" I am the good shepherd, I know my sheep," that I love, "and my own know me" (Jn 10, 14). as if to say openly: correspond to the love of those who love them. Knowledge always precedes the love of truth. Ask yourself, dear brothers, if you are sheep of the Lord, if you know it, if you know the light of truth. I speak not only of knowledge of faith, but also that of love, not only of believing, but also of working. The evangelist John, in fact, explains: "Who says I know God, and keepeth not his commandments is a liar" (1 Jn 2, 4).
So in this step by the Lord immediately adds: "As the Father knows me and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep" (Jn 10, 15). As if to say explicitly: this is that I know the Father and have known the Father, for I offer my life for my sheep, that is, I demonstrate how much love the Father love with which I'm dying for the sheep.
this sheep again says: My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life (cf. Jn 10, 14-16). Of them had said earlier: "If anyone enters by me will be saved, and come out and find pasture" (Jn 10: 9). Enter that in the faith, quit the faith in the vision, believe in the contemplation of the Act, and find pasture in the eternal banquet.
His sheep will find pasture, that whoever follows him with a simple heart is fed with a food eternally fresh. What are the pastures of these sheep, if not the intimate joys of heaven, which is eternal spring? In fact, grazing is the presence of the elect of God's face, and while we contemplate without fear of losing it, the soul is satisfied without fine food of life.
We, therefore, dear brethren, these pastures, in which we can rejoice in the company of many fellow citizens. The same joy of those who are happy to draw us. Revive, brothers, our spirit. S'infervori faith in what he believed. Our desires for goods ignite supernal. In this love so it will be a walk. No opposition distract us from the joy of inner party, because if someone wants to reach the stated goal, no roughness of the journey will be worth to keep him. No prosperity seduces us with his praises, because this is silly traveler who stops along the way to look at the beautiful meadows and forget to go where he wanted to go.
from the homilies on the Gospels by Saint Gregory the Great Pope
(Om. 14, 3-6, PL 76, 1129-1130)
(Om. 14, 3-6, PL 76, 1129-1130)
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