Vigils Reading – Office for Vocations

LEADING HIS SHEEP TO PASTURE

From a homily by St Augustine

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Concern with my charge as a bishop has unceasingly preoccupied me

since I have had placed upon my shoulders this burden of which I have

rigorously to give account. But what is there to fear in this gift of being a bishop?

It is that I may be carried away by the perilous honor that it comprises for us,

rather than by the fruitful salvation which it brings to you. Come to my aid, then,

with your prayers, so that he who did not disdain to confer my burden upon me

may deign to bear it with me.

Now, when you offer this prayer, it is for yourselves that you are praying.

For, this burden of mine of which I speak, what else is it, if it is not you? Pray

that I may be strong, as I, for my part, pray that you may not be heavy. Our Lord

Jesus Christ would never, indeed, have called his burden light if he were not

carrying it with the bearer. And you, also must uphold me, so that, in accordance

with the command of the Apostle, we may bear one another’s burdens, and so

fulfill the law of Christ. If he does not bear it with us, we succumb; if he does not

bear us, we fall.

If what I am on your behalf terrifies me, what I am with you reassures me.

For you, indeed, I am the bishop; with you I am a Christian. Bishop, that is the

title of a charge which one assumes; Christian, that is the name of the grace

which one receives. A perilous title; a saving name.

In any event, we are tossed about in the whirlwind of this activity as

though in an immense sea. But, remembering with what blood we have been

redeemed, and rendered tranquil by this thought, we come as though into a sure

haven; toiling at a charge which is personal to us, we find rest in the blessedness

that is common to all. If it is more pleasing to me to be redeemed with you than

to be your head, I shall be more fully your servant, as the Lord ordains. And so,

may I never be in debt for the price, thanks to which I have succeeded in

becoming your fellow-servant.

I must indeed love my Redeemer, and I know what he says to Peter:

“Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep.” He says it once, twice, three times. He

questions Peter on love, he prescribes the work to be done, for the greater the

love, the less the toil. “What shall I render the Lord for all his bounty to me?”

Should I dare to say that I will repay him by leading his sheep to pasture? I do so,

to be sure, but not I; it is the “grace of God towards me.” Where, then shall I find

what is my due, if from every direction he forestalls me? One could in fact ask

no payment of one whom one loves freely, if the payment were not the very

person whom one loves.