The Shepherd Who Kills
Ordinary Time
Office of Readings · St. Augustine, Sermon On Pastors
After the Lord had shown what wicked shepherds esteem, he also spoke about what they neglect. The defects of the sheep are widespread. There are very few healthy and sound sheep, few that are solidly sustained by the food of truth, and few that enjoy the good pasture God gives them. But the wicked shepherds do not spare such sheep. It is not enough that they neglect those that are ill and weak, those that go stray and are lost. They even try, so far as it is in their power, to kill the strong and healthy. Yet such sheep live; yes, by God’s mercy they live. As for the wicked shepherds themselves, they kill the sheep. “How do they kill them?” you ask. By their wicked lives and by giving bad example. Or was God’s servant, who was high among the members of the chief shepherd, told this in vain: Show yourself as an example of good works toward all men, and, Be an example to the faithful? Even the strong sheep, if he turns his eyes from the Lord’s laws and looks at the man set over him, notices when his shepherd is living wickedly and begins to say in his heart: “If my pastor lives like that, why should I not live like him?” The wicked shepherd kills the strong sheep. But if he kills the strong one what does he do to the rest? After all, by his wicked life he kills even the sheep he had not strengthened but had found strong and hardy. I appeal to your love, and again I say, even if the sheep have life and if they are strong in the word of the Lord, and if they hold fast to what they have heard from their Lord, Do what they say but not what they do. Still, as far as he himself is concerned, the shepherd who lives a wicked life before the people kills the sheep under his care. Let such a shepherd not deceive himself because the sheep is not dead, for though it still lives, he is a murderer, just as when the lustful man looks on a woman with desire, even though she is chaste, he has committed adultery. For the Lord said in plain truth: Whoever has looked upon a woman with desire has already committed adultery with her in his heart. He has not entered her bedroom, yet he has ravished her within the bedroom of his heart. Therefore anyone who lives wickedly before those who have been placed under his care kills, as far as he himself is concerned, even the strong. Whoever imitates him, dies; whoever does not, has life. But as for him, he kills both of them. You kill what is healthy and you do not pasture my sheep.
Augustine is doing something uncomfortable here. He is not worried about the weak sheep, the ill and lost ones, though he names them. He is worried about the strong ones, the healthy sheep solidly sustained by the food of truth. And he says the wicked shepherd kills even them. How? Not with a knife. By his wicked life and bad example. Watch the mechanism Augustine traces. The strong sheep turns his eyes from the Lord's laws to the man set over him, sees his pastor living badly, and starts to reason: if my pastor lives like that, why should I not live like him? That is the kill. The example did the damage the doctrine never could. Augustine knows the objection and answers it before you raise it. The sheep is not actually dead; it still lives by God's mercy; many hold fast to the word despite the bad shepherd. Do what they say but not what they do, he quotes. Fine. But as far as the shepherd himself is concerned, he is a murderer. Augustine reaches for the sharpest comparison he has. The man who looks at a chaste woman with desire has already committed adultery in his heart. She is untouched. He is guilty anyway. Intent and influence count, whether or not they land. The weight of this falls on anyone placed over others, in any small way. Your life teaches louder than your words. People are watching the gap between what you say and how you live, and quietly deciding whether the faith is real.
Today's intention
Today I'll close one gap between what I say I believe and how the people watching me actually see me live.