Поучение о пастырстве духовных пастырей («Был томим днем от зноя, а ночью от стужи; и отходил сон от глаз моих» (Быт. 31:40))

Let all who have been entrusted by God with the shepherd of verbal sheep: bishops, priests, and other spiritual officials, shepherds of human souls and rulers, listen diligently to these words of the righteous Jacob, the shepherd of cattle, and let them delve into them with consideration. If the one who shepherds dumb animals endured such labor, “tormented by the heat during the day, and by the cold at night,” without giving his eyes sleep, then how incomparably greater labor and vigor are needed by the one who shepherds human souls, for which our great and good Shepherd Christ shed His Blood and laid His soul on the Cross, and which He accepts from the hands of the shepherd with great consideration and testing! The work of shepherding requires not only labor, but also great skill. Just as Jacob, skilled in herding dumb sheep, invented a wondrous method of multiplying motley sheep, placing motley rods in troughs during watering in front of the eyes of the sheep, so a skillful shepherd of verbal sheep, in order to multiply the sheep she shepherds, must offer them, like motley rods, images of a virtuous life from the lives of the saints, and especially an example your own life, according to the instructions of the apostle: “Be an example to the faithful in word, in life, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity” (1 Tim. 4:12). So, let’s talk here about what a shepherd of verbal sheep should be like. Exhorting the people of Israel who had once departed from Him to turn to Him, the Lord God promised to give them skilled shepherds. “I will give you,” He said, “shepherds after My heart, and they will shepherd you with understanding and teaching” (Jer. 3:15). Let us listen to what kind of shepherds God wants to see among His verbal sheep: intelligent and teaching. “And they will shepherd you,” He says, “with understanding and teaching.” So, first of all, a shepherd should be reasonable and teaching. For how can he reason with the unreasonable if he himself is unreasonable? How can he teach the ignorant if he himself is uneducated? How can he be a teacher if he himself is not learned and does not know the power of Holy Scripture? How can he instruct the erring one if he himself does not know the way where he is going? Can a blind man lead a blind man in the right way? Will not, according to the word of Christ, both fall into the pit (see Matt. 15:14)? Therefore, a pastor, first of all, needs to be intelligent and teaching, and not ignorant and unlearned. God gave the ancient Old Testament forefathers a promise that He would send His people a Shepherd, the Messiah Christ, about whom He said to Bethlehem: “Out of you will come a Leader who will shepherd My people Israel” (Mic. 5:2; Matt. 2:6). Prophetically describing the coming of this Shepherd, the prophet Isaiah calls Him a rod, for the shepherd walks with a rod, and a flowering rod, giving hope for fruit to feed the spiritual sheep. On this rod, he says, the Holy Spirit will rest with His gifts: “The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and piety will rest on Him, and the Spirit of the fear of God will fill him” (Is. 11:2-3). Let us hearken: among the gifts of the Holy Spirit resting on the rod of shepherding, wisdom and meaning are placed in first place: “The Spirit of wisdom and meaning.” Let it be known to us that everyone who shepherds the people of God, although he must be adorned with many good deeds and spiritual gifts, must first of all acquire spiritual wisdom, thought, a teaching mind, which God also wants to see in the lips of the priests, for He says in the prophetic scripture: “The lips of a priest preserve understanding, and the law is sought from his mouth” (Mal. 2:7). The gift of teaching meaning and reason must be kept in the pastor's mouth, like a kind of rich treasure, so that he may be wise in teaching, in instruction, in exhortation and in rebuking the disobedient, as the apostle says about the bishop, and therefore about every priest: “So that he may be able to teach in sound doctrine and reprove those who resist” (Titus 1:9). He who does not have the spirit of wisdom and sense and does not preserve reason in his mouth is unworthy of the pastoral rank. In the prophecy of Hosea, God says: “You have rejected skill, I will also reject you, so that you do not act sacred before Me” (Hos. 4:6), - that is, I do not want to have you in the rank of the priesthood, because you did not seek reason, wisdom and teaching. In a similar way, Chrysostom, in conversations on the epistles of Pavlova, writes: “He who does not know the Scriptures and cannot fight with heretics will be far from the episcopal rank; He is unworthy to be in the rank of sacred servants of God, caring for the souls of men; he who is unskilled in the Divine Scripture and rejects skill is unworthy of the rank of shepherd” (Conversation 2 on the Epistle to Titus, chapter 1). If this is said about unlearned shepherds, then what can we say about those who not only do not know spiritual reason, but also do not turn with love to those who have been admonished and condemn and blaspheme the teaching? Let us listen to what Scripture says about them: “He who despises wisdom and instruction is wretched; his hope is vain, his labors are fruitless, and his works are useless” (Wis. 3:11). The Lord God commanded the first Old Testament bishop, Aaron, to make a holy robe, on the hem of which there were to be golden bells, “and when serving, let the sound of it (the bell) be heard when he enters the sanctuary before the Lord and when he goes out, so that he does not die” (Ex. 28:35). The decoration of that robe with bells was marvelous, but even more marvelous was the fact that death awaited the bishop if the bishop’s robe did not have bells: “Let his sound (originating from the bells) be heard,” it is said, “so that he does not die.” We know that everything of the Old Law was a transformation of the New Grace, and the Old Testament priesthood was a prototype of our priesthood. The bells emitting a ringing, according to the interpretation of Saint Gregory the Double-Speaker, signified the voice of the saint’s teaching, meaning that the bishop, like the priest, should not be dumb and should no longer proclaim with bells, but with his lips and tongue, teaching and admonishing the people of God, according to the admonition of the Apostle: “Preach the word, insist in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all patience and teaching” (2 Tim. 4:2), do the work of an evangelist. The bells were golden, and golden words should come from sacred lips: about pleasing God, about a holy and righteous life, about love for God and neighbor - words that are golden, not tin, that is, useful, not useless, honest, not dishonest, loving, not hostile, not blasphemous and not rotten. He who does not have such golden spiritual bells of reason and book art, who has not acquired the spirit of wisdom and is an uneducational servant of God and a shepherd of human souls, is mute, and at the same time dead. For just as the Old Law saint, if he had dared to enter the sanctuary without bells, would have faced death, so also the New Grace bishops and priests, who dare to take upon themselves spiritual rank with many intrigues and who do not have the bells of reason and spiritual wisdom, who cannot teach the flock of Christ, will face some special death - not physical, but spiritual, for they are considered dead by God, and each of them He says in the Apocalypse: “You bear a name as if you were alive, but you are dead” (Rev. 3:1). Dead before God is the one who only bears the name and dignity of shepherding, but does not fulfill the duties of a shepherd. The duty of a shepherd, first of all, is to teach with benefit, destroying human sins and instructing on the path of salvation. This is what God says to the shepherd: “Lift up your voice like a trumpet and tell my people their sins. If you do not tell it, the wicked one will die in his iniquity, but I will require his blood at your hand” (Isaiah 58:1; Ezek. 3:18). It is as if he were killing a sinner with his own hand if he did not try to admonish him with his tongue and turn him away from his sins. The silent tongue of a shepherd is like a sword that kills the souls of sinners. Therefore, the apostle says about himself: “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel” (1 Cor. 9:16). Woe to the silent shepherd, woe to his tongue, which does not preach the word of God and does not teach! But how can the tongue preach the word instructively and profitably if the mind has not learned spiritual wisdom? This is what is said about those who, being very unskilled in the book mind, barely able to read and not understanding what they read, not knowing how to teach, with great zeal seek and buy for themselves the rank of priesthood and shepherd, not in order to shepherd and save human souls, but in order to themselves be grazed and glorified, being revered. On their behalf, Saint Chrysostom says: “We strive for external leadership and spiritual shepherding in order to be glorified and revered by people, but we perish with God. What is the gain from such an honor? (Third Moral Teaching on the Acts of the Apostles). The shepherd must be not only intelligent, skillful and teaching in the Divine Scripture, but also virtuous and holy in life, for it is appropriate to teach the verbal sheep not only with words, but also with the image of a good life in God. The Holy Apostle Paul, commanding his disciple Timothy to be an example for the faithful, and saying what this example should be, first of all indicates along with the word life: “Be an example,” he says, “for the faithful in word, in life” and so on (1 Tim. 4:12). For along with the word there must also be life, so that the life of the shepherd is consistent with the teaching words coming from his mouth, so that the shepherd himself does what he teaches others, so as not to be convicted by the words of the apostle: “When you teach another, do you not teach yourself?” (Rom. 2:21). Will he who himself does evil deeds teach others to do good deeds? Will someone who is going to hell himself lead anyone to the kingdom of heaven? Isn’t it a shame for the one who washes others from dirt to remain in the stinking mud and not take care to wash himself from dirt? Can someone who is himself covered in scabby ulcers and possessed by a serious illness heal other people’s ulcers and illnesses? Wouldn't everyone say to such a person: “Doctor! Heal yourself” (Luke 4:23)? And God Himself says to such people: “Why do you preach My statutes and keep My covenant in your mouth? But you hated instruction and threw My words back” (Ps. 49:16–17). And the Jewish teachers told people many things from the Law, teaching them, but they themselves did not do what they taught. That is why the Lord said about them to His disciples and people: “The scribes and Pharisees sat in Moses’ seat; So whatever they tell you to observe, observe and do; But do not act according to their works, for they say and do not do” (Matthew 23:2-3). He who speaks and does not act is like thunder in clouds without rain during a drought. What good is the thunder of the clouds if rain does not fall on the thirsty earth? What touching for the soul is there from the voice of a teacher whose life not only does not bring any benefit, but even more seduces? For a word without an image of a virtuous life is not effective. Let someone carry on his tongue like honey, sweet-talking, but if the gall of temptation is visible in his deeds, he will not sweeten the heart of the listener. He who wishes to warm up the love of the Lord in others must himself not be ice, but burn, like the Seraphim, with Divine desire. He who wishes to enlighten others should not be darkness, but light. That is why the Lord says to pastors and teachers in the Gospel: “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14). And Saint Chrysostom exhorts: “It is fitting for a ruler to be brighter than any luminary and to have an undefiled life, so that everyone, looking at him, can imagine his life in their own lives” (Conversation 10 on the first Epistle to Timothy, chapter 3). When the lights go out, darkness comes. If a boss leads an evil life, then how can he not be tempted by his subordinate looking at him! When the shepherd goes astray, how can the sheep not go astray! If light is darkness, then how much more darkness! Therefore, the light must be light and not darkness, in order to enlighten those for whom it shines. “Let your light shine before men,” says the Lord, “so that they may see your good deeds” (Matthew 5:16). He who wants to lift up those who fall, let him stand firm himself! He who guides the lost to the right path, let him himself follow the right path! Be, O shepherd, an image of virtues for your sheep, and then you will be able to teach them. The Lord says in the Gospel: “Whoever does and teaches, he will be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:19). Let us heed these words: he will create and teach; first he creates, then he teaches. You cannot, as He says, teach others unless you first do what you want to teach them. First do it yourself, and then you can teach others, for the voice of action is more effective than the voice of word: the word is heard only by those who are present, but the work is preached to the ends of the earth. Therefore, it is necessary for a pastor to have a virtuous life along with teaching. In the above-mentioned prophetic (Malachi) scripture, which says that the priestly mouth should keep understanding and that the law of God is sought from his mouth, it is written that the shepherd is the Angel of the Lord Almighty: “Let rivers of teaching flow from the mouth of the priest, for he is the Angel of God” (Mal. 2:7). Let us note that teaching and angelism are put together: the shepherd must have a teaching word in his mouth and maintain an angelic, holy, immaculate life. And the Psalmist says: “He who walks in the blameless way has served me” (Ps. 100:6). If you are a servant of God, if you are a shepherd of the verbal sheep, if you are a teacher, then be blameless in your life, like the Angel of God, proclaiming the word of God, do not do the works of demons. While serving in the church of God together with the Angels, do not walk outside the church with demons to anger God; while you bring benefit with words, do not tempt with deeds, for “woe to that man through whom temptation comes” (Matthew 18:7). Thousands of spoken words may not bring any benefit, but one evil deed, done openly, will seduce thousands of people, and what you were able to create in human souls with many words, you will destroy with one seducing deed. Be an Angel in life - and everyone will be happy to sweetly listen to your words and do what you command, having before them the image of your life. And you will not be able to shepherd the flock entrusted to you and guide it on the path of salvation if you yourself are not the first to follow the path of salvation. You cannot motivate people to love God if you yourself do not appear as God’s beloved friend. Promising the people of Israel to send wise and teaching shepherds, the Lord God, as stated above, first of all indicated that He would give them shepherds after His own heart: “I will give you,” He said, “shepherds after My heart” (Jer. 3:15). What it means to be after God’s heart is explained by the Apostle Paul, speaking on behalf of God about David: “I have found a man after My heart, David the son of Jesse, who will fulfill all My desires” (Acts 13:22). So, to be after God’s heart means to fulfill all His desires. And when God gave a promise to send shepherds according to His heart, shepherding with reason and teaching, He announced that these shepherds, together with reasonable teaching, would have a good life, fulfilling all His desires. Let’s say again: to be after God’s heart means to love God with all your heart. What is the sign that someone loves God with all their heart? This sign was indicated by Christ Himself when He said with His pure lips: “Whoever has My commandments and keeps them, he loves Me” (John 14:21). The sign of love for God is the fulfillment of His commandments. And therefore, when God said that shepherds would be after His own heart, He also indicated that they would love Him with all their hearts, keeping His commandments. And if such were the shepherds in the Old Testament, then even more so now, in the new grace, shepherds must be not only teaching in words, but also virtuous in life, be after God’s heart, fulfilling all His desires, keeping the commandments out of heartfelt love for Him. A shepherd should be a lover of God. The Lord Himself, wanting to make Saint Peter a shepherd of the verbal sheep, first of all asked him three times about love, telling him: “Simon of Jonas! Do you love Me? And when Peter answered Him three times: “Yes, Lord! You know that I love You,” the Lord entrusted him with the flock: “Feed My lambs, feed My sheep,” feed My elect (John 21:15–17). Love for God is recognized through a virtuous life, revealing along with the word the life of a shepherd. But it is not enough for a shepherd to be a teacher in word and a saint in life. He must still have great care for the flock, work and be watchful. He needs care for the flock, for God will demand an account of the flock entrusted to the hands of the shepherd, and at the last hour he will say: “Give an account of your stewardship” (Luke 16:2). In the prophecy of Ezekiel, one hears a menacing word addressed to careless shepherds: “Thus says the Lord God: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel, who fed themselves! Shouldn't shepherds feed the flock? You ate milk and clothed yourself with wool, you slaughtered the fatted sheep, but did not feed the flock. They did not strengthen the weak, and did not heal the sick, and did not bandage the wounded, and did not return the stolen ones, and did not search for the lost, but ruled them with violence and cruelty.” And they were scattered without a shepherd, and being scattered, they became food for every beast” (Ezek. 34:2-5). Therefore, shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. “I live! - says the Lord God, - because My sheep were left to be plundered, and without a shepherd, My sheep became food for every beast, and My shepherds did not seek My sheep, and the shepherds fed themselves, but did not feed My sheep - therefore, shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will seek My sheep out of their hand” (Ezek. 34:8–10). Let us hear how threateningly the Lord will test the shepherds regarding their shepherding. Therefore, it befits a shepherd to be very careful about his flock. Many works are also necessary for the shepherd, for he must bear the infirmities of all, as the apostle says: “We who are strong must bear the infirmities of the powerless and not please ourselves” (Rom. 15:1). In the parable of the good shepherd, the Lord says: “He will follow the lost sheep until he finds it. And having found it, he will take it on his shoulders with joy” (Luke 15:4–5). This is what the shepherd’s office is: to give his shoulders to the sheep entrusted to him, and to bear its infirmities. Let us listen to what the Lord once commanded Moses, the leader of the people of Israel: “Take them as a nursing mother carries a baby” (Numbers 11:12). Not only as a shepherd carries a sheep, but also as a mother carries her child and feeds it with her teats, so the shepherd must spiritually carry his verbal sheep, feeding them with spiritual food, like babies with milk, and not denying what is necessary for the body, but, if possible, making up for the insufficiency of the poor. In all this, the shepherd faces considerable work: labor in finding the lost, labor in raising the fallen, labor in healing the wounded, labor in bearing the infirmities and burdens of the burdened, labor in plucking the sheep stolen by the wolf from the very teeth of the beast and presenting it intact to Christ. It is also difficult to give a helping hand to the offended in external needs, to protect the innocent, to care for the poor and poor, and to perform other duties of church government - all these labors must be taken on by the shepherd. And woe to that shepherd who seeks only pastoral honor, but does not do the work due to him! Woe to the shepherd who seeks only his own benefit, shepherds only himself, and does not care about the sheep. Such a shepherd is like an idol, for it is to such a shepherd that God says in Zechariah’s prophecy: “Woe to the unworthy shepherd who forsakes the sheep!” (Zechariah 11:17). In another translation, this passage reads: “O shepherd and idol!” A shepherd who leaves the sheep, who does not work, who does not care about the sheep, is an idol, and God says to him: “O shepherd and idol!” What kind of idol is such a shepherd like? Truly, he is like that golden calf which the people of Israel, driven out of Egypt, carved for themselves in the desert in the absence of Moses, and before which they exclaimed: “Behold your God, O Israel!” (Ex. 32:4). Saint Cyprian, Saint Ambrose and other interpreters of the Divine Scripture say that it was not the whole calf that was carved, but only the head of the calf, for when a lot of gold was put into the fire, then out of it poured out the likeness of the head of a calf eating grass, which the Psalmist also mentions: “They exchanged His glory,” he says, “for the likeness of a calf eating grass” (Ps. 105:20) Look what that golden idol was like: it had neither shoulders nor legs, so that a yoke could be placed on it and it had only a mouth that ate grass. The idol is golden, and it is valuable for the sake of gold, and the shepherd has a golden rank, and it is valuable for the sake of the shepherd’s rank. The idol is golden, but soulless, and a shepherd who does not have the spirit of zeal for the sheep is, as it were, soulless. The idol did not have shoulders and did not wear a yoke on its neck, and a shepherd who does not, as appropriate, bear the burden placed on him, also, as it were, does not have shoulders, cannot be harnessed to the yoke of Christ. The idol image did not have the appearance of a working, but only an eating calf - and the shepherd, who does not undertake the work due to him, but only eats rich meals for free, is, as it were, an eating calf, and therefore is like a golden idol of a calf. And it is not in vain that the Scripture says to such a shepherd: “O shepherd and idol!” In many pastoral mouths one can still hear the words of the ancient shepherds mentioned in the prophecy of Zechariah, who said: “Blessed is the Lord, for we are enriched” (Zechariah 11:5). But there are few who could say: “Blessed be the Lord because we found the lost sheep, plucked it from the wolf’s mouth, healed the wounded, fed the flock in good pasture, in addition to the fact that we ourselves were enriched and fed.” Therefore, God says through the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah: “Woe to the shepherds! I will feed them wormwood and give them water with gall to drink” (Jer. 23:15). This is what God's retribution awaits careless and lazy shepherds: instead of sweet food - wormwood, instead of sweet drink - bile. When will they receive such reward? On the last day, at the hour of the terrible test. So, a lot of work and care is required for the one who shepherds human souls. Along with labor, a shepherd also needs great vigor, like a guard assigned to guard a city or regiments. For the words of God spoken to the prophet Ezekiel apply to every shepherd: “He has made him a watchman for the house of Israel” (Ezek. 33:7). The watchman who watches at night does not sleep; it is not proper for the shepherd of the spiritual flock to be sleepy. The psalmist says: “He who guards Israel will neither slumber nor sleep” (Ps. 121:4), and he speaks not so much about the natural sleep of the weak flesh, without which no one can do, but about spiritual sleep - about the negligence, inattention of a careless shepherd, for someone who is inattentive and careless about what is happening is the same as sleeping. Saint Chrysostom, citing as an example the vigilance of shepherds of verbal flocks, says: “If the concern for the wordless is so great, then what answer can those sleeping in a deep sleep, to whom verbal souls are entrusted, give? Or are you unaware of the dignity of this herd? Wasn’t it for him that your Lord did countless things and then shed His Blood? And you are looking for peace! What could be worse than such shepherds? Don't you think that these sheep are surrounded by evil and fierce wolves? Don’t you think how much is needed for someone who wants to take leadership in the dispensation of the soul” (Moral Teaching 29 on the Epistle to the Romans). The image of the good shepherd is shown by those six-winged, four-faced, many-eyed Cherubim, whom Saint John the Theologian saw at the Throne of God and which, according to the explanation of the interpreters, are images of the four evangelists and, after the evangelists and apostles, images of church shepherds. For each of the shepherds must be like a lion strong against the wolves attacking the flock, industrious in his rank like an ox, merciful and compassionate like a man, and soaring high in his godly mind like an eagle. It is written about these Cherubim that they are “full of eyes before and behind” (Rev. 4:6). Like them, the shepherd must be wide-eyed, considering not only the present, but also the future. Chrysostom says: “A shepherd needs thousands of eyes everywhere—thousands, for he must tend the sheep and keep a watchful eye so that any wolf in sheep’s clothing does not fall into the flock” (Third Moral Teaching on the Acts of the Apostles). The heavenly Cherubim not only have many eyes on the outside, in front and behind, they are also “full of eyes on the inside” (Rev. 4:8). It is also not enough for the shepherd to watch his flock with many eyes; he must also watchfully look inside himself, into the depths of his conscience: will his conscience catch him in something? For before God it is not commendable to look after others, but not to see oneself, noticing a speck in the eyes of one’s neighbor, not perceiving a plank in one’s own eye (see Matt. 7:3; Luke 6:41) and, showing others the good path, oneself falls into a pit. Therefore, it is appropriate for a shepherd to be many-ready not only externally, but also internally, not only correcting the sins of others, but also carefully protecting himself from falls and temptations. And for this, as we said at the beginning, the shepherd needs great art. An inexperienced doctor will do more harm than heal, and an inexperienced helmsman will more likely lead a ship to sinking than guide it to a haven. Likewise, an unskillful shepherd is more likely to harm his flock than to benefit it. And woe to such a shepherd! For he will have to give an answer to God about all the lost souls. Let us think: if the saints, being wise and worthy of this rank, so shied away from accepting it upon themselves and preferred foolishness and damage to their flesh to shepherding many human souls, then what can be said about those who are trying to receive this rank, being neither skillful nor worthy of shepherding, not having a virtuous life, trying to get it only through much effort and bribery? Indeed, their salvation is in doubt. Let us listen to what Saint Chrysostom writes about such shepherds: “I think,” he says, “that not many of such priests are saved, but the majority perish.” And again: “When you want the priesthood, think about hell” (Moral 3 on the Acts of the Apostles). Let us listen to what Saint Chrysostom says about all those generally seeking leadership: “Oh, what a great misfortune awaits all who plunge themselves into such an abyss of languor! About everyone over whom you are in charge: about wives, husbands and children, you must give an answer. This is the fire into which you place your head. I doubt that any of the leaders could be saved when, with such punishment and corruption, I see those still striving and plunging themselves into such a burden of authority. For if those who are driven by need have neither forgiveness nor justification when they do not care about the matter and arrange it poorly, then even more so those who make efforts to obtain this and plunge themselves into the authorities deprive themselves of all forgiveness. It is fitting to fear and tremble at this, both for the sake of conscience and for the sake of the burden of the authorities” (Conversation 34 on the Epistle to the Hebrews). This is how Saint Chrysostom ends his words, and we will also finish our conversation about shepherding here. Look at the rest: in the first epistle of Peter, ch. 5. art. 2–3; in Paul's first letter to Timothy, ch. 3. art. 1, etc., and in the letter to Titus, ch. 1st Art. 7 and following. See also the last word to the shepherd of St. John Climacus.