St John Chapter xxi : Verses 16-17
Contents
- St John Chapter xxi. 16-17 : Douay-Rheims (Challoner) text, Greek (SBLG) & Latin text (Vulgate);
- Annotations based on the Great Commentary of Cornelius A Lapide.
St John Chapter xxi. 16-17
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| Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. J-J Tissot. Brooklyn Museum. |
17 He said to him the third time: Simon, son of John, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved, because he had said to him the third time: Lovest thou me? And he said to him: Lord, thou knowest all things: thou knowest that I love thee. He said to him: Feed my sheep.
16 λέγει αὐτῷ πάλιν δεύτερον· Σίμων ⸀Ἰωάννου, ἀγαπᾷς με; λέγει αὐτῷ· Ναί, κύριε, σὺ οἶδας ὅτι φιλῶ σε. λέγει αὐτῷ· Ποίμαινε τὰ πρόβατά μου.
16 Dicit ei iterum : Simon Joannis, diligis me? Ait illi : Etiam Domine, tu scis quia amo te. Dicit ei : Pasce agnos meos.
17 λέγει αὐτῷ τὸ τρίτον· Σίμων ⸀Ἰωάννου, φιλεῖς με; ἐλυπήθη ὁ Πέτρος ὅτι εἶπεν αὐτῷ τὸ τρίτον· Φιλεῖς με; καὶ ⸀εἶπεν αὐτῷ· Κύριε, ⸂πάντα σὺ⸃ οἶδας, σὺ γινώσκεις ὅτι φιλῶ σε. λέγει αὐτῷ ⸀ὁ Ἰησοῦς· Βόσκε τὰ ⸀πρόβατά μου.
17 Dicit ei tertio : Simon Joannis, amas me? Contristatus est Petrus, quia dixit ei tertio : Amas me? et dixit ei : Domine, tu omnia nosti, tu scis quia amo te. Dixit ei : Pasce oves meas.
Annotations
16. He saith to him again: Simon, son of John, lovest thou me? He saith to him: Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith to him: Feed my lambs. Hear S. Chrysostom: “Again he dreads the former things, lest perchance, thinking himself to love, he should be corrected if he did not love, like as before he was corrected for thinking himself strong, and therefore he takes refuge in Christ Himself.”
He saith unto him the second time, Feed My lambs. Thus the Arabic has it. But the Greek and Syriac instead of lambs have sheep, but it is very probable that the Vulgate, together with the Arabic, read the Greek προβατία inserting iota, i.e. little sheep, or lambs: because the shepherd’s chief care must be for them; and therefore Christ repeats and doubles His injunction concerning them.
As S. Augustine says, “Let it be love’s office to feed the Lord’s flock, like as it was the mark of fear to deny the Shepherd.” Hence S. Gregory (1 Part. Pastor. c. v.) says, “He who is strong in virtue and refuses to feed the flock of God is proved not to love his Pastor.”
17. He said to him the third time: Simon, son of John, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved, because he had said to him the third time: Lovest thou me? And he said to him: Lord, thou knowest all things: thou knowest that I love thee. He said to him: Feed my sheep (Syriac, My lambs). Why does Christ thrice ask Peter if he loved Him, and thrice repeat, Feed My sheep? I answer, the first reason is, that Peter, by a triple and constant profession of his singular love, might expiate and change his three-fold denial of Christ. So Cyril, Leontius, Theophylact, Bede, and S. Augustine, which last thus writes (Tract. 123): “For a threefold denial a threefold confession is rendered, that the tongue might not seem to serve love less than fear, and that impending death might not seem to elicit more speech than Present Life. Let it be the office of love to feed the Lord’s flock, if it was the mark of fear to deny the Shepherd. If any feed Christ’s sheep with this disposition, that they wish them to be their own sheep rather than His, they are proved to love not Christ but themselves, either from the desire of boasting, or ruling, or acquiring, not from the love of obeying, and helping, and pleasing God. Against such, therefore, the Word of Christ, many times enjoined, gives warning, and of them the Apostle complains that they seek their own, not the things which be of Jesus Christ. For to say, ‘If thou lovest Me, feed My sheep,’ what else is it but to say, If thou lovest Me, do not study to feed thyself, but My sheep; feed them as Mine, not as thine: seek My glory in them, not thine: My dominion, not thine own? “From hence let bishops learn to examine suspended priests and others a second and third time, concerning their amendment, that they may be safe in restoring them to their office.”
The second cause is that Christ might show what a value He set upon His sheep, and how in the day of judgment He will examine bishops and pastors as to their care for, but especially as to their love for, the sheep. Wherefore S. Bernard (Ser. 18 in Cant.) inveighs against those who, though having little love, are ambitious of being set over others, and so lose themselves and others; or if they save those under them, lose themselves. “Thou, brother,” he says, “whose salvation is not yet strong, who as yet hast not love, or that so weak and like a reed as to yield to every blast, believe every spirit, be carried about with every wind of doctrine, thou, I say, who hast such an opinion of thine own self in what pertains to thine own self, by what madness, I ask, art thou ambitious to have the care of others, or even acquiesce in having it?”
Thirdly—that He may show that pastors ought to feed their sheep, as it were, in a threefold manner—viz., by the word of truth, by example of life, and by temporal assistance (see S. Greg.) And S. Bernard (Ser. 2 on the Resurr.) says, that feed was repeated by Christ thrice, in order that a pastor may feed his sheep by mind, by tongue, and by hand. “Feed” he says, “by mind, feed by mouth, feed by works. Feed by mental prayer, by verbal exhortation, by showing example.” The same (Ep. 201) says, “Feed by word, feed by example, feed by the fruit of holy prayers.” Hence that wonderful love and zeal for souls in S. Peter, as well as in S. John, who in his Gospel, and his Epistles, everywhere breathes love and Divine fire. A memorable instance of this was that young man who had been converted by S. John and committed to a certain bishop by whom he had been neglected, and so had become a chief of robbers, whom S. John, when an old man, brought back to repentance and a holy life. Eusebius (L. 3, Hist. c. 23) gives a full account of this matter from Clemens Alexandrinus. Also S. Chrysostom (Ep. 5, to Theodorus, a lapsed person).
Peter was grieved—because from the thrice-repeated question it seemed to him as if his love for Christ were suspected, or verily he was afraid that he had no part in the Passion; and like as he then denied, so now also he did not love Christ. So S. Chrysostom, &c. Whence the Lord consoles him in his grief, and says that Peter, from the love and example of Christ, should, like a true shepherd, be crucified for the sheep.
Feed My sheep, as Mine, not as thine; seek My glory in them, not thine; My profit, not thine. Hear S. Augustine:
“Let us not therefore love ourselves but Him, and in feeding His sheep let us seek the things of Christ, not our own: he who loves himself, not God, does not really love himself; for he who is not able to live by himself, dies by loving himself: when He is loved from whom is life, by not loving himself a man the more loves himself, forasmuch as he loveth not himself in order that he may love Him by whom he liveth.”
Such a shepherd was S. Paul, the colleague of S. Peter, who said, “For I wished myself to be an anathema from Christ, for my brethren, who are my kinsmen according to the flesh,” (Rom. ix. 3). Where S. Chrysostom says, “Broader than any sea, more vehement than any flame was this love, and no speech can worthily express it.” In the first place, this I myself is emphatic. What does this I myself mean? Says S. Chrysostom, “It is I who have been made a teacher of all, I who have collected offices and merits infinite, I who expect infinite crowns.” And then some remarks intervening, he thus explains S. Paul’s wish of anathema: “Willingly would I lose the kingdom of heaven, and be cut off from the hidden glory, considering that it would afford me the highest consolation if only I might no more hear Him reviled, with love of Whom I so greatly burn.”
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SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.
The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
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