St. Bede: Commentary on John 10:1–10
1 AMEN, amen, I say to you: He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold but climbeth up another way, the same is a thief and a robber.
2 But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
3 To him the porter openeth: and the sheep hear his voice. And he calleth his own sheep by name and leadeth them out.
4 And when he hath let out his own sheep, he goeth before them: and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice.
5 But a stranger they follow not, but fly from him, because they know not the voice of strangers.
6 This proverb Jesus spoke to them. But they understood not what he spoke.
7 Jesus therefore said to them again: Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
8 All others, as many as have come, are thieves and robbers: and the sheep heard them not.
9 I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved: and he shall go in and go out, and shall find pastures.
10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. I am come that they may have life and may have it more abundantly.
Up to the place where it is written, "This proverb Jesus spoke to them, but they did not understand what He was saying to them," the Lord Jesus wove together these words in this parable on account of the venomous, proud, and incurable arrogance of the Pharisees, who boasted that they saw while they were blind. He deigned to explain this parable to those who could understand it, and in it He has salutarily admonished us—if we pay attention—not to glory in human wisdom, nor in the dignity of morals, if the humility of Catholic faith in Christ is lacking.
For there are many pagans who, according to a certain custom of this life, are called good men—innocent, and as it were observing what is commanded in the Law: honoring their parents, not committing adultery, not perpetrating murder, not stealing, not bearing false witness against anyone, and observing the other commandments of the Law as it were—and yet they are not Christians. And very often they boast, like these Pharisees, saying: "Are we also blind?" (John 9:40). But they do all these things in vain, because they do not enter through the door, but from elsewhere; with swollen pride they seek to climb up as it were by themselves.
Therefore the Lord proposed a similitude concerning His flock and concerning the door by which one enters into the sheepfold. For what good is the vain boasting of those who inflate themselves about living well, when their life does not attain to the end of living well perpetually? For it ought to benefit each one to live well only so that he may be given to live well forever. For if to anyone it is not given to live well forever, what good is it to him to live well? Therefore, those who either through blindness do not know the end of living well, or through pride despise it, are not to be said to live well even for a time. Moreover, there is no true and certain hope for anyone of living well forever unless he acknowledges the Life which is Christ, and enters through the door into the sheepfold.
For there are certain men who glory in their own morals and seek to draw others after them, not instructing their followers in the precepts of Christ, but persuading them to live by their own examples. Concerning these the Truth Himself says elsewhere: "Teaching the doctrines of men and contemning the commandments of God" (Matt. 15:9). These seek to climb up by another part, to seize and kill, not—as a shepherd—to save and preserve. Concerning such it is said here: "But he climbs in another way; that man is a thief and a robber."
Nor indeed are such teachers found only among those who are without the name of Christ—as many philosophers who ventilated their wisdom with swelling cheeks and promised a happy life to their followers—but also very many who were reckoned by the Christian name and boasted that they had been enlightened by Christ, inventing for themselves all sorts of new names concerning Christ, and doctrines contrary to the Catholic faith, as innumerable heretics did, thinking that by a false name they were entering through the door which is Christ.
Sabellius says: "He who is the Son, He Himself is the Father." But the Son is not the Father. He does not enter through the door who says the Son is the Father.
Arius says: "One thing is the Father, another thing is the Son." He would speak rightly if he said "another person" (alius), not "another thing" (aliud). For when he says "another thing," he contradicts Him from whom he hears: "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30). Therefore he himself does not enter through the door; for he preaches Christ as he paints Him for himself, not as the Truth has Him.
Photius says: "Christ is man only, not God." Nor does he himself enter through the door, because Christ is both man and God. To this new heresy, which has arisen in our times, he seems to consent, affirming and preaching that Christ, like any of the saints, is God by name only and not in truth.
What need is there to run through many things and enumerate many vain heresies? Hold this: that the sheepfold of Christ is the Catholic Church. Believe this. Whoever wishes to enter into the sheepfold, let him enter through the door—that is, through Christ—and let him preach Christ as true God and true Son of God. Nor let him preach Christ only, but let him also seek the glory of Christ, not his own. For many, by seeking their own glory, have scattered Christ's sheep rather than gathered them. For humble is the door, Christ our Lord God, who says: "Learn from Me, because I am meek and humble of heart" (Matt. 11:29). He who enters through this door must humble himself so that he may enter with a sound head.
These are they who hear the voice of the true Shepherd. These are they whom the true Shepherd calls by name as His own sheep. Concerning these it is said: "Rejoice and exult, because your names are written in heaven" (Luke 10:20). Hence He calls them by name. And who else sends them out except He who forgives their sins, so that, freed from harsh bonds, they can follow Him? And who goes before them, whom they follow, except He who, rising from the dead, now dies no more, and death shall no more have dominion over Him (Rom. 6:9)? These He leads out from faith to vision, and He goes before them because He ascended into heaven before all, and His sheep follow Him because they know the voice of His teaching. But they do not follow alien leaders, but flee from them, because they do not know the voice—that is, the teaching—of strangers.
But when the Lord Jesus was speaking, those who heard did not understand (Isa. 6:10); for they had made their heart gross, and heard with difficulty (Acts 28:27). He names the door, He names the sheepfold, He names the sheep, He commends all these, but He does not yet explain them. Let us therefore read on, because He is about to come to those words in which He deigns to explain to us some of the things He has said; and from their explanation He will perhaps give us understanding also of those things which He did not explain. For He feeds us with what is manifest, He exercises us with what is obscure. Let us hear Him explaining, who have heard Him proposing.
"Therefore Jesus said to them again: Truly, truly, I say to you, because I am the door of the sheep." Behold, He has opened the door which He had placed closed. He Himself is the door. We have acknowledged it; let us enter, that we may rejoice that we have entered. The teachers were false—not teachers but seducers. "All who have come are thieves and robbers." What is this, O Lord? "All who have come"? Why, have You not come? But understand: He said "All who have come"—certainly, "apart from Me."
Let us therefore recall: Before His advent the prophets came; were they thieves and robbers? By no means! They did not come apart from Him, but with Him. With Him, I say, they came, because He who was to come sent His heralds beforehand, and possessed the hearts of those whom He sent. With Him therefore they came, because they came with the Word of God. "I am," He says, "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). He is the Truth. With Him they came, because they were truthful and preached the truth. But as many as came apart from Him are thieves and robbers. They came by themselves, because they were not sent by Him; as the Apostle says: "How shall they preach unless they be sent?" (Rom. 10:15). And because they came by themselves and were not sent by Him, they are thieves and robbers.
For before the advent of Christ there were false prophets, false teachers in the people of God; just as after His advent, under the Christian name, very many—not preachers but plunderers—exercised brigandage, clinging not to sound doctrine but to falsehood. Concerning these it is said: "They are thieves and robbers"—that is, they came to steal and to kill. But the sheep which are true did not listen to them, not hiding a wolfish heart under a sheep's skin.
Therefore, those who preached before the advent of Christ preached by the same Spirit by which the Apostles and holy doctors preached, who after the advent of Christ showed the way of truth to the world. And as many as believed at that time—whether Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, or other patriarchs and prophets announcing Christ—were sheep, and believed in Christ; they heard not an alien voice, but the voice of Christ Himself. For the Judge was crying out in the herald, while the herald announced the Judge who was to come.
Others, therefore, are they 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, like false prophets, like the scribes and Pharisees in the time of the Lord Himself. These are they who came by themselves and were not sent by the Judge. With these and their doctrines expelled far away, let us see what the Good Shepherd calls. For He says: "I am the door; through Me, if anyone enters, he will be saved, and will go in and go out, and will find pasture."
And by this He shows clearly that not only the shepherd but also the sheep enter through the door. But what is "he will go in and go out, and will find pasture"? Indeed, it is good to enter into the Church through the door, Christ. But to go out of the Church—as the Evangelist John says in his epistle: "They went out from us, but they were not of us" (1 John 2:19)—is certainly not good. Such a going out could not be praised by the Shepherd so that He would say: "And he will go in and go out, and will find pasture."
There is therefore a certain going out that is not only good but praiseworthy and blessed, through the Good which is Christ. But what is that praiseworthy and blessed going out? I could indeed say that we "go in" when we think something interiorly, and "go out" when we do something exteriorly; and since, as the Apostle says, Christ dwells in our hearts through faith (Eph. 3:17), to go out through Christ is to work that faith also outwardly—that is, before men. Whence also it is said in the Psalm: "Man shall go forth to his work" (Ps. 103:23), and the Lord Himself says: "Let your works shine before men" (Matt. 5:16).
But it pleases me more that the Truth Himself, as the Good Shepherd—and thus the Good Teacher—has in a certain way admonished us according to which manner we ought to understand. He says: "He will go in and go out, and will find pasture," and following this He added: "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." For He seems to have said this so that they may have life when entering. But no one can go out through the door—that is, through Christ—to eternal life, which will be in vision, unless through that same door—that is, through the same Christ—he has first entered into His Church, which is His sheepfold. Therefore He says: "I have come that they may have life"—that is, faith which works through charity (Gal. 5:6), through which faith they enter into the sheepfold that they may live, "because the just man lives by faith" (Hab. 2:4). "And that they may have it more abundantly"—those who, by persevering to the end, go out 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.
Although therefore even here in the sheepfold itself pastures are not lacking—since we can understand what is said, "And he will find pasture," as referring to both entrance and exit—nevertheless they will truly find pastures where they shall be satisfied who hunger and thirst for justice (Matt. 5:6). One found pasture to whom it was said: "Today you shall be with Me in paradise" (Luke 23:43).
What follows concerns the perfection of the Good Shepherd and the flight of the evil shepherd, whom He calls a hireling.
CONTINUE
Comments
Post a Comment