Augustinus, In Joannis Evangelium tractatus XLVI-L

Tractate 46.

From what is written, I am the good shepherd, etc., as far as, But the hireling flees, because he is a hireling, and has no concern for the sheep. Chap. 10, vv. 11-13.

1. The Lord Jesus, speaking to His sheep, both present and future, who were then there (for those who were to be His sheep were there where His sheep already were), and likewise to present and future, both to them and to us, and to as many as shall be His sheep even after us, showed who had been sent to them. All, therefore, hear the voice of their shepherd saying, I am the good shepherd. He would not add good unless there were bad shepherds. But the bad shepherds are themselves the thieves and robbers, or at any rate, at most, hirelings. For all the characters here whom He has set forth

we ought to seek out, distinguish and know. For the Lord has already opened two things which He had set forth as it were closed: we already know that He Himself is the door, we know that He Himself is the shepherd. Who the thieves and robbers are was made plain in yesterday's reading; today, moreover, we have heard of the hireling, we have heard also of the wolf: yesterday the doorkeeper too was named. Among the good, then, are the door, the doorkeeper, the shepherd and the sheep; among the bad, the thieves and robbers, the hirelings, the wolf.

2. We take the door to be the Lord Christ, and the shepherd to be Himself: whom do we take the doorkeeper to be? For these two He Himself explained; the doorkeeper He left for us to seek. And what does He say of the doorkeeper? To him, He says, the doorkeeper opens. To whom does he open? To the shepherd. What does he open to the shepherd? The door. And who is the door itself? The shepherd Himself. If the Lord Christ had not explained it, if He Himself had not said, I am the shepherd, and, I am the door (John 10:3, 9), would any of us dare to say that Christ Himself is both shepherd and door? For if He had said, I am the shepherd, and had not said, I am the door, we would have been asking what the door was, and perhaps, thinking it something else, we would have remained before the door. By His grace and mercy He explained the shepherd to us: He said it was Himself; He explained the door: He said it was Himself; the doorkeeper He left for us to seek. Whom shall we say is the doorkeeper? Whomever we find, we must take care that he not be thought greater than the door itself; for in the houses of men the doorkeeper is greater than the door. For the doorkeeper is set over the door, not the door over the doorkeeper; for the doorkeeper guards the door, not the door the doorkeeper. I do not dare to call anyone greater than the door; for I have already heard what the door is: it is not hidden from me, I have not been left to my own conjecture, no human surmise has been given free rein to me; God has said it, the Truth has said it; what the Unchangeable has said cannot be changed.

3. I will say, then, in the depth of this question, what seems right to me: let each choose what pleases him; yet let him think piously, as it is written, Think of the Lord in goodness, and in simplicity of heart seek Him (Wis. 1:1). Perhaps we ought to take the doorkeeper to be the Lord Himself. For in human affairs shepherd and door are much more different from each other than doorkeeper and door; and yet the Lord called Himself both shepherd and door. Why then should we not understand Him to be the doorkeeper also? For if we consider the proper senses of things, the Lord Christ is neither a shepherd, such as we are accustomed to know and see shepherds, nor is He a door, for no carpenter made Him: but if by some likeness, He is both door and shepherd; I dare to say, He is also a sheep: a sheep, surely, is under a shepherd, yet He is both shepherd and sheep. Where is He the shepherd? Look, you have it here, read the Gospel: I am the good shepherd. Where is He a sheep? Ask the prophet: As a sheep He was led to the slaughter (Isa. 53:7). Ask the friend of the bridegroom: Behold the lamb of God, behold Him Who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). I am going to say something yet more wonderful according to these likenesses. For lamb and sheep and shepherd are friendly to one another, but against lions sheep are usually guarded by shepherds: and yet of Christ, though He is sheep and shepherd, we read it said, The lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered (Rev. 5:5),

Take all these things, brethren, by way of likenesses, not by way of proper meanings. We are accustomed to see shepherds sit upon a rock, and from there guard the flocks entrusted to them: certainly the shepherd is better than the rock on which the shepherd sits; and yet Christ is both the shepherd and the rock. All this is by way of likeness. But if you ask me for the proper meaning: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1). If you ask me for the proper meaning: the only Son from the Father, begotten from eternity into eternity, equal to Him Who begets, through Whom all things were made, unchangeable with the Father, and not changed by taking the form of man, man by incarnation, son of man and Son of God. All this that I have said is not a likeness, but the reality.

4. Let it not irk us, then, brethren, to take Him, by way of certain likenesses, as the door and Him as the doorkeeper. For what is a door? That by which we enter. Who is the doorkeeper? He who opens. Who then opens Himself, except He Who explains Himself? See, the Lord had spoken of a door, and we had not understood; while we did not understand, it was shut; He Who opened it, He is the doorkeeper. There is, therefore, no necessity to seek anything else, no necessity at all; but perhaps there is a wish to. If there is a wish, do not stray from the path, do not depart from the Trinity. If you seek another person as doorkeeper, let the Holy Spirit come to mind: for the Holy Spirit will not disdain to be the doorkeeper, when the Son has deigned to be the door itself. See the doorkeeper, perhaps, in the Holy Spirit: the Lord Himself says to His disciples concerning the Holy Spirit, He will teach you all truth (John 16:13). What is the door? Christ. What is Christ? The Truth. Who opens the door, except He Who teaches all truth?

5. But what do we say about the hireling? He has not been mentioned here among the good. The good shepherd, He says, lays down his life for the sheep. The hireling, and he who is not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep, and flees; and the wolf snatches, and scatters the sheep. The hireling does not play a good part here, and yet he is useful in some respect: nor would he be called a hireling unless he received wages from the one who hires him. Who then is this hireling, both blameworthy and necessary? Here indeed, brethren, may the Lord Himself shed light on us, so that we may both understand the hirelings and not be hirelings. Who then is the hireling? There are in the Church certain overseers, of whom the apostle Paul says: Seeking their own things, not those of Jesus Christ. What is "seeking their own things"? Not loving Christ freely, not seeking God for God's sake; pursuing temporal advantages, gaping after gain, coveting honours from men. When these things are loved by an overseer, and God is served for the sake of these things, whoever is such is a hireling; let him not count himself among the sons. For of such the Lord also says: Amen I say to you, they have received their reward (Matt. 6:5). Hear what the apostle Paul says of holy Timothy: "But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, that I also may be of good cheer, when I know the things that concern you: for I have no one like-minded, who is genuinely concerned for you. For all seek their own things, not those

of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 2:19–21). Among hirelings the shepherd groaned: he sought someone who would love the flock of Christ sincerely, and around himself, among those who had been with him at that time, he did not find one. For it was not that in the Church of Christ at that time, apart from Paul the apostle and Timothy, there was no one who was genuinely concerned for the flock; but it had so happened that at the time when he sent Timothy he had no other of the sons around him, but only hirelings were with him, seeking their own things, not the things of Jesus Christ. And yet he himself, genuinely concerned for the flock, preferred to send a son and to remain among hirelings. We find hirelings too; no one examines them but the Lord; He who inspects the heart, He examines them: yet sometimes they are recognized by us. For not in vain did the Lord Himself say even of wolves: By their fruits you shall know them (Matt. 7:16). Temptations question many, and then their thoughts appear: but many lie hidden. Let the Lord's sheepfold have overseers, both sons and hirelings. But the overseers who are sons are shepherds. If they are shepherds, how is there one Shepherd, unless because they are all members of the one Shepherd, whose own the sheep are? For they themselves too are members of that one Sheep; because as a sheep He was led to the sacrifice.

6. But hear that hirelings too are necessary. For many in the Church, pursuing earthly advantages, nevertheless preach Christ, and through them the voice of Christ is heard: and the sheep follow, not the hireling, but the voice of the Shepherd through the hireling. Hear hirelings pointed out by the Lord Himself: The scribes, He says, and the Pharisees sit on the chair of Moses: what they say, do; but what they do, do not do (Matt. 23:2). What else did He say but, Hear the voice of the Shepherd through hirelings? For by sitting on the chair of Moses they teach the law of God: therefore God teaches through them. But if they wish to teach their own things, do not hear, do not do. For certainly such men seek their own things, not the things of Jesus Christ: yet no hireling has dared to say to the people of Christ, Seek your own things, not the things of Jesus Christ. For what he does wrongly he does not preach from the chair of Christ: he does harm by that whereby he does evil, not by that whereby he speaks good. Pluck the cluster, beware the thorn. Good, because you have understood; but for the sake of the slower I will say this same thing more plainly. How did I say, Pluck the cluster, beware the thorn, when the Lord says, Do they gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles (Matt. 7:16)? It is entirely true; and yet what I said is true as well, Pluck the cluster, beware the thorn. Because sometimes a cluster, sprung from the root of a vine, hangs on a hedge: the branch grows, is entwined among thorns, and the thorn bears fruit not its own. For the vine did not bring forth the thorn, but the branch lay upon the thorns. Question nothing but the roots. Seek the root of the thorn: you find it outside the vine; seek the origin of the grape: the vine brought it forth from its root. The chair of Moses, then, was the vine: the morals of the Pharisees were the thorns. True doctrine through bad men: a branch on a hedge, a cluster among thorns. Gather carefully, lest while you seek the fruit

you tear your hand: and when you hear someone saying good things, do not imitate him doing bad things. What they say, do: gather the grapes; but what they do, do not do: beware of the thorns. Even through hirelings hear the voice of the shepherd, but do not be hirelings, since you are members of the shepherd. Now Paul himself, the holy apostle, who said, "I have no one who is genuinely anxious about you; for all seek their own things, not the things of Jesus Christ," in another place, distinguishing between hirelings and sons, see what he said: "Some through envy and contention, but some also through good will preach Christ: some out of charity, knowing that I am set for the defence of the Gospel; but some also out of contumacy proclaim Christ, not purely, supposing that they stir up tribulation for my bonds." These were hirelings; they envied Paul the apostle. Why did they envy him, unless because they were seeking temporal things? But attend to what he adds: What then? So long as in every way, whether by pretext or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; in this too I rejoice, yes, and I shall rejoice (Phil. 1:15–18). Christ is the truth: let the truth be proclaimed by hirelings by pretext, let the truth be proclaimed by sons in truth: the sons patiently await the eternal inheritance of the Father, the hirelings hastily long for the temporal wage of the one who hires them: let human glory, for which I see the hirelings envy me, be diminished for me; and yet through the tongues both of hirelings and of sons let the divine glory of Christ be spread abroad, since whether by pretext or in truth Christ is proclaimed.

7. We have seen who also the hireling is. Who is the wolf, if not the devil? And what has been said of the hireling? When he sees the wolf coming, he flees; because the sheep are not his own, nor does he care for the sheep. Was the apostle Paul such a one? Far from it. Was Peter such a one? Far from it. Were the other Apostles such, except Judas the son of perdition? Far from it. Were they then shepherds? Plainly shepherds. And how is there one shepherd? I have already said: they were shepherds because they were members of the shepherd. They rejoiced in that Head, they were in concord under that Head, they lived by one spirit in the framework of one body: and through this they all belonged to the one shepherd. If, then, they were shepherds, not hirelings, why did they flee when they suffered persecution? Explain it to us, O Lord. I saw in the Epistle Paul fleeing: he was let down over the wall in a basket, so as to escape the hands of his persecutor (2 Cor. 11:33). Did he then have no care for the sheep, whom he was deserting at the wolf's coming? He plainly did, but he commended them by his prayers to the Shepherd seated in heaven: and he preserved himself by fleeing for their benefit, as he says in a certain place, To remain in the flesh is necessary for your sake (Phil. 1:24). For all had heard from the Shepherd Himself, If they persecute you in one city, flee into another (Matt. 10:23). May the Lord deign to explain this question to us. Lord, Thou didst say to those whom Thou didst surely wish to be faithful shepherds, whom Thou wast forming to be Thy members, If they persecute you, flee. Thou dost them wrong, then, when Thou dost rebuke the hirelings, who see the wolf coming and flee. We ask that Thou show us what the depth of the question holds: let us knock; there will be present to open one who is Himself the doorkeeper of the door, which is He Himself.