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1. With this third manifestation of Himself by the Lord to His
disciples after His resurrection, the Gospel of the blessed Apostle
John is brought to a close, of which we have already lectured through
the earlier part as we were able, on to the place where it is related
that an hundred and fifty-three fishes were taken by the disciples to
whom He showed Himself, and for all they were so large, yet were not
the nets broken. What follows we have now to take into consideration,
and to discuss as the Lord enables us, and as the various points may
appear to demand. When the fishing was over, "Jesus saith unto
them, Come [and] dine. And none of those who sat down dared to ask
Him, Who art Thou? knowing that it was the Lord." If, then,
they knew, what need was there to ask? and if there was no need
wherefore is it said, "they dared not," as if there were need,
but, from some fear or other, they dared not? The meaning here,
therefore, is: so great was the evidence of the truth that Jesus
Himself had appeared to these disciples, that not one of them dared
not merely to deny, but even to doubt it; for had any of them doubted
it, he ought certainly to have asked. In this sense, therefore, it
was said, "No one dared to ask Him, Who art Thou?" as if it
were, No one dared to doubt that it was He Himself.
2. "And Jesus cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and
fish likewise." We are likewise told here, you see, on what they
dined; and of this dinner we also will say something that is sweet and
salutary, if we, too, are made by Him to partake of the food. It
is related above that these disciples, when they came to the land,
"saw a fire of coals laid, and a fish laid thereon, and bread."
Here we are not to understand that the bread also was laid upon the
coals, but only to supply, They saw. And if we repeat this verb in
the place where it ought to be supplied, the whole may read thus:
They saw coals laid, and fish laid thereon, and they saw bread. Or
rather in this way: They saw coals laid, and fish laid thereon; they
saw a so bread. At the Lord's command they likewise brought of the
fishes which they themselves had caught; and although their doing so
might not be actually stated by the historian, yet there has been no
silence in regard to the Lord's command. For He says, "Bring of
the fishes which ye have now caught." And when we have such certainty
that He gave the order, will any suppose that they failed to obey it?
Of this, therefore, the Lord prepared the dinner for these His
seven disciples, namely, of the fish which they had seen laid upon the
coals, with an addition thereto from those which they had caught, and
of the bread which we are told with equal distinctness that they had
seen. The fish roasted is Christ having suffered; He Himself also
is the bread that cometh down from heaven. With Him is incorporated
the Church, in order to the participation in everlasting blessedness.
For this reason is it said, "Bring of the fish which ye have now
caught," that all of us who cherish this hope may know that we
ourselves, through that septenary number of disciples whereby our
universal community may in this passage be understood as symbolized,
partake in this great sacrament, and are associated in the same
blessedness. This is the Lord's dinner with His own disciples, and
herewith John, although having much besides that he might say of
Christ, brings his Gospel, with profound thought and an eye to
important lessons, to a close. For here the Church, such as it will
be hereafter among the good alone, is signified by the draught of an
hundred and fifty-three fishes; and to those who so believe, and
hope, and love, there is demonstrated by this dinner their
participation in such supereminent blessedness.
3. "This was now," he says, "the third time that Jesus showed
Himself to His disciples after that He was risen from the dead."
And this we are to refer not to the manifestations themselves, but to
the days that is to say, taking the first day when He rose again, and
the [second] eight days after, when the disciple Thomas saw and
believed, and [the third] on this day when He so acted in connection
with the fishes, although how many days afterwards it was that He did
so we are not told); for on that first day He was seen more than
once, as is shown by the collated testimonies of all the evangelists:
but, as we have said, it is in accordance with the days that His
manifestations are to be calculated, making this the third; for that
[manifestation] is to be reckoned the first, and all one and the
same, as included in one day, however often and to however many He
showed Himself on the day of His resurrection; the second eight days
afterwards, and this the third, and thereafter as often as He pleased
on to the fortieth day, when He ascended into heaven, although all of
them have not been recorded in Scripture.
4. "So when they had dined, He saith to Simon Peter, Simon,
[son] of John, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto
Him, Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I love Thee. He saith unto
him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again, Simon, [son] of
John, lovest thou me? He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord; Thou
knowest that I love Thee. He saith unto Him, Feed my lambs. He
saith unto him the third time, Simon, [son] of John, lovest thou
me? Peter was grieved because He said unto him the third time,
Lovest thou me? And he said unto Him, Lord, Thou knowest all
things; Thou knowest that I love Thee. He saith unto him, Feed
my sheep. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young
thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when
thou shall be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another
shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wilt not. And this spoke
He, signifying by what death he should glorify God." Such was the
end reached by that denier and lover; elated by his presumption,
prostrated by his denial, cleansed by his weeping, approved by his
confession, crowned by his suffering, this was the end he reached, to
die with a perfected love for the name of Him with whom, by a
perverted forwardness, he had promised to die. He would do, when
strengthened by His resurrection, what in his weakness he promised
prematurely. For the needful order was that Christ should first die
for Peter's salvation, and then that Peter should die for the
preaching of Christ. The boldness thus begun by human temerity was an
utter inversion of the order that had been instituted by the Truth.
Peter thought to lay down his life for Christ, the one to be
delivered in behalf of the Deliverer, seeing that Christ had come to
lay down His life for all His own, including Peter also, which,
you see, was now done. Now and henceforth a true, because graciously
bestowed, strength of heart may be assumed for incurring death itself
for the name of the Lord, and not a false one presumptuously usurped
through an erroneous estimate of ourselves. Now there is no need that
we should any more fear the passage out of the present life, because in
the Lord's resurrection we have a foregoing illustration of the life
to come. Now thou hast cause, Peter, to be no longer afraid of
death, because He liveth whom thou didst mourn when dead, and whom in
thy carnal love thou didst try to hinder from dying in our behalf.
Thou didst dare to step in before the Leader, and thou didst tremble
before His persecutor: now that the price has been paid for thee, it
is thy duty to follow the Buyer, and follow Him even to the death of
the cross. Thou hast heard the words of Him whom thou hast already
proved to be truthful; He Himself hath foretold thy suffering, who
formerly foretold thy denial.
5. But first the Lord asks what He knew, and that not once, but a
second and a third time, whether Peter loved Him; and just as often
He has the same answer, that He is loved, while just as often He
gives Peter the same charge to feed His sheep. To the threefold
denial there is now appended a threefold confession, that his tongue
may not yield a feebler service to love than to fear, and imminent
death may not appear to have elicited more from the lips than present
life. Let it be the office of love to feed the Lord's flock, if it
was the signal of fear to deny the Shepherd. Those who have this
purpose in feeding the flock of Christ, that they may have them as
their own, and not as Christ's, are convicted of loving themselves,
and not Christ, from the desire either of boasting, or wielding
power, or acquiring gain, and not from the love of obeying, serving,
and pleasing God. Against such, therefore, there stands as a
wakeful sentinel this thrice inculcated utterance of Christ, of whom
the apostle complains that they seek their own, not the things that are
Jesus Christ's. For what else mean the words, "Lovest thou me?
Feed my sheep," than if it were said, If thou lovest me, think not
of feeding thyself, but feed my sheep as mine, and not as thine own;
seek my glory in them, and not thine own; my dominion, and not
thine; my gain, and not thine; lest thou be found in the fellowship
of those who belong to the perilous times, lovers of their own selves,
and all else that is joined on to this beginning of evils? For the
apostle, after saying, "For men shall be lovers of their own
selves," proceeded to add, "Lovers of money, boastful, proud,
blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, wicked,
irreligious, without affection, false accusers, incontinent,
implacable, without kindness, traitors, heady, blinded; lovers of
pleasures more than of God; having a form of godliness, but denying
the power thereof." All these evils flow from that as their fountain
which he stated first, "lovers of their own selves." With great
propriety, therefore, is Peter addressed, "Lovest thou me?" and
found replying, "I love Thee:" and the command applied to him,
"Feed my lambs," and this a second and a third time We have it also
demonstrated here that love and liking are one and the same thing; for
the Lord also in the last question said not Diligis me? but, Amas
me? Let us, then, love not ourselves, but Him; and in feeding
His sheep, let us be seeking the things which are His, not the
things which are our own. For in some inexplicable way, I know not
what, every one that loveth himself, and not God, loveth not
himself; and whoever loveth God, and not himself, he it is that
loveth himself. For he that cannot live by himself will certainly die
by loving himself; he therefore loveth not himself who loves himself to
his own loss of life. But when He is loved by whom life is
preserved, a man by not loving himself only loveth the more, when it
is for this reason that he loveth not himself [namely] that he may
love Him by whom he lives. Let not those, then, who feed Christ's
sheep be "lovers of their own selves," test they feed them as if they
were their own, and not His, and wish to make their own gain of
them, as "lovers of money;" or to domineer over them, as
"boastful;" or to glory in the honors which they receive at their
hands, as "proud;" or to go the length even of originating
heresies, as "blasphemers;" and not to give place to the holy
fathers, as those who are "disobedient to parents;" and to render
evil for good to those who wish to correct them, because unwilling to
let them perish, as "unthankful;" to slay their own souls and those
of others, as "wicked;" to outrage the motherly bowels of the
Church, as "irreligious;" to have no sympathy with the weak, as
those who are "without affection;" to attempt to traduce the
character of the saints, as "false accusers;" to give loose reins to
the basest lusts, as "incontinent;" to make lawsuits their
practice, as "implacable;" to know nothing of loving service, as
those who are "without kindness;" to make known to the enemies of the
godly what they are well aware ought to be kept secret, as
"traitors;" to disturb human modesty by shameless discussions, as
"heady;" to understand neither what they say nor whereof they
affirm, as "blinded;" and to prefer carnal delights to spiritual
joys, as those who are "lovers of pleasures more than lovers of
God." For these and such like vices, whether all of them meet in a
single individual, or whether some dominate in one and others in
another, spring up in some form or another from this one root, when
men are "lovers of their own selves." A vice which is specially to
be guarded against by those who feed Christ's sheep, lest they be
seeking their own, not the things that are Jesus Christ's, and be
turning those to the use of their own lusts for whom the blood of
Christ was shed. Whose love ought, in one who feedeth His sheep,
to grow up unto so great a spiritual fervor as to overcome even the
natural fear of death, that makes us unwilling to die even when we wish
to live with Christ. For the Apostle Paul also says that he had a
desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ, and yet he groans,
being burdened, and wishes not to be unclothed, but clothed upon,
that mortality may be swallowed up of life. And so to His present
lover the Lord said, "When thou shall be old, thou shall stretch
forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither
thou wouldest not. For this He said to him, signifying by what death
he should glorify God." "Thou shall stretch forth thy hands," He
said; in other words, thou shall be crucified. But that thou mayest
come to this, "another shall gird thee, and carry thee," not
whither thou wouldest, but "whither thou wouldest not." He told him
first what would happen, and then how it should come to pass. For it
was not after being crucified, but when actually about to be
crucified, that he was carried whither he would not; for after being
crucified he went his way, not whither he would not, but rather
whither he would. And though when set free from the body he wished to
be with Christ, yet, were it only possible, he had a desire for
eternal life apart from the grievousness of death, to which grievous
experience he was unwillingly carried, but from it [when all was
over] he was willingly carried away; unwillingly he came to it, but
willingly he conquered it, and left this feeling of infirmity behind
that makes every one unwilling to die, a feeling so permanently
natural, that even old age itself was unable to set the blessed Peter
free from its influence, even as it was said unto him, "When thou
shalt be old," thou shall be led "whither thou wouldest not." For
our consolation the Saviour Himself transfigured also the same feeling
in His own person when He said, "Father, if it be possible, let
this cup pass from me;" and He certainly had come to die without
having any necessity, but only the willingness to die, with power to
lay down His life, and with power to take it again. But however
great be the grievousness of death, it ought to be overcome by the
power of that love which is felt to Him who, being our life, was
willing to endure even death in our behalf. For if there were no
grievousness, even of the smallest kind, in death, the glory of the
martyrs would not be so great. But if the good Shepherd, who laid
down His own life for His sheep, has raised up so many martyrs for
Himself out of the very sheep, how much more ought those to contend to
death for the truth, and even to blood against sin, who are entrusted
by Him with the feeding, that is, with the teaching and governing of
these very sheep? And on this account, along with the preceding
example of His own passion, who can fail to see that the shepherds
ought all the more to set themselves closely to imitate the Shepherd,
if He was so imitated even by many of the sheep under whom, as the one
Shepherd and in the one flock, the shepherds themselves are likewise
sheep? For He made all those His sheep for [all of] whom He
died, because He Himself also became a sheep that He might suffer
for all.
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