Sheep Know the Voice of Their Shepherd
Holyday of St. Volodymyr The Great
Galatians 1:11-19; John 10:1-9
One of the American tourists was present at the watering hole, where each Arab shepherd, having watered his sheep, came forward, exclaimed:
“Abakar!”,
and without looking back, walked forward, followed by the sheep of his flock. This was done by several shepherds, shouting the same word...
The tourist learned to pronounce that word accurately, asked one shepherd for his clothes to change into, and, when the sheep had had their fill, he exclaimed:
“Abakar!”
and went forward, but upon looking back, not a single sheep followed him.
- Am I not pronouncing well?
- No, you’re doing well, as it should be," replied the Arab.
- So why don't the sheep follow me?
- Because the sheep know their shepherd by his voice...
The Lord Jesus Christ testified:
“And when he [the shepherd] brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” (John 10:4-5).
That truth is unchangeable in the literal and figurative sense during the incarnate sojourn of Jesus Christ on earth, and it is so now. Our people did not follow the calls of foreign rulers, but at the call of Volodymyr, the Grand Prince of Kyiv, whom the subjects knew as the defender of their people, who wished good to his people, the people complied. At his own call, that people accepted the faith of Christ from Byzantium; at his call, the people accepted mass baptism.
Although sometimes, as it is stated in our historical chronicles, the general population could not understand the depths of the God-given salvatory faith, they followed the calls of their ruler, followed Volodymyr. After all, that faith was not new and unknown for our people; it was professed for hundreds of years by a certain element of the inhabitants of Kievan Rus’, and most of all by the Polyany - by the inhabitants of the Kyiv region. In general, it must be said that in different countries people mostly chose and accepted the faith of Christ without any coercion or violence, because people felt in it the truth and goodness in His teaching, in His Gospel.
Embodied in Christ's teaching were not only faith and hope for salvation in eternity, for eternal life, but also justice in earthly life. Our Taras Shevchenko expressed in his poem The Caucasus the deep feelings of his people when he said:
“We believe in Your strength,
The truth will arise, so too will liberty,
And in the living word:
And to You alone
All nations will pray
Forever and ever....”
Christ, addressing His disciples and followers, called Himself the “door” of salvation. People fully understood this meaning because in those times, for the night, the sheep were driven into a sheepfold, which was fenced, surrounded by an earthen rampart and a ditch, leaving only one passage — for entry and exit.
A shepherd-watchman lay down in that passage; no one could enter or leave - only through him. Because of that, the shepherd was also called “the door”.
“The door” and the “shepherd” in the Gospel story described the same thing. That is why Christ said:
“I am the Shepherd.... I am the door...” (John 10:9,11).
Food, drink, protection, provisions – all these the Good Shepherd provides and, thus, people of different nations have followed and are following Him. His power lies not in human wisdom, but in the fact that He is the Saviour and God revealed in man.
In honouring St. Volodymyr, let us not forget that it was Christ who chose him from among our people, so that he would fulfill the will of the Good Shepherd, so that he would actively show the way to salvation to his people. The successful undertakings of Volodymyr, Yaroslav the Wise, and their successors in the Christianization of Kyivan Rus’ was the triumph of the Good Shepherd, who provided for the salvation of our people.
Amen.
Very Rev. Fr. Taras Slavchenko
Taras Slavchenko was born on March 8, 1918 in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine. After graduating from school and the Pedagogical College, he entered the language and literature faculty of the Scientific Pedagogical Institute. Having successfully completed it in 1938, he served as a teacher in a secondary school.
