Today in the Epistle reading, Saint Paul predicts to the priests of the Church of Ephesus that when he is gone savage wolves will enter into the flock of that church and attack it. He further predicts that the Church will also be attacked from within by people who were thought to be faithful.
This crisis that the Holy Apostle is describing would seem to have been repeated again and again over the long two millennia history of the Church, as in every age the demons have tried to destroy the Church by stirring up external enemies and by perverting even the minds of the faithful.
But, according to the Holy Apostle Paul, what should the priests do when they see that this prophecy is coming to pass? Fortunately, Paul answers that question immediately. He counsels the priests of Ephesus that when they see the Church attacked by enemies both within and without they should remember his example. Yes. He tells them, "when that happens, remember how I behaved among you."
How does remembering the personal conduct of the Apostle Paul help the Church in the time of crisis? Well, to answer this question we must notice that Paul's prophecy begins with "savage wolves" with the Church being compared to a flock of sheep. In this way, Paul explicitly reminds us of the exact language of the Good Shepherd discourse in the Gospel According to Saint John. The hired hand runs away and leaves the sheep when he sees the wolf coming. The Good Shepherd does not run away. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for His sheep. Paul, in his description of his own conduct among them is giving them confidence in that Good Shepherd. They all know how he always modeled his own behavior on that of the Good Shepherd. When the crisis comes to them, they should think about him, a model of the Good Shepherd from their own experience, and they should derive hope from that. God will not abandon them.
At the same time, Paul's insistence that they remember his conduct among them is also giving them a positive example that they should emulate. They are the priests of the Church. Are they not to be conformed to the Good Shepherd as well? At the end of their lives, should they not be able to say to those who follow them in the leadership of the Church, "remember the way that I behaved among you, have confidence in Christ our Shepherd and imitate what I have done?"
We always tend to underestimate the importance of our impact on others by means of our conduct. Our behavior would be more conformed to Christ across the board if we consciously sought to give a good example in everything we do. Not so long ago, Christians, mostly among Evangelicals, tried to raise this ethic to the forefront of popular consciousness with various items of merchandise bearing the slogan WWJD? (What would Jesus do?). It was not so popular among historical Christians, Catholics and Orthodox, because the slogan itself makes it sound like Jesus is absent from our life and decisions. Nevertheless, the impulse to raise the imitation of Christ to everyday, minute to minute consciousness is objectively a noble goal.
The conscious emulation of Christ, His Holy Mother and the saints should be a part of every one of our days. This is precisely the reason why we spend time in prayer, meditating on the virtues of Christ and the saints, because, with greater understanding, we can pray for those same virtues with greater fervor and imitate the examples more deeply.
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