Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Gregory the Theologian, Archbishop of Constantinople
1st Vespers of a Theologian: Proverbs 8:6-10 Epistle: Hebrews 7:26-8:2 Gospel: St. John 10:9-16
St. John 10:9-16, especially vs. 16: "...them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and
there will be one flock and one shepherd." Beloved of God, here is a question formulated by St. Nikolai of Zica, a matter
to set before one's heart, to ask of oneself in all honesty before God: "If human philosophy can content a man, why did....so
many, many...who first sought an explanation for the enigmas of the world and light for their souls in philosophy...then
[draw] near to the Church and [come] to worship Christ the Lord?" When anyone allows this question to precede all else,
he will find himself standing at the edge of a field which is "for sale" and in which there lies hidden an incalculable
treasure (Mt. 13:44). He may now realize for himself why so many have drawn near the Church to worship Christ.
They have found in Christ Jesus the door they can enter and by entering, can "be saved" (Jn. 10:9). To speak of being
"saved" suggests relief from some danger, security from a threat, safety from an attack. What is the danger that threatens
and is attacking every single one of us? Is it not to know that we will die sooner or later, that death and annihilation are
staring us in the face, undercutting everything that is "important." Life has an ultimacy about it which hounds human
beings with the question, "What is it all about?" This is the universal human question, a problem that animals do not have.
They live, struggle to live, exert themselves to stay alive as long as possible and then die. But we ask, "Why?"
The Saints have found the gateway into security and safety for their humanity in this life. They are empowered by their
discovery to venture into the perplexity and assaults of this existence and to "have life, and...have it more abundantly" (vs.
10). That makes "the door" an amazing find, and it leads one, who will consider what is thrown against us in life, to ask,
"How can one 'have life abundantly' instead of the universal 'theft, destruction, and death?'"
The answer which Christ extends to us is "I Am the good shepherd [Who] gives His life for the sheep" (vs. 11), for His
Passion faced and overcame once and for all that "wolf [who] catches the sheep and scatters them" (vs. 12). We know that
wolf well enough. We can see all around us the scattered remains of lives that he has wasted. We can see his marauding
work in our own selves. The good Shepherd has beaten him at his game: allowed him to kill Him and then "trampled down
death by death" revealing that man can rise from the dead - any one of us.
That death-defying feat, that death-denying defeat of the wolf, was carried out by One Who knows us better than we know
ourselves. As He says, "I know My sheep, and Am known by My own" (vs. 14). Furthermore, His victory qualifies Him
supremely to be "the Good Shepherd" Who is entirely capable of extending His victory to His own. Furthermore, His own
"hear His voice" (vs. 16). His own hear His offer of victory over life-denying death, and they run to Him, draw near to His
Church, and worship Him, crying, "My Lord and my God!" (Jn. 20:28).
Beloved of the Lord, when we have drunk long enough at the bitter springs of human ideas, when we have exhausted all
that the world offers us, when we have been harried enough by the wolf and his grinning pack, then in the stillness within
our hearts let us listen for the voice of Christ Jesus our God and Savior. Let us come with gladness into His Church and
worship Him for ourselves. Let us come to the Good Shepherd and have life and have it abundantly. Enough of the world
and its placebos, its patch-up of our hurts and its pompous answers to the basic question of this life! Let us repent, enter
the Door, and say with joy,
"The Lord is my shepherd, and I shall not want. In a place of green pasture, there hath He made me to dwell; beside the
water of rest hath He nurtured me." (Ps. 22:1, 2 LXX).
