How does it cure blindness? Spitting on the ground and making a shaving. For whoever believes that the Word descended into the holy Virgin as a drop dripping on the ground, will anoint his mental eyes with the clay of spittle and earth, that is, the one Christ, consisting of the Divinity, whose sign (symbol) is the drop and the spittle, and Humanity, the sign of which is the earth, from which the body of the Lord is. Will healing stop at faith? No; one must go also to Siloam, the source of baptism, and be baptized into the One who was sent, that is, Christ. For all of us who have been spiritually baptized have been baptized into Christ. And whoever is baptized will be subjected to temptations after this. Perhaps for the sake of Christ who healed him they will bring him before kings and rulers (Luke 21:12). Therefore, it is necessary to be firm and unyielding in confession; not to renounce out of fear, but, if necessary, to become both excommunicated and expelled from the synagogue, according to what is said: "Ye shall be hated by all men for My name's sake, and ye shall be cast out of the synagogues" (Matt. 24:9; Jn. 16:2). If people who are hostile to the truth both drive out the confessor of it, and remove him from what is holy and precious to them, that is, from riches and glory, then Jesus will find him, and when he is dishonored by his enemies, then he will be especially honored by Christ with knowledge and the most thorough faith. For then he will worship Christ most of all as a visible Man and as the true Son of God. For there is no other Son of God and another Son of Mary, as Nestorius impiously blasphemed, but one and the same Son of God and Man. Vide. When he who was once blind asked, "Who is the Son of God, that I should believe in Him?" then the Lord answered, "He is He Whom you have seen, and Who speaks to you." Who spoke but He who was born of Mary? And He is also the Son of God, but not another and different. That is why St. Mary is truly the Mother of God. For She gave birth to the Son of God, made flesh, indivisible, and One in two natures, Who is Christ the Lord.

And Jesus said, I have come into this world for judgment, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind. And when some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this, they said to him, "Are we also blind? Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would not have sin on you; but as you say that you see, the sin remains upon you.

The Lord saw that the Pharisees derived more harm than good for themselves from the miracle, and through this they became worthy of greater condemnation, and therefore He says: "As it seems and as it turns out in deed, I have come to judgment, that is, for a greater punishment, so that those who do not see may see, and those who see, such as the Pharisees, may become blind with the eyes of the soul. For he who does not see from birth sees both in soul and body, but those who consider themselves to see have become blind in mind. Here He speaks of vigilance and blindness of two kinds. The Pharisees, who always grasped at sensual things, thought that He was speaking of sensual blindness, and said, "Are we also blind? They were ashamed of this bodily blindness alone. And the Lord wanted to show them that it is better to be blind in the body than unbelievers, and He said, "If you were blind, you would have no sin." For if you were by necessity, by nature, blind, you could be forgiven for the unbelief with which you are infected. But now you say that you see, and yet, having witnessed the miracle of the blind man, you still remain in unbelief, and therefore are not worthy of forgiveness. For your sin remains indelible, and you will be punished all the more because you do not come to faith in obvious miracles. These words: "If you were blind, you would have no sin," can be understood in this way. You ask about bodily blindness, of which alone you are ashamed. And I say of your spiritual blindness, that if you were blind, that is, ignorant of the Scriptures, you would not have such a grievous sin upon you, for you would sin out of ignorance. And now you say that you see, and pretend to be prudent and experienced in the law, therefore you condemn yourselves and have a greater sin upon you, because you sin consciously.

Chapter Ten

Verily, verily, I say to you, whoever does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs over the Inde, is a thief and a robber; but he who enters by the door is a shepherd to the sheep; To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep obey his voice, and he calls his sheep by name and brings them out; and when he brings forth his sheep, he goes before them; but the sheep follow him, because they know his voice; but they do not follow a stranger, but flee from him, because they do not know the voice of another.

The Lord, saying that you are truly blind in soul through the disease of unbelief, rebuked the Pharisees for their unbelief. In order that they may not be able to say that we abhor Thee, not because of our blindness, but in order to avoid deception, He conducts a long discourse on this. Which one? He sets forth the signs of both the true shepherd and the wolf-destroyer, and thus shows of Himself that He is good, referring to works as a witness.

First He sets forth the distinguishing characteristics of the destroyer. He, he says, does not enter by the door, that is, by the Scriptures, for he is not testified by the Scriptures or the prophets. The Scriptures are truly the door; for through them we draw near to God. They do not allow wolves to enter, for they excommunicate heretics, making us safe, and imparting to us the knowledge of whatever we desire. Thus, a thief is one who does not enter the sheepfold through the Scriptures to take care of the sheep, but ascends the Indus, that is, makes a different and unusual path for himself, as, for example, Theudas and Judas. Before the coming of Christ, they deceived the people, destroyed them, and perished themselves (Acts 5:36, 37). Such will be the vile Antichrist. For they have no testimony from the Scriptures. He also alludes to the scribes, who did not fulfill a single word of the commandments of the law, but taught the commandments of men and traditions. He said decently: climbing over. It goes to a thief who jumps over the fence and does everything with danger. These are the signs of a robber.

These are the signs of a pastor. The shepherd enters through the Scriptures, and the doorkeeper opens the door to Him. By the doorkeeper, perhaps, you should also understand Moses, for the words of God were entrusted to him. Moses opened the door to the Lord, no doubt by speaking of Him. The Lord Himself said: "If ye had believed Moses, ye would have believed me also" (John 5:46). Or the doorkeeper is the Holy Spirit. Since the Scriptures, understood in the illumination of the Holy Spirit, show us Christ, it is true: the Holy Spirit is the doorkeeper. To Him, as by the Spirit of wisdom and knowledge, the Scriptures are revealed, through which the Lord enters into the care of us and through which He is revealed to be the Shepherd. And the sheep listen to the voice of the Shepherd. The Pharisees often called the Lord a deceiver and proved this by their own unbelief, saying: "Did any of the rulers believe in Him" (John 7:48)? Therefore, the Lord shows that He should not be considered a destroyer because they do not believe, but they should be excluded from the number of sheep. I, he said, entered by the door. Obviously, I am truly a Shepherd. You have not followed me, and by this you have shown that you are not sheep. Whence then does He bring forth His sheep? From among the unbelievers, as, for example, He brought out from among the Jews a blind man, who both heard Him and recognized Him. And he walks before the sheep, although with the bodily shepherds it is the opposite, for they walk behind the sheep. This shows that He will lead everyone to the truth. And He sends disciples like sheep into the midst of wolves (Matt. 10:16). Thus, truly, the pastoral ministry of Christ is extraordinary. They will not follow someone else's, because they do not know someone else's voice. And here, no doubt, he alludes to Theudas and Judas, whom the sheep did not follow, for few were deceived, and even they, after their death, fell behind. And the whole world followed Christ, both during His life, and especially after His death (John 12:19). He also hints at the Antichrist, for he too will deceive few, and after his destruction he will have no followers. The words, "they do not go," show that after the death of the deceivers no one will listen or follow. Thus, the Scriptures are the door. Through this door the Lord leads the sheep to pasture. What pasture? The future pleasure and peace into which the Lord leads us. If in other places He calls Himself a door, there is no need to marvel at this. For when He wants to portray His care for us, He calls Himself a shepherd, and when He wants to show that He leads to the Father, then He calls Himself a door, just as He is in different senses both a Sheep and a Shepherd. The words of the Divine Scriptures are also understood under the door; and the Lord Himself is and is called the Word; therefore, it can also be called the Door.

Jesus told them this parable. But they did not understand what he was saying to them, so Jesus said to them again, "Verily, truly, I say to you, that I am the door of the sheep." All of them, however many have come before Me, are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not listen to them.

Иисус сказал им в этих словах притчу, или сравнение, и употребил неясную речь для того, чтобы сделать их более внимательными. Когда же достиг этого, то разрешает неясность и говорит: Я – Дверь. «Все, сколько их ни приходило». Сие сказал не о пророках, как безумствуют манихеи. Они пользуются сим изречением для доказательства того, что Ветхий Завет не от Бога, и пророки не были посылаемы Богом. Вот, говорят, Господь сказал, что все, сколько ни приходило, суть воры и разбойники. Но Он сказал это не о пророках, а о Февде и Иуде, и прочих возмутителях. А что сказал о них, это видно из того, что прибавил: «овцы не послушали их». Ибо овцы не послушали этих возмутителей, а пророков послушали, и, сколько ни уверовало во Христа, все чрез них уверовали. И иначе: «овцы не послушали их». Сказал это в похвалу. Но нигде не видно, чтобы Он хвалил тех, которые не слушали пророков, напротив, Он сильно осуждает и обличает их. Потом, обрати внимание на точность выражения: сколько «ни приходило», а не говорит: сколько «ни (было) послано». Ибо пророки приходили потому, что были посланы, а лжепророки, как и вышесказанные мятежники, приступали к развращению обольщаемых тогда, как никто их не посылал. Так и Бог говорит: Я не посылал их, они бежали (Иер. 23, 21).

Я есмь дверь: кто войдет Мною, тот спасется, и войдет, и выйдет, и пажить найдет.

Кто Мною, дверью, войдет и приведется к Отцу, и станет Его овцою, тот спасется, и не только спасется, но и получит великую неустрашимость, как и Господь, и Владыка. Ибо это обозначает словами: «и войдет, и выйдет». Так и апостолы смело входили и выходили пред повелителей, и выходили радостными и непобедимыми (Деян. 5, 41). «И найдет пастбище», то есть обильную пищу. И иначе: так как наш человек двойствен, по выражению апостола Павла, внутренний и внешний (Рим. 7, 22; 2 Кор. 4, 16), то можно сказать, что входит тот, кто заботится о внутреннем человеке, и тот опять выходит, кто члены, которые на земле, и дела плотские умерщвляет во Христе (Рим. 8, 13). Такой найдет пастбище и в будущем веке, по сказанному: Господь пасет меня, и ни в чем не будет у меня недостатка (Пс. 22, 1).

Вор приходит только для того, чтобы украсть, убить и погубить; Я пришел для того, чтоб имели жизнь и имели с избытком. Я есмь пастырь добрый: пастырь добрый полагает жизнь свою за овец; а наемник не пастырь, которому овцы не свои, видит приходящего волка и оставляет овец и бежит; и волк расхищает овец и разгоняет их. А наемник бежит, потому что наемник, и нерадит об овцах.

Так как приставшие к Февде и Иуде, и прочим отступникам были убиты и погибли, то прибавил: вор приходит только для того, чтобы украсть, убить и погубить, называя ворами их и подобных им. А Я, говорит, пришел для того, чтобы имели жизнь. Они убивали и погубляли своих последователей, а Я пришел, чтобы жили и имели нечто большее, именно: причастие Святаго Духа, под чем нужно разуметь и Царство Небесное. Итак, во Христе все имеют жизнь, ибо все воскреснут и будут жить; а праведники получат и нечто большее, именно: Царство Небесное.