True Shepherds, Hirelings, and Thieves

Christ as the Head, the Church as His Body

1. Your faith, dear friends, is not ignorant—and I know that you have learned from that Teacher from heaven in whom you've placed your hope—that our Lord Jesus Christ, who has suffered for us and risen again, is the Head of the Church, and the Church is His Body. In His Body, the unity of members and the bond of love constitute its sound health. But anyone who grows cold in love has become unhealthy in the Body of Christ.

He who has already exalted our Head can also make even the weakest members healthy, as long as they're not cut off by excessive ungodliness but remain attached to the Body until they're healed. Whatever remains connected to the body still has hope of healing, while what has been cut off can neither be treated nor healed.

Since Christ is the Head of the Church, and the Church is His Body, the whole Christ is both Head and Body. He has already risen. We therefore have our Head in heaven. Our Head intercedes for us. Our Head, without sin and without death, now reconciles God for our sins, so that we too, at the end, rising again and transformed into heavenly glory, may follow our Head. For where the Head is, there the other members will also be. But while we are here, we are members; let's not despair, for we will follow our Head.

2. Consider, brothers, the love of our Head. He is now in heaven, yet He suffers here as long as His Church suffers here. Christ experiences hunger here, thirst here, nakedness, homelessness, sickness, imprisonment. For whatever His Body suffers here, He has said that He Himself suffers. At the end, separating His Body to the right and the rest by whom He is now trampled underfoot to the left, He will say to those on the right, "Come, you blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matthew 25:34).

For what merits? "For I was hungry and you gave Me food." And He continues with the rest, as if He Himself had received these things—to such an extent that they, not understanding it, answer and say, "Lord, when did we see You hungry, a stranger, or in prison?" And He says to them, "Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers, you did it to Me" (Matthew 25:35-40).

Similarly, in our own bodies, the head is above, the feet are on the ground, yet in any crowd, when someone steps on your foot, doesn't the head say, "You're stepping on me!" No one has stepped on your head—it's up there, safe, unharmed—yet because the bond of love unites from head to feet, the tongue doesn't separate itself but says, "You're stepping on me," though no one has touched it. Just as the tongue, which no one has touched, says, "You're stepping on me," Christ the Head, whom no one tramples, said, "I was hungry, and you gave Me food." And to those who didn't do so, He said, "I was hungry, and you gave Me no food." And how did He conclude? "These will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life" (Matthew 25:46).

3. When our Lord was speaking on this occasion, He said that He is "the Shepherd," and He said also that He is "the Door" (John 10:7, 11). You find both in that passage: "I am the Door" and "I am the Shepherd." In the Head He is the Door, in the Body the Shepherd. For He says to Peter, in whom alone He figuratively forms the Church: "Peter, do you love Me?" He answered, "Lord, I do love You." "Feed My sheep" (John 21:15-17).

And a third time, "Peter, do you love Me?" "Peter was grieved because He asked him the third time," as though He who saw into the heart of the denier couldn't see the faith of the confessor. Christ had always known him, had known him even when Peter didn't know himself. For Peter didn't know himself at that time when he said, "I will be with You even to death" (Luke 22:33), and how weak he was he didn't know.

This often happens with sick people. The patient doesn't know what's happening inside him, but the physician knows. The patient is suffering from the very sickness, while the physician isn't. The physician can better tell what's going on in another than the sick person what's going on in himself. Peter then was sick at that time, and the Lord was the Physician. Peter declared he had strength when he had none, but the Lord, taking the pulse of his heart, declared that he would deny Him three times. And so it happened, as the Physician foretold, not as the sick man presumed.

Therefore, after His resurrection, the Lord questioned him—not as though He was ignorant with what heart Peter would confess his love for Christ, but so that through this threefold confession of love, Peter might erase the threefold denial that came from fear.

4. Therefore the Lord requires this of Peter: "Peter, do you love Me?" As if to say, "What will you give Me, what will you do for Me, since you love Me?" What was Peter to do for his Lord, now risen and ascending to heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father? It was as if Christ had said, "This is what you will give Me, this you will do for Me if you love Me: feed My sheep. Enter by the Door, not climb up another way."

You heard when the Gospel was read, "The one who enters by the Door is the shepherd, but he who climbs up another way is a thief and a robber, and he seeks to scatter, to disperse, and to destroy" (John 10:1-2). Who is the one who enters by the Door? The one who enters through Christ. Who is that? The one who imitates Christ's Passion, who acknowledges the humility of Christ.

Since God became human for us, people should recognize that they are not God but human. Anyone who wants to appear as God when they are human does not imitate the One who, being God, became human. But you are not told to be anything less than you are; rather, acknowledge what you are. Acknowledge yourself to be weak, acknowledge yourself to be human, acknowledge yourself to be a sinner. Acknowledge that it is Christ who justifies you; acknowledge that you have stains that need cleansing.

Let your heart's stains show in your confession, and you will belong to Christ's flock. For confession of sins invites the physician's healing. It's like being sick: the one who says, "I am well," doesn't seek the physician. Didn't the Pharisee and the tax collector both go up to the temple? One boasted about his healthy condition, the other showed his wounds to the Physician.

For the Pharisee said, "I thank You, God, that I am not like this tax collector" (Luke 18:11). He gloried over the other man. So then, if the tax collector had been healthy, the Pharisee would have resented him, because he would have had no one over whom to exalt himself. In what condition had he come, this man with such an envious spirit? Surely he was not healthy. Yet while he called himself healthy, he left without being cured.

But the other, casting his eyes down to the ground and not daring to lift them to heaven, beat his chest, saying, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner" (Luke 18:13). And what does the Lord say? "Truly I tell you, the tax collector went down from the temple justified rather than the Pharisee. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted" (Luke 18:14).

They, then, who exalt themselves want to climb into the sheepfold by another way. But those who humble themselves enter through the Door into the sheepfold. Therefore, of the one Christ said, "he enters in," of the other, "he climbs up." The one who climbs up, seeking exaltation, doesn't enter but falls. The one who abases himself, so that he may enter through the Door, doesn't fall but becomes a shepherd.

5. The Lord mentioned three characters, and our task is to identify them in the Gospel: the shepherd, the hireling, and the thief. I suppose you noticed when the reading was given that He pointed out the shepherd, the hireling, and the thief. "The Shepherd," He said, "lays down His life for the sheep" and enters by the Door. "The thief and the robber," He said, "climb up another way. The hireling," He said, if he sees a wolf or even a thief, "flees, because he doesn't care for the sheep; for he is a hireling, not a shepherd" (John 10:11-13).

The first enters by the Door because he is the Shepherd. The second climbs up another way because he is a thief. The third, seeing those who want to steal the sheep, fears and flees because he is a hireling, because he doesn't care for the sheep; he is a hireling.

If we identify these three characters, you will have discovered, dear brothers, whom to love, whom to tolerate, and whom to beware of. The Shepherd is to be loved, the hireling is to be tolerated, and we must beware of the robber.

There are people in the Church about whom the Apostle speaks, who preach the Gospel seeking their own advantage, whether of money, honor, or human praise (Philippians 2:21). They preach the Gospel, wishing to receive rewards in whatever way they can. They seek not so much the salvation of those to whom they preach as their own advantage. But anyone who hears the word of salvation from someone who doesn't have salvation himself—if he believes in the One preached and doesn't put his hope in the one through whom salvation is preached—the one who preaches will suffer loss, but the one to whom he preaches will gain.

6. You have the Lord saying of the Pharisees, "They sit in Moses' seat" (Matthew 23:2). The Lord didn't mean only the Pharisees. He wasn't suggesting that those who believe in Christ should go to the Jews' school to learn the way to the kingdom of heaven. Didn't the Lord come for this purpose: to establish a Church and separate those Jews who had good faith, hope, and love, like wheat from the chaff, and to make them one wall of the circumcision, to which another wall from the uncircumcision of the Gentiles would be joined, with Christ Himself as the Cornerstone?

Didn't the Lord say of these two peoples who were to be one, "I have other sheep that are not of this fold" (John 10:16)? He was speaking to the Jews: "I must bring them also," He said, "that there may be one flock and one Shepherd." Therefore there were two ships from which He had called His disciples. These symbolized these two peoples when they let down their nets and took such a great catch, such a large number of fish that the nets were almost broken. "And they filled," it says, "both the boats" (Luke 5:7).

The two boats symbolized the one Church, made up of two peoples joined together in Christ, though coming from different directions. This is also represented by the two wives who had the same husband, Jacob: Leah and Rachel. These two represent the two blind men who sat by the roadside, to whom the Lord gave sight. If you pay attention to the Scriptures, you'll find the two Churches, which are not two but One, represented in many places.

The Cornerstone serves this purpose: to make two into one. This is what the Shepherd does: to make two flocks into one. So then, would the Lord, who was to teach the Church and have His own school beyond the Jews, as we see at present—would He send those who believe in Him to learn from the Jews? But under the name of the scribes and Pharisees, He indicated that there would be some in His Church who would say but not do. However, in the person of Moses, He designated Himself.

For Moses represented Him, which is why he put a veil over his face when speaking to the people. As long as they were given to carnal joys and pleasures and looking for an earthly kingdom, a veil was put over their face so they couldn't see Christ in the Scriptures. When the veil was removed after the Lord's suffering, the temple's secrets were revealed. Accordingly, when He was hanging on the Cross, the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51).

The Apostle Paul says explicitly, "But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away" (2 Corinthians 3:16). But for one who doesn't turn to Christ, even if they read the law of Moses, the veil remains over their heart, as the Apostle says. So when the Lord wanted to indicate that there would be such people in His Church, what did He say? "The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. What they tell you, do; but don't do what they do" (Matthew 23:2-3).

7. When corrupt clergy hear this said against them, they want to distort its meaning. I've heard that some want to twist this passage. If they could, wouldn't they erase it from the Gospel? But because they can't erase it, they try to twist it. But the grace and mercy of the Lord is present and doesn't allow them to do so, for He has surrounded all His statements with His truth and balanced them so carefully that if anyone tries to cut off anything or introduce anything through a bad reading or interpretation, any right-hearted person can connect what has been cut off back to Scripture and read what comes before or after to find the true meaning that the other person wished to interpret wrongly.

What do you think those say about whom it is said "Do what they say" ? They claim (and it's true) that it's addressed to laypeople. For what does the layperson who wants to live well say to himself when he notices a corrupt clergyman? "The Lord said, 'What they say, do; what they do, don't do.' Let me walk in the Lord's way, not follow this man's behavior. Let me hear from him not his words, but God's. I will follow God, let him follow his own desires. For if I try to defend myself before God by saying, 'Lord, I saw Your clergyman living wickedly, so I lived wickedly too,' wouldn't God say to me, 'You wicked servant, hadn't you heard from Me, "What they say, do; but what they do, don't do"?'"

But a wicked layperson, an unbeliever who doesn't belong to Christ's flock or Christ's wheat, who is only tolerated like chaff on the threshing floor—what does he say to himself when God's word begins to correct him? "Why are you talking to me? The bishops and clergy themselves don't do it, and you expect me to do it?" Such a person seeks not a defender for his bad cause but a companion for punishment. For will any wicked person he has chosen to imitate ever defend him on judgment day? Just as the devil doesn't seduce people to make them sharers in a kingdom but in his damnation, so all who follow the wicked seek companions for hell, not protection for the kingdom of heaven.

8. How then do they twist this statement when it's quoted to them in their wicked lives: "The Lord rightly said, 'What they say, do; what they do, don't do'" ? "Well said," they reply. "It was said to you that you should do what we say, but not do what we do. For we offer sacrifice; you may not." Look at the cunning craftiness of these men—what should I call them? Hirelings. If they were shepherds, they wouldn't say such things.

Therefore, to silence them, the Lord continued and said, "They sit in Moses' seat; what they say, do; but what they do, don't do; for they say and don't do" (Matthew 23:2-3). If He had been speaking of offering sacrifice, would He have said, "For they say and don't do" ? They do offer sacrifice; they do offer to God. What is it then that they say but don't do? Listen to what follows: "For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves won't move them with one of their fingers" (Matthew 23:4).

So openly did He rebuke, describe, and point them out. But those men, when they try to twist the passage, show plainly that they seek nothing in the Church but their own advantage and that they haven't read the Gospel. If they had even read this one page and read it all, they would never have dared to say this.

9. But listen to a clearer proof that the Church has such people. Someone might say, "You spoke entirely of the Pharisees and scribes, of the Jews. The Church has none like them." Who, then, are those of whom the Lord says, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 7:21)? And He added, "Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, haven't we prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many mighty works in Your name?' And I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness'" (Matthew 7:22-23).

Do the Jews do these things in Christ's name? It's clear that He's speaking of those who have Christ's name. But what does the Apostle say about such people? He says that some preach the Gospel "through love," others "through selfish ambition" (Philippians 1:16-17), of whom he says, "They don't preach the Gospel properly." They preach something right, but they themselves aren't right.

Why aren't they right? Because they seek something else in the Church; they don't seek God. If they sought God, they would be pure, for "God is the soul's lawful husband." Whoever seeks anything from God besides God doesn't seek God with purity. Consider, brothers: if a wife loves her husband because he's rich, she isn't pure, for she doesn't love her husband but his gold. But if she loves her husband, she loves him both in poverty and in wealth. For if she loves him because he's rich, what if (as human fortunes go) he's outlawed and suddenly reduced to need? She leaves him, perhaps, because what she loved wasn't her husband but his property. But if she truly loves her husband, she loves him even more when poor, because she now loves with compassion too.

10. And yet, brothers, our God can never be poor. He is rich; He made all things: heaven, earth, sea, and angels. Whatever we see and whatever we don't see in heaven, He made it all. But despite this, we shouldn't love these riches, but Him who made them. For He has promised you nothing but Himself. Find anything more precious, and He will give you that. Beautiful is the earth, heaven, and the angels, but more beautiful is He who made them.

Those, then, who preach God while loving God, who preach God for God's sake, feed the sheep and aren't hirelings. This is the purity Christ required of the soul when He said to Peter, "Peter, do you love Me?" (John 21:15). What is "Do you love Me" ? "Are you pure? Is your heart not adulterous? Do you seek not your own things in the Church, but Mine?" If you're like this and love Me, "feed My sheep." For you won't be a hireling, but a shepherd.

11. They weren't preaching with purity, those about whom the Apostle sighs. But what does he say? "What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached" (Philippians 1:18). He allows, then, that there should be hirelings. The shepherd preaches Christ in truth, the hireling by pretense, seeking something else. Nevertheless, both preach Christ. Hear the shepherd's voice, Paul: "Whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached." The shepherd himself was pleased to have the hireling.

They do what they can, they're useful as far as they can. But when the Apostle sought those whose ways the weak could imitate, he says, "I have sent to you Timothy, who will remind you of my ways in Christ" (1 Corinthians 4:17). In other words, "I have sent you a shepherd to remind you of my ways," that is, who himself also walks as I walk. And in sending this shepherd, what does he say? "For I have no one like-minded, who will sincerely care for your state" (Philippians 2:20).

Weren't there many with him? But what follows? "For all seek their own interests, not the things of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 2:21). That is, "I wanted to send you a shepherd, for there are many hirelings; but it wouldn't be right to send a hireling." A hireling is sent for other business matters, but for what Paul then wanted, a shepherd was necessary.

And he barely found one shepherd among many hirelings, for the shepherds are few, the hirelings many. But what is said of the hirelings? "Truly I say to you, they have received their reward" (Matthew 6:2, 5, 16). Of the shepherd, what does the Apostle say? "But whoever cleanses himself from these things will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful to the Master, prepared for every good work" (2 Timothy 2:21). The shepherd isn't prepared for certain things only, but for "every good work." I've said this much about the shepherds.

12. Now let's speak of the hirelings. "The hireling, when he sees the wolf coming, flees" (John 10:12). This is what the Lord said. Why? "Because he doesn't care for the sheep." As long as the hireling doesn't see the wolf or thief coming, he's useful, but when he sees them, he flees. And who is there among the hirelings who doesn't flee from the Church when he sees the wolf and the robber? Wolves and robbers abound. They are those who go up by another way.

Who are these who go up? Those who want to make havoc of Christ's sheep through Donatus's way—they go up by another way. They don't enter through Christ because they aren't humble. Because they're proud, they climb up. What does "they climb up" mean? They are lifted up. How do they climb up? By another way, taking their name from their own way. Those who aren't in unity are of another way, and by this way they climb up, they're lifted up, and they want to steal the sheep.

Now see how they climb up: "It is we," they say, "who sanctify, we justify, we make righteous." See how high they've climbed! "But he who exalts himself will be humbled" (Matthew 23:12). Our Lord God is able to humble them.

The wolf is the devil. He lies in wait to deceive, and those who follow him are like him—as it's said that "they are clothed in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves" (Matthew 7:15). If the hireling observes someone indulging in wicked talk that harms their soul, or doing something detestable and unclean, and despite this person seeming to have a position of importance in the Church (from which the hireling hopes for advantage—that's what makes him a hireling), he says nothing. When he sees the person perishing in sin, sees the wolf following them, sees their throat in the wolf's teeth headed for punishment, he doesn't say, "You are sinning." He doesn't rebuke them, lest he lose his own advantage.

This is what is meant by "When he sees the wolf, he flees." He doesn't say to the person, "You're doing wickedly." This isn't a physical flight but a spiritual one. The person whom you see standing physically may be fleeing in their heart when they see a sinner and don't say, "You are sinning"—especially when they approve of what the sinner is doing.

13. My brothers, do presbyters or bishops ever come here to this high place and say anything except that others' property shouldn't be stolen, that there should be no fraud or wickedness committed? They can say nothing else, those who sit in Moses' seat, and it's the seat itself that speaks through them, not they themselves. What then is "Do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?" (Matthew 7:16) and "Every tree is known by its fruit" ? (Luke 6:44)

Can a Pharisee speak good things? A Pharisee is a thorn; how do I gather grapes from a thorn? Because You, Lord, have said, "What they say, do; but what they do, don't do." Do You tell me to gather grapes from thorns when You say, "Do men gather grapes from thorns" ?

The Lord answers you, "I haven't told you to gather grapes from thorns; but look, think carefully, whether perhaps, as often happens, a vine trailing along the ground might be entangled in thorns." We sometimes find this, my brothers: a vine planted over sedge, with a thorny hedge where it extends its branches and gets tangled in the thorns, and the grape hangs among the thorns. If you see it, you pick the grape, not from the thorns but from the vine that's entangled in the thorns.

Similarly, the Pharisees are thorny; but by sitting in Moses' seat, the vine wraps around them, and good words, good teachings, hang from them. If you pick the grape, the thorn won't prick you when you read, "What they say, do; but what they do, don't do." But the thorn will prick you if you do what they do. So to gather the grape without being caught in the thorns, "What they say, do; but what they do, don't do." Their deeds are the thorns, their words are the grapes, but from the vine—that is, from Moses' seat.

14. These hirelings flee when they see the wolf, when they see the robber. As I was saying, from this high place they can say nothing except, "Do well," "Don't perjure yourselves," "Don't defraud," "Don't cheat." But sometimes people's lives are so bad that advice is sought from a bishop about taking someone else's property, and such counsel is sought from him. Sometimes it has happened to us—we speak from experience, for we wouldn't have believed it.

Many people ask us for evil advice, for counsel about lying and cheating, thinking they please us by doing so. But by Christ's name, if what we are saying pleases the Lord, no such person has tempted us and found what they wanted in us. For with the pleasure of Him who has called us, we are shepherds, not hirelings.

As the Apostle says, "But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court. In fact, I don't even judge myself. For I know of nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this; but He who judges me is the Lord" (1 Corinthians 4:3-4). My conscience isn't necessarily good because you praise it. For how do you praise what you don't see? Let Him praise who sees, and even let Him correct if He sees anything there that offends His eyes.

For I don't say that I'm perfectly well; rather, I beat my chest and say to God, "Be merciful to me, so that I don't sin." Yet I do think—I speak in His presence—that I seek nothing from you but your salvation, and I constantly groan over the sins of my brothers. I'm distressed, tormented in mind, and often rebuke them. I never stop rebuking them. All who remember what I say can testify how often my brothers who sin have been rebuked, and earnestly rebuked, by me.

15. I'm now sharing my concerns with you, holy brothers. In Christ's name you are God's people, you are a Catholic people, you are Christ's members. You aren't divided from unity. You're in communion with the members of the apostles, in communion with the memorials of the holy martyrs spread throughout the world, and you belong to my pastoral care, that I may give a good account of you. Now you know what my full account is. "Lord, You know that I have spoken, You know that I haven't kept silent, You know the spirit in which I've spoken, You know that I've wept before You when I spoke and wasn't heard." This I believe is my complete account.

For the Holy Spirit through the prophet Ezekiel has given me a sure hope. You know this passage about the watchman: "O son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. If when I say to the wicked, 'O wicked man, you shall surely die,' you don't speak" —that is (since I'm speaking to you so that you may speak)— "if you don't announce it, and the sword" —that is, what I've threatened to the sinner— "comes and takes him away, that wicked man will indeed die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman's hand" (Ezekiel 33:7-8).

Why? Because he didn't speak. "But if the watchman sees the sword coming and blows the trumpet" so that the person might flee, "and he doesn't take heed," that is, doesn't amend himself so that the punishment God threatens doesn't find him, "and the sword comes and takes anyone away, that wicked man will indeed die in his iniquity, but you" He says, "have delivered your soul" (Ezekiel 33:9).

And in that Gospel passage, what else does He say to the servant? When he said, "Lord, I knew You to be a hard man, reaping where You haven't sown, and gathering where You haven't scattered, and I was afraid and went and hid Your talent in the ground. Here, You have what is Yours" (Matthew 25:24-25).