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Chapter 16OdoC.3.16

Caput XV

The Shepherd's Duty to Warn

A shepherd must admonish the wicked even when they resist, for silence in the face of sin makes the watchman complicit in their death.

But whoever refuses to hear the words of God shows by that very contempt that they are not on God's side. However much they resist being admonished, they must still be warned, lest their blood be required at the shepherd's hand: "If," He says, "you have announced to the wicked one, and he has not turned, he will die in his own iniquity; but you have delivered your soul" (Ezek.✦1 3:19). Then, as the exposition of this saying explains, the subject dies without you, when in the act of death he has had you as one who contradicted him. For you are joined to the death that you did not oppose. Therefore let the ruler do this: let him oppose the dying subordinate's evil deeds, so that the subordinate may not die in them — as it is written: "Run through, hasten, rouse your friend" (Prov.✦2 6:3). But if the watchman is silent and the wicked person dies, it is clear indeed that he was not worthy that a word should be spoken to God on his behalf; nevertheless, the one who betrayed him to death by being silent is the one who killed him.

The Bond of Shared Guilt

Superiors and subjects share mutual responsibility for sin, and only zealous correction—like Phinehas's—can avert God's wrath, whereas silence—like Eli's—invites destruction.

This is why blessed Gregory adds this: you must weigh how closely the sins of subjects and of their superiors are bound together. The fact that we are not worthy shepherds is your fault, and the fact that you slide into iniquity is on our guilt, because you have no one standing in the way of your sin.3 You spare both yourselves and us when you stop doing wrong. We spare you and ourselves when we do not stay silent about what displeases God. But we have added the deaths of others to our own sins, and we kill as many as we see dying every day while we stay silent. No sacrifice, as that same teacher testifies, is as pleasing to God as zeal for souls. With this zeal, because Phinehas pierced a single adulterer with a dagger, he turned aside the wrath of God from the whole people at once.✦ Because Eli did not have this zeal, he at last kindled the wrath of God against himself beyond all quenching.✦

Consolation for the Despised Teacher

God consoles teachers by showing through Ezekiel that even divine words meet resistance, so preachers should not be discouraged when their admonitions are rejected.

Yet so that God might console teachers in this difficulty of being heard — the difficulty by which they are despised — when he was sending the prophet Ezekiel to the people of Israel, he frequently puts these words into his message: "Perhaps someone will listen, and perhaps they will stop" (Ezek.✦ 2:7). In this doubtful adverb it should be noted that the prophet is both sent and the stubbornness of his hearers is indicated — and through them it is clearly suggested that the one who has taken on the duty of preaching ought not to stay silent, nor should he be weighed down by the stubbornness of his listeners. For if God himself declares that his own words are hard to be heard, why should a teacher be distressed if he is despised in his own admonition?

Read the original Latin

Quicunque vero verba Dei audire nolunt ipso contemptu non esse ex parte Dei se produnt. Sed quantumlibet calcitrent, admonendi tamen sunt, ne sanguis eorum de manu pastoris requiratur: Si, inquit, tu annuntiaveris impio, et ille non fuerit conversus, ipse in iniquitate sua morietur: tu autem animam tuam liberasti (Ezech. III, 19). Tunc enim, sicut in expositione hujus verbi dicitur, subjectus moritur sine te, quando in actione mortis contradictorem habuerit te. Nam morti, cui non contradixeris, adjungeris. Hoc ergo rector faciat, ne moriente subdito moriatur, malis videlicet actibus contradicat, ut scriptum est: Discurre, festina, suscita amicum tuum (Prov. VI, 3). Si vero speculatore tacente impius moritur, constat quidem quia dignus non fuit ut ad Deum sermo fieret: ille tamen eum occidit, qui hunc tacendo morti prodidit.

Hinc enim beatus Gregorius subdit: Pensandum est quantum connexa sint peccata subditorum atque praepositorum. Quod enim nos digni pastores non sumus, ex vestra culpa est; et quod vos ad iniquitatem defluitis, ex nostro hoc reatu est, quod obsistentes in culpa non habetis. Vobis ergo et nobis parcitis, si a pravo opere cessatis. Vobis et nobis parcimus, quando hoc quod displicet non tacemus. Sed nos alienas mortes nostris peccatis addidimus, et tot occidimus, quot mori quotidie tacentes videmus. Nullum quippe, sicut isdem doctor perhibet, tale sacrificium Deo est, sicut est zelus animarum. Hoc zelo quia Phinees unum adulterum pugione transfixit, iram Dei protinus ab omni populo removit. Hunc quia Heli non habuit, tandem iram Dei contra se inexstinguibiliter accendit.

Ut autem in hac difficultate audiendi, qua doctores contemnuntur, Deus eos consolaretur, cum Ezechielem prophetam ad filios Israel mitteret, sermoni suo frequenter interponit: Si forte audiat, et, si forte quiescant (Ezech. II, 7). In quo adverbio dubitativo notandum est, quia propheta et mittitur, et audientium duritia designatur: per quos videlicet innuitur, quia nec tacere debet is qui praedicandi officium suscepit, nec pro auditorum duritia contristari. Si enim ipse Deus verba sua difficile pronuntiat audiri, cur doctor contristetur si in admonitione sua contemnatur?

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Ezek.3.19 — But if you warn the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.
  2. ↩Prov.6.3 — So do this, my son, and deliver yourself, for you have come into the power of your neighbor. Go, press your plea, and urge your neighbor.
  3. ↩Num.25.7-Num.25.8 — When Phinehas son of Eleazar son of Aaron the priest saw it, he rose from among the congregation and took a spear in his hand. Num.25.8 — And he went after the man of Israel into the inner room, and pierced both of them — the man of Israel and the woman — through her belly. And the plague was stopped from the people of Israel.
  4. ↩1Sam.2.27-1Sam.2.36 — A man of God came to Eli and said to him, "Thus says the LORD: Did I not reveal myself to your father's house when they were in Egypt, in the house of Pharaoh?" 1Sam.2.28 — And I chose him from all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me; and I gave to your father's house all the offerings by fire of the people of Israel. 1Sam.2.29 — Why do you kick at my sacrifice and my offering, which I have commanded in my dwelling, and honor your sons above me, by fattening yourselves with the choicest of every offering of my people Israel? 1Sam.2.30 — Therefore, declares the LORD, the God of Israel: 'I promised that your house and your father's house would walk before me forever. But now, declares the LORD, far be it from me! For those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me will be held in contempt.' 1Sam.2.31 — Behold, the days are coming when I will cut off your arm and the arm of your father's house, so that there will not be an old man in your house. 1Sam.2.32 — You will look upon the distress of my dwelling in all the good that he does to Israel, and there will not be an old man in your house all the days. 1Sam.2.33 — Yet I will not cut off every man from you from my altar, to consume your eyes and to grieve your soul; but all the increase of your house shall die as men. 1Sam.2.34 — And this shall be the sign to you that will come upon your two sons, upon Hophni and Phinehas: on one day they shall both die. 1Sam.2.35 — And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will do what is in my heart and in my soul; and I will build for him a faithful house, and he shall walk before my anointed one all the days. 1Sam.2.36 — And it shall be that everyone who remains in your house will come and bow down to him for a piece of silver and a loaf of bread, and will say, 'Please, appoint me to one of the priestly duties, so that I may eat a morsel of bread.'
  5. ↩Ezek.2.7 — You shall speak my words to them, whether they listen or refuse to listen, for they are a rebellious house.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩Ezekiel quotation candidate; final resolution deferred to tx-08 Moses stage.
  2. 2 ↩Proverbs quotation candidate; final resolution deferred to tx-08 Moses stage.
  3. 3 ↩The Latin places blame on both sides: superiors are unworthy (ex vestra culpa est — 'is from your fault'), and subjects fall because superiors failed to resist sin on their behalf (obsistentes in culpa non habetis). The causal chain is compressed; the translation unpacks it for clarity.

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