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1. Those of you who hear the word of our God, not only with
willingness, but also with attention, doubtless remember our promise.
Indeed the same gospel lesson has also been read today which was read
last Lord's day; because, having lingered over certain closely
related topics, we could not discuss all that we owed to your powers of
understanding. Accordingly, what has been already said and discoursed
about we do not inquire into today, lest by continual repetitions we
should be prevented from reaching what has still to be spoken. You
know now in the Lord's name who is the good Shepherd, and in what
way good shepherds are His members, and therefore the Shepherd is
one. You know who is the hireling we have to bear with; who the
wolf, and the thieves, and the robbers we have to beware of; who are
the sheep, and what is the door whereby both sheep and shepherd enter:
how we are to understand the doorkeeper. You know also that every one
who entereth not by the door is a thief and a robber, and cometh not
but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. All these sayings have,
as I think, been sufficiently handled. Today we ought to tell you,
as far as the Lord enables us (for Jesus Christ our Saviour hath
Himself told us that He is both the Shepherd and the door, and that
the good Shepherd entereth in by the door), how it is that He
entereth in by Himself. For if no one is a good shepherd but he that
entereth by the door, and He Himself is preeminently the good
Shepherd, and also Himself the door, I can understand it only in
this way, that He entereth in by Himself to His sheep, and calleth
them to follow Him, and they, going in and out, find pasture, which
is to say, eternal life.
2. I proceed, then, without more delay. When I seek to get into
you, that is, into your heart, I preach Christ: were I preaching
something else, I should be trying to climb up some other way.
Christ, therefore, is my gate to you: by Christ I get entrance,
not to your houses, but to your hearts. It is by Christ I enter:
it is Christ in me that you have been willingly hearing.
And why is it you have thus willingly hearkened to Christ in me?
Because you are the sheep of Christ, purchased with the blood of
Christ. You acknowledge your own price, which is not paid by me,
but is preached by my instrumentality. He, and only He, was the
buyer, who shed precious blood the precious blood of Him who was
without sin. Yet made He precious also the blood of His own, for
whom He paid the price of blood: for had He not made the blood of
His own precious, it would not have been said, "Precious in the
sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." So also when He
saith, "The good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep," He is
not the only one who has done such a deed; and yet if those who have
done so are His members, He only Himself was the doer of it. For
He was able to do so without them, but whence had they the power apart
from Him, who Himself had said, "Without me ye can do nothing"?
But from the same source we can show what others also have done, for
the apostle John himself, who preached the very gospel you have been
hearing, has said in his epistle, "Just as Christ laid down His
life for us, so ought we also to lay down our lives for the
brethren." "We ought," he says: He made us debtors who first set
the example. To the same effect it is written in a certain place,
"If thou sittest down to sup at a ruler's table, make wise
observation of what is set before thee; and put to thy hand, knowing
that it will be thy duty to make similar provision in turn." You know
what is meant by the ruler's table: you there find the body and blood
of Christ; let him who comes to such a table be ready with similar
provision. And what is such similar provision? As fire laid down
His life for us, so ought we also, for the edification of others,
and the maintenance of the faith, to lay down our lives far the
brethren. To the same effect He said to Peter, whom He wished to
make a good shepherd. not in Peter's own person, but as a member of
His body: "Peter, lovest thou me? Feed my sheep." This He did
once, again, and a third time, to the disciple's sorrow. And when
the Lord had questioned him as often as lie judged it needful, that he
who had thrice denied might thrice confess Him, and had a third time
given him the charge to feed His sheep, He said to him, "When thou
wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou
wouldest: but when thou shall be old, thou shall stretch forth thy
hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou
wouldest not." And the evangelist has explained the Lord's
meaning: "But this spoke He, signifying by what death he should
glorify God." "Feed my sheep" applies, then, to this, that thou
shouldst lay down thy life for my sheep.
3. And now when He saith, "As the Father knoweth me, even so
know I the Father," who can be ignorant of His meaning? For He
knoweth the Father by Himself, and we by Him. That He hath
knowledge by Himself, we know already: that we also have knowledge by
Him, we have likewise learned, for this also we have learned of
Him. For He Himself hath said: "No one hath seen God at any
time; but the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the
Father, He hath declared Him." And so by Him do we also get this
knowledge, to whom He hath declared Him. In another place also He
saith: "No one knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth
any one the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will
reveal Him." As He then knoweth the Father by Himself, and we
know the Father by Him; so into the sheepfold He entereth by
Himself, and we by Him. We were saying that by Christ we have a
door of entrance to you; and why? Because we preach Christ. We
preach Christ; and therefore we enter in by the door. But Christ
preacheth Christ, for He preacheth Himself; and so the Shepherd
entereth in by Himself. When the light shows the other things that
are seen in the light, does it need some other means of being made
visible itself? The light, then, exhibits both other things and
itself. Whatever we understand, we understand with the intellect:
and how, save by the intellect, do we understand the intellect
itself? But does one in the same way with the bodily eye see both
other things and [the eye] itself? For though men see with their
eyes, yet their own eyes they see not. The eye of the flesh sees
other things, itself it cannot [see]: but the intellect understands
itself as well other things. In the same way as the intellect seeth
itself, so also cloth Christ preach Himself. If He preacheth
Himself, and by preaching entereth into thee, He entereth into thee
by Himself. And He is the door to the Father, for there is no way
of approach to the Father but by Him. "For there is one God and
one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." Many
things are expressed by a word: all that I have just said, I have
said, of course, by means of words. If I were wishing to speak also
of a word itself, how could I do so but by the use of the word? And
thus both many things are expressed by a word, which are not the same
as the word, and the word itself can only be expressed by means of the
word. By the Lord's help we have been copious in illustration.
Remember, then, how the Lord Jesus Christ is both the door and the
Shepherd: the door, in presenting Himself to view; the Shepherd,
in entering in by Himself. And indeed, brethren, because He is the
Shepherd, He hath given to His members to be so likewise. For both
Peter, and Paul, and the other apostles were, as all good bishops
are, shepherds. But none of us calleth himself the door. This the
way of entrance for the sheep He has retained as exclusively belonging
to Himself. In short, Paul discharged the office of a good shepherd
when he preached Christ, because he entered by the door. But when
the undisciplined sheep began to create schisms, and to set up other
doors before them, not of entrance to their joint assembly, but for
falling away into divisions, saying, some of them, "I am of
Paul;" others, "I am of Cephas;" others," I of Apollos;"
others, "I of Christ:" terrified for those who said, "I am of
Paul," as if calling out to the sheep, Wretched ones, whither are
you going? I am not the door, he said, "Was Paul crucified for
you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?" But those who said,
"I am of Christ," had found the door.
4. But of the one sheepfold and of the one Shepherd, you are now
indeed being constantly reminded; for we have commended much the one
sheepfold, preaching unity, that all the sheep should enter by
Christ, and none of them should follow Donatus. Nevertheless, for
what particular reason this was said by the Lord, is sufficiently
apparent. For He was speaking among the Jews, and had been
specially sent to the Jews, not for the sake of that class who were
bound up in their inhuman hatred and persistently abiding in darkness,
but for the sake of some in the nation whom He calls His sheep: of
whom He saith, "I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel." He knew them even amid the crowd of His raging foes, and
foresaw them in the peace of believing. What, then, does He mean by
saying, "I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel," but that He exhibited His bodily presence only to the
people of Israel? He did not proceed Himself to the Gentiles, but
sent: to the people of Israel He both sent and came in person, that
those who proved despisers should receive the greater judgment, because
favored also with the sight of His actual presence. The Lord
Himself was there: there He chose a mother: there He wished to be
conceived, to be born, to shed His blood: there are His
footprints, now objects of adoration where last He stood, and whence
He ascended to heaven: but to the Gentiles He only sent.
5. But perhaps some one thinks that, as He Himself came not to
us, but sent, we have not heard His own voice, but only the voice of
those whom He sent. Far from it: let such a thought be banished from
your hearts; for He Himself was in those whom He sent. Listen to
Paul himself whom He sent; for Paul was specially sent as an apostle
to the Gentiles; and it is Paul who, terrifying them not with
himself but with Him saith, "Do ye wish to receive a proof of Him
who speaketh in me, that is, of Christ?" Listen also to the Lord
Himself. "And other sheep I have," that is, among the
Gentiles, "which are not of this fold," that is, of the people of
Israel: "them also must I bring." Therefore, even when it is by
the instrumentality of His servants, it is He and not another that
bringeth them. Listen further: "They shall hear my voice." See
here also, it is He Himself who speaks by His servants, and it is
His voice that is heard in those whom He sends. "That there may be
one fold, and one shepherd." Of these two flocks, as of two walls,
is the corner-stone formed. And thus is He both door and the
corner-stone: all by way of comparison, none of them literally.
6. For I have said so before, and earnestly pressed it on your
notice, and those who comprehend it are wise, yea, those who are wise
do comprehend it; and yet let those who are not yet intellectually
enlightened, keep hold by faith of what they cannot as yet understand.
Christ is many things metaphorically, which strictly speaking He is
not. Metaphorically Christ is both a rock, and a door, and a
corner-stone, and a shepherd, and a lamb, and a lion. How numerous
are such similitudes, and as many more as would take too long to
enumerate! But if you select the strict significations of things as
you are accustomed to see them, then He is neither a rock, for He is
not hard and senseless; nor a door, for no artisan made Him; nor a
corner-stone, for He was not constructed by a builder; nor a
shepherd, for He is no keeper of four-footed animals; nor a lion,
as it ranks among the beasts of the forest; nor a lamb, as it belongs
to the flock. All such, then, are by way of comparison. But what
is He properly? "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God [God was the Word]." And
what, as He appeared in human nature? "And the Word was made
flesh, and dwelt among us [in us]."
7. Hear also what follows. "Therefore doth my Father love me,"
He saith, "because I lay down my life. that I might take it
again." What is this that He says? "Therefore doth my Father
love me:" because I die, that I may rise again. For the "I" is
uttered with special emphasis: "Because I lay down," He saith,
"I lay down my life," "I lay down." What is that "I lay
down"? I Lay it down. Let the Jews no longer boast: they might
rage, but they could have no power: let them rage as they can; if I
were unwilling to lay down my life, what would all their raging
effect? By one answer of His they were prostrated in the dust: when
they were asked, "Whom seek ye?" they said, "Jesus;" and on
His saying to them, "I am He, they went backward, and fell to the
ground."
Those who thus fell to the ground at one word of Christ when about to
die, what will they do at the sound of His voice when coming to
judgment? "I, I," I say, "lay down my life, that I may take
it again." Let not the Jews boast, as if they had prevailed; He
Himself laid down His life. "I laid me down [to sleep]," He
says [elsewhere]. You know the psalm: "I laid me down and slept;
and I awaked [rose up], for the Lord sustaineth me." What of
that "I lay down"? Because it was my pleasure, I did so. What
does "I lay down" mean? I died. Was it not a lying down to sleep
on His part, who, when He pleased, rose from the tomb as He would
from a bed? But He loves to give glory to the Father, that He may
stir us up to glorify our Creator. For in adding, "I arose, for
the Lord sustaineth me;" think you there was here a kind of failing
in His power, so that, while He had it in His own power to die,
He had it not in His power to rise again? So, indeed, the words
seem to imply when not more closely considered. "I lay down to
sleep;" that is, I did so, because I pleased. "And I arose:"
why? "Because the Lord sustaineth [will sustain] me." What
then? wouldst Thou not have power to rise of Thyself? If Thou
hadst not the power, Thou wouldst not have said, "I have power to
lay down my life, and I have power to take it again." But, as
showing that not only did the Father raise the Son, but the Son also
raised Himself, hear how, in another passage in the Gospel, He
saith, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it
up." And the evangelist adds: "But this He spoke of the temple
Of is body." For only that which died was restored to life. The
Word is not mortal, His soul is not mortal. If even thine dieth
not, could the Lord's be subject to death?
8. How can I know, thou wilt say, that mine dieth not? Slay it
not thyself, and it cannot die. How, thou asketh, can I slay my
soul? To say nothing. meanwhile of other sins, "The mouth that
lieth, slayeth the soul." How, thou sayest, can I be sure that it
dieth not? Listen to the Lord Himself giving security to His
servant: "Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that
have no more that they can do." But what in the plainest terms does
He say? "Fear Him who hath power to slay both soul and body in
hell." Here you have the fact that it dieth, and that it doth not
die. What is its dying? What is dying to thy flesh? Dying, to thy
flesh, is the losing of its life: dying to thy soul, is the losing of
its life. The life of thy flesh is thy soul: the life of thy soul is
thy God. As the flesh dies in losing the soul, which is its life,
so the soul dieth in losing God, who is its life. Of a certainty,
then, the soul is immortal. Manifestly immortal, for it liveth even
when dead. For what the apostle said of the luxurious widow, may also
be said of the soul if it has lost its God, "she is dead while she
liveth."
9. How, then, does the Lord lay down His life [soul]? Let
us, brethren, inquire into this a little more carefully. The time is
not so pressing as is usual on the Lord's day: we have leisure. and
theirs will be the profit who have assembled today also to wait on the
Word of God. "I lay down my life," He says. Who lays down?
What lays He down? What is Christ? The Word and man. Not man
as being flesh alone: but as man consists of flesh and soul, so, in
Christ there is a complete humanity. For He would not have assumed
the baser part, and left the better behind, seeing that the soul of
man is certainly superior to the body. Since, then, there is entire
manhood in Christ, what is Christ? The Word, I repeat, and
man. What is the Word and man? The Word soul, and flesh. Keep
hold of that, for there has been no lack of heretics on this point
also, expelled as they were some time ago from the catholic truth, but
still persisting, like thieves and robbers who enter not by the door,
to lay their snares around the fold. These heretics are termed
Apollinarians, and have ventured to assert dogmatically that Christ
is only the word and flesh, and contend that He did not assume a human
soul. And yet some of them could not deny that there was a soul in
Christ. See their intolerable absurdity and madness. They would
have Him to possess an irrational soul, but deny Him a rational one.
They allowed Him a mere animal, they deprived Him of a human,
soul. But they took away Christ's reason by losing their own. Let
it be otherwise with us, who have been nourished and established in the
catholic faith. Accordingly, on this occasion I would remind your
Charity, that, as in former lectures, we have given you sufficient
instruction against the Sabellians and Arians, the Sabellians, who
say, The Father is the same as the Son the Arians, who say, The
Father is one being, the Son is another, as if the Father and Son
were not of the same substance and also, provided you remember as you
ought, against the Photinian heretics, who have asserted that Christ
was mere man, and destitute of Godhead: and against the Manicheans,
who maintain that He was God only without any true humanity: we may,
on this occasion, in speaking about the soul, give you some
instruction also in opposition to the Apollinarians, who say that our
Lord Jesus Christ had no human soul, that is, a rational
intelligent soul, that soul, I mean, by which, as men, we differ
from the brutes.
10. In what sense, then, did our Lord say here, "I have power
to lay down my soul [life]"? Who lays down his soul, and takes it
again? Is it as being the Word that Christ does so? Or is it the
human soul He possesses that lays down and resumes its own existence?
Or is it His fleshly nature that lays down its life and takes it
again? Let us sift each of the three questions I have suggested, and
choose that which conforms to the standard of truth. For if we say
that the Word of God laid down His soul, and took it again, we
should have to fear the entrance of a wicked thought, and have it said
to us: Then there was a time when that soul was separated from the
Word, and a time, after His assumption of that soul, when He was
without a soul. I see, indeed, that the Word was once without a
human soul, but only so, when "in the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God." But from the time
that the Word was made flesh, to dwell amongst us, and manhood was
assumed by the Word, that is, our whole nature, soul and flesh,
what more could His passion and death do than separate the body from
the soul? It separated not the soul from the Word. For if the Lord
died, yea, because He died (for He did so for us on the cross),
doubtless His flesh breathed out that which was its life: for a short
time the soul forsook the flesh, although destined by its own return to
raise the flesh again to life. But I cannot say that the soul was
separated from the Word. He said to the soul of the thief, "Today
shalt thou be with me in paradise." He forsook not the believing soul
of the robber, and did He abandon His own? Surely not; but when
the Lord took that of the other into His keeping, He certainly
retained His own in indissoluble union. If, on the other hand, we
say that the soul laid down and reassumed itself, we fall into the
greatest absurdity; for what was not separated from the Word, was
inseparable from itself.
11. Let us turn, then, to what is true and easily understood.
Take the case of any man, who does not consist of the word and soul
and flesh, but only of soul and flesh; and let us inquire how any such
man lays down his life. Can no ordinary man do so? Thou mayest say
to me: No man has power to lay down his life [soul], and to take it
again. But were not a man able to lay down his life, the Apostle
John would not say, "As Christ laid down his life for us, even so
ought we also to lay down our lives for the brethren." Therefore may
we also (if only we are filled with His courage, for without Him we
can do nothing) lay down our lives for the brethren. When some holy
martyr has laid down his life for the brethren, who laid it down, and
what laid he down? If we understand this, we shall perceive in what
sense it was said by Christ, "I have power to lay down my life."
Art thou prepared, O man, to die for Christ? I am prepared, he
replies. Let me repeat the question in other words. Art thou
prepared to lay down thy life for Christ? And to these words he makes
me the same reply, I am prepared, as he had, when I said, Art
thou prepared to die? To lay down one's life [soul], is, then,
the same as to die. But in whose behalf is the sacrifice in this
case? For all men, when they die, lay down their life; but it is
not all who lay it down for Christ. And no one has power to resume
what he has laid down. But Christ both laid it down for us, and did
so when it pleased Him; and when it pleased Him, He took it again.
To lay down one's soul then, is to die. As also the Apostle Peter
said to the Lord: "I will lay down my life [soul] for Thy
sake;" that is, I will die for Thy sake. View it, then, as
referable to the flesh: the flesh layeth down its life, and the flesh
taketh it again; not, indeed, the flesh by its own power, but by the
power of Him that inhabiteth it. The flesh, then, layeth down its
life in expiring. Look at the Lord Himself on the cross: He said,
"I thirst:" those who were present dipped a sponge in vinegar,
fastened it to a reed, and applied it to His mouth; then, having
received it, He said, "It is finished;" meaning, All is
fulfilled which had been prophesied regarding me as, prior to my
death, still in the future. And because He had the power, when He
pleased, to lay down His life, after He had said, "It is
finished," what adds the evangelist? "And He bowed His head, and
gave up the spirit." This is to lay down the soul [life]. Only
let your Charity attend to this. "He bowed His head, and gave up
the spirit." Who gave up? what gave He up? He gave up the
spirit; His flesh gave it up. What means, the flesh gave it up?
The flesh sent it forth, breathed it out. For so, in becoming
separated from the spirit, we are said to expire. Just as getting
outside the paternal soil is to be expatriated, turning aside from the
track is to deviate; so to become separated from the spirit is to
expire; and that spirit is the soul [life]. Accordingly, when the
soul quits the flesh, and the flesh remains without the soul, then is
a man said to lay down his soul [his human life]. When did Christ
lay down His life? When it pleased the Word. For sovereign
authority resided in the Word; and therein lay the power to determine
when the flesh should lay down its life, and when it should take it
again.
12. If, then, the flesh laid down its life, how did Christ lay
down His life? For the flesh is not Christ. Certainly in this
way, that Christ is both flesh, and soul, and the Word; and yet
these three things are not three Christs, but one. Ask thine own
human nature, and from thyself ascend to what is above thee, and
which, if not yet able to be understood, can at least be believed.
For in the same way that one man is soul and body, is one Christ both
the Word and man.
Consider what I have said, and understand. The soul and body are
two things, but one man: the Word and man are two things, but one
Christ. Apply, then, the subject to any man. Where is now the
Apostle Paul? If one answer, At rest with Christ, he speaks
truly. And likewise, should one reply, In the sepulchre at Rome,
he is equally right. The one answer I get refers to his soul, the
other to his flesh. And yet we do not say that there are two Apostle
Pauls, one who rests in Christ, another who was laid in the
sepulchre; although we may say that the Apostle Paul liveth in
Christ, and that the same apostle lieth dead in the tomb. Some one
dieth, and we say, He was a good man, and faithful; he is in peace
with the Lord: and then immediately, Let us attend his obsequies,
and lay him in the sepulchre. Thou art about to bury one whom thou
hadst just declared to be in peace with God; for the latter regards
the soul which blooms eternally, and the other the body, which is laid
down in corruption. But while the partnership of the flesh and soul
has received the name of man, the same name is now applied to either of
them, singly and by itself.
13. Let no one, then, be perplexed, when he hears that the Lord
has said, "I lay down my life, and I take it again." The flesh
layeth it down, but by the power of the Word: the flesh taketh it
again, but by the same power. Even His own name, the Lord
Christ, was applied to His flesh alone. How can you prove it? says
some one. We believe of a certainty not only in God the Father, but
also in Jesus Christ His Son, our only Lord: and this that I
have just said contains the whole, in Jesus Christ His Son, our
only Lord. Understand that the whole is here: the Word, and soul,
and flesh. At all events thou confessest what is also held by the same
faith, that thou believest in that Christ who was crucified and
buried. Ergo, thou deniest not that Christ was buried; and yet it
was the burial only of His flesh. For had the soul been there, He
would not have been dead: but if it was a true death, and its
resurrection real, it was previously without life in the tomb; and yet
it was Christ that was buried. And so the flesh apart from the soul
was also Christ, for it was only the flesh that was buried. Learn
the same likewise in the words of an apostle. "Let this mind," he
says, "be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in
the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God."
Who, save Christ Jesus, as respects His nature as the Word, is
God with God? But look at what follows: "But emptied Himself,
and took upon Him the form of a servant; being made in the likeness of
men, and found in fashion as a man." And who is this, but the same
Christ Jesus Himself? But here we have now all the parts, both the
Word in that form of God which assumed the form of a servant, and the
soul and the flesh in that form of a servant which was assumed by the
form of God. "He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto
death." Now in His death, it was His flesh only that was slain by
the Jews. For if He said to His disciples, "Fear not them that
kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul," how could they do
more in His own case than kill the body? And yet in the slaying of
His flesh, it was Christ that was slain. Accordingly, when the
flesh laid down its life, Christ laid it down; and when the flesh,
in order to its resurrection, assumed its life, Christ assumed it.
Nevertheless this was done, not by the power of the flesh, but of
Him who assumed both soul and flesh, that in them these very things
might receive fulfillment.
14. "This commandment," He says, "have I received of my
Father." The Word received not the commandment in word, but in the
only begotten Word of the Father every commandment resides. But when
the Son is said to receive of the Father what He possesses
essentially in Himself, as it is said, "As the Father hath life in
Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself,"
while the Son is Himself the life,there is no lessening of His
authority, but the setting forth of His generation. For the Father
added not after-gifts as to a son whose state was imperfect at birth,
but on Him whom He begat in absolute perfection He bestowed all gifts
in begetting. In this manner He gave Him equality with Himself,
and yet begat Him not in a state of inequality. But while the Lord
thus spoke, for the light was shining in the darkness, and the
darkness comprehended it not, "there was a dissension again created
among the Jews for these sayings, and many of them said, He hath a
devil, and is mad: why hear ye him?" This was the thickest
darkness. Others said, "These are not the words of him that hath a
devil; can a devil open the eyes of the blind?" The eyes of such
were now begun to be opened.
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