The Shepherd and the Thief

     The holy fathers teach that we know a thing's essence by its energies. We know that Christ is truly man because he wept, he ate and drank, he slept, and he suffered. We know that Christ is truly God because he forgave sins, raised the dead, healed the sick and so on. (Others have also done those things, but in his name.) When St. John the Forerunner called people to repent, he told them to "bear fruit worthy of repentance," because repentance is manifest in actions. To use an everyday example, if I am in a room and hear laughter coming from the hallway, I can be sure that somebody is out in that hallway. The energy (laughter) is an infallible sign of the essence (a human being).

    In John's Gospel, Christ told the people, "I am the good shepherd. The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I have come that they might have life, and have it abundantly." We can tell the difference between the Shepherd and the thief by the fruit they produce. You can be sure of this: where theft, and murder, and destruction is present, it has come from the Evil One. 

    So let me give to others freely, but not take from them by force; let me lay down my life for love of neighbour, but never wish his hurt or death, much less cause it; let me build up the lives of those around me, and not tear them down by words or works. "But they have wrong ideas!" Their wrong ideas will cause you no harm (unless you let them). "But they act wrongly!" They, like you, act for what they think is best. Pray for them, act kindly toward them, try as hard as you can to understand them. Choose wisely whose will you enact: the will of the Shepherd, or the will of the thief.