Office Of Readings | Week 25, Tuesday, Ordinary Time | From The Sermon Of Saint Augustine On The Shepherds | The Church, Like A Vine, Growing And Spreading Everywhere

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Office Of Readings | Week 25, Tuesday, Ordinary Time | From The Sermon Of Saint Augustine On The Shepherds | The Church, Like A Vine, Growing And Spreading Everywhere

‘The Church, like a vine, spreads everywhere in her growth.’

Saint Augustine reflects on Ezekiel’s image of scattered sheep and applies it to the life of the Church. Scattering is linked to pride, which leads individuals to pursue earthly goods rather than finding their life ‘buried in Christ’. Pride isolates, generating division and self-concern, while love unites through communion in the Church. The Church, as mother and shepherd, responds by seeking out the lost, binding up the weak, and maintaining unity across the whole world.

The vine imagery reinforces this vision. The Church grows and flourishes, even though branches may be cut off through sterility or sin. Yet, just as branches can be grafted back, so those who stray may be restored. Augustine holds together the seriousness of separation with the hope of reconciliation: God’s power to heal and gather exceeds human neglect.

Finally, the contrast between living and dead shepherds sharpens the exhortation. Shepherds who seek their own interests are ‘dead’, yet the flock remains secure because ‘the Lord lives’. God’s own care for his people guarantees the Church’s survival and renewal. Faithful pastors, who seek Christ rather than themselves, participate in this life-giving work. The reading thus balances a warning against negligent leadership with reassurance that the Church, grounded in God’s life, continues to endure and restore.

From The Sermon Of Saint Augustine On The Shepherds | The Church, Like A Vine, Growing And Spreading Everywhere

They were scattered on every mountain and on every hill and over the entire face of the earth.  What is the meaning of the phrase: They were scattered over the entire face of the earth? Some men continually strive for all the goods of the world, the goods that are so evident on the face of the earth; yes, they love and prize them. They do not want to die, to have their lives buried in Christ. Over the entire face of the earth: such men love earthly things; moreover such straying sheep are to be found over the entire face of the earth. They dwell indifferent places, but one mother, pride, has given birth to them all, just as one mother, our Catholic Church, has given birth to all faithful Christians scattered over the whole world.

Small wonder that pride gives birth to division, and love to unity. But our catholic mother is herself a shepherd; she seeks the straying sheep everywhere, strengthens the weak, heals the sick, and binds up the injured. They may not know one another, but she knows all of them because she reaches out to all her sheep.

Thus she is like a vine that is spread out everywhere in its growth. The straying sheep are like useless branches which because of their sterility are deservedly cut off, not to destroy the vine but to prune it. When these branches were cut down, they were left lying there. But the vine grew and flourished, and it knew both the branches that remained upon it and those that had been cut off and left lying beside it.

She calls the stray sheep back, however, because the Apostle said in reference to the broken branches: God has the power to graft them on again. Call them sheep straying from the flock or branches cut off from the vine, God is equally capable of calling back the sheep or of grafting the branches on again, for he is equally the chief shepherd and the true farmer. And they were scattered over the entire face of the earth, and there was no one to search for them, no one to call them back, that is to say, no one among those wicked shepherds. There was no one to search for them, that is, no one among men.

Therefore, shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: I live, says the Lord God. Notice the beginning of this passage; it is as if ‘God were taking an oath, giving testimony to his own life. I live, says the Lord. The shepherds are dead, but the sheep are safe, for the Lord lives. I live, says the Lord God. Which shepherds are dead? Those who seek what is theirs and not what is Christ’s. But will there be shepherds who seek what is Christ’s and not what is theirs, and will they be found? There will indeed be such shepherds, and they will indeed be found; they are not lacking, nor will they be lacking in the future.

Christian Prayer With Jesus Christ

Living God,
you gather the scattered and call back the lost.
Keep your Church steadfast in love and unity,
that no sheep may be abandoned and no branch left barren.
Raise up faithful shepherds who seek Christ before themselves,
and grant that we may be grafted ever more firmly into your life.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Glossary Of Christian Terms

Scattered sheep – Those who turn from Christ and the Church, pursuing earthly goods rather than eternal life.

Pride and love – Pride leads to division and isolation; love leads to unity in Christ.

Catholic mother – The Church, understood as both mother (who gives birth to believers) and shepherd (who seeks the lost).

Vine and branches – Biblical imagery (John 15; Romans 11) used to describe unity with Christ: branches that are cut off may be grafted back through God’s power.

Shepherds who are dead – Leaders who serve their own interests rather than Christ’s.

‘I live, says the Lord God’ – A divine assurance: God himself guarantees the care of the flock, even when human shepherds fail.