Noël Alexandre: Commentary on John 10:1–10
LITERAL COMMENTARY
Jn 10:1. “Truly, truly, I say to you: He who does not enter by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs in another way, is a thief and a robber.”
On the occasion of the blind man recently healed and the Pharisees cast out of the synagogue, who boasted that they alone were the teachers and shepherds of the people, this discourse seems to have been delivered by Christ, perhaps on the following Sabbath.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, Pharisees and other hearers: He who does not enter by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs in another way, having broken through the wall, that man is a thief, because he comes to steal another’s sheep, and a robber, because he comes to slaughter.”
Jn 10:2–6. “But he who enters by the door, admitted by the master of the flock or his ministers, is the shepherd of the sheep,” to whom the care of the sheep is entrusted, and who thereby shows himself to be legitimate. “To him the doorkeeper opens” as to one known and familiar, “and the sheep hear his voice” by a certain natural instinct, “and he calls his own sheep by name, and in turn knows them distinctly, and leads them out” to salutary pastures. “And when he has brought his own sheep out of the fold, he goes before them,” showing them the way, “and the sheep follow him who calls and goes before them, because they know his voice”—the whistles and sounds he is accustomed to use. “But a stranger they do not follow, but flee from him,” perceiving from his very voice that he comes to harm them, not to care for them, “because they do not know the voice of strangers.”
“Jesus spoke this parable to them, but they did not understand what He was saying to them,” nor did they grasp what this similitude signified.
Jn 10:7–10. “Therefore Jesus said to them again: Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep of the Lord’s flock, through which both they and the shepherds enter, whose care is entrusted by the one supreme Shepherd.”
“All who have come, not sent by God but thrusting themselves of their own accord into the leadership and care of the sheep—false prophets and anyone promising access and salvation without Me, the Mediator, or arrogating to themselves the name of supreme Shepherd and Messiah, like Theudas, Judas the Galilean, etc.—are thieves and robbers, and the elect sheep did not listen to them, did not receive them, and if any were perhaps led astray by them, they soon laid aside their error.”
“I am the door; through Me, if anyone enters—whoever through faith in Me, Christ the Mediator, has entered into the fold of God, that is, into the Church, whether as a shepherd or as a sheep—he will be saved, and will go in and go out, and will be safe from the assaults of the infernal wolf, just as a sheep is secure within the fold, and will find pastures, nor will he lack nourishment suitable and salutary for his soul.”
“The thief comes only to steal, and to slaughter, and to destroy those who resist his assaults and defend their goods. I have come that My sheep, My elect, may have life, a true, spiritual, heavenly life of grace and glory, and may have it more abundantly, not only life, but every kind of happiness.”
MORAL COMMENTARY
Jn 10:1. “Truly, truly, I say to you: He who does not enter by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs in another way, is a thief and a robber.”
Christ is the door; whoever does not enter through Him, whoever does not believe in Him, however he may seem to shine with probity of morals, he is a thief and a robber. Such are pagans, Gentiles, philosophers, Pharisees, heretics, and all who seek their own glory. Let pagans therefore say: “We live well.” If they do not enter through the door, what good is it to them? From what do they boast? For it ought to benefit each one to live well only so that he may be given life forever. For to whom is it not given to live forever, what good is it to live well? Because they are not to be said to live well who lack the end of living well, or who, through a wicked blindness, lack true and certain hope of eternal life, unless they enter through the door, which is life itself, that is, Christ, and enter into the fold. Unless, I say, he acknowledges, confesses, and worships the true God and true man, and through faith in Him enters into the fold of Christ, that is, into the Catholic Church. Moreover, let him not only preach Christ truly, but seek the glory of Christ, not his own. For by seeking their own glory, they have scattered Christ’s sheep rather than gathered them. For Christ the Lord is humble. He who enters through this door must humble himself so that he may enter with a sound head. But he who does not humble himself, but exalts himself, wishes to climb over the wall. And he who climbs over the wall is lifted up only to fall. He who does not enter by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs in another way, is a thief and a robber.
Whoever does not enter through Christ Jesus into the Ecclesiastical Order, into the Pastoral Ministry; whoever looks to any end other than the glory of Christ and the utility of the Church; whoever is moved by any other motive—he is a thief and a robber. Whomever ambition, avarice, love of an easier life and rest, or the advantage of his family allure and draw to the Clergy and to the Pastoral Ministry—he is a thief and a robber. Whoever obtains Ecclesiastical Benefices, and those which have the care of souls annexed to them, through simony, force, or evil arts, and seeks them for himself—he is a thief and a robber.
Jn 10:2–6. “But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.” Christ, the supreme Shepherd, explains the qualities, duties, and signs of a good shepherd.
The first duty is a legitimate entrance into the fold of Christ through an interior vocation of His Spirit, for no other end than the glory of God, the utility of the Church, and the sanctification of souls; and through an exterior vocation, mission, Apostolic and Episcopal authority. For with these, as it were, keys, the Holy Spirit opens the door to shepherds, and closes it to thieves and robbers. To him the doorkeeper opens.
A good shepherd ought to teach his sheep, preach the word of God to them, adapt his discourses to their capacity and understanding, so that they may hear his voice. A mute shepherd is an idol, not a shepherd. He who preaches but does not accommodate himself to the minds of his hearers is blind and a declaimer, not a preacher. And the sheep hear his voice.
A good shepherd ought to know his sheep, have a clear view of their good or bad disposition, affections, customs, internal and external necessities, visit them, relieve them in poverty and in diseases of body and soul, be always ready to succor all and each one, call his own sheep, not another’s, usurp nothing in another’s fold, not appropriate to himself the trust of souls committed to another’s care, nor steal them from their proper shepherd. And he calls his own sheep by name.
Jn 10:4–5. A good shepherd ought to lead souls out of the family of the old man and introduce them into the family of the new man, Christ Jesus, through baptism; lead them out through the preaching of the divine word, through supplications, corrections, reprimands, through the administration of canonical penance, out of their sins, evil habits and affections, out of the pomp of the devil, worldly pleasures, and love of the world, and lead them into salutary pastures and the way of Christian life and discipline. He leads them out.
A good shepherd ought to go before his sheep by the example of an irreprehensible life and of all Christian virtues. And when he has brought out his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice. The good shepherd feeds the flock entrusted to him by the example of his conversation, by the word of preaching, and by the fruit of prayer.
Jn 10:7–8. “Truly, truly, I say to you, because I am the door of the sheep. All who have come are thieves and robbers, and the sheep did not listen to them.”
The just of the Old Testament listened to the prophets, because they came with the Word of God and were ministers and interpreters of truth. Therefore, those who listened to them entered through the door, believing in Christ to come just as we believe in Him who has come. The times have changed, not the faith. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin, came in the flesh, suffered, rose again, ascended into heaven; we already believe all this has been fulfilled. In the society of this faith are with us those Fathers who believed He would be born of the Virgin, would suffer, would rise again, would ascend into heaven. “Having,” says the Apostle, “the same spirit of faith, as it is written: I believed, therefore I have spoken. We also believe, and therefore we speak.”
Therefore, all who believed before Christ’s advent, whether Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, or other Patriarchs and Prophets announcing Christ, were sheep and listened to Christ, not to the voice of strangers. Others, therefore, are those whom the sheep did not listen to, in whom there was not the voice of Christ—those who wander, speaking falsehoods, babbling emptiness, inventing vanities, seducing the wretched. And if the sheep of Christ ever listened to them, wandering, they finally heard the voice of Christ, returned to the fold, and persevered in it unto the end.
There is a certain voice of the Shepherd in which sheep do not listen to strangers, in which non-sheep do not listen to Christ. What is this voice? “He who perseveres to the end shall be saved.” The proper sheep does not neglect this voice, the stranger does not hear it. For even he preaches this to him: that he may persevere with Him unto the end. But by not persevering with Him, he does not hear this voice. He came to Christ, heard other words, those and those, all true, all sound, all, among which is also that voice: “He who perseveres…” He who hears this is a sheep. But someone heard it and grew foolish, grew cold, heard a stranger’s voice. If he is predestined, he wandered for a time, did not perish eternally, returns to hear what he neglected, does what he heard. For if he is among those who are predestined, and God foresaw both his error and future conversion, if he strayed, he returns to hear that voice of the Shepherd and follow Him saying: “He who perseveres to the end shall be saved.” A good voice, a true pastoral voice of salvation in the tabernacles of the just. For it is easy to hear Christ, to praise the Gospel, to acclaim the preacher; to persevere to the end—this is for sheep listening to the voice of the Shepherd.
Jn 10:9–10. “I am the door. Through Me, if anyone enters, he will be saved, and will go in and go out, and will find pastures.”
Souls must be led to Christ Jesus through Himself, who is the door of salvation. In His hand are life and an abundance of all good things, which He mercifully distributes to those who trust in His grace, not in their own virtue. Through Christ we enter into the Church, that there we may be fed on the nourishment of the divine word, the Mysteries, the Sacraments, and most especially His sacred Body and Blood. Through Christ we depart from this world and are received into heaven, to be fed on eternal truth.
“The thief comes only to steal, and to slaughter, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly.”
He seems to have said this so that they may have life when entering, and have it more abundantly when departing. But no one can depart through the door, that is, through Christ, to eternal life, which will be in vision, unless through Him he has first entered into His Church, which is His fold, for the temporal life which is in faith. Therefore He says: “I have come that they may have life,” that is, faith which works through charity, through which faith they enter into the fold that they may live, because the just man lives by faith. “And that they may have it more abundantly”—those who, by persevering to the end, depart through that door, that is, through the faith of Christ. For true faithful die, and will have life more abundantly by going where that Shepherd has gone before, where they shall never die again.
Whoever has undertaken an Ecclesiastical Benefice and Ministry that he may live more comfortably and luxuriously, that he may abuse the revenues of the Church for luxury, for games, for excess; whoever destroys souls by false doctrines, evil morals, or certainly by his negligence—he is a thief and a robber. But he is a truly good shepherd who, after the example of Christ Jesus, Prince of Shepherds, devotes all his efforts and means to this one end: that he may procure eternal life for his sheep. For this is the end for which a shepherd is constituted in the Church. The thief comes only to steal, to slaughter, to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly.
CONTINUE
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