no form or comeliness. Such he appeared on the cross, such he showed himself crowned with thorns, foul and without comeliness, as though having lost his power; as though not the Son of God. Such he seemed to the blind. Isaiah indeed spoke this of the Jews: We saw him, and he had no form or comeliness. When it was said: If he is the Son of God, let him come down from the cross. He saved others, he cannot save himself. And striking him with a reed on the head: Prophesy to us, Christ, who struck you? Because he had no form or comeliness. Such, Jews, did you see. Because blindness has occurred in part to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, until the other sheep come. Because therefore blindness has occurred, hence you saw the beautiful without beauty. For if you had known, never would you have crucified the Lord of glory. Yet you did so, because you did not know. And yet he who endured you as though foul, for you prayed as beautiful: Father, he said, forgive them, for they know not what they do. For if without comeliness, what is it that this one loves, who says: Announce to me, whom my soul loves? What is it that she loves? What is it that burns, what is it that so greatly fears to be separated from him? What is it that so delights in him, for whom the only punishment is to be without him? What would there be to love, unless he were beautiful? But how could she love so, if he appeared to her as he did to the blind persecutors who did not know what they did? What kind then did she love? Beautiful in form beyond the sons of men. Beautiful in form beyond the sons of men, grace is poured on your lips. Therefore, from your own lips announce to me, whom my soul loves. Announce to me, she says, O whom my soul, not my flesh, but my soul, loves. Announce to me where you graze, where you lie at midday; lest perhaps I become as one who covers herself over your companions' flocks.

How the words of the bride are to be understood.

It seems obscure, it is obscure because it is the mystery of the sacred chambers. For she herself says: The king brought me into his chamber. Such is the secret of this chamber. But you, who are not profane from this chamber, listen to what you are and say with her, if you love with her; and you love with her if you are in her. All say, yet let one speak because unity speaks: Announce to me, whom my soul has loved. For to them in God was one soul and one heart. Announce to me where you pasture, where you lie down at midday. What does midday signify? Great fervor and great splendor. Therefore let me know who are your wise ones, fervent in spirit and brilliant in doctrine. Make your right hand known to me, and those educated in wisdom of heart. Let me cling to them in your body, join with them, enjoy you with them. So tell me: Announce to me where you pasture, where you lie down at midday, so that I do not encounter those who speak different things about you, think different things about you, believe different things about you, preach different things about you; and have their own flocks and your companions they are; because they live from your table, and they handle the Sacraments of your table. For they are called companions, because they eat together, as if eating together. Such are reproached in the Psalm: For if my enemy had spoken great things against me, I would indeed have hidden from him, and if he who hated me had spoken great things against me, I would indeed have hidden from him. But you, my unanimous one, my leader, and my familiar friend, who took sweet foods with me, we walked together in the house of God with consensus. Why now against the house of the Lord with dissension, unless because they went out from us, but were not of us? Therefore, O you whom my soul has loved, let me not fall into such as these, your companions, but such as were the companions of Samson, not keeping faith with a friend, but wanting to corrupt his wife. Therefore, let me not fall into such as these, let me not become over them, that is, fall into them, as if hidden, as if veiled and obscure, not as if established on a mountain. Therefore, announce to me, O whom my soul has loved, where you pasture, where you lie down at midday; who are wise and faithful, in whom you especially rest: lest perhaps, as if hidden, I encounter flocks, not yours, but of your companions. For you did not say to Peter: Feed your sheep; but: Feed my sheep.

The response of the betrothed.

Let the good shepherd, who is more beautiful in form than the sons of men, respond therefore to this beloved one; let him respond to her whom he has made beautiful from among the sons of men. Listen to what he responds, understand; beware of what he warns, love what he advises. What then does he respond? Not tenderly, but he returns severity with kindness. He corrects, to bind, to save. “Unless you know yourself,” he says, “O beautiful among women; for however other women may be beautiful with the gifts of your husband, they are heresies; they are beautiful in adornment, not in substance, they shine outwardly and externally, they whiten themselves with the name of justice: But all the beauty of the daughter of the king is within. Unless therefore you know yourself, because you are one, because you are spread among all nations, because you are chaste, because you should not be corrupted by the perverse conversation of wicked companions. Unless you know yourself, because he rightly betrothed you to present a chaste virgin to Christ; and you rightly present yourself to me, lest by evil conversations, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, so your senses should be corrupted from my chastity. Unless therefore you know yourself as such, go out; go out. For I will say to others: Enter into the joy of your Lord. To you I will not say: Enter; but: Go out; so that you may be among those who went out from us. Go out. But unless you know yourself, then go out. But if you know yourself, enter. But if you do not know yourself, go out in the tracks of the flocks, and feed your kids in the tents of the shepherds. Go out in the tracks, not of the flock, but of the flocks; and feed, not like Peter my sheep, but your kids; in the tents, not of the shepherd, but of the shepherds; not of unity, but of dissension; not set there, where there is one flock and one shepherd. She is confirmed, built up, she has become stronger in love, ready to die for her husband, and to live with her husband.

The words of the bride wrongly taken up by the Donatists.

These words which we have recalled from the holy Song of Songs, concerning the epithalamium of the bridegroom and the bride; for these are spiritual nuptials, in which we must live with great chastity; because Christ granted to the Church in spirit what his mother had in the body, to be both mother and virgin; the Donatists therefore take these words according to their own perverse understanding much differently. And just as I will not be silent, and I will briefly remind you what to answer them, with the Lord's help, as much as I can. When we begin to press them with the light of the unity of the Church spread throughout the whole world, and we have asked them to show from the Scriptures any testimony, where God foretold that the Church would be in Africa, as if the other nations were lost; they usually have this testimony in their mouth, and say: Africa is in the south; therefore, they say, the Church asking the Lord where he feeds, where he rests; he responds: In the south, as if the voice of the one asking says: Tell me, whom my soul loves, where you feed, where you rest; and the voice as if responding: In the south, that is, in Africa. If therefore the one who is asking is the Church, and the Lord responds where he feeds, in Africa, because the Church was in Africa: the one asking was not in Africa. He says: Tell me, whom my soul loves, where you feed, where you rest; and he responds to a certain Church besides Africa: In the south, in Africa I rest, in Africa I feed, as if I do not feed you. Moreover, if the one who asks is the Church, about which no one doubts, which even they themselves do not contradict; and they hear something or other about Africa: therefore, the one who asks is besides Africa; and because it is the Church, it is the Church besides Africa.

The Donatists are refuted.

Behold, I acknowledge that Africa is in the south; although Egypt is more in the south under the midday sun than Africa. However, there in Egypt, how this shepherd is, those who know recognize; those who do not know, seek how large a flock he gathers there, how much multitude of saints and holy ones he has who utterly despise the world. That flock has grown so much that it even expelled the superstitions from there. So, let me then omit how he has driven out all the idolatrous superstition that was strong there by growing; I accept what you say, O wicked companions; I fully accept and agree that Africa is in the south, and Africa is signified in what is said: Where do you pasture, where do you lie down at midday? But also you equally pay attention that these words are still from the bride, not yet from the groom. The bride still says: Announce to me, whom my soul loves where do you pasture, where do you lie down at midday, lest I become like one who is veiled. Deaf, blind, if you see Africa in the south, why do you not understand the woman in the veiled? Announce to me, she says, whom my soul loves. Surely she speaks to a man when she says: whom she loved. How if she were to say: Announce to me, whom my soul loved; we would understand the groom saying these things to the bride; thus when you hear: Announce to me, whom my soul loves where you pasture, where you lie down; add there, the following words also belong, at midday. I am asking where you pasture at midday, lest I become like one who is veiled over the flocks of your companions. I completely hear, I accept what you understand about Africa; in the south, it is signified. But the Church of Christ, as you understand, speaks to her groom from overseas, fearing to fall into African error. O whom my soul loved, announce to me, teach me. For I hear that in the south, that is, in Africa, there are two parties, indeed many splits. Therefore, announce to me where you pasture, which sheep belong to you, which fold you command me to love there, to which I ought to associate myself. Lest I become like one veiled. For they mock as if hidden, insult as if lost, as if nowhere else existing. So, lest I become as it were veiled, as it were hidden over the flock, that is, over the congregations of heretics, your companions, the Donatists, Maximianists, Rogatists, and other pests gathering outside; and therefore scattering; I ask you, announce to me, if I should seek my shepherd there, that I may not fall into the abyss of rebaptism. I urge you, I implore you by the holiness of such marriages, love this Church, be in such a Church, be such a Church; love the good shepherd, a man so beautiful, deceiving no one, desiring no one to perish. Pray also for the scattered sheep; let them come also, let them recognize also, let them love also; so that there may be one flock and one shepherd. Turned to the Lord...