That to pastor people and care
for the salvation of brethren is a most salvific work, as the completion of
love, which is the head of the law and the prophets, no one can deny. For when
the Lord asked Peter three times whether he loved Him, and he answered: Yes,
Lord! You know that I love You (John 21:15), then the Lord, in response, to
this, said to him: if you love Me, Peter, feed My sheep (John 21:17).
Again, that not every person should imply and casually, thoughtlessly take upon
himself leadership over others is also evident to everyone whose mind is not completely
darkened. However, many know neither what the cited word of the Lord means, nor
in what manner the Lord commanded Peter to feed His sheep. But they ascend
boldly (alas!) to this degree of dignity and are not ashamed to pastor Christ’s
flock without authorization, wherefore, if it seems blessed to you, let us
examine what this word of the Lord means and what sense is contained in it.
When the Lord said to Peter: feed
My sheep, by this He indicated nothing other than the leadership and care
which should be for the flock of Christ through word and teaching. This is
confirmed by other words said to the same Peter: Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan
has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you,
that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen
your brethren (Luke 22:31-32). For what do the word mean: strengthen your
brethren? This: by your own example assure them that one should not
despair, into whatever transgression one may fall, for what other transgression
is worse than yours, when you denied Me, the Master of all? Yet I forgave you immediately,
as soon as you repented bitterly, and despite the fact that you had no boldness
because of the denial, I called you by name through the Angel to come to Me together
with the other Apostles to the mountain in Galilee, not reproaching you with a
single word for your denial. In this, having returned, you also strengthen your
brethren.
Feed My sheep. But know that
you will truly feed them not when you lead them from pasture to pasture. So that
they may grow fat bodily, as do the shepherds of irrational sheep, nor when you
shut them up in walls and sheepfold enclosures, but when you teach them to
observe all that I have commanded. This the Lord then commanded especially to
all the Apostles, saying: Go therefore and make disciples of all the
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy
Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you (Matthew
28:19-20), adding also: He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but
he who does not believe will be condemned (Mark 16:16).
Feed My sheep, He says.
The shepherd of irrational sheep does not concern himself with agriculture, nor
with grade, nor with houses, nor with various and expensive foods, nor with
glory and honor; he has no business with anything else worldly, and has no
desire to enjoy such things; but, leaving everything—house, wife, and children—he
turns all his care to his flock alone, for its sake spending nights without
sleep and going with it to distant places, having neither shelter nor bed,
enduring the heat of day and cold of night and struggling with atmospheric
changes; he watches over the sheep alone and has comprehensive care for them.
But for you, the shepherd of rational sheep, it is possible to be under the
roof of a house, to have a bed, a couch, a table—and at the same time to pastor
My sheep also. How then to pastor?—By teaching them to have toward Me (says the
Lord) bright, pure, unwavering faith, and to love Me with all their soul and
with all their heart, as I also loved them, giving Myself to death for love of
them and dying for them. Providing them, instead of pasture, with the life-giving
food of My commandments, explain to them that only then will they taste the
life-giving power of this food when they begin to fulfill My commandments in
deed itself, and urge them to taste of this food every hour, that they may always
be satisfied with My blessings. And what these blessings are and by what deeds
they are acquired, teach them to know from the following My words: Sell what
you have and give alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a
treasure in the heavens that does not fail (Luke 12:33). Love your enemies,
do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you
(Matthew 5:44). See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone (1 Thessalonians
5:15). Forgive, and you will be forgiven (Luke 6:37). But if you do
not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father in heaven forgive
your trespasses (Mark 11:26; Matthew 6:15). Become poor in money, that you
may be rich in the grace of the Holy Spirit; despise earthly glory, that you
may receive heavenly glory.
Say to them also the following:
before you lie two opposite limits—life and death, and two worlds=-the present,
visible and temporal, and the future, invisible and eternal, and two operators
in these worlds opposed to each other—God and the devil opposing Him, of whom God
always cares for our salvation, calling us to eternal life and kingdom, while
the devil desires the destruction and death of our soul, and day and night prowls
about, seeking whom to attract with the bait of temporal pleasure and devour,
making him liable to eternal torment. Since thus before us are God and the
devil, it behooves us, as thinking and reasonable beings, to flee from our
enemy and take refuge under the protection of our Master, asking for help from
Him, that the prince of darkness may not lord it over us, having caught us in
his nets and snares, and that we may not through this become slaves to him and
to sin. (Symeon the New Theologian,
Discourse 82, in The Complete Discourses of Saint Symeon the New
Theologian [trans. Dean Marais; Based Books, 2025], 284-85)
