Sermon 147A

SERMON 147/A

OF THAT WHICH IS SAID IN THE GOSPEL OF JOHN (21, 15-19):
Simon, son of John, do you love me?

There would be no place for Peter to show his love for Christ if he were not a faithful shepherd.

All things that are now read from the holy Gospel were done and spoken after the resurrection of the Lord. We heard, therefore, the Lord Jesus Christ asking the Apostle Peter, asking whether he loved him. Thus the Lord was questioning a servant, the master a disciple, the creator a man, the redeemer a liberated one, the firm a timid one, the omniscient an ignorant one; and where he was making himself the one asking, there he was showing himself as the teacher. For Christ did not need to know anything that Peter was bearing in his heart. He asks once, he responds. It is not sufficient, he asks again, not something else, but what he had asked; he responds the same again. The question is repeated a third time, the love is responded to a third time; for he was asked three times on account of love, who had denied through fear three times. When the Lord was dying, he feared, he feared and denied; but the Lord rising implanted love, banished fear. For what would Peter now fear? For when he denied, it was indeed because he feared death; with the Lord rising, what would he fear, in whom he found death dead? Certainly it was he who now asked alive, who was buried dead; he was present, who had hung on the wood. When our Lord Jesus Christ was judged by the Jews, then Peter denied when questioned, and what is worse by a woman, and what is more disgraceful by a maidservant. Under the maidservant, he was frightened, under the Lord, he stood bravely. Confessing his love once, and again, and a third time, he entrusted his sheep. Do you love me? he said. Lord, you know that I love you. And he said: Feed my lambs. This once, this again, this a third time; as if Peter had nowhere to show his love for Christ, except to be a faithful shepherd under the prince of all shepherds. Do you love me? I love. And what will you offer, loving me? what will you bestow upon me, man to your creator? what will you bestow from your love, redeemed to your redeemer, as a soldier to your king? what will you bestow? This only I require: Feed my sheep.

To call the sheep of Christ one's own is not a Catholic voice.

Nevertheless, see, brothers, because of wicked slave-men who have made the Lord's flock their own private property and divided what they did not purchase. For some unfaithful slaves have arisen, divided the flock of Christ, and in a certain manner, through their theft, made private property for themselves from his flock, and you hear them say: Those sheep are mine. What are you seeking among my sheep? You will not find yourself among my sheep. If we say they are mine, and they say they are theirs, Christ has lost His sheep. Place before your eyes the chief shepherd, the Lord of His flock, standing and discerning and judging among His slaves. What do you say? Those sheep are mine. And what do you say? Those are my sheep. Where are the ones I purchased? Wicked slaves, you call these your sheep, and you claim what I have purchased for you, even when you would perish if I had not purchased you. May it never be that we say you are our sheep; that voice is not Catholic, not genuine, not of Peter, because it is against the Rock. You are sheep, but of Him who purchased both us and you. We have one Lord: He is the shepherd, but not hired. He feeds His own, and, what no one else makes of sheep, both paid the price, and made the testament. Seek the price, it is His blood; seek the testament, it is the Gospel, which you heard being read just now. What did He say to Peter? Do you love Me? I love You. Feed My sheep. Are they yours? Do you want to know to whom He says yours? Listen in the holy book which is called the Song of Songs; there are read the holy love songs, the bridegroom and the bride, Christ and the Church. And the whole book is as it were a nuptial song, like they say epithalamium, but of the holy bedchamber, the chaste chamber: For He placed His tabernacle in the sun, that is, in the light, in public, where it could be seen, and not hidden. And He came forth as a bridegroom from His chamber; for He took on a marriage, human flesh. His wedding chamber was the virginal womb; there He joined the Church to Himself, so that what was foretold before might be fulfilled: And the two shall be one flesh.

The Donatists are accustomed to express their own meaning in these words, not the meaning of the Scriptures.

So these lovers, Christ and the Church, were speaking among themselves. The Church said to Him: "Announce to me, whom my soul loves, where you pasture, where you lie at noon? Why do I want you to announce to me where you pasture, where you lie at noon? Lest I become like one who is veiled over the flocks of your companions." Therefore, she says, "I want you to announce to me where you pasture, where you lie at noon, so that when I come to you, I do not go astray, lest I become like one who is veiled over the flocks of your companions," that is, lest I fall into flocks not yours, but of your companions. Like one who is veiled. What else is veiled but as if hidden and unknown? The Donatists are accustomed to assert their own interpretation in these words, not the sense of the Scriptures. This indeed they are accustomed to say. Africa is the south, the south of the world is Africa; therefore the Church asks the Lord: "Where do you pasture? Where do you lie?" and He replies: "At noon"; as if to say, do not seek me except in Africa. Read and understand, heretical mind. A mirror is presented to you now, find yourself here; understand that the bride still asks; why do you make the bridegroom already respond? Or acknowledge the feminine gender. "Where do you pasture, where do you lie at noon?" Lest I become like one who is veiled. A veiled one, I think, is a woman, not a man. Therefore, O Lord, let Africa be the south; let it be understood as they understand. Africa is the south; here the faction of the Donatists was formed; here, the great division and saw of dissension was drawn through the flock of Christ. Therefore, she asks like the overseas Church, where this division was not made: "Announce to me, whom my soul loves, where you pasture, where you lie at noon? For I hear there being said the part of Donatus, some Catholics, some Donatists; announce to me where you pasture, lest I come and go astray. There I seek the announcement, where I fear uncertainly. Announce to me where you pasture, where you lie at noon? Why do I want you to announce to me? Lest I become like one who is veiled; because to the part of Donatus, I am as if veiled, as if unknown; there I am preached, and to them it remains hidden."

The Jews are more excusable than the heretics.

These are the words of Scripture: In the last days, the mountain of the Lord will be manifest, prepared on the summit of the mountains, and it will be exalted above the hills, and all nations will come to it. It is called a mountain, and part of Donatus has covered the mountain. If one stumbles upon a stone, he is to be forgiven; if one stumbles upon a mountain, what kind of eyes does he have? My brothers, the Jews can be excused more easily; for the Jews stumbled upon a stone, while heretics stumble upon a mountain. How did the Jews stumble upon a stone? Because Christ, when he suffered, was still small; and it was said: They stumbled upon a stone of offence. But the holy Daniel saw a vision, and wrote what he saw, and he said he saw a stone cut out of the mountain without hands. Christ is the one coming from the Judean people; and that was also a mountain, because it has a kingdom. What does "Without hands" mean? A stone cut without human work because a male's work did not approach the virgin, so that he was born without human work. The stone cut out of the mountain without hands shattered the statue, in which the kingdoms of the lands were signified. And what was said? He is the stone upon which the Jews stumbled; they stumbled upon a stone of offense. Who is the mountain upon which the heretics stumbled? Listen to Daniel himself: And the stone grew, he said, and became a great mountain, so that it filled the entire face of the earth. Rightly does the Psalm say to Christ the Lord rising: Be exalted above the heavens, O God, and let your glory be over all the earth. What does it mean: Let your glory be over all the earth? Over all the earth your Church, over all the earth your bride. And yet it says: Tell me, whom my soul loves. I am now everywhere, I now hold all lands, and I am covered with Africans. Therefore, tell me, lest I become as one covered among the flocks, not of your sheep, but of your companions. For companions have made schisms. Who are the companions? Those who have come to the table of the Lord, about whom the Psalm says elsewhere: He who was eating my bread; of whom it says: If an enemy had reviled me, I would have endured it; and if he who hated me had spoken great things against me, I would have hidden myself from him; but you, a man of one mind, my guide and my well-known, who used to take sweet morsels with me; in the house of the Lord we walked in agreement. At one time in agreement, now in disagreement, because without sense. These are the companions whom she feared to fall among. I fear, she says, that I might err; I fear that I might, as covered, fall into the flocks of your companions lest by wandering I perish, lest by repeating the baptism which I received, I lose it all.

By following the Shepherd's footsteps, we do not go astray.

You have heard the concern of the bride, now hear the response of the groom. When this was said by the bride, the groom immediately responded: Unless you know yourself, O beautiful among women, Catholic, beautiful among heresies, unless you know yourself, unless you pay attention to know yourself there where you have learned of me, unless you prefer my Scriptures over human rumors, unless you know yourself because you are everywhere, unless you know yourself because you were designated where it was said: Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance; unless, therefore, you know yourself, then what? Go out; unless you know, go out. A bad word, a sorrowful word, Go out. May God turn this away from us! See, it is said of those: They went out from us, but they were not of us. To the evil servant it is said: Go out, because the servant does not remain in the house forever, the son remains forever. Do you want to see that it is said to the evil servant: Go out? What is said to the good servant? Enter into the joy of your Lord. Therefore, everyone who hears, everyone who is a member of his bride, should fear what is said: Unless you know yourself, O beautiful among women, go out in the tracks of the flocks. What does it mean: in the tracks of the flocks? Through the errors of men, not in the voice of the shepherd. We, brothers, do not go out in the tracks of the flocks; we have the tracks of the shepherd, which by following we do not err. Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, so that we might follow in his tracks. Therefore, unless you know yourself, go out in the tracks of the flocks, And feed your kids. Both kids, and yours. You know the sheep on the right, the kids on the left. And feed your kids. Why, your kids? Because you go out, you feed like Donatus your kids; but if you do not go out, you feed like Peter my sheep. It is ended.