The Good Shepherd and the Transformation of Sheep into Men

He has an unbounded abyss, and the 'much' is even greater. His covering signifies through the 'much', just as the 'unsearchable' of the judgments. In other psalms this was said: the hymnodist spoke of theologians, 'the abyss is like a garment, his surrounding' (Ps 18:11). And in another: 'he set darkness as his hidden covering' (Ps 18:11). He speaks of obscurity and incomprehensibility. This darkness, being hidden, is that of obscurity, that of incomprehensibility, and it is a garment resembling an abyss.

You will save men and cattle, Lord (Ps 36:9). He saves men and cattle. And if we take cattle according to what is at hand, we also take men in sense perception. But he governs all, both the rational and the irrational animals; the rational according to themselves, and the irrational as things having come to be through the rational; for the irrational fulfill the needs of the rational. Some bear burdens for them, some pull the plow, and others provide service in another way. Since even these he is able to let fall into harm and death, he saves even these. He saves also the man. 'Men and cattle you will save, Lord' (Ps 36:9).

The same unsearchable quality of the judgments is found in these also, that he saves all men, though differently: some with much suffering, others with some rest and pleasure. But if he speaks of true salvation, of saving men, and prays concerning that which has been said, that 'the Savior became the cause of eternal salvation to all those who obey', the saint, referring to what is signified, said: 'Our God, the God of saving' (Ps 98:6); here the cattle are to be allegorized; for those who have come to godliness and to the teaching of the Gospel itself, some are called disciples, and others sheep: 'my sheep hear my voice' (John 10:27). They hear a single voice. But the voice is the immediate rendering of the Scriptures which disturbs and strikes the soul and its hearing, not indeed the mind. Of the voice, therefore, of Jesus, the sheep...

They hear of him as a good and true shepherd. When he says to some, 'You call me Lord and Teacher, and you speak well; for I am truly a teacher. And I am your Lord, for you serve me by keeping my laws' (cf. Luke 6:46)—these are not sheep, but disciples, disciples of wisdom, disciples of the truth. But the sheep, being shepherds, are sheep.

There is another condescending intention of the Savior, that he be a shepherd. Since he wishes to save and improve all, then salvation and improvement ascend when, toward the capacity of being benefited in what is possible, he calls some listeners up to his voice, and others to his word, to his teaching. Thus he saves men and cattle so called. And he saves the sheep so that they may no longer be sheep, but that from sheep men may become.

This indeed is hinted at by the twenty-second psalm: 'The Lord,' he says, 'shepherds me, and nothing shall I lack. Into a place of pasture he has led me; upon waters of rest he has nourished me' (Ps 22:1-2). He speaks as a sheep; he reports what exists with the shepherd gratefully. Then he says: 'He has restored my soul. He has led me' (Ps 22:3). And shortly after he brings forth: 'You have prepared a table before me' (Ps 22:5).

It is no longer a place of pasture, no longer a meadow, no longer grazing land, but a table, upon which lies 'the bread of life,' 'the bread which came down from heaven' (John 6:35, 51), the flesh of Jesus, the true nourishment. And after the progress of the table, he partakes also of the cup, of which wisdom 'who has mixed wine for herself' (Prov 31:6) offers. It is your cup, if you pour it for me; and my cup, if you have measured it for me, which I am able to drink. O God, how you have multiplied your mercy. By the mercy of God, men are saved. Then the mercy of God is multiplied and his abundance is shown, when he also saves cattle. Even if regarding a teacher...