What is weakened, he says, you have not strengthened. He speaks to bad shepherds, false shepherds, shepherds seeking their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ, rejoicing in the gain of milk and wool, wholly not caring for the sheep, and not strengthening what is sick. Between the weak, that is, not strong— for those who are sick are also called weak— but between the weak and the sick, that is, the ill, it seems to me this should be distinguished. Indeed, brethren, these things which we try to distinguish, maybe we ourselves can distinguish better with greater diligence, and another more skilled or more enlightened in heart, lest you be deceived, as far as the words of Scripture go, what I feel, I speak. It must be feared lest temptation befall the weak and break them. However, the languishing one already sick with some desire, is hindered by some desire from entering the path of God, from taking on the yoke of Christ. Pay attention to those people wanting to live well, already determined to live well, and less capable of enduring evil as they are prepared to do good. It pertains to Christian strength, not only to do good works but also to endure evil ones. Therefore, those who seem to fervently perform good works but do not want or cannot endure looming sufferings are weak. However, those who are called back from good works by some evil desire, lovers of the world, lie languid and sick, for by this very languishing, as if without any strength, they can do no good. Such a paralytic in the soul was he, who, when they could not bring him to the Lord by those carrying him, opened the roof and lowered him. That is, as if in the soul you want to do this to open the roof and lower the paralytic soul dissolved in all its members and vacant of all good work, weighed down indeed by its sins and languishing with the disease of its desire. If therefore all the members are dissolved and there is an interior paralysis, that you may reach the doctor—for perhaps the doctor is hidden and is inside; this means: this true understanding is hidden in the Scriptures—by exposing what is hidden you open the roof and lower the paralytic. Those who do not do this and who neglect to do this, you have heard what they hear: What is sick you did not strengthen. And what is crushed you did not bind up: from now on certain temptations. Something is added whereby what is broken may be bound, that comfort: Faithful is God, who will not let you be tempted above what you are able to bear, but will make with the temptation also a way out, that you may be able to endure.
A good shepherd does not allow a heretic to perish.
And what was straying you did not bring back. Behold where we are endangered among heretics. And what was straying you did not bring back; and what was lost you did not seek out. Here we are somehow tossed among the hands of robbers and the teeth of raging wolves, and we pray that you pray for us regarding these dangers. And the sheep are stubborn. Because when they are sought while straying, they declare they are separated from us by their error and destruction: "What do you want from us? Why do you seek us?" As if there is not itself a cause why we would want and seek them, because they are straying and perishing. "If I am in error," they say, "if I am perishing, why do you want me? Why do you seek me?" Because you are in error, I wish to bring you back; because you are lost, I wish to find you. "I wish to err, I wish to perish." Do you wish to err that way, do you wish to perish that way? So much the better I do not wish it. Indeed, I dare to say, I am importunate. I hear the Apostle saying: Preach the word, be prepared in season and out of season. To whom in season? To whom out of season? Certainly in season to those willing, out of season to those unwilling. Indeed, I am importunate, I dare to say: You want to err, you want to perish, I do not want it. Ultimately, He who frightens me does not want it. If I wanted, look at what He says, look at what He reproaches: What was straying you did not bring back; and what was lost you did not seek out. Shall I fear you more than Him? All of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ. I do not fear you. For you cannot overthrow the judgment seat of Christ and establish the judgment seat of Donatus. I will bring back the straying one, I will seek the lost one. Willing or unwilling, I will do it. And if the thorns of the forest tear me while I seek, I will press through all narrow ways; I will shake off every hedge; as much as the Lord who frightens me grants me strength, I will traverse all. I will bring back the straying one, I will seek the perishing one. If you do not want me to suffer, do not stray, do not perish.
A shepherd indifferent towards the wicked is the reason why the good perish.
It is not enough that I grieve over you being lost and going astray. I fear that neglecting you, I might also destroy what is strong. For see what follows: And what was strong, you have destroyed. If I neglect the one going astray and perishing, even he who is strong will delight in going astray and perishing. I desire outward gains, but I fear more the inward losses. If I regard your error indifferently, the one who is strong pays attention and thinks it is nothing to fall into heresy. When some advantage from the world shines forth from where it is changed, immediately that perishing strong one will say to me, since I do not seek you who are lost: "And here and here is God, what does it matter? Men disputing among themselves did this. God should be worshipped everywhere." If perhaps some Donatist says to him: "I will not give you my daughter unless you are on my side," he needs to attend and say: "If there were nothing wrong in being on their side, our pastors would not speak so strongly against them, nor would they be so concerned for their error." Therefore, if we cease and stay silent, he will speak contrary: "Certainly, if it were bad to be in the party of Donatus, they would speak against it, refute them, strive to win them over. If they are mistaken, they would call them back; if they perish, they would seek them out." Therefore it is not in vain that, when he had already said above: What was fat, you killed, here he again placed in the last: And what was strong, you have destroyed. For it is indeed the repeated sentence, except that it arises from what he said above: What went astray, you did not call back; and what perished, you did not seek; and, by doing this, what is strong, you have killed.
Therefore, listen to what follows about the neglect of these evil, indeed false shepherds: And my sheep were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts of the field. Wolves lying in wait steal, roaring lions seize, since the sheep do not cling to the shepherd. For the shepherd is present, but for those acting badly, he is not a shepherd. And they cling to shepherds who are not shepherds, feeding themselves and not the sheep. And a deadly error follows: they turn into ravaging beasts, desiring to satisfy themselves from their deaths. For such are all who rejoice in the errors of others: they are beasts being fed by deaths.
About good and bad mountains.
And they were scattered, and my sheep wandered over every mountain and every high hill. Beasts from the mountains and hills, earthly arrogance and worldly pride. The pride of Donatus has risen up, making a division for itself. Following him, Parmenianus confirmed that error. That mountain is, that hill is. Thus, every author of error, swelling with earthly pride, promises rest and good pastures to the sheep. And sometimes the sheep find pastures there from the rain of God, not from the hardness of the mountain. For they too have Scriptures, they have sacraments. These are not of the mountains, but when found in the mountains, one remains poorly in the mountains. Wandering in the mountains and hills, they desert the flock, they desert unity, they desert the fortified troops against wolves and lions. So God will call them back from there, He Himself will call them back. Now you will hear Him calling them back: My sheep have wandered, He says, over every mountain and every high hill, that is, in every swelling of earthly pride. For there are also good mountains: I lifted my eyes to the mountains, from where my help will come. And see, for your hope is not in the mountains: My help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Do not think you insult the holy mountains when you say: My help is not from the mountains, but from the Lord who made heaven and earth. These mountains cry this out to you. There was a mountain that cried out: I hear divisions among you, and each of you says: I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Cephas, I am of Christ. Lift your eyes to this mountain, listen to what it says, and do not remain even on that mountain. For listen to what follows: Was Paul crucified for you? So after lifting your eyes to the mountains, from where your help will come, that is, to the authors of divine Scriptures, observe with all their marrow, all their bones crying out: Lord, who is like You? so that safely without any insult to the mountains you may say: My help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Not only will the mountains then not be angry with you, but they will then love you, they will favor you more; if you place your hope in them, they will grieve. An angel showing many divine and wonderful things to a man was worshiped by the man, as if he lifted his eyes to the mountain. But he redirected from himself to the Lord: Do not do it, he said; worship Him, for I am your fellow servant and the brothers of yours.
Heretics are branches cut from the one vine.
On every mountain, and on every hill, and on every face of the earth, they are scattered. What is: they are scattered on every face of the earth? Pursuing all earthly things, they love and cherish those things that shine on the face of the earth. They do not want to die so that their life may be hidden in Christ. On every face of the earth, with a love of earthly things, and as they are wandering sheep all over the face of the earth. Not all heretics are all over the face of the earth, but still, heretics are all over the face of the earth. Some here, some there, but they are not absent anywhere. They do not know each other: one sect in Africa, another heresy in the East, another in Egypt, another in Mesopotamia, for example. They are in different places: but one mother, pride, has given birth to them all just as our one Catholic mother has given birth to all the faithful Christians spread throughout the world. Therefore, it is no wonder if pride produces division, love produces unity. Yet the Catholic mother herself, the shepherd himself in her, seeks out the wandering everywhere, strengthens the weak, heals the sick, binds up the broken, some from these, some from those, not knowing each other. But she knows them all, because she is spread with all. For example, in Africa there is the part of Donatus, the Eunomians are not in Africa, but here the Catholic is with the part of Donatus. In the East, there are Eunomians, but the part of Donatus is not there; yet the Catholic is with the Eunomians there. It is like a vine, growing and spreading everywhere; they are like useless branches, rightly cut off by the farmer's sickle because of their barrenness, to be pruned, not cut off. Therefore, those branches remained where they were cut off. But the vine, growing through everything, knows its branches that remained in it and those near it that were cut off from it. Nevertheless, it calls back the wandering, because the Apostle says of the broken branches: “For God is able to graft them in again.” Whether you speak of sheep wandering from the flock or branches cut off from the vine, God is no less able to call back the sheep or re-graft the branches, for He is the supreme shepherd, the true farmer. And they are scattered on every face of the earth; and there was no one to seek them, no one to call them back, except among those bad shepherds; there was no one, but a man, who sought them.
God swearing by His own life.
Therefore, hear the word of the Lord, O shepherds: As I live, says the Lord God. Behold where it begins. It is as if it were an oath of God, a testimony of His life. As I live, says the Lord. The shepherds are dead, but the sheep are safe; the Lord lives. As I live, says the Lord God. But which shepherds are dead? Those who seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ. Therefore, will there be and will be found shepherds who seek not their own, but the things of Jesus Christ? There will certainly be and surely will be found, neither lacking nor will lack. Let us see then what the Lord, who claims to live, says: whether He says He will take away the sheep from the bad shepherds, feeding themselves and not the sheep, and will give them to good shepherds feeding the sheep and not themselves. As I live, says the Lord God, unless because My sheep have been made a prey to all the beasts of the field, because there was no shepherd. Again He speaks of the shepherd, both a moment ago and now. He does not say: because there are no shepherds. For even if there are such erring badly, perishing badly, there is no shepherd, even if the shepherd is present, because even when light is present, it is not light to the blind. And the shepherds did not seek My sheep, and the shepherds fed themselves, but did not feed My sheep.
"It pertains to bishops not to be silent."
Therefore, shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. But which shepherds should hear? Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require My sheep at their hands. Hear and learn, O sheep of God: God inquires about His sheep from the evil shepherds, and He demands their deaths at their hands. For He says elsewhere through the same Prophet: Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. You will hear a message from My mouth and warn them from Me. When I say to the sinner: You shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but I will require his blood at your hand. But if you warn the wicked man to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your soul. What is this, Brothers? Do you see how dangerous it is to keep silent? He dies, and rightfully so; in his impiety and sin, he dies; for his negligence kills him. For he would find a living shepherd who says: I live, says the Lord; but when he is negligent, not admonished by the one who is appointed for this purpose as a watchman to admonish, and he rightfully dies, the other is justly condemned. But if you say, He says, to the wicked, You shall surely die, to whom I have threatened a sword, and he neglects to avoid the imminent sword and the sword comes and kills him, he dies in his sin, but you have delivered your soul. Therefore, it is indeed our duty not to keep silent; and for you, even if we are silent, to hear the shepherd's words from the Holy Scriptures.
Blind leading the blind, both fall into a pit.
Let us see, therefore, because I had thus proposed whether he would take away the sheep from the bad shepherds and give them to the good shepherds. I see him taking away the sheep from the bad shepherds. For he says this: Behold I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hands, and I will turn them away, so that they do not feed my sheep; and the shepherds shall no longer feed themselves. For when I say: They should feed my sheep, they feed themselves, not my sheep. I will turn them away so that they do not feed my sheep. How does he turn them away, so that they do not feed his sheep? Do what they say; but do not do what they do. As if he were saying: "They say my things, but they do their own things." If he were to say: "Do confidently what they do, I will condemn them for living badly; but I will spare you because you have followed your leaders," if he were to say this, he would deter the bad shepherds, who do not feed the sheep, but themselves. But since he does not only terrify the blind man leading, but also the blind man following - for he did not say: The one leading falls into the pit, and the one following does not fall, but: The blind man leading the blind, both fall into the pit - he warned the sheep and said: Do what they say; but do not do what they do. For when you do not do what the bad shepherds do, they do not feed you; but when you do what they say, I feed you. For they say my things and do not do them. "We confidently, they say, follow our bishops." The heretics often say this when they are most clearly convicted by the truth: "We are the sheep, they will render an account for us." They will indeed render a bad account for your death. For the death of an evil sheep, the bad shepherd will render a bad account. Does a sheep live because its skin is presented? The shepherd is reproved because he neglected the wandering sheep, and on that account, it fell into the jaws of the wolf to be devoured. What good does it do him to bring back the marked skin? The master of the house wants the life of the sheep. But behold, the bad shepherd brought the skin: Let him render an account for the skin. Is he perhaps going to lie? He who later judges was watching from above: to whom words mean, he counts facts, he looks into thoughts. Let the bad shepherd render an account for the skin of the dead sheep. "I shouted your words to him and he did not want to follow; I took pains to keep him from straying from the flock, and he did not obey": indeed, if he says this and says the truth - but he knows whether he speaks the truth - he renders a good account for the bad sheep. But if God sees that he neglected the wanderer, that he did not seek the perishing one, what good does it do that he found the skin to bring back? He should have brought back the sheep itself, so as not to show the skin of the dead one. Therefore, if he who did not seek the wandering one does not render a good account, what kind of account will he render who caused the wandering? This is what I say: If a bishop appointed in the Catholic does not render a good account for a sheep if he has not sought the wandering one from the flock of God, what kind of account will the heretic render, who not only will not call back from error but even compelled into error?
The sheep of Christ hear His voice.
But let us see, as I said, how God recalls the sheep from the bad shepherds. I have already mentioned: "Do what they say; but do not do what they do." And they do not feed you, but God does, because whether the shepherds want it or not, they will speak the words of God so that you may reach the milk and wool. "You who preach not to steal, do you steal?" says the Apostle to those who say good things but do bad things. You listen to the preacher, so do not steal; do not imitate the thief. If you want to imitate the thief, he himself feeds you with his deed; he supplies you with poison, not food. But if you hear from him that which he does not say of himself, but of God - for a grape cannot be gathered from thorns; for even the Lord’s saying is: "No one gathers a grape from thorns and figs from thistles" -, however, do not therefore slander your Lord and say: "Lord, you did not want me to, because it is not possible to gather grapes from thorns; and again you said to me about some: 'Do what they say; but do not do what they do,' indeed those doing bad things are certainly thorns. How do you want me to gather the grape of the word from thorns?" He will answer: "That grape is not of the thorns, but sometimes a growing vine entwines itself in the hedge, and the grape hangs among the thick thorns, but it does not arise from the root of the thorns. If you are hungry and have nothing else from where to take it, carefully reach out your hand, so not to be torn by the thorns, that is, not to imitate the deeds of the wicked; and pick the grape hanging among the thorns, but born of the vine. The nourishment of the cluster will come to you, the thorns will keep the fire of torment."
The sheep of Christ hear his voice.
And I will rescue my sheep, He says, from their mouth, and from their hands: and they shall no longer be food for them. This is also said in the psalm: Do not all those who work iniquity know, who devour my people as they eat bread? And they shall no longer be food for them: because thus says the Lord God: Behold, I myself. I have taken the sheep away from the evil shepherds, warning as I have said so that they do not do what the evil shepherds do, that is, so that the incautious and negligent sheep do not do what the evil shepherds do. And what does He say? To whom does He give what He has taken from them? Perhaps to good shepherds? This does not follow. And what shall we say, Brothers? Are there not good shepherds? Is it not said in another place in the Scriptures: And I will set shepherds over them according to my heart, who will feed them with discipline? How then does He say of the sheep, which He takes from the evil shepherds, that He does not give them to the good, but as if there were no good left at all, says: I will feed them? He had said to Peter: Feed my sheep. What then do we do? When the sheep are entrusted to Peter, the Lord does not say there: I will feed my sheep, not you, but: Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep. Or perhaps because Peter is no longer found, since he has already been taken up to the rest of the Apostles and martyrs, there is no one to whom the Lord can securely say of the sheep: Feed my sheep, and in a certain way He Himself takes over the duty of feeding His sheep, having no one to whom He can entrust them, and yet not abandoning them? This seems to follow: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I myself, to whom we used to say: You who shepherd Israel, give ear; you who lead Joseph like a flock, the people established in Egypt: Israel, now spread among the nations, is Joseph himself. For you know that Joseph migrated to Egypt: it was done by the selling of his brothers. The Jews sold Christ; it is not without reason that among the Apostles it was Judas himself who was the seller. Christ began to be in the nations, there He was honored, there His people grew, His shepherd did not abandon Him. He says: Stir up your might and come to save us. Indeed He does and will do so. He says: Behold, I myself, and I will seek out my sheep, and I will visit them, as a shepherd visits his flock. The evil shepherds did not care; for they did not redeem with their own blood. As He says, a shepherd visits his flock on the day? In what kind of day? When there shall be cloud and thick darkness, that is, rain and fog. Rain and fog are the errors of this world; great darkness arising from the desires of men, and a dense fog covering the earth. And it is difficult for the sheep not to go astray in this fog. But the shepherd does not abandon them. He searches for them, penetrates the fog with very keen eyes, is not hindered by the darkness of the clouds. He sees, he calls back those wandering from every side, so that it may be done as it is said in the Gospel: My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me. In the midst of the scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep, and I will bring them out from all places where they are scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. When it is difficult to find them, now I will find them. Dense fog, thick darkness: nothing escapes His eyes.
Mountains of Israel, authors of the divine Scriptures.
And I will bring them out from the peoples, and I will gather them from the countries, and I will bring them to their own land, and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel. He has established the mountains of Israel, the authors of the divine Scriptures. There feed, so that you may feed securely. Whatever you hear from there, let it be to your benefit; whatever is outside of that, reject. Do not wander in the fog, listen to the voice of the shepherd. Gather yourselves to the mountains of the holy Scripture. There are the delights of your heart, there is nothing poisonous, nothing foreign; the most abundant pastures are there. You only come healthy, be fed healthily on the mountains of Israel. And in the streams, and in every dwelling place of the land. For from the mountains that we have shown, the streams of evangelical preaching have flowed, as their sound has gone out into all the earth, and the habitation of the whole land has become joyful and fruitful for feeding the sheep. In good pastures I will feed them, and on the high mountains of Israel. And their fold shall be there, that is, where they may rest, where they may say: It is well, where they may say: It is true, it is clear, we are not deceived. They will rest in the glory of God, as in those folds. And they will sleep, that is, they will rest, and they will rest in good delights.
And in rich pastures they shall graze on the mountains of Israel. I already said the mountains of Israel, good mountains, where we lift up our eyes so that help may come to us from there. But our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Therefore, lest our hope be even in the good mountains, when he said: I will feed my sheep on the mountains of Israel, again, lest you remain in the mountains, he immediately added: I will feed my sheep. Lift up your eyes to the mountains, from where help will come to you, but listen to him saying: I will feed them. For your help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
And I will make them rest, says the Lord God. But in order to make them rest, what did He first take care of? For what He first took care of, He later says: Thus says the Lord God: What was lost, I will seek; and what strayed, I will bring back; and what was broken, I will bind up; and what is weak, I will strengthen; and what is fat and strong, I will watch over: which the evil shepherds did not do, feeding themselves, not the sheep. The Lord does not say: I will appoint other good shepherds, to do these things, but I, He says, will do; I will commit my sheep to no one. Be secure, Brothers; you sheep, be secure. To us it seems we should fear, as if a good shepherd were lacking.
Christ nourishes with judgment those whom He has redeemed.