Homilies on Romans

For before everything else this is what the teacher ought to have. Wherefore also to Peter Christ says, “If you love Me, feed My sheep.” For he who loves Christ loves also His flock. And Moses too did He then set over the people of the Jews, when he had shown a kindly feeling towards them. And David in this way came to be king, having been first seen to be affectionately-minded towards them; so much indeed, though yet young, did he grieve for the people, as to risk his life for them, when he killed that barbarian.

But if he said, “What shall be done to the man that kills this Philistine?” he said it not in order to demand a reward, but out of a wish to have confidence placed in himself, and to have the battle with him delivered to his charge. And therefore, when he came to the king after the victory, he said nothing of these things. And Samuel too was very affectionate; whence it was that he said, “But God forbid that I should sin in ceasing to pray unto the Lord for you.” In like way Paul also, or rather not in like way, but even in a far greater degree, burned towards all his subjects (τὥν ἀρχομένων).

Wherefore he made his disciples of such affection towards himself, that he said, “If were possible, you would have pulled out your eyes and given them to me.” On this ground too it is, that God charges the teachers of the Jews above all things with this, saying, “Oh shepherds of Israel, do shepherds feed themselves? Do they not feed the flock?” But they did the reverse. For he says, “You eat the milk, and clothe you with the wool, and you kill them that are fed, but you feed not the flock.”

And Christ, in bringing out the rule for the fittest Pastor, said, “The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.” This David did also, both on sundry other occasions, and also when that fearful wrath from above came down upon the whole people. For while all were being slain he said, “I the shepherd have sinned, I the shepherd have done amiss, and these the flock what have they done?” And so in the choice of those punishments also, he chose not famine, nor flight before enemies, but the pestilence sent by God, whereby he hoped to place all the others in safety, but that he should himself in preference to all the rest be carried off.

But since this was not so, he bewails, and says, “On me be Your Hand:” or if this be not enough, “on my father's house” also. “For I,” he says, “the shepherd have sinned.” As though he had said, that if they also sinned, I was the person who should suffer the vengeance, as I corrected them not. But since the sin is mine also, it is I who deserve to suffer the vengeance. For wishing to increase the crime he used the name of “Shepherd.” Thus then he stayed the wrath, thus he got the sentence revoked!

So great is the power of confession. “For the righteous is his own accuser first.” So great is the concern and sympathy of a good Pastor. For his bowels were writhed at their falling, as when one's own children are killed. And on this ground he begged that the wrath might come upon himself. And in the beginning of the slaughter he would have done this, unless he had seen it advancing and expected that it would come to himself. When therefore he saw that this did not happen, but that the calamity was raging among them, he no longer forebore, but was touched more than for Amnon his first-born.

For then he did not ask for death, but now he begs to fall in preference to the others. Such ought a ruler to be and to grieve rather at the calamities of others than his own. Some such thing he suffered in his son's case likewise, that you might see that he did not love his son more than his subjects, and yet the youth was unchaste, and an ill-user of his father (πατραλοίας), and still he said, “Would that I might have died for you!” What do you say, thou blessed one, you meek of all men?

Your son was set upon killing you, and compassed you about with ills unnumbered. And when he had been removed, and the trophy was raised, do you then pray to be slain? Yea, he says, for it is not for me that the army has been victorious, but I am warred against more violently than before, and my bowels are now more torn than before. These however were all thoughtful for those committed to their charge, but the blessed Abraham concerned himself much even for those that were not entrusted to him, and so much so as even to throw himself among alarming dangers.

For when he did what he did, not for his nephew only, but for the people of Sodom also, he did not leave driving those Persians before him until he had set them all free: and yet he might have departed after he had taken him, yet he did not choose it. For he had the like concern for all, and this he showed likewise by his subsequent conduct. When then it was not a host of barbarians that was on the point of laying siege to them, but the wrath of God that was plucking their cities up from the foundations, and it was no longer the time for arms, and battle, and array, but for supplication; so great was the zeal he showed for them, as, if he himself had been on the point of perishing.

For this reason he comes once, twice, thrice, aye and many times to God, and finds a refuge (i.e. an excuse) in his nature by saying, “I am dust and ashes”: and since he saw that they were traitors to themselves, he begs that they may be saved for others. Wherefore also God said, “I will hide not from Abraham My servant that thing which I am about to do”, that we might learn how loving to man the righteous is. And he would not have left off beseeching, unless God had left off first.

And he seems indeed to be praying for the just, but is doing the whole for them. For the souls of the Saints are very gentle and, loving unto man, both in regard to their own, and to strangers. And even to the unreasoning creatures they extend their gentleness. Wherefore also a certain wise man said, “The righteous pities the souls of his cattle.” But if he does those of cattle, how much more those of men. But since I have mentioned cattle, let us just consider the shepherds of the sheep who are in the Cappadocian land, and what they suffer in kind and degree in their guardianship of unreasoning creatures.

They often stay for three days together buried down under the snows. And those in Libya are said to undergo no less hardships than these, ranging about for whole months through that wilderness, dreary as it is, and filled with the direst wild beasts (θηρία may include serpents). Now if for unreasonable things there be so much zeal, what defense are we to set up, who are entrusted with reasonable souls, and yet slumber on in this deep sleep? For is it right to be at rest, and in quiet, and not to be running about everywhere, and giving one's self up to endless deaths in behalf of these sheep?

Or know ye not the dignity of this flock? Was it not for this that your Master took endless pains, and afterwards poured forth His blood? And do you seek for rest? Now what can be worse than these Shepherds? Do you not perceive, that there stand round about these sheep wolves much more fierce and savage than those of this world? Do you not think with yourself, what a soul he ought to have who is to take in hand this office? Now men that lead the populace, if they have but common matters to deliberate on, add days to nights in watching.

And we that are struggling in heaven's behalf sleep even in the daytime. And who is now to deliver us from the punishment for these things? For if the body were to be cut in pieces, if to undergo ten thousand deaths, ought one not to run to it as to a feast? And let not the shepherds only, but the sheep also hear this; that they may make the shepherds the more active minded, that they may the more encourage their good-will: I do not mean by anything else but by yielding all compliance and obedience.

Thus Paul also bade them, saying, “Obey them which have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls as they that must give account.” And when he says, “watch,” he means thousands of labors, cares and dangers. For the good Shepherd, who is such as Christ wishes for, is contending, before countless witnesses. For He died once for him; but this man ten thousand times for the flock, if, that is, he be such a shepherd as he ought to be; for such an one can die every day. And therefore do ye, as being acquainted with what the labor is, coöperate with them, with prayers, with zeal, with readiness, with affection, that both we may have to boast of you, and you of us.

For on this ground He entrusted this to the chief of the Apostles, who also loved Him more than the rest; after first asking him if He was loved by him, that you may learn that this before other things, is held as a proof of love to Him. For this requires a vigorous soul. This I have said of the best shepherds; not of myself and those of our days, but of any one that may be such as Paul was, such as Peter, such as Moses. These then let us imitate, both the rulers of us and the ruled. For the ruled may be in the place of a shepherd to his family, to his friends, to his servants, to his wife, to his children: and if we so order our affairs we shall attain to all manner of good things. Which God grant that we may all attain unto, by the grace and love toward man, etc.