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tongue does not separate itself therefrom, but says, “You are treading upon me;” when no
one has touched it. As then the tongue, which no one has touched, says, “You are treading
upon me;” so Christ, the Head, which no one treadeth on, said, “I was an hungred, and ye
gave Me meat.” And to them who did not so, He said, “I was an hungred, and ye gave Me
no meat.” And how did He finish? Thus; “These shall go into everlasting burning, but the
righteous into life eternal.”
3. When our Lord then was speaking on this occasion, He said, that He is “the Shepherd,”
He said also that He is “the Door.” You find them both in that place, both “I am the Door”
and “I am the Shepherd.”4073 In the Head He is the Door, the Shepherd in the Body. For
He saith to Peter, in whom singly He formeth the Church; “Peter, lovest thou Me?” He
answered, “Lord, I do love Thee.” “Feed My sheep.” And a third time, “Peter, lovest thou
Me?”4074 “Peter was grieved because He asked him the third time;” as though He who saw
the conscience of the denier, saw not the confessor’s faith. He had known him always, had
known him even when Peter had not known himself. For he did not know himself at that
time when he said, “I will be with Thee even unto death;”4075 and how infirm he was he
knew not. Just as it constantly happens in fact to invalids, that the sick man knows not what
is going on within him, but the physician knows; when yet the former is suffering from the
very sickness, and the physician is not. The physician can better tell what is going on in an-
other, than he who is sick what is going on in himself. Peter then was at that time the invalid,
and the Lord the Physician. The former declared that he had strength, when he had not; but
the Lord touching the pulse of his heart, declared that he should deny Him thrice. And so
it came to pass, as the Physician foretold, not as the sick presumed. Therefore, after His re-
surrection the Lord questioned him, not as being ignorant with what a heart he would
confess the love of Christ, but that he might by a threefold confession of love, efface the
threefold denial of fear.
4. Therefore doth the Lord require this of Peter, “Peter, lovest thou Me?” As though,
“What wilt thou give Me, what wilt thou do for Me, seeing that thou lovest Me?” What was
Peter to do for his Lord risen again, and going into heaven, and sitting on the right hand of
the Father? As if He had said, “This shalt thou give Me, this shalt thou do for Me, if thou
lovest Me, feed My sheep; enter in by the Door, not go up by another way.” Ye heard when
the Gospel was being read, “He that entereth in by Door, is the shepherd; but he that goeth
up another way, is a thief and a robber; and he seeketh to disperse, and to scatter, and to
spoil.”4076 Who is he that entereth in by the Door? He that entereth in by Christ. Who is
4073 John x. 7, 11.
4074 John xxi. 15, etc.
4075 Luke xxii. 33.
4076 John x. 1, etc.
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The tenth chapter of the Gospel of John. Of the shepherd, and the hireling,…