The Difficulty Of Pastoral Care
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THE DIFFICULTY OF PASTORAL CARE
I COULD have argued at greater length that it is possible to use the power of deception for a good end, or rather that it is not right to call that kind of action deceit at all but an admirable kind of good management. But since I have said enough to prove my case, it would only be wearisome and tedious to prolong my argument. Now it is up to you to show that I have not used this method to your advantage.
Basil: What kind of advantage have I got from this good management or wisdom or whatever you please to call it, to persuade me that I was not deceived by you?
John: Why, what greater advantage could there be, than to be obviously doing what Christ himself declared was proof of love for Christ? Speaking to the chief of the apostles, he said, "Peter, lovest thou me?"; and when Peter confessed that he did, he added, "If thou lovest me, tend my sheep." The Master asked the disciple if he loved him, not to learn the truth-why should he, who lives in all men's hearts ?-but to teach us how much he cares for the supervision of these flocks. Once this is evident, it will be equally obvious that a great, indescribable reward will be in store for the man who works hard at the tasks which Christ values so highly. When we see anyone caring for our slaves or our flocks we take his concern for them as a sign of his love for us-although they can all be bought for money. What gift then, will he give as a reward to those who shepherd his flock, which he purchased, not for money or any such thing, but by his own death when he gave his blood for his flock's
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ransom. And so when the disciple said, "Thou knowest, Lord, that I love thee", and called as a witness of his love the one he loved, the Saviour did not stop there but went on to describe the proof of love. He did not want to prove then how much Peter loved him (which was already clear to us from many pieces of evidence), but he wanted Peter and all of us to learn how much he loves his own Church, in order that we too might show great concern for the same thing.
Why did God not spare his only-begotten Son but surrendered the only Son he had? It was to reconcile to himself those who hated him and to make them a people of his own possession. I Why did he shed his blood? It was to purchase the sheep which he entrusted to Peter and his successors. Those words of Christ, then, were natural and fair:
"Who is the faithful and wise servant whom his Lord shall set over his household ?" Z Again the words denote perplexity but their speaker was not perplexed when he spoke them.
On the contrary, as when he asked Peter if he loved him, he did not ask because he wanted to know his disciple's affection, but because he wanted to show his own exceeding love; so also when he asked the question, "Who then is the faithful and wise servant?", he did not ask this because he did not know the faithful and wise man, but because he wanted to show how few there are and how important is this office.
Notice, at any rate, the magnitude of the reward: "He will set him over all that he hath." 3
I Will you continue, then, to dispute with me that you were well deceived, if you are going to be set over all God's possessions, and are doing what the Lord said Peter would be able to outstrip the rest of the disciples by doing? For he said, "Lovest thou me, Peter, more than these? Tend my sheep." He might have said to him, "If thou Iovest me,
I Titus 12.14.
2 Matt. 124.45.
3 Matt. !J4.4 7.
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[n.2 practise fasting, sleeping on the bare grounu, and prolonged vigils; champion the wronged; be 'as a father to the fatherless and instead of a husband to their mother'.4 In fact, he passes over all this. And what does he say? "Tend my sheep."
The other things I have mentioned could easily be carried out by many of those under authority, women as well as men. But when someone has to preside over the Church and be entrusted with the care of so many souls, then let all womankind give way before the magnitude of the task-and indeed most men. Bring before us those who far excel all others and are as much above the rest in spiritual stature as Saul was above the whole nation of the Hebrews in bodily stature--or rather, far more. Let us not look for a difference only "from the shoulder and upward" 5 but let the difference between shepherd and sheep be as great as the distinction between rational and irrational creatures, not to say even more, since matters of much greater moment are at stake.
A man who loses sheep through the ravages of wolves or the attacks of robbers or through murrain or some other accident, might perhaps meet with a measure of pardon from the owner of the flock. Even if he is called upon to pay compensation, the penalty stops at money. But anyone entrusted with men, the rational flock of Christ, risks a penalty not of money but of his own soul for the loss of the sheep.
Moreover, he has a far greater and more difficult struggle.
His fight is not with wolves; his fear is not of robbers; his care is not to protect the flock from pestilence. Well then, against whom is the war? With whom is the battle? Listen to 8t Paul. He says, "Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against powers, against 4 Ecclus. 4. 10.
51 Sam. 9.!l.
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the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."6 Do you see the terrible host of enemies and the savage legions, not armed with steel, but relying on their own evil nature instead of any armour?
And would you like to be shown another cruel and savage army, which is lying in wait for this flock ? You can see this, too, from the same point of vantage. The same man who spoke about the others shows us these enemies as well, speaking somewhere like this: "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: fornication, adultery, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strifes, jealousies, wraths, factions, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults,"7 and more besides these. For he did not list them all, but let us recognize the rest from these examples.
In the case of the shepherd of irrational creatures, those who want to destroy the flock stop fighting with him when they see him running away, and are content to seize his animals. But in the other case, even if they snatch the whole flock, they do not leave the shepherd alone, but attack him all the more, act with more daring, and do not give up until they either throw him down or are beaten themselves. Besides this, the sufferings of animals are obvious-starvation, pestilence, injury, or anything else that might harm them.
This is a great help in ridding them of their troubles.
And there is something else more important than this which makes the cure of this kind of disease rapid. What is it? Shepherds have full power to compel the sheep to accept the treatment if they do not submit of their own accord. It is easy to bind them when it is necessary to use cautery or the knife, and to keep them shut up for a long time when that is the right thing, and to introduce different kinds of food
6 Eph. 6.12.
7 Cf. Gal. 5.19-21 and 2 Cor. 12.20.
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[n.2 one after another, and to keep them away from water. And all other remedies the shepherds think will promote the animals' health they apply with perfect ease.
But human diseases in the first place are not easy for a man to see; for "no one knows the things of a man save the spirit of the man which is in him".& How, then, can anyone provide the specific for a disease if he does not know its character and often cannot tell whether the man is ill at all?
When it becomes apparent, then it is all the more intractable to him. You cannot treat men with the same authority with which the shepherd treats a sheep. Here too it is possible to bind and to forbid food and to apply cautery and the knife, but the decision to receive treatment does not lie with the man who administers the medicine but actually with the patient. That wonderful man, Paul, knew this fact when he said to the Corinthians, "Not that we have lordship over your faith, but are helpers of your joy." 9 For Christians above aU men are forbidden to correct the stumblings of sinners by force. When secular judges convict wrong-doers under the law, they show that their authority is complete and compel men, whether they will or no, to submit to their methods. But in the case we are considering it is necessary to make a man better not by force but by persuasion. We neither have authority granted us by law to restrain sinners, nor, if it were, should we know how to use it, since God gives the crown to those who are kept from evil, not by force, but by choice.
For this reason a lot of tact is needed, so that the sick may be persuaded of their own accord to submit to the treatment of the priests, and not only that, but be grateful to them for their cure. If a man struggles when he is bound (for he may
8 Cf. 1 Cor. 2.1 I.
9 2 Cor. 1.24.
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still choose to do so), he makes his sufferings worse. And if he ignores the words which cut like steel, he adds a second wound through his contempt, and the intention to heal becomes the occasion of a more serious disease. For the man does not exist who can by compulsion cure someone else against his will.
What, then, should you do? If you behave too leniently to one who needs deep surgery, and do not make a deep incision in one who requires it, you mutilate yet miss the cancer. But if you make the needed incision without mercy, often the patient, in despair at his sufferings, throws all aside at once, medicine and bandage alike, and promptly throws himself over a cliff, "breaking the yoke and bursting the bond" .10 I could tell you of many who have been stranded in utter misery because they were called to pay the full price of their sins.
It is not right simply to exact a penalty by the measure of the sins; some guess must be made about the disposition of the sinners, for fear that when you want to stitch up what is torn, you should make the tear worse, and in your eagerness to help up the fallen you should cause a worse fall. Those who are weak and dissipated and generally in bondage to worldly luxury-even more if they can pride themselves on their birth and rank-may be freed partially, if not perfectly, from the evils which master them, by being converted gently and gradually from the sins they commit. But if anyone applies a sudden restraint, he deprives them even of this small improvement. For once a soul is forced to be brazen, it becomes callous and thereafter neither responds to gentle words nor is checked by threats nor is influenced by kindness, but becomes much worse than the city which the 10 Cf. Jer. 5.5.
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[n.4 prophet reviled, saying, "Thou hadst a whore's forehead; thou refusedst to be ashamed before all." II So the shepherd needs great wisdom and a thousand eyes, to examine the soul's condition from every angle. As there are plenty of people who are puffed up into arrogance and then fall into heedlessness of their own salvation because they cannot stand bitter medicines; so there are others who, because they do not pay a proportionate penalty for their sins, are misled into negligence and become far worse, and are led on to commit greater sins. The priest, therefore, must not overlook any of these considerations, but examine them all with care and apply all his remedies appropriately, for fear his care should be in vain.
The shepherd of sheep has the flock following him wherever he leads; or if some turn aside from the direct path and leave the good pasture to graze in barren and precipitous places, it is enough for him to call more loudly, drive them back again, and restore to the flock those which were separated. But if a man wanders away from the right faith, the shepherd needs a lot of concentration, perseverance, and patience. He cannot drag by force or constrain by fear, but must by persuasion lead him back to the true beginning from which he has fallen away. He needs, therefore, a heroic spirit, not to grow despondent or neglect the salvation of the wanderers, but to keep on thinking and saying: "Peradventure God may give them the knowledge of the truth and they may be freed from the snare of the devil." 1~
That is why the Lord, speaking to the disciples, said:
"Who, then, is the faithful and wise servant?" The man who practises asceticism helps no one but himself. But the advantage of a shepherd's skill extends to the whole people.
11 Jer. 3.3.
12 Cf. ~ Tim. ~U5-6.
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The man who distributes alms to the needy or in other ways defends the wronged, has done some good to his neighbours; but less than the priest, as the body is less than the soul. It is not surprising, then, that the Lord said concern for his sheep was a sign of love for himself.