ACC ~ Matthew 10 v16

SHEEP IN THE MIDST OF WOLVES

ANONYMOUS: But let us consider this. Why did he say, on the one hand, “like sheep” and, on the other hand, did he not say “like wolves” but simply “wolves”? If he had called the former “sheep” for the sole reason of their gentleness, since by nature they were human indeed but sheep by gentleness, certainly he would have called the latter “wolves,” for they too, though like wolves in cruelty, by nature were human. For this reason, therefore, he called the former “sheep” but called the latter not “like wolves” but fully “wolves,” since people, who are God’s creatures, though they may be good, always have in them something evil according to the flesh. And one is called a sheep insofar as one is good; yet like a sheep, however, insofar as one is not fully good. For one who does not know God can have nothing good in himself. So one is referred to as a “wolf,” not “like a wolf,” because he has nothing good in himself and does not know God in himself. INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW, HOMILY 24. [1]

[1] PG 56:756-57.