Homilies on the Gospel of John

“He that enters in by the door, the same is the shepherd of the sheep; to him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own by name. And when he has brought them out, he goes before them.”

3. He has set down the marks of the shepherd, and of the evil doer; let us now see how He has fitted to them what follows. “To him,” He says, “the doorkeeper opens”; He continues in the metaphor to make the discourse more emphatic. But if you should be minded to examine the parable word by word, there is nothing to hinder you from supposing Moses to be the doorkeeper, for to him were entrusted the oracles of God. “Whose voice the sheep hear, and he calls his own by name.” Because they everywhere said that He was a deceiver, and confirmed this by their own unbelief, saying, “Which of the rulers has believed on him?” He shows that they ought not on account of the unbelief of those persons to call Him a spoiler and deceiver, but that they, because they gave no heed to Him were consequently even excluded from the rank of sheep. For if a shepherd's part is to enter through the usual door, and if He entered through this, all they who followed Him might be sheep, but they who rent themselves away, hurt not the reputation of the Shepherd, but cast themselves out from the kindred of the sheep. And if farther on He says that He is “the door,” we must not again be disturbed, for He also calls Himself “Shepherd,” and “Sheep,” and in different ways proclaims His dispensations. Thus, when He brings us to the Father, He calls Himself “a Door,” when He takes care of us, “a Shepherd”; and it is that you may not suppose, that to bring us to the Father is His only office, that He calls Himself a Shepherd. “And the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep, and leads them out, and goes before them.” Shepherds indeed do the contrary, for they follow after them; but He to show that He will lead all men to the truth, does differently; as also when He sent the sheep, He sent them, not out of the way of wolves, but “in the midst of wolves.” For far more wonderful is this manner of keeping sheep than ours. He seems to me also to allude to the blind man, for him too, having “called,” He “led out” from the midst of the Jews, and the man heard “His voice,” and “knew” it.