ACC ~ John 21 v17

SERVICE TO CHRIST

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: The Savior does not say to him, fast, or keep watch for me. But, since the pastoral care of souls is more worthy and more useful to the community, he entrusts him with this. I, he says, need nothing: feed my sheep, and return to me the love with which I loved you, because I will take your care for them as care devoted to me. COMMENTARY ON JOHN 7.21.17. [1]

[1] CSCO 4 3:360-61.

FEED THEM PROPERLY

BEDE: What [Christ] said to [Peter] at this point, “Feed my sheep,” was surely the same thing that he had said to him more clearly before his passion, “But I have asked on your behalf that your faith may not fail you, and once you have recovered, strengthen your brothers.” [1] To feed Christ’s sheep is to strengthen those who believe in Christ, lest their faith fail them, and to devote oneself ceaselessly [to seeing to it] that they may make greater and greater progress in their faith. However, we must look carefully at the fact that his feeding of the Lord’s flock is not to be carried out with one single approach but should rather be multifaceted. A director must diligently see to it that earthly necessities are not lacking to his subjects and also be careful in providing them with examples of virtues along with words of preaching. … When those who are under his care may perhaps themselves have fallen into error, he as a righteous person should, according to the word of the psalmist, “accuse them mercifully and rebuke them,” [2] but he should not soothe their hearts with the oil of harmful approval. This too is one of the obligations of a pious shepherd. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPELS 2.22. [3]

[1] Lk 22:32.

[2] Ps 141:5 (140:5 LXX).

[3] CS 111:224*.

THREEFOLD CONFESSION OF BAPTISM

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Here is a type given to the churches in that they ought to ask for a threefold confession of Christ from those who have chosen to love him by coming to him in holy baptism. And, by dwelling on this passage, instructors in religion may arrive at the knowledge that they cannot please the chief shepherd, that is, Christ, unless they take thought for the health of the sheep of his fold and their continual well-being. … Surely it is true to say that they are doing the Lord himself service who take, as it were, by the hand the mind of those who have been admitted to the faith and who are expected to be called to maturity in this faith. They are, in fact, eager to establish them firmly in the faith by every help that they can offer. Therefore, by his thrice-repeated confession the thrice-repeated denial of the blessed Peter was done away with. And, by the saying of our Lord, “Feed my lambs,” we must understand a renewal as it were of the apostleship already given to him, washing away the disgrace of his fall that came in the intervening period and obliterating his faintheartedness that arose from human infirmity. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 12.1. [1]

[1] LF 48:703.

SELFLESS LOVE

AUGUSTINE: To the threefold denial there is now appended a threefold confession, that his tongue may not yield a feebler service to love than to fear and imminent death may not appear to have elicited more from the lips than present life. Let it be the office of love to feed the Lord’s flock, if it was the signal of fear to deny the Shepherd. Those who have this purpose in feeding the flock of Christ, that they may have them as their own and not as Christ’s, are convicted of loving themselves, and not Christ, from the desire either of boasting, or wielding power or acquiring gain, and not from the love of obeying, serving and pleasing God. Against such, therefore, there stands as a wakeful sentinel this thrice-inculcated utterance of Christ, of whom the apostle complains that they seek their own, not the things that are Jesus Christ’s. [1] For what else do the words “Do you love me? Feed my sheep” mean than if it were said, If you love me, do not think of feeding yourself but feed my sheep as mine and not as your own. Seek my glory in them, and not your own; my dominion, and not yours; my gain, and not yours. Otherwise, you might be found in the fellowship of those who belong to the perilous times, lovers of their own selves, and all else that is joined on to this beginning of evils. … With great propriety, therefore, Peter is asked, “Do you love me?” And he is found replying, “I love you.” And then the command to “Feed my lambs” is applied to Peter, not only once but also a second and a third time, which also demonstrates here that love and liking are one and the same thing. [2] For the Lord, in the last question, did not say “Diligis me,” [as he had the first two times] but, “Amas me?” Let us, then, love not ourselves, but him. And in feeding his sheep, let us be seeking the things which are his, not the things which are our own. For in some inexplicable way that I cannot understand, everyone who loves himself, and not God, does not love himself. And whoever loves God, and not himself, that is the person who loves himself. For whoever cannot live by himself will certainly die by loving himself. The person, therefore, who loves himself while losing his own life does not really love himself. But when [Christ], who preserves life, is loved, a person who does not love himself ends up loving all the more when he does not love himself for this reason, namely, that he may love him [i.e., Christ] by whom he lives. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 123.5. [3]

[1] See Phil 2:21.

[2] See also Augustine’s discussion in City of God 14.7. Ancient Christian writers often emphasized the distinction between the four different Greek words for “to love.” Augustine, however, was the only one found who dealt with the distinctions on this particular passage, although here as elsewhere he equates phileō and agapaō rather than distinguishing them.

[3] NPNF 1 7:445-46**.

BE READY TO DIE FOR MY SHEEP?

AUGUSTINE: In this case, however, the Lord Jesus Christ is entrusting the slave with sheep he bought with his blood, and so he requires of the slave the capacity to suffer to the point of shedding his blood. It is as though he were saying, “Feed my sheep. I am entrusting my sheep to you.” What sheep? “The ones I bought with my blood. I died for them. Do you love me? Be ready to die for them.” And as a matter of fact, while that human slave of a human master would pay money for sheep destroyed, Peter paid the price of his blood for sheep preserved. SERMON 296.4. [1]

[1] WSA 3 8:205.

DO NOT NEGLECT YOUR CALLING

GREGORY THE GREAT: It appears from these words that, if one who is able refuses to feed the sheep of almighty God, he shows that he does not love the chief Shepherd. For if, in order to accomplish the good of all, the Only Begotten of the Father came forth from the concealment of the Father into our midst, what shall we say if we prefer our privacy over the good of our neighbors? And so, rest is to be desired by us with all our heart. And yet for the advantage of many it should sometimes be laid aside. For, as we ought with full desire to fly from occupation, so, if there should be a lack of anyone available to preach, we need to put a willing shoulder under the burden of occupation. And this we are taught by the conduct of two prophets [Jeremiah and Isaiah], one of whom attempted to shun the office of preaching, [1] while the other desired it. [2] LETTER 7.4. [3]

[1] See Jer 1:6.

[2] See Is 6:8.

[3] NPNF 2 12:210-11**.

Jn